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Moyank24

macrumors 601
Aug 31, 2009
4,334
2,454
in a New York State of mind
I used to be a fan (and even advocate) of undercooked ground meat. Several years ago I went to a series of refrigeration seminars and learned about meat processing and Escherichia coli. Never again. :eek::eek:

I'm going to remain ignorant in that area, thank you very much!!

:D

I'll try that, next time I head to Chili's for a burger. :rolleyes:

I like it! Let's call it BYOM. I can just imagine you pulling out a tupperware and handing your waiter/waitress some self-ground meat. ;)
 

Antares

macrumors 68000
I eat local as much as possible but have no problem with chains

Subway
Corner Bakery
Panera
Chipotle

All see frequent visits from me.

Lone Star
Long Horn
Outback
Baker's Square
Cheescake Factory
California Pizza Kitchen
PF Changs
Red Lobster
McCormick & Schmick's
Wildfire
Webber Grill

All these chains have very tastey food! I'll will happily visit them on occasion.

Get in my belly! :D
 

Keukasmallie

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2011
329
36
WNY
So, in other words, chain restaurants are much like all other restaurants--some good, some bad, some really really bad.
 

G51989

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
2,530
10
NYC NY/Pittsburgh PA
So, in other words, chain restaurants are much like all other restaurants--some good, some bad, some really really bad.

My opinion is that the major nationle chains at least. Have mediocre food at best. I've been to most of them, and I honestly can't think of one that really was worth the money.

----------

Your BBQ sauce sounds like heaven in a bottle. And the best ribs money can buy is where it belongs. ;) Not on burgers.

I’m very picky about my condiments

As I am, I also make my own Ketchup. At cheaper to make BBQ sauce, I also make my own honey mustard as well, any jarred mustard or jam or pre made butter I always import from France,

All my Cheese comes from Wisconsin, France and Italy :)

----------

I agree. These places don't give a **** about making something good for you. They just want you to like it, with whatever it takes to make it cost (for them) as little as possible. If that means loading up with salt and fat, so be it.

In many family owned places, they aren't trying to save pennies on each dish by making it unhealthy.

The fact is, salt, fat, sugar and anything full of meat tastes good, as do carbs.

The BBQ placed I worked at in college was famous in the area, was packed every day. The owner cared about 1 thing, taste. Making it taste as good as possible.

You typically don't go out to be healthy unless your going to a health food place, your going out to have something that tastes good to you.

If you showed up at the BBQ place I worked at in college and asked for " low fat " or " diet ", you'd be laughed out of the place.
 

Micky Do

macrumors 68020
Aug 31, 2012
2,203
3,145
a South Pacific island
No

Simple question.

Do you eat at chain restaurants

I had a hamburger at the first MacDonald's that opened in my home country, New Zealand, back in the mid '70s. I didn't finish the burger, and I haven't been back to MacDonald's anywhere.

The last time I went to KFC was here in Thailand, several years ago, with a girlfriend who wanted to try it. We both reckoned the sullen crone with a barrow mounted kitchen near my apartment did better fried chicken.... And she has sticky rice; KFC doesn't.

I prefer the variety of independent eateries, or cooking at home.
 

Tomorrow

macrumors 604
Mar 2, 2008
7,160
1,364
Always a day away
As I am, I also make my own Ketchup. At cheaper to make BBQ sauce, I also make my own honey mustard as well, any jarred mustard or jam or pre made butter I always import from France,

All my Cheese comes from Wisconsin, France and Italy :)

I bet your salt comes from the Baltic, too.
 

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
I had a hamburger at the first MacDonald's that opened in my home country, New Zealand, back in the mid '70s. I didn't finish the burger, and I haven't been back to MacDonald's anywhere.

The last time I went to KFC was here in Thailand, several years ago, with a girlfriend who wanted to try it. We both reckoned the sullen crone with a barrow mounted kitchen near my apartment did better fried chicken.... And she has sticky rice; KFC doesn't.

I prefer the variety of independent eateries, or cooking at home.

The bad thing with McDonalds and a lot of other fast food places is that the food isn't even real. Take the McRib as an example. There is absolutely no real meat whatsoever in that thing and people just can't get enough of it each year when they bring it back. Pancakes or hotcakes come precooked and all they do is nuke them.

