(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
From the NYTimes:
Even though fast-food workers have staged several one-day strikes in the last 18 months, the protests have not swayed McDonald’s or other major restaurant chains to significantly raise their employees’ pay.
So on Thursday, the fast-food workers’ movement wants to broaden its reach as it pushes for a $15-an-hour wage that restaurant companies say is unrealistic. In addition to one-day strikes in 150 cities across the country, the movement’s leaders hope to take their cause global. They say support protests will take place in 80 cities in more than 30 countries, from Dublin to Venice to Casablanca to Seoul to Panama City…
The movement’s organizers say there will be protests in 30 cities in Japan, 20 in Britain, five in Brazil and three in India. The effort’s strategists point to some fast-growing overseas markets as vulnerable targets for corporations like McDonald’s that have begun relying more heavily on foreign revenue now that domestic fast-food sales have languished.
To help propel the effort, a labor federation with 12 million workers in 126 countries — the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations — met in New York last week. It brought together union officials from more than two dozen countries, many of them with thriving, powerful labor organizations, to throw their weight behind Thursday’s protests….
The movement, known as Fast Food Forward, has also sought to pressure McDonald’s by filing several lawsuits accusing the company and its franchisees of illegally underpaying workers through, among other things, off-the-clock work. In addition, organizers are planning a protest at McDonald’s annual shareholders’ meeting on May 22 in Oak Brook, Ill.
Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University, said Thursday’s protests were an example of “the labor movement reinventing itself. It’s the most experimental thing labor has done in a long time.”…
***********
What else is on the agenda for the day?
Tommy
Maybe I am in a small minority here, but if I had to pay a little more for a Big Mac so the workers made more money I wouldn’t mind that much. In fact I’d be happy to do it. Now I will admit I eat fast food like once a month, and that is usually Subway. But I head in there around lunch or dinner and there are lines out the door. I can’t believe you’d have to have a huge price increase to cover higher wages for workers.
I should also note I never worked at a fast food place. But know people that did. They mention it isn’t a “hard” job in that you don’t have to think much, but it is in fact work.
Schlemizel
I can tell you the last time I ate at a fast food joint. It was January of this year, I had some medical tests done & couldn’t eat for 24 hours. I NEEDED to eat something when they were done & the breakfast burritos at McDs are something one can eat I guess. I know there was nothing in 2013 but probably a couple of Chipoltes in ’12. So the wage increase is not going to take anything out of my pocket.
What it will do is put a little extra into the pockets of a lot of people and that will increase consumer spending and start to re-inflate out sagging economy. Its sad when the employment that once allowed a kid to save up for prom is now the life blood of our economic well being.
AnonPhenom
But, but, but…”Free Trade”!?!
Danged Sochulists!
Baud
I also don’t eat fast food except maybe once a year. But now I can say I’m boycotting their labor practices and feel good about myself.
Tommy
@Schlemizel: I am like you. Rarely eat fast food. I saw a commercial a few years ago for something that kind of looked good and went through the Hardee’s drive thru. I get the burger and “super size it.” Comes to like $7.50. Since when is that “cheap?” I can go to my local restaurant and get a lunch special (like meat loaf and two sides) or their salad bar for about the same price or even less. Heck I can go the Chinese lunch buffet, that is pretty darn good and has basic sushi rolls for .50 more.
I guess what I am saying is that in many instances in the last decade or so the prices have increased to a point you can go to many other places, where you can sit down, you know get a meal served on a plate for about the same price.
I honestly don’t understand how these places make as much money as they do. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
PurpleGirl
There is one McDonald’s I go to for breakfast. A raise in prices won’t hurt me because when I go to a diner for breakfast I’ll pay quite a bit more.
Baud
Three cheers for good ole IUFAHRCTAWA.
[They really should consider hiring a trademark person.]
NotMax
While I can sympathize with the employees, who are paid bupkis, nothing will get me to eat anything at or from McDonald’s. Haven’t done so since 1971.
As for any other fast food joint, can reckon the number of times visited this century on one hand and have enough fingers left over to count to three.
George
Remember when prices had something to do with the cost of production + labor?
It’s a bit too skewed toward executive compensation at this point. I will not call that labor.
When’s the last time prices went down as they should in our oh-so-‘perfect’-markets?
Tommy
@NotMax: I don’t get it either. My parents, who honestly have more money then they can spend in a lifetime (so it isn’t about price), eat fast food non-stop. I’ve tried to understand why, but they can’t seem to explain it. When we are out and about when they visit and they go into one of the place they are stunned I often don’t eat. I try to explain that (1) I think the food sucks. (2) I have no idea what is in it. And maybe most important (3) If I want a 750 calorie meal I can think of like a thousand other things I’d rather eat.
