[Sca-cooks] The Omnivore's Hundred

[Lilinah]

Celia wrote:
>It seems absolutely foreign to me that they could
>possibly not have tried a Big Mac meal if they're in the US (well, ok, if
>they were raised strict vegan or Amish or in some other faith/belief that
>eschewed fast food... but it's counter-cultural to not have ever had a Big
>Mac, even if you're smart enough to not eat them.)

Uh, well, i'm a native to the US, and TTBOMK i've never had a Big Mac meal.

I'm old enough that the first MacDonald's didn't open where i grew up 
until i was around 13. I remember going with my mom and my little 
brother, i remember getting a chocolate milkshake, but i don't 
remember having a burger. I don't even know if they were called "Big 
Macs" back then - and even if they had "Big Macs" i might not have 
had one (maybe i had a "Little Mac" :-) I only recall us going once. 
Homemade hamburgers were so much better! (plus i could slather it in 
Dijon mustard, rather than tasteless French's mustard)

By 1968 i was a vegetarian, and even when i stopped being a 
vegetarian, i was selective about what meat i ate, and often made 
vegetarian choices. I was not a vegetarian when i made a 2-1/2 day 
cross-country drive from Berkeley CA to Ann Arbor MI in 1977 or so, 
to go to grad school. I stopped at MacDonald's a few times, since 
there were such limited services on the highway - and my attempts to 
find "home cooked" food in towns close to the highway met with 
failure. Each time i only ordered iced tea with no sugar and extra 
lemon, and fries. That's it. I did eat in one or two decent truck 
stops, but my drive to and from Pennsic last year shows that decent 
ones are pretty much a thing of the past.

When my daughter was in grade school, a teacher gave her a 
certificate for a free kid's meal for her good work. We went, i got 
her her meal (i don't remember, but i probably got fries for 
myself)... and we never went to a MacDonald's again. She eliminated 
beef from her diet shortly thereafter, she was 9 or 10, and she 
became a vegetarian by the time she was 12. At 27 she is still 
basically a vegetarian, but has very recently begun eating seafood on 
rare occasions.

But i have never, to the best of my knowledge, eaten a Big Mac meal, 
and it's definitely NOT on my list of must eat meals.

I have never eaten in a Wendy's, a Burger King, or a Jack in the Box. 
I once had a job where the only nearby place to get food was a Carl's 
Jr. At that time Carl's served stuffed baked potatoes and i got the 
ones with broccoli. Since leaving that job (that was around 1982) i 
have never again set foot in a Carl's Jr.

When my daughter was around 2, her dad and i had a picnic on the 
beach in Santa Monica and we got some Kentucky Fried Chicken. This 
was around 1982 - the parts were so stunted and tiny, and the meat 
was so greasy that i have never had any again. I was sort of 
compelled to eat in a KFC once when i was car pooling to a Ren Fair 
with some other members of our acting group and that's where the 
driver wanted to eat - i had mashed potatoes and coleslaw. And the 
only time i ever bought food in a Taco Bell was when i was car 
pooling to another Ren Fair, and that's where the driver wanted to 
stop. The food was so horrible i would never willingly eat in one 
again - i was aghast when i discovered that all the hot sauces were 
sweet!

Based on what i read in "Fast Food Nation", i am on rare occasions 
willing to get a sandwich at a "Subway" when the only other options 
on the freeway are fast-food burger joints, KFC, or Taco Hell. And i 
confess i willingly get a burger at In-and-Out Burger a few times a 
year, usually when driving home from an SCA event where the 
temperature has been over 100 F., or driving back up I-5 from 
visiting my mom for Thanksgiving.

I really cannot imagine why i should ever eat a Big Mac...
-- 
the person sometimes called Urtatim

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