We've all seen or heard about Super Size Me. And the french fries that seem to last for millenia.

But what about the stuff on offer at roadside diners across our land?

This, um, dinner roll - I use the term very loosely for there is nothing appetizing about this....read on..... - was served to me as part of my otherwise gluten-dairy-legume-dairy free meal at a roadside restaurant in Eastern Quebec. Note the french labelling (it is before the english).

The thing about this picture is that I did not take it in the restaurant.

I took the item (along with, ahem, fresh butter packets) in order to conduct my experiment (my own version of collecting souveniers while on the road....I am a statistics professor by profession).

The picture was taken tonight in my kitchen. If you think this looks appetizing then would you still eat if I told you that it was nice and soft?

Would you eat it if I told you there was no expiry date on the package (just a production lot number)?

Would you demand to know how old it is or would you go with the squishy and unblemished appearance alone? The butter still looks yellow from the outside so you might even be tempted to slop it on the squishy bread.

I almost don't want to state when I was served this frankenfood but for the sake of proper data recording I must.

I was in Eastern Quebec on December 27th, 2007. Last year folks. This roll is *at least* 2.5 weeks old and it looks and feels exactly the same as it did the day it was put on our table.

I wonder if I phoned the company could they tell me the production date. I guess the data collection phase is not over yet. When I find out the date I'll update a picture.

And finally...to end this on a positive note...it looks like Canada might be on the market for healthy vending machines? There seems to be a movement. I like to call it the 21st century Alice's Restaurant movement. It's kinda catchy and happens to be great background music for cooking (18 minutes should be enough time to cook something healthy from scratch).