OzarkHillbilly
I eat fast food too much, a couple times a week for breakfast and every now and again a Whopper. I would prefer Subway but it is out of my way for work. That said, When I pay? I leave an extra dollar with the cashier or server, and tell them to tell the manager that I can easily afford that much more. When you consider how many people come thru a McD’s in a day? A dollar more per meal and they could pay their people $25 per hour easy.
NotMax
@Tommy
Some friends tell me the saimin McD’s has offered here since shortly after the first one opened in the islands is more than passable, while others swear by the taro pie or the haupia pie on the menu. All items offered only in Hawaii.
Still not enticement sufficient to consider dropping my personal boycott.
Tommy
@NotMax: I almost never eat fast food and rarely eat out. If I eat out it is usually cause I want to try some “famous” place and drop a shit load of money. I just enjoy cooking too much. But I found this Chinese buffet, generally speaking a place I’d never usually go, that is actually really, really good. And I think dirt cheap, $8 for lunch.
As I said in another comment you head to most places and get one of their “featured” items with a large fries and drink and you are paying more then $6.50. I don’t get why you don’t pay a dollar or two more and eat food that was actually made, cooked, you know not out of a freezer.
Heck I will even admit, as OzarkHillbilly noted, a Whooper ain’t half bad. I just have to watch my weight and everything I eat, and when I look at the calorie count for the “meal” I think I could cook almost two huge meals at home for less calories.
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
I am guessing part of that expense is the supersizing thing. Do they still have the dollar menu? I assume for many people these places are nearby, a known experience and less than most sit down places (plus no tipping!). I worked with a guy who at McDs more lunches than not, he just said he liked it. I guess some people just do.
BTW – I do not know what Chinese buffets are like around you but they have destroyed CHinese restaurants around me. All you can eat overcooked sludge in the same brown goo. The good paces lose out on price & quantity. I hate the with the heat of a thousand suns.
Tommy
@Schlemizel: I think, if the TV ads I get are correct, pretty much every place has some type of dollar or value meals. Chinese buffets are about all we have around me. Although I have to admit we don’t have many places other then burger or steak places. Just not much “real” ethnic food of any kind. It is kind of sad really, since I moved here from DC and I loved all the food choices I had.
Heck almost no privately owned restaurants anymore.* We have every chain place you can shake a stick at and they are packed 24/7. When my parents were in town for Mother’s day I think on one trip I counted like 12 “knock off” steak roadhouses.
*I literally live in a place that is a test market for chain restaurants.
Botsplainer
@Schlemizel:
Chinese food is mostly ruined around here due to the shit buffets, as well. A few places have carved out niches by doing fusion in a nice way.
What is thriving and awesome, however, is the proliferation of Southeast Asian places. I can get a nice bowl of spicy, smoky bun bo hue (a type of pho) for under 8 bucks – the ingredients are fresh, and it’s just a couple of minutes shy of fast food. There’s other combinations of shrimp, chicken, beef, pork, cilantro, chilies and lime to satisfy any palate.
NotMax
@Tommy
Buffet sounds like a bargain.
Have eschewed eating both breakfast and lunch since 1964*, Personal choice. Laughingly refer to it as my vampire diet, as don’t eat until it is dark out (plain, unsweetened black coffee gets me through the day). Some days have to remind myself to eat dinner, and even then skip that meal some nights.
*Typing that brought the realization that it has been both my choice and my habit for 50 years now!
Tommy
@Botsplainer:
I’d just about kill for that option by me. As I said it is almost all chain places around me. Last year two ladies from Haiti opened a little place. The food was off the charts. Real Creole food cooked from fresh produce everyday. I tried to keep them in business, but they didn’t last six months.
It made me sad, but alas almost everybody I know thinks the “chain” places are just wonderful.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: Welcome to small town America.
mai naem
I can’t do buffets. You have no idea who’s handling the serving spoons. I have been in a public bathroom and heard a person leave the stall and not turn on the water to wash their hands. Those are the same people who go out and handle serving spoons at a buffet.
Everything is chains or franchised today. Everything from the plumber to food to dry cleaners to carpet stores to car washes. It’s quite disgusting.A whole section of upper middle class people who used to own these businesses have either lost their living or are sending gobs of money to some franchiser who does nothing for it except run some ads. This is on top of companies consolidating and the Walmarts and Home Depots of the world closing a bunch of businesses down.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: You might get a kick out of this. I was on the bus the other day heading to the rail line to go to St. Louis. Guy sitting next to me had a chef jacket on. He was going to culinary school in St. Louis. As somebody that can talk about food 24/7 we started talking about food.
I said I had grew up here in Southern IL, but lived for 15+ years in DC before I moved back. I was confused by all the chain places, but more so because we grow a shit load of food here, but I am hard pressed to find any place that plays to that.
