THE "SLAMMERS":
This first section is not about gourmet restaurants where the lack of food on the beautifully decorated plate is offset by the large amount on the bill. This is where we all go for a meal. Not the "experience", a meal, a belly filler, a pause in the hassle of life for sustenance and hopefully a fair shake. It is called fast food. Change a letter and it is fats food...just a toss-up.
There is pun intended since the fair shake has milk and some of the other shakes are soy creations, contain seaweed and frozen something’s. That’s why they call it a shake and not a “milk shake”.
McDonald's milkshakes, do however contain milk products: Proportions are unknown thus I do not put a lot of credence in anything stated becaus eof the proportions.
Powerful corporations rarely get challenged. And who really cares what they say about the Chicken Sandwich you just ordered and got it still cold from the chiller. It happened to me two nights ago at a McDonalds and this time let the manager have it with both barrels...I thought the kid was going to cry... This is the second time the Chicken sandwich was bad. Upon searching the web it seems many others have complained about uncooked chicken food.
THE NEW MILKSHAKE:
Here's their shake, new and improved after years of unreal ingredients. Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream, Milk, sugar, cream, nonfat milk solids, corn syrup solids, mono- and diglycerides, guar gum, dextrose, sodium citrate, artificial vanilla flavor, sodium phosphate, carrageenan, di-sodium phosphate, cellulose gum, vitamin A palmitate.
ALLERGENS CAUTION : MILK. I am allergic to milk thus one of these could do me harm. I took a sip from one and it had enough sugar to light a eight year old up for a month. Parents who drag Bobby to Ronalds house might think twice.
Chocolate Syrup: High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, cocoa (processed with alkali), natural (botanical source) and artificial flavors, caramel color, salt, potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor (vanillin), red 40.
SEAWEED / MYTH - Shakes along with a great many other products, contain a seaweed extract called carrageenan, which is used as a thickener and emulsifier. (It keeps the butterfat in the shake from separating out.) Carrageenan comes from Irish moss, a red, bushy seaweed that grows on coastal rocks near, among other places, Carragheen, Ireland, whence the name. (You can also find it in Maine, the Canadian maritimes, and various European localities.) Ever wonder why one of two things happen when you drink one, you start to fall asleep, or you start banging off the walls.
McDONALDS, BURGER KING, WENDYS, CHECKERS.
Though I use McDonalds, most information pertains to the other fast food companies. Back in the '60s, McDonald's fries tasted great because they were hand peeled and cut, and fried in beef fat, just like pork fat, "lardish". They tasted great. They were loved by all.
As time went on the food at McDonald's became more processed, more complicated and less natural. Now McDonald's fries are not cooked in beef fat. So where does the flavor come from?. It is a chemical composite, "Beef fat flavor" is added to the fries. So does Wendy's, Burger King and other foods that are processed. If they didn't add the artificial flavors nobody would eat them.
You cannot find anything that is remotely healthy in there. Even the lettuce is treated. Nor are things what they appear to be. Maybe fake food is the real term for that stuff. The McRibs are not ribs but processed ground pork molded to look like ribs. Same for the Chicken. The shakes are a soy concoction. You have no clue what you are eating. It is all made and processed to be cooked fast.
The prep time for foods in these industries is extremely fast, because of the drive in windows, so they are molded foods, some pre-cooked, the "meat patties" are thin and hot grilled. Fast food is and has the same letters as 'fats" food. Fast food is not great, nor healthy food.
The big lie. Quarter pounder. PRE-COOKED Quarter pound of what? Is the meat blend 80/20 standard, 85/15 lean or is it less like 70/30. That is the ratio of meat to fat content. Eaten with fries and an overdosed sugar drink like Coke and you have the perfect storm. You are talking about 24g-60g of fat and you really got a 3/16 pounder. But the real story is in the mix.
FROM A SPOKESPERSON - Translations in Bold Italic
"McDonald's hamburgers are 100 percent pure domestic beef (the cow or bull did not have an international visa) without fillers or seasonings. To maintain our customers' expectations and preference for lean, flavorful hamburgers, we carefully select fine cuts of grain fed beef and leaner cuts from dairy cattle. (Obviously they are older, can't give milk anymore, so they get slaughtered for their fat rendered bellies as range cattle are leaner). This is a typical combination for quality ground beef. (Maybe in your kitchen) More importantly, we have found that this combination results in a flavorful hamburger that also has a significantly lower percentage of fat (20 percent) than the government limits (30 percent). (But lean in todays parlance is 85/15. Hmm this sounds a lot like government speak)
MERCHANDISING SUCCESS:
Location , Location , Location. They have Restaurants everywhere which increases your temptation. Bright shiny things. To temp you and your kids. Not to mention they have tied down the market in the younger generation with toys and promos. Brainwashing 101. Kid won't eat, it's bluff game, wait him out, eventually tough love wins and they'll eat whatever you give them.
You can't find a young kid who hasn't ever been to a McDonald's. Weak parents wean them on burgers and junk. Cheap food, cheap prices. They are growing up on it. The quality of the food is low-cost, chemically treated, even the lettuce is preserved and this keeps the price low.
Their lunch and dinner foods are really nothing compared to their breakfast. Sausage alone packs enough fat that when mixed with a deep fried hash brown your getting your daily allotted fat 30g+ waking up. The grease from the hash browns goes through the paper wrapping and even the bag. It just screams heart attack! Actually I place then at the bottom of the list in quality, taste and highest in people control.
The ECONOMY:
After the gasoline costs went up,the recession sunk in and the jobs were lost, we found a lot of places either down in numbers or almost empty. On the other hand fast food is thriving. That 20-30 extra dollars per tank appears to be cutting into the taste buds of the let’s eat out crowd. Now with a 10% job loss in the Tampa area it’s even more crucial. Gas prices are moderate for a while but so are jobs, tourists, middle class dining. First the really bad cold winter and now the oil slick. Killed the tourist season dead.
The middle class hangouts and the middle class eateries are getting hit the hardest. Failing as they relied on volume and repeat business. Not happening. The lower cost chains and the high end fine food eateries are up, just another sign of the economy. The old song “Buddy can you spare a dime”, won’t get you the .75-$1.69 cup of coffee these days.
NEXT BURGER KING, WENDY'S and CHECKER's
Checkers is pulling the dollar burger sales event claiming nothing like it on the market. After seeing the McDonald 49 cent and 99 cent burgers, this ones a winner. BUT, the three closest checkers to my home located on East Bay Drive and two on Missouri are boarded up, out of business, gone. The reason; I suspect is no seating, just outdoor tables and we had a freezing winter and a upper ninety degree summer with 86 percent humidity today. You couldn't breath out there today. Heres the spiel:
"Tired of those ordinary burgers? Get something unbelievable for your buck. Our new $1 Unbelieva-Burgers are three slammin‘, flavor-loaded burgers at the unexpected price of just a buck. Try the A.1.® Crispy Onion, piled high with crispy onions and smothered in A.1.® Thick and Hearty Sauce. The Bacon Cheddar Crisp, with real bacon in every bite. Or the Mushroom Swiss, loaded with savory shrooms and swiss cheese. That‘s three BIG, extraordinary tastes for just $1. So, don‘t settle for same old, same old because boring is not an option. Demand delicious with $1 Unbelieva-Burgers.
And the winner is "FIVE GUYS".