Do you eat fast food,if so what do you get and where do you go?

Homicidal_Squirrel said:

But why go to a terrible fast food restaurant, like McDonald's, instead of going to a restaurant where you can get good food? You don' always have to eat at home. Hell, I enjoy going out to a nice restaurant, and do so fairly often. Why settle for McDonald's?

Click to expand...

Fast food comes into play for me when time is an issue. I don't always have time when away from home to sit down at a good restaurant. Or, sometimes, I just really want that McRib. There seems to be this ongoing part of the discussion that people only actually like fast food because they've been somehow tricked into it.

Instead, one needs to accept that other people have different tastes than they do. I really want to like kimchee. It's got ingredients I like, but the overall taste just doesn't do it for me. My korean friend can't understand how anyone could ever eat any kind of cheese, she hates it.

People aren't always settling when they go fast food. It's where their current taste for something leads them.

Vyvyan Basterd said:

Fast food comes into play for me when time is an issue. I don't always have time when away from home to sit down at a good restaurant. Or, sometimes, I just really want that McRib. There seems to be this ongoing part of the discussion that people only actually like fast food because they've been somehow tricked into it.

Click to expand...

Can't you just call in an order for take out? There are plenty of good restaurants, that aren't expensive, serve good food, have takeout, and aren't McDonald's.

Instead, one needs to accept that other people have different tastes than they do. I really want to like kimchee. It's got ingredients I like, but the overall taste just doesn't do it for me. My korean friend can't understand how anyone could ever eat any kind of cheese, she hates it.

Click to expand...

You shouldn't be friend's with that guy. He obviously has terrible taste.

People aren't always settling when they go fast food. It's where their current taste for something leads them.

Click to expand...

Maybe they should fix their current state.

Homicidal_Squirrel said:

Can't you just call in an order for take out? There are plenty of good restaurants, that aren't expensive, serve good food, have takeout, and aren't McDonald's.

Click to expand...

When on the road and I need something I can eat in the car? No. When travelling through an area I don't know well and don't have time to stop and look? No. When coming home from Gameday at 11 o'clock at night and the only places open are fast-food and both of us are too tired to cook? No.

Fast food is the exception in my life, but I do sometimes get it.

Homicidal_Squirrel said:

You shouldn't be friend's with that guy. He obviously has terrible taste.

Click to expand...

She's a very sweet person, she had about as much cheese growing up in korea as I had kimchee growing up in Chiburbia. That's to say none.

Homicidal_Squirrel said:

Maybe they should fix their current state.

Click to expand...

No more so than anyone should tell you that you must eat fast food. Everyone's welcome to their own tastes. I have a friend that suggests restaurants to me. I learned long ago that each one will be another boring steak and potatoes place. And he thinks the places I recommend are too weird. To each their own.

Homicidal_Squirrel said:

But why go to a terrible fast food restaurant, like McDonald's, instead of going to a restaurant where you can get good food? You don' always have to eat at home. Hell, I enjoy going out to a nice restaurant, and do so fairly often. Why settle for McDonald's?

Click to expand...

IME, FF is often a case of cash, convenience, and compromise. FF is generally cheaper than a good meal, it is ubiquitously available and quickly served, and when trying to feed a group, FF joints offer something everyone can agree upon. While I would prefer to have a sushi plate or linguini with white clams, if I only have a half hour for lunch, that's probably not an option.

The other night, when posting in goldo's "What are you eating?" thread, I was in Whataburger eating a grilled chicken sandwich with fries. It wasn't the best chicken sandwich ever, but I didn't have to cook it, I didn't have to clean up my kitchen, and- of key importance- Whataburger was open. Most real restaurants were closed or closing.

Further, McD's- or any other FF franchise with which you may be familiar- is a known quantity. If you're driving the interstate and its time to eat, DQ may not be as appealing as the adventure of Big Rudy's Smokehouse. OTOH, the adventure of Big Rudy's might be a long history of salmonella poisonings...not something you want with hours of driving ahead. Or Big Rudy might have a preference for classic Vegas stripper photos for his smokehouse...not something you want to explain to your kids.

Bullgrit said:

So, pound to dollars, buying general beef in huge quantities is cheaper than buying specialty rats in small quantities?

Click to expand...

It isn't just the beef, though. It is the beef, and all the other ingredients, and the preparation....

We did, in fact, do similar comparisons for other chains - at the time, per pound, Taco Bell was notably cheaper than, say, Wendy's. Not like Burger King isn't buying it's meat in bulk too. So, how is it that Taco Bell can come in so much cheaper? Maybe they have some really amazing ways to cut costs in the production process, or, maybe, they're buying really amazingly cheap ingredients? Either way, I start to wonder if corners are cut. Sorry if you feel that's too suspicious of me.

Gasoline is much cheaper than bottled water, so surely I should pour water into my truck gas tank because . . . one thing cheaper is worse than an unrelated thing more expensieve.

Click to expand...

I can get a gallon of bottled water at my local Stop and Shop for $0.95. If I go name brand "Poland Springs", a gallon is $1.25! Where you finding gas for that price?