Not only do we grow a lot of food here are more then a few people that raise pigs, cows, and chickens. You know free range and all. No shortage of wild game. Fish everywhere. Why can’t I find a restaurant that only buys local, in season foods, and cooks them in a simple yet elegant manner.
He was like I am so happy to hear you say that, cause if he can get funding, well that is his exact concept. I’d love the concept, but fear it wouldn’t last. I’ve said it like ten times this morning, but most people I know think Chili’s is like fine dinning. No I mean that. I am not joking. It makes no sense to me, but alas I’ve found you can’t force food on people they don’t want to try. I’ve tried and it never turns out well :).
raven
@mai naem: And the guy on Mad Men cut off his nipple because the computer was out to get him.
Elmo
It’s awful, but I eat fast food A LOT. Way too much. I just like it, and to do anything else for lunch requires planning. At which I suck.
And I would love for the workers to get a raise. Probably wouldn’t even notice the price increase.
NotMax
@Tommy
It really isn’t that long since (outside of major metro areas) pizza was deemed exotic.
And bagels or croissants? Fuhgedaboutit.
raven
@NotMax: And white dirt?
Tommy
@NotMax: People and food are often strange. My parents were in town for Mother’s day and wanted to pick something up at Wal-mart for their grand kid. I was feeling lazy and didn’t feel like cooking. I was pondering getting one of the Wal-mart pizzas. I picked the vegetable supreme. My parents are always stunned by the things I eat (or won’t eat) are like why would you get a pizza with no meat on it? I was like why wouldn’t you.
But then again when we go to the buffet place I mentioned above and I get a bowl of kimchi I am always worried they are going to check me into a mental institution :).
NotMax
@raven
Only with a chilled dry white wine.
Red wine for the red dirt.
(Somehow don’t see the McDirt making it onto the menu boards anytime soon.)
Steeplejack
@Tommy:
Many people who work, say, in retail or services don’t have the luxury of a sit-down meal. Many of them get 30 minutes for their meal break and often have limited choices nearby. So it’s get in and get out at a ubiquitous fast-food place.
NotMax
@Steelejack Occasionally stumble across one of those programs featuring hoity-toity food trucks.
$10, $12 or more for a grilled cheese sandwich?
I don’t give a hang how haute the cheese may be, it’s a freaking grilled cheese sandwich.
Tommy
@Steeplejack: No I totally get that, which is kind of a sad commentary on our society. When I used to work in an office building I will admit I ate a lot more fast food. Maybe the one thing I like most about working for myself, out of my house, is I can cook every meal. Not be rushed to eat. Heck brew a nice cup of coffee with my french press instead of playing $3.50 for a shitty cup at some chain.
raven
@NotMax: A person on MAUI complaining about food prices in a food truck!!!!! You so funny GI.
Tommy
@NotMax: Wow. I have a client in Cleveland I visit once or twice a year. One of his good friends has a “high end” grill cheese place. We always go there at least once. I get a grilled cheese with like sushi quality tuna and more fries then I could eat and it wasn’t $12.
scav
@Tommy: Clash of food cultures and change of same over time? Large chunk of my family went to Western, so we tended to appear in Macomb often (and places smaller), eat at the Student Prince East. One memorable afternoon my Dad tried to get soy milk with his Tenderloin.
raven
@scav: Forgottonnia!
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RcVdB9F3qLU/Td6lebRi3oI/AAAAAAAAAYs/4pLtVcCftS0/s1600/forgottonia.jpg
NotMax
@raven
Well, both of us can recall when a sawbuck was real money. :)
raven
@NotMax: When I think of how the dude in the roadside stand on the way to the lava flow took us to the cleaners for a pineapple and some “native necklaces” I just laugh. That’s what we get for stealing the islands.
NotMax
@raven
But was it a luscious pineapple?
Still bummed that my absolute hands-down favorite restaurant here, at which never had less than a stellar and memorable meal, closed after 22 years.
They had recently moved to a much, much larger space and just couldn’t hack it.
Schlemizel
@Botsplainer:
St. Paul has the largest Hmong population in the US, I have several good options for Pho within a half hour of me. There are also 2 decent Chinese places near the UofM that are often filled with Asian diners. We have become friends with one of the staff at one of them & have never had a bad meal there. We also have a great Thai place in our burb (rated one of the best in the cities) and the food is always fresh & top notch. There are two really good ‘Middle-Eastern’ places near us and West African places not that far away. We are very lucky as none of these places is particularly expensive (though more than what I suspect a big mac costs). Our biggest problem is that eating out once, occasionally twice, a week we don’t give them enough business to ensure their survival.
Tommy
@scav: Soy milk is something my parents and friends will never understand. I enjoy it. Keeps for longer. I found the transition was similar to going from whole milk to skim. At first I didn’t like it so much, but after awhile, well it just taste “normal.”
