Fast food, convenience food and food snobbery

Other fast food places: I really didn't care for Arby's (there's none near here now). But I loved their horseradish sauce so I would go there just for that. And since you had to put it on something, their roast beef sandwiches were vastly improved by it.

Relatively speaking, near me now are a Wendy's and a 5 Guys. The Wendy's burger recipe has changed, and to my tastes, not for the better. But I do like the very occasional Baconator I order that they make - Yeah, I know it's not good for one, but if I do it once every two or three months?

As for the 5 Guys, I really like their burgers. I get one about every 4 or 5 weeks (pre-COVID), and since I'm not a fan of hamburger buns in particular, and they have a lettuce wrap option, I get it that way. With at the very least, cheese, mustard and pickles. Sometimes with the addition of bacon, mushrooms, raw onions, and/or caramelized onion. (Being that is very messy and drippy to eat in a car, I have no plans to go there while it remains take-out only. It's a 40 minute drive home.)
 
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Morning Glory said:
Sweetbreads are a darling ingredient for Michelin starred chefs.

Check ot the fantastic recipes here from top chefs:
Offal Recipes - Great British Chefs
Offal recipes - Great Italian Chefs
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Thanks, cool. It is near impossible to find sweetbreads these days and I live too far from New York City, where they could be found in tiny "ethnic" groceries in out of the way places. I asked for them when I had my last farmer's lamb order, but the farmer wasn't clear as to what they were. (I did get kidneys, heart, liver and half a head - which I hope has the tongue in it, as it did the last time.)
 
Regards McDonalds:

Morning Glory said:
I honestly haven't a clue what you mean - maybe the UK offering is different?
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The place doesn't smell much of anything to me (I only stop in for the bathrooms, and if there's no line to speak of which I get out, I'll buy a coffee). But then again I suspect for Tasty he has that childhood enjoyment memory, just like when I smell creosote I'm transported happily back to my childhood beach days up in Maine, where we learned to forage tidal foods. I can't ever hate on creosote (as an aroma, at least).

I don't think I ended up at a McDonald's until I was in college in Indiana. Never cared for the experience - our favorite fast food place in college was Taco Bell.... (That's a place that "food snobs" absolutely loathe.) There weren't any McD's near us in New York back then.
 
Saranak said:
Ciao,
If want I can give recipe for bull balls.

Sarana x
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We ate those on my second trip to Colorado. My friend who recently moved there post college and I both wanted to try them. TBH, they weren't bad. And, ahem, I have a package of bison balls in my freezer, so yes... provide a recipe!
 
JASOH1 said:
I have a friend who lives over on the west side, which is upscale. They put in an Aldi's there and she was super excited, loves to shop there, great food at great prices. She was talking about how much money she saved by shopping there to one of the other moms in her neighborhood. The other woman patted her on the hand condescendingly and said, "Oh good for you that you can shop there. I only shop at the Mustard Seed" (totally overpriced grocery and natural food store in their area). Now THAT is food snobbery.
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I enjoy shopping Aldi's for the reasonable prices as well as the variety including items other than food. Last summer I purchased solar powered lanterns for the patio. They are on their second season after being outside all winter and still work like a champ. Then again, I am easily distracted by sparkly things 😜.
 
JASOH1 said:
Am I the only person who wears food prep gloves when cooking?
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I will with peppers, mainly, but that's because I have to handle the dog's food.

Yorky said:
In the sixties there was a burger chain in UK called Wimpy (I guess the name comes from Popeye's money borrowing mate). I remember the bun was toasted and it tasted OK although I was only in my teens with very little else to compare at that time. I'd never heard of McDonald's or Burger King.
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I've eaten at Wimpy's in the UK in the 1990's. Wimpy's also shows up in one of my all-time favorite films, Bedazzled, with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
Yorky said:
I had an altercation with my wife a few nights ago. She said "we are lucky that we have sufficient money" to buy a few items that we bought recently. I reminded her that we didn't win the lottery, I worked hard and saved wisely to accumulate the money that we do have. No luck involved.
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I've had this conversation with people many times over the years, usually regarding vacations we take: "Must be lucky to be able to go to Europe every year!"

I point out that's it's not luck, it's planning.

Morning Glory said:
I honestly haven't a clue what you mean - maybe the UK offering is different?
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I simply mean that everything that's going on in a McD's - the hot grease, the coffee brewing, the sickly-sweet smell of the soft serve machine, the toilets (yes, even the toilets) - all that combines to create this totally individual "master smell" that cannot be compared to anything else.

When I walk onto an Underground platform, I can smell the hydraulics, and I can say, "That smells a bit like my uncle's repair shop." When I walk in a McD's and encounter their smell, I can't say that it smells remotely like anything else. It just smells...like McD's, and as soon as it hits the brain, brain screams "BIG MAC!! FRIES!!! QUARTER-POUNDER!!! MORE FRIES!!!"
caseydog said:
We have that very well covered in Texas. I am okay eating them, but I don't ever find myself craving a plate of bull balls.

CD
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I know I've mentioned the story of my wife having "Calf Fries" at the Texas Folklife Festival; they had food from all kinds of different cultures and cuisines, and she asked me what calf fries were, and I wasn't thinking too much about it and said, "I don't know, California fries? Like fried avocado strips or something?"

So she ordered them, couldn't figure out from the texture, and asked the guy at the booth, and he said, "Well, ma'am, they come from a bull."

She said, "Ok...it's really chewy...what part?"

"The part the makes him a bull."

She spit them out, half-chewed, right on the booth counter. :laugh:
 
Backbay said:
I enjoy shopping Aldi's for the reasonable prices as well as the variety including items other than food. Last summer I purchased solar powered lanterns for the patio. They are on their second season after being outside all winter and still work like a champ. Then again, I am easily distracted by sparkly things 😜.
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I like Aldi's I'm rather put off that the entry aisle is pretty much all junk food, but once you get into the store proper, they've got excellent deals. I would go more often but they don't open until 9 am. I prefer to go shopping earlier than that, but if I have a lot of errands they'll be open when I finish the others. I have gotten some excellent bottled sauces from them. Alas I've never seen anything but food (or household cleaning materials) at mine. The produce variety is limited, if I am looking for something specific for a recipe or a food challenge.
 
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