Plus, nobody is trying to sell gasoline as *food*.

Wow, your witty insult really has changed my mind. That taco didn't actually taste good -- it was pathetic and I'm just too ignorant to know it. Damn my unsophisticated pallet. How embarrassing.

Click to expand...

Ah, now we get to the meat of it.

It has nothing to do with your palate. There's questions of food quality that go beyond what you can taste. Taco Bell has had to go out of it's way to produce marketing materials to assuage concerns about their quality - you can find some of them on their website. Some concerns are, of course, complete rubbish, but others may not be.

You're perfectly welcome to your opinion of their products. I don't think you should take my disagreement with your opinion as a comment against you, personally.

Umbran said:

You're perfectly welcome to your opinion of their products. I don't think you should take my disagreement with your opinion as a comment against you, personally.

Click to expand...

Well, you didn't disagree with my opinion. I ate the item and said it was a decent meal. You did not eat the item and said it's worse that dead rats. That's not a disagreement. That's a disgusting non sequitor at best, or an insulting comment on what I chose to eat at worst.

Where would a person rather eat? At Taco Bell where they have get inspected and graded by government health inspectors, or at your house where everyone knows you have live snakes and dead rats? (That is a joke -- you know I like you, Umbran.)

Hell, I may never eat anything from Taco Bell again in my life. I don't remember when was the last time I ate from there -- could easily have been 10 years. So it's not like I have a dog in this race. I just find it surprising that some people feel the need to put down -- not just state their own personal disinterest or dislike for -- something that obviously many, many people visit, eat, and like.

I find it amazing that Super Bowl tickets sell for thousands of dollars, and I would never care to go, (or really even see the game on TV), but I'm not going to belittle the sport or the people who do want to go to it. [You know it's paying millions of dollars to violent drug abusers without the intelligence or skills to be successful in business, right? Can't you do something better with your time and money, like go to and support a museum or a concert?]

Bullgrit

Hell, I may never eat anything from Taco Bell again in my life. I don't remember when was the last time I ate from there -- could easily have been 10 years.

Click to expand...

I do remember the last time I ate at the Bell. It was between 1994-1998, and I had a super-sized burrito tht cost me something like $3. It was tasty, but not so good that I'd pick it over a meal at Taco Cabaña.

Nor any of the dozens of Tex-Mex places nearby.

I cannot recall the last time I went to Taco Bueno.

Vyvyan Basterd said:

When on the road and I need something I can eat in the car? No.

Click to expand...

Why not?

When traveling through an area I don't know well and don't have time to stop and look? No.

Click to expand...

Google, Yelp, Urban Spoon, and other apps like those are your friend in these situations.

When coming home from Gameday at 11 o'clock at night and the only places open are fast-food and both of us are too tired to cook? No.

Click to expand...

Alright, I'll give you that one. It probably depends on the area that you live in. I can get good food, that isn't fast food, at almost any time of the day/night. I would imagine that in certain areas you don't have that luxury. The best thing to do is avoid game night.

She's a very sweet person, she had about as much cheese growing up in korea

Click to expand...

She's an adult now, right? She can try various cheeses, can't she?

as I had kimchee growing up in Chiburbia. That's to say none.

Click to expand...

You shouldn't be friends with yourself either. Get rid of that guy. He sounds like bad people.

No more so than anyone should tell you that you must eat fast food.

Click to expand...

That's pretty much what McDonald's commercials do.

Everyone's welcome to their own tastes.

Click to expand...

That is true, but there is nothing wrong with trying to improve people's taste.

I have a friend that suggests restaurants to me. I learned long ago that each one will be another boring steak and potatoes place. And he thinks the places I recommend are too weird. To each their own.

Click to expand...

That guy sounds like he should be joining the Korean girl.

Dannyalcatraz said:

I do remember the last time I ate at the Bell. It was between 1994-1998, and I had a super-sized burrito tht cost me something like $3. It was tasty, but not so good that I'd pick it over a meal at Taco Cabaña.

Nor any of the dozens of Tex-Mex places nearby.

I cannot recall the last time I went to Taco Bueno.

Click to expand...

I love, love Mexican food. We have many authentic Mexican places around here -- owned, run, cooked, served, all by actual Mexicans. I've also had authentic Tex-Mex in Texas. For tacos, they all seem the same to me -- Taco Bell is about the same as El Rodeo, Tres Magueyes (sp?), La Rancherita, etc. It's the bigger items, the meals, that I prefer at a real Mexican restaurant. But tacos seem to be tacos anywhere.

Bullgrit

I used to and I used to enjoy it. Even now, I can order something I will like to eat. However, because I've pretty much cut it out of my diet altogether (my wife avoid it as much as possible and try to eat fresh & local as much as we can), I don't like it so much a few hours later, if you take my meaning.

Some places are OK. I can tolerate Steak n' Shake and Culvers pretty well, but some of the more world famous chains? Nah. My body doesn't handle them very well anymore. One meal is OK. If I have to eat it more than once in a 36-48 hour period, things are gonna be bad. Conventions are hell. I usually have to eat pretty expensively at conventions.