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
The test market thing might make for some interesting meals but that could hardly make up for the loss of great mom-n-pop places.
When we moved to Florida I expected we would get some decent Cuban & Latin American stuff but nope. Too many retirees in my area I guess. The Golden Corral was the height of fine dining!
Ben Cisco
From South Carolina, another one sacrificed on the altar of FREEDUMB! (and boy do I mean DUMB).
Tommy
@Schlemizel: LOL. Golden Corral. My parents favorite place. I went out with the extended family my brother married into for Mother’s Day. We were talking about great meals we had and I mentioned this Moroccan place I used to go to. You sat on the floors and ate with your hands out of one large bowl/plate. Many courses. The main dish goat. You would have thought the people that hear me tell this story thought I was crazy. You sit on the floor? You eat with your hands? You don’t have your own plate? You ate goat?
It was always good. Not the best meal I’ve ever had but maybe the best overall experience. There was always something kind of communal about it that was a joy. Loads of fun. Oh and belly dancers :).
Schlemizel
@NotMax:
I would walk across broken glass for good bagels. We used to have some places around town that made good ones but now the market is all soft bread rolls like Einsteins Bagels.
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
Because of the influx of Middle Eastern and West Africans there are places to get goat now & I like it as much as lamb.
On that line of food – there is a place near us that sells various type of oils & vinegars, I bought some lime infused olive oil & over the weekend made cous-cous with it. It was really amazing
Tommy
@Schlemizel: Oh my gosh I second that. I had this amazing Jewish deli on the corner by me in DC. Now I got nothing. I mean when I am in a grocery store and I say “hey I don’t see any bagels in the bread section” and they tell me they are in the freezer, well I know I have no hope. Oh and I’ve found clearly nobody in southern IL can make a good Ruben. I’d kill for a good Ruben.
Tommy
@Schlemizel: When I worked in Northern Virginia in a Cable & Wireless building there was an Iranian place in the strip mall across from us. Amazing food. I have like two shelfs of rices in my pantry and I still can’t figure out how they made their rice that awesome. I wish I could have spent a day in their kitchen to learn how they did it.
gvg
See I don’t get all the interest in food. I hate cooking and I’m busy so I eat fast food alot. I can’t stand waiting around at sit down resteraunts. Too slow. If I’m actually hungry, I want the food fairly quick or I get a headache. If I’m not, waiting is boring. No food is that good to me that it’s worth much trouble. The nice stuff that a lot of people talk about, is less appealing to me than bland fast food.
Since we got kids, it also changes choices. Traveling you need to stop frequently. Some McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and chick Fil A’s have playgrounds with climbers and stuff for very small kids who go crazy if stuck in a car too many hours. When Chick Fil A revealed what jerks they were it made my choices even more limited. Not all of them have those playgrounds and several near me got rid of them (and lost my business) but those types are really better for small kid parents. More tolerant management and patrons, food that kids usually like and settings that let the little dynamo’s get rid of some energy.
I can’t say how they work for slightly older kids yet but they are good at that target.
When we vacationed in Australia, the food prices were stunningly high. for some reason McD’s wasn’t tho the other fast food was just as bad/high priced. Their breakfast pancakes are good, fast and cheap. We still stop in sometimes for that when we wake up and realize we are out of something.
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
I have a couple of recipes – remind me if I don’t post them for you. One of the keys is fresh saffron I know and jasmine rice which has an aroma and flavor that adds to the dish. Even if they are not what you are looking for they are good in their own way.
Schlemizel
@gvg:
Different strokes for different folks I guess but I feel bad for you, Savoring a great meal is one of lifes pleasures.
Tommy
@gvg: Well everybody is different. At least for me, cooking is about the only creative thing I really do. Almost a way to express myself. Heck I almost like cooking, and cooking for other people more then I do eating.
Now I also understand the kid issue. My brother is an amazing cook. So is his wife. Since having a little girl five years ago they almost never cook, she is a super picky eater. Plus since they both work and want to spend as much time as possible with her ordering food is just easier. She’ll eat it and they don’t have to shop, cook, or wash dishes.
Frees up quality time to spend playing with Katie. I can totally see the logic in that.
Tommy
@Schlemizel: I have them, but not tried them yet.
Schlemizel
@Ben Cisco:
I know I shouldn’t laugh, one life lost & another damaged but I can’t help myself, thats some funny crap right there!
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
Me too – I think its a gift. Some people can sign or play music, some people can draw beautify pictures, some of us can go out in the kitchen and have a ball whipping up some spiffy food for friends & family.
NotMax
@Schlemizel
Best bagels here are at, of all places, Costco. Made fresh on premises, and favorably compare with NYC bagels.