Then there are the salads. All of the ingredients in fast food salads are processed and the meats are full of sodium and fillers. The lettuce is precut just like those bags of salad mix you buy at Safeway. Eggs are even precooked (hard boiled eggs) and packed in little pouches with about 6 in each.

When I used to work at a BK back in high school, their eggs used to come already liquified in cartons already to cook. The cheese for the salads was all artificial and lettuce and veggies precut at a factory and packaged in vacuum sealed bags.

Then there is Pizza hut. You realize that they no longer make their own dough? It comes in big frozen disks very much like those frozen buttermilk biscuits you buy with 12 in a bag and put them on a pan and bake them. With the dough, the oil the pans, place the frozen disk on a pan and then put a lid on and put it in the cooler to thaw. As it thaws, it rises and after so many hours, ready to use. Now they have dough that has two day shelf life so they don't have to throw it away each night. Pizza toppings are all precut and packaged. The only halfway fresh veggie is the mushrooms.

Don't even get me started on how they use the frying oil for the wings and make it last for two weeks even if it's smoking so bad and looks like motor oil. They would rather sacrifice quality then have to spend more money and change the oil in less than two weeks. The oil was so bad sometimes that even the filter machine would hardly suck the oil back into the friers.

Even Papa Johns gets their dough trucked in.

When did it become so much easier and cheaper to serve fake food then it did to serve the real thing. McRib doesn't even contain a single bit of meat? :eek:
 
Last edited:

GermanyChris

macrumors 601
Jul 3, 2011
4,185
5
Here
Applebees and IHOP are dineequity

Olive Garden and Red Lobster are Darden Foods

Neither of which is a paramount of virtue nor freshness.
 

Tomorrow

macrumors 604
Mar 2, 2008
7,160
1,364
Always a day away
Take the McRib as an example. There is absolutely no real meat whatsoever in that thing

Source?

All of the ingredients in fast food salads are processed

The lettuce is precut

Eggs are even precooked (hard boiled eggs)

I'm not sure those qualify for the term "processed," but whatever.

their eggs used to come already liquified

Dude, they come out of the friggin' chicken that way. You're just being ridiculous now. :rolleyes:
 

NewbieCanada

macrumors 68030
Oct 9, 2007
2,574
37
I had a hamburger at the first MacDonald's that opened in my home country, New Zealand, back in the mid '70s. I didn't finish the burger, and I haven't been back to MacDonald's anywhere.

It always amazes me that one can be one of the most well-known brands in the world, saturating TV advertising, thousands of outlets one can’t help but pass anywhere one goes…

and people still spell it wrong.

We’re lucky people don’t call it Appel - although some people do persist in thinking there’s a product called the iTouch.

----------

As I am, I also make my own Ketchup. At cheaper to make BBQ sauce, I also make my own honey mustard as well, any jarred mustard or jam or pre made butter I always import from France,

All my Cheese comes from Wisconsin, France and Italy :)


Well you’re fussy about what goes into them, but not so fussy where you put them. ;)

Just say NO to BBQ sauce on burgers!
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
The only thing worse than a fast food meal are these holier-than-thou types who look down on people who eat fast food as if they're lesser of a human being.
 

Tinmania

macrumors 68040
Aug 8, 2011
3,528
1,016
Aridzona
In many family owned places, they aren't trying to save pennies on each dish by making it unhealthy.
It has nothing to do with trying to make it unhealthy. It is just cheaper to use a lot of salt and fat.

The fact is, salt, fat, sugar and anything full of meat tastes good, as do carbs.
Uh, it's common knowledge that humans are attracted to salt, sugar, and fat. That ensured the survival of the species when food was hard to come by.

But when food is readily available those human traits, when exploited, do more harm than good. That is exactly what is happening in the US for the last 20+ years.

If you showed up at the BBQ place I worked at in college and asked for " low fat " or " diet ", you'd be laughed out of the place.
I wouldn't show up at a place that served that crap. Half the people eating that shovelware are obese. Duh.

What really gets me to laugh are those who go out to, say, Cheesecake Factory, but will talk about a place like McDonald's as unhealthy fast-food. Meanwhile Cheesecake Factory has been named the most unhealthy restaurant in the country. Conversely an egg white Egg McMuffin is not that bad, health-wise, and only carries 250 calories.



