[Sca-cooks] Gorditas was New snack treat OT OP

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Mon Sep 7 11:18:44 PDT 2009


On Sep 7, 2009, at 1:31 PM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> So these supposedly "hot" sauces tasted to me like *very* slightly  
> chili flavored syrup. Patooey! Once was one time too many!

Hey, sriracha's not bad on a burger or a spring roll, although the  
founders of the most common brand in the US admitted they were not  
really trying to recreate Southeast Asian chili sauces.
>
> Adamantius replied:
>> Yeah, I'm aware of the basic concept, and see television commercials
>> and such, and there's a Taco Bell three blocks or so from my  
>> apartment
>> building, but between what I read about them in Fast Food Nation and
>> various other sources, and the fact that, like many of the now- 
>> surviving
>> fast food chains across the US, they didn't exist in my city until  
>> fairly
>> recently.
>
> After reading "Fast Food Nation", the only one i will tolerate is In- 
> and-Out Burger (a West Coast chain), although i ignore all the  
> Christian messages encoded on the paper cups and wrappers.
>
> They actually slice the potatoes into fries right there! And when  
> you know the not-so-secret code, you really *can* get it your way  
> (to paraphrase some other fast food burger chain):
> http://www.in-n-out.com/secretmenu.asp
> And as far as i can tell, their milk shakes are actually made from  
> ice cream, rather than artificially flavored sweetened hydrogenated  
> vegetable fat "cremey" vaguely dairy product served in other fast  
> food chains.
>
> Not that i eat there often, although it is several times a year.

I've gotten reasonably fond of the Five Guys burger chain. They're  
probably pretty close to what MacDonald's was 50 or 60 years ago, and  
what Wendy's would like pretend to be now. Thinnish fast-food burgers  
that are definitely patties, dropped on a griddle when you order them,  
cooked quickly, placed on a bun with whatever accompaniments, from a  
fairly broad menu, that you request.

There always seems to be a sign up on the wall, changed daily, stating  
where today's potatoes come from (generally some small town I never  
heard of in Idaho)

> My consort used to have us stop at Mickey D's on the way to or from  
> events - i would stay in the car because the smell ancient grease  
> was revolting.

My son likes to tell of his young lady friend (who is a Burmese near- 
vegetarian) who accompanied him to the original Nathan's of Coney  
Island (which, as of the last time I was there, had elderly waiters  
and a somewhat different menu from the Nathan's joints around the  
country, including, as recently as 1990 or so, both the infamous chow  
mein sandwich and fried frog's legs). He claimed he was in desperate  
need of a disgusting, greasy burger (he is also disgustingly healthy  
in spite of his peculiar diet). The girlfriend went in somewhat  
reluctantly, sat across from him, twitching slightly as if she had  
just suddenly awakened to discover herself in a 17th-century plague  
hospital, rested none of her various appendages or protuberances on  
anything other than the seat of her chair, and opened the book she  
produced from her bag while he ate his greasy burger.

I guess this is true love.

> Now we drop by In-and-Out on Sunday for lunch on the way home from  
> an event (he works Saturdays so he only goes to a few per year). It  
> was amusing one time... we were still in garb and we went into one  
> north of where we live. We ordered and sat down at a table waiting  
> for our numbers to be called. The lady at the table next to us  
> picked up her purse and clutched it to her bosom for as long as she  
> and her party (2 others IRCC) were there. My consort does more or  
> less late 12th c - but he'd put his jeans on (so he wasn't in  
> revealing trews and hose) and removed his belt, so he was in a  
> basically knee-length tunic. I was in my basic camping garb - a long  
> loose pale grey 14th c. Egyptian tunic (not that anyone in the In- 
> and-Out would know that) and a head-hugging cap (i wear such things  
> almost daily in my "mundane" life). So we looked a bit odd, but i  
> didn't think we looked as scary as some of the young males in there.

When we were in Rochester last week, there was some talk among the  
various participants in the trip that it would be fun to make a  
pilgrimage to Nick Tahou Hots, which had closed, and then reopened  
with a new closing time of 8PM on Saturday nights, allegedly after one  
too many 3AM knife fights...

I'm like, why would I bother to leave New York City if that was what I  
wanted?

>> I STR the non-local fast food chains in New York City when I was a  
>> kid
>> consisted of White Castle, Nathan's (hey, it's Coney Island, after
>> all), a hamburger chain called Wetson's. Then there was a [Swiss or
>> Austrian] wurst chain called ZumZum, Chock-Full-O'-Nuts coffee  
>> houses,
>> the NYC-specific Papaya King, Grey's Papaya, a million Sabrette hot
>> dog carts, and lots and lots of pizzerias, all mom-and-pop-type
>> operations, and all, bar none, monumentally better than the national
>> chains.
>
> Hey, don't forget the old Orange Julius (of blessed memory)! I used  
> to suck down a lot of those back in the late 60s when i lived in  
> Manhattan.

Sure. I remember those. Around here now you're more likely to find  
some species of batidos de jugo de naranjas, but the principle is the  
same. I think the last Orange Julius stand (unless you count the  
orange beverage sold at Papaya King) I remember seeing is at the  
Queens Center Mall.

>> I think the first McDonald's in Manhattan probably opened in the late
>> 60's, and I became aware of it maybe ten years later, when I was in
>> high school.
>
> I was in junior high when the first one opened in an unincorporated  
> town right next to my north of Chicago suburb. I think it was late  
> fall 1960. I was wearing a favorite black wool skirt and vest. Mom  
> drove me and younger brother there. I was drinking my chocolate milk  
> shake and the car stopped more suddenly than i was prepared for. I  
> ended up with a lot of milk shake in my skirt - i quickly pulled the  
> hem up to hold it so it wouldn't go all over the back seat. Ah, the  
> days before lids on to-go cups.

For some reason you're reminding me of one of my first trips to  
McDonald's, which featured my best friend's fascination with the  
little plastic pouches of ketchup, which we had never encountered  
before. Honestly, I was the one who strongly advised him not to see  
just how much pressure they could withstand, and if he couldn't  
restrain himself, to at least point it away from himself. And from me...

I think he's a millionaire architect now, and is probably not escorted  
everywhere by some sort of keeper. Who'd have thought it?

>> Of all the chains that have made various sacrifices in quality to  
>> favor
>> a product line allowing for the cheapest and least-skilled labor
>> imaginable, Taco Bell is, AFAIK, really the only one to actively  
>> boast
>> of having no real kitchen to speak of, and no actual cooking
>> facilities other than things like microwaves, in the majority of  
>> their
>> retail locations.
>
> And they taste like it!

Yeah, well, if you're not preparing food, why pay for a kitchen, right?

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter




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