Limited choice of types (no poppy seed or garlic), but worth the trip.
@Tommy
What passes for a deli here is a sadistic joke. One of the very few things I miss from the mainland.
@Tommy
Lightly toasting the raw rice first in a pan before cooking it helps. A lot.
Tommy
@Schlemizel: A few months ago I was dating this women. We had a date, I was cooking, but the babysitter fell through. I said bring your two daughters over. I’ll cook. She was like I hate to ask, but what are you cooking? They are really picky. I said salmon, artichoke, and a twice baked potatoes. She is like, they’ve never had that before.
I was like I can throw on some chicken or something else, but lets just see what happens. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people attack an artichoke like that. It made me so darn happy, cause you could almost see it in their eyes the joy of realizing, well maybe they ought to try some other kinds of foods. They just might like it.
Punchy
Now I’ve truly seen it all. From the link:
Yes, people who chose not to exclude gays are discriminating against those who want to. WOW.
Tommy
@NotMax: Same here. I mean who doesn’t like a nice deli? I keep thinking why doesn’t somebody open one. That there are an almost unlimited number of sandwiches that can be made. That if people around me actually went to a good deli they’d never go to Subway, which I think we have one on every street corner, again.
Heck there is a deli in the food court of Union Station in DC that had bread so fresh you could see your finger prints in it. Roast beef stacked a couple inches high. Good cheese. Good mustard they made by hand. That is what I am talking about.
Schlemizel
@NotMax: I think I have seen bagels at costco but they look like the bread roll stuff so I have never paid attention. You really need to boil them before baking (I have done it, it a pain in the butt) and I don’t expect costco to be doing that but I will have to try a bag once to see.
Yes on the toasting the rice thing, I throw the spices in and toast them also, not too much though, really shouldn’t get a lot of color for the Iranian style. Now a good pilaff you want a real browning of the rice and the pasta. The other thing is to not put in too much liquid. Americans tend to go with 3-4 cups of water to a cup of rice when 1-1 gives you better texture & flavor.
Betty Cracker
I think their targeting of the kid demographic is the secret to McDonald’s success. Not only do they serve food quickly and have playgrounds, their food is exactly the same at every restaurant (at least in the US).
Kids find that consistency comforting. And once McDonald’s gets their hooks into the kids, they’ll grow up thinking a Happy Meal is comfort food and pass the McDonald’s gene on to the next generation.
Brilliant marketing strategy for long-term profitability. And yeah, they should pay their workers a lot more.
scav
@Schlemizel: 1-1? I’ll have to try that. My family must be of the 2-1 tradition, simmer until water gone, then 10-15 minutes of no peeking. Any change in cooking with decrease in H2O?
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
I hate it when people, particularly grown up people, refuse to even try something new. My sons in laws are some of the worst. Son lived with them for a few months after he got back from the Army & had to start cooking for them he said “Dad, these people have never eaten anything that did not come out of a box or a can, they have no idea what a fresh vegetable even is!” We had them over for Easter dinner one year & they refused to eat the lamb roast because it was “weird” – a roast with garlic and tarragon. My niece married a boy who will only eat cheese pizza, hot dogs or steak and baked potatoes – nothing else. For get if thats healthy or not, what a boring existence to have cheese pizza (dominos or Papa Johns) for dinner 3-4 night a week.
Tommy
@Betty Cracker: As a former advertising/marketing executive I can assure you that is EXACTLY what they are doing. Somehow as a kid, before I realized there was a whole other world of food out there, I could go anywhere for my birthday meal. I wanted to go to McDonald’s of all freaking places.
Schlemizel
@scav: Bring the water to a boil, toss in the rice, cover & reduce to lowest heat right away. It takes 20 minutes 2-1 is not horrible, it does make the rice a bit stickier which is more Chinese/Asian style.
NotMax
@Schlemizel
I imagine the quality varies from Costco to Costco, but give ’em a go. They’re a dozen for a bit over five bucks here.
And yes, yes, yes. Boiling is the secret to the best bagels. Gives the best texture and ever so slight crustiness when they are then baked.
Remember a bagel shop in the town where I went to high school in NY. From the counter, one could see two HUGE vats of boiling water, being labored over by tall young men who, working hour after hour amidst the heat and steam, looked as if they weighed maybe 96 pounds each.
Tommy
@Schlemizel: I mentioned in a few other comments my brother married into this huge family. I swear they will only eat a handful of things. My brother and his wife got married in Florida. We have no connection to the state, they just wanted to get married on a beach. The night before the wedding we had dinner at an almost two star Michelin Restaurant. World class food. I am sitting next to this 21 year old lady who couldn’t find a single thing on the menu. Several of the family members ordered “bar” food from the bar in the hotel. I am sitting here eating a stuffed Sea Bass and they are having chicken fingers. I actually kind of felt sorry for them.