Michael
 

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
Source?



I'm not sure those qualify for the term "processed," but whatever.



Dude, they come out of the friggin' chicken that way. You're just being ridiculous now. :rolleyes:

Source for the McRib? Here you go:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/11-amazing-facts-about-the-mcdonald-s-mcrib-170212930.html

3. The McRib is a product of "restructured meat technology."

Rene Arend came up with the idea and design of the McRib, but it's a professor from the University of Nebraska named Richard Mandigo who developed the "restructured meat product" that the McRib is actually made of.

According to an article from Chicago magazine, which cites a 1995 article by Mandigo, "restructured meat product" contains a mixture of tripe, heart, and scalded stomach, which is then mixed with salt and water to extract proteins from the muscle. The proteins bind all the pork trimmings together so that it can be re-molded into any specific shape — in this case, a fake slab of ribs.

Prepackaged lettuce that is cut and "washed" is processed.
 

G51989

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
2,530
10
NYC NY/Pittsburgh PA
It has nothing to do with trying to make it unhealthy. It is just cheaper to use a lot of salt and fat.

What would you suggest they use otherwise?

Uh, it's common knowledge that humans are attracted to salt, sugar, and fat. That ensured the survival of the species when food was hard to come by.

Exactly, and its why it tastes good and people often order a steak over a salad.

But when food is readily available those human traits, when exploited, do more harm than good. That is exactly what is happening in the US for the last 20+ years.

I don't think anyone is being exploited, if people want to eat healthy, they have that choice. No one forces them to go to a burger joint.

I wouldn't show up at a place that served that crap. Half the people eating that shovelware are obese. Duh.

Well thats a shame, you'd be missing out on some of the best organic and locally farmed cuts of meat America has to offer. Maybe it was the combination of being in a college like area of town bordering farmland right outside the city, but I never saw very many obese people come in.

What really gets me to laugh are those who go out to, say, Cheesecake Factory, but will talk about a place like McDonald's as unhealthy fast-food. Meanwhile Cheesecake Factory has been named the most unhealthy restaurant in the country. Conversely an egg white Egg McMuffin is not that bad, health-wise, and only carries 250 calories.

I don't think anyone serisouly thinks the Cheesecake Factory is healthy, or thinks McDonalds is healthy. However both offer healthyish options?

For me, because I'm pretty active, and don't seem to get fat and in decent shape. I can eat whatever the hell I want.
 

Tomorrow

macrumors 604
Mar 2, 2008
7,160
1,364
Always a day away
Source for the McRib? Here you go:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/11-amazing-facts-about-the-mcdonald-s-mcrib-170212930.html

3. The McRib is a product of "restructured meat technology."

Here's a better source:

Despite its name, it is primarily composed of pork shoulder meat

Sounds like actual meat to me.

Prepackaged lettuce that is cut and "washed" is processed.

Oh, the horror!! :eek::eek: Somebody WASHED the lettuce and CUT it before serving it?!? :eek::eek:

Sorry, this still doesn't count as "processed." It's what the industry calls "prep."
 

0dev

macrumors 68040
Dec 22, 2009
3,947
24
127.0.0.1
Of course I do. I understand not wanting to eat as fast food places like MuckyD's but anyone who refuses to eat at any chain at all is just being snobby for the sake of it.
 

Micky Do

macrumors 68020
Aug 31, 2012
2,203
3,145
a South Pacific island
It always amazes me that one can be one of the most well-known brands in the world, saturating TV advertising, thousands of outlets one can’t help but pass anywhere one goes…

and people still spell it wrong.

It always amazes me what pernickety pedants some people can be.

I don't have a TV so I don't see the advertising. I seldom visit shopping malls and outside them the yellow arches are fairly thin on the ground in the parts I inhabit. I don't care how MacDonaru spell their handle...... their products do not interest me in the slightest.
 

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
Here's a better source:



Sounds like actual meat to me.
If you call the heart meat, sure!

Regardless, it's not actual rib meat as they lead you to think it is. I guess the heart and scalded stomach can still be considered pork since it still comes from the pig.

Can you seriously eat one now knowing there is bits of pigs hearts in there?
 
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