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
I grew up in a very weird household, my mom was a caterer and international cooking was a big part of her business. We got to pick birthday dinners & my two favorites were German beef roladen and Indonesian Nasi Gorang.
We worked very hard at presenting a negative image of McDs when our kids were little – it was “McAwfuls” but it didn’t matter, they loved the place like all kids seem to. But they have been presented with a world of good food & grew out of it mostly. I just don’t think parents stand a chance against the marketeers of the world. Now I have to go have a cigarette with Fred Flintstone & Barney Rubble
http://24.media.tumblr.com/93a799303ce0980d4410c9536079ba79/tumblr_mgi2dlrIa21qc2bleo1_500.gif
Cassidy
@gvg: I’ve been pretty surprised in this thread. More often than not, this topic devolves into talking down to anyone who doesn’t buy from the right sources, shop at the right stores, shaming people for eating fast good, etc.
I get it. I get bored with fast food, but we’re a busy family and oftentimes, a quick run through the drive through cost as much or less than shopping with the added if convenience of not needing 45 minutes to cook.
Food is food. Some is good, some not so good. Some tastes better than others. The main reason I go to the gym is so I don’t have to worry about it.
scav
@Schlemizel: Thanks. Should be fun to play with differences. There’s some Persian / Indian rice things it would be fun to aim for — although the Asian tinge would make sense for large chunks of growing up, although I think we originally got the proportions from Julia C of French memory.
NotMax
@Schlemizel
May be a cardinal sin, but now prefer cooking rice in the microwave. Use cold water (and whatever flavorings, additions or spices wanted), throw in the rice, stir once or twice with a fork, and cover the bowl very tightly with plastic wrap.
Works like a charm, so long as one fluffs it as soon as it is done. So no necessary waiting as if making a pilaf – that still needs a standard oven and the 10 minute no peeking rule to get done right.
Tommy
@Schlemizel: My family growing up, just the basics. Tons of fast food. My father’s parents, world travelers. Took me all over the place to world class restaurants and I never tried anything other then chicken or a steak. I recall a two week cruise on the QE2. Dinner lasted hours. I never tried anything interesting. I kick myself about that all the time. All the things I could have tried and never did. Trying to make up for it now :).
the Conster
@Schlemizel:
I have found that I increasingly discriminate against – negatively judge – people based on this kind of attitude towards food. You are what you eat, literally, and I make assumptions that if you don’t have any curiosity, adventurism or knowledge about flavors, textures and provenance of a world literally full of fantastic things to eat, then I really am not interested in pursuing a relationship with you. If I lived with someone who only ate cheese pizza and hot dogs, well… I wouldn’t, let’s just say that. I am a snob when it comes to food, and am always looking for the next flavor adventure.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: I use a Zojirushi rice cooker. I know Cole and others here are down on all the dumb McMeganish appliances, but you’ll have to pry this thing from my cold dead fingers. Great for steel-cut oats in the winter, too.
Gin & Tonic
@the Conster: Come over and sit by me.
We raised our kids to try everything as well, which serves them quite well in adulthood. Also, if you don’t have a complex about food, or use it as reward or punishment, they grow up without eating disorders as well.
Tommy
@the Conster: I am not sure I like this about myself, but I am the same why. I am a 5’4 132 pound male. I used to be a hundred pounds heavier. My parents, there is no other way to say it, are obese beyond words. That Ryans and Burger King is where they eat most meals, or something out of their freezer and microwave, well I think there might be a correlation there.
That they won’t even consider something like skim milk and not whole milk. Ground turkey and not hamburger. Water instead of soda. A bagel with some humus instead of donuts. Some fish instead of a steak. well as much as I love them to death, I have to admit I don’t feel very sorry for them.
I know that might sound terrible, and I really don’t mean it to, but I just don’t have a lot of patience here.
jurassicpork
Assclowns of the Week #98: Get Bentghazi edition. On the spit: Rush; the GOP; Tranny Annie, Sterling and much, much more. (Please pay careful attention to the editor’s note at the end. We desperately need help.)
jonas
@NotMax: I think you’re exaggerating a bit. I’ve had gourmet grilled cheese from food trucks in LA and they’re more like $6-8. Maybe by the time you add in a drink, a side, tax, etc., it’s $12. But that’s also what you pay for food from a business where they’re trying to eke out more than the minimum wage.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
So long as you don’t insist it must rest atop a block of pink Himalayan salt in order to function optimally, it’s all good.
:)
Tommy
@NotMax: LOL.
My dad puts more salt on his food then I’ve ever seen anybody else do. The cheap stuff. Like .99 cents for a pound of it. I am like dad try some of my sea salt. It isn’t the super expensive kind, but not what my father uses. I am like maybe you wouldn’t need as much salt if you know, you bought “real” salt.
jibeaux
Family of four, we really only get fast food when we’re traveling and we need to get there. Even then, I look for a Panera or Chipotle, but sometimes you do feel like a burger. Anyway, suggestion especially for families when you haven’t made dinner plans: If you live near a Fresh Market, they have $15 meal deals that include a rotisserie chicken (they have lots of different rubs, too), 2 large sides, and cornbread. If you live near a Whole Foods, they have $20 heat and eat meals such as a large tray of pasta and salad. For 4 people, that’s cheaper than fast food, often cheaper than pizza, better for you, and their employees make above minimum wage.
danielx
@Tommy:
In my fair city there’s a place called Shapiro’s, which is about as close to an honest to god NYC deli as the midwest offers. Been open for more than a hundred years at the original location – every so often they try to open another one in a high rent district, it stays open for a few years and they close it.
The original keeps thriving. They have all the usual deli stuff plus their chocolate eclairs are to die for and the brisket sandwich (on rye with mustard please) is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. However…when the price of that sandwich hit eleven bucks I quit going out of the way to go there and when it hit its current price of $12.15 I started rejecting it as an option altogether. That’s for a sandwich only, no drink or sides. I mean, twelve bucks for a fucking sandwich?
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Well, if you aren’t going to use it correctly, why even bother? The block of pink Himalayan salt acts as an insulator -ensuring that your rise cooks to perfection without being disturbed, almost like it is in a cocoon from which it will emerge – fluffy and only slight sticky. There really is no other way.
jonas
It’s easy to forget that the vast majority of fast food outlets are franchises where the “owners” are locked into a business model and cost structure that makes it incredibly hard to make any money if they don’t keep labor costs down to a bare bones minimum. A McDonald’s franchisee doesn’t have the right to say “hey, you know, I’ll start paying $10 an hour and raise the price of a Big Mac by 50 cents, or find a cheaper egg distributor for my McMuffins to cover it.” They’re not allowed to do that — they must offer certain menu items at a certain price and they must purchase their ingredients from the parent company. That’s how the McDonald’s Corporation makes money — forcing its franchisees to pay huge fees and buy only from them. The whole business model is predicated on the idea that if you do that, and pay minimum wage, you, the franchisee, just might make some money. It’s not the employees who need to unionize and demand rights — it’s the franchise operators.
the Conster
@Gin & Tonic:
Co-sign. We never took our kids to fast food restaurants – in New England, pizza doesn’t count because of all the independent Greek pizza places that all had their own spin on crusts and toppings – and we sat and had dinner together just about every night of the week. The only rule was, try it. If you really don’t like it, fine – you won’t be forced to eat it because no one likes everything. Now as adults the meals my daughters prepare with each other (they live near each other) and for events are ridiculously creative, healthy, amazingly flavorful and beautiful. They’re collaborating on a food blog, and are both extremely smart and kind to people and animals, and it’s not just a coincidence. Eating good food as a family sitting down together is one of the best things you can ever do.
scav
@Gin & Tonic: There’s a cult of the tool as much as a cult of the ingredient, etc. which is eminently mockable. If the first word out of someone’s mouth is a) the price of the meal; b) the exact source and seed bank of the ingredients, or c) the tool with which they made their meal, I have to wonder. B and C play into it, but they’re not first tier, A is even more dubious. Tell me how it tasted first.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: At least someone understands technique here.
Omnes Omnibus
@jonas: The franchisees chose to go into a business that requires them to exploit workers in order to profit. Didn’t they? I am not wasting a lot of sympathy on them.
Tommy
@jibeaux: Exactly. That was what I was ranting on earlier. That if you head to most fast food places and get their featured items, super size it, you are talking about spending $7+ bucks. As you and I have noted the food options for that price point are almost unlimited. And if you are buying for more then one, well it is kind of easy to get better food much cheaper.
NotMax
@Tommy
Really, really, really dislike the taste of salt. Always have. Do use it sparingly while cooking, but never add any to a prepared dish.
Way back when, took me two years of lobbying and noodging, but finally got the college food service to offer unsalted French fries.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: You seem from your comments to be reasonably close to STL. Here’s some farm-to-table sorts of places.
Elizabelle
@the Conster:
Please link to that food blog one of these days. I would love to see it, and support your daughters in creating it (and delish dinners).
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks. About 40 miles away. Honestly I like St. Louis and have easy rail access to it, but alas 80+ miles to eat, not really something I do that often. But the food scene in St. Louis is getting much, much better then it was say 20 years ago. Night and day difference. Some “hip” places like the Central West end and Youth City are exploding with great places.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: As a single person with no kids, I think that you are underestimating the time pressure that parents face – I know I do at times. Part of the appeal of fast food is the fast part. One can hit the drive through while picking up one kid from soccer practice and eat quickly before taking the other one to rehearsal for the spring musical. Now it is possible, as the Conster notes, to do things differently, but it takes real effort.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
LOL.
Fifty lashes with a limp udon noodle.
Gin & Tonic
@the Conster: Still recall when we went to a wedding when the kids were in grade school. Sort of a pretentious wedding, so one of the rotating apps was oysters Rockefeller. Kids asked “what’s in that,”so I told them, and they said “let’s try it.” Most of the other people looked at them as if they had two heads or something. Personally, I think that’s a way to destroy a good oyster, but I let them make up their own minds.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: No I actually said that in a comment. That my brother and his wife, both pretty good cooks, don’t cook anymore now they have a five year old. They both work. And honestly they don’t get to spend as much time with Katie as they would like, much less just each other. They eat out almost every meal. Or carry out really. It is fast. No shopping. No cooking. Not even really any dishes to clean.
I totally understand why they do it. Totally understand. As a fellow single dude with no kids, much easier for me to cook.
Schlemizel
@NotMax: Never heard of rice via microwave – may try it just for fun!
@the Conster: I find them irritating in the same way that vegans and foodies can be irritating when they simply MUST tell you every little detail but mostly am sorry for them because they are missing so many fun experiences.
@the Conster: That was the rule in our house to. It was ‘fun’ watching the little ones gag & make faces before the food was near their face but they all discovered new things they liked & are doing fine. Its a mistake to force someone to eat something.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Having done that routine, it’s not that hard to put healthy food in the car before leaving the house so they can snack, and have the real dinner sitting down at home. Seconding the Conster, that part isn’t just about the food, it’s about togetherness and manners and conversation. I get that at least part of that is a luxury unavailable to many working people with irregular schedules and all, but if you’re in a position to drive kids to soccer practice and music lessons you’re also more likely to be socioeconomically able to sit down at home for dinner together.
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: Also, I’m not stuck behind the person at the grocery store that has a coupon book, arguing over every sale to make sure she gets the best deal. Even if I choose to go into McDonalds/Taco Bueno/Subway/Long John Silver’s/Jack-in-the-Box/Wendy’s, the people in there are expecting to get through the lines as fast as I am.
We do now have an In-n-Out Burger, which pays its employees better, so I am switching to them for a number of burger orders, but sometimes I want a spicy chicken sandwich.
Betty Cracker
@the Conster: I’ve known people who simply view food as fuel and are pretty indifferent to its preparation or quality, beyond its capacity to keep them going. I worked with a guy (a doctor) who would say something like, “I had X grams of fiber for breakfast.”
This mindset is wholly alien to me. I love food, appreciate quality and obsess over ingredients and preparation techniques. But there really are interesting and wonderful people who just don’t get that.
jonas
Corporate/privately-held fast food outlets like In-N-Out and the up-and-coming Shake Shack don’t franchise and pay substantially higher wages (with benefits) than the rest of the industry. And while they’re a *bit* more expensive than Wendy’s or McDonald’s, it’s not a huge difference and there’s simply no comparison in the quality of the food. Five Guys is known for offering restaurant staff generous bonuses if they score well when the company periodically sends an undercover inspector to grade them on stuff like service and clean bathrooms, but why not just pay people a decent wage to begin with? Costco’s bathrooms — in my experience — are always spotless.
jibeaux
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve got two kids, and almost never do fast food. Of course, we limit their afterschool activities and I am aggressive about scheduling carpools, I try to get 3+ kids so I’m driving less than I’m not driving. It does take work, but there is actually research on the very high value of sitting down and eating together as a family, so it’s worth the effort. I don’t mean it as a sermon, but I actually do think if you find yourself driving through a lot for dinner, you should sit down with your spouse and paper and pen and calendar and attack it as a problem. But that’s sort of a subset of a different problem, that some kids are so overscheduled either because of sincere interest or because their parents want to give them a lot of opportunities, that what gets lost is that very special time sitting together eating, or playing cards, or throwing a football around. Okay, I’ve wandered far enough O/T.
Tommy
Talking about food and trying different stuff.
Anthony Bourdain did a show about this a few weeks ago. He went to a number of mid-sized US cities. Places you might not thinking cutting edge cooking and strange ingredients would fly. And what did it find, well there were some amazing places serving stunning food.
As he talked to all the chefs they pretty much said the same thing. People told us this would never work. You’re just going to waste money. But alas it did work. And why, people like good food. The reason it had never worked in the past was nobody every tried. He gave me hope for food in this country.
Belafon
@Gin & Tonic:
Not necessarily. A lot of parents around here are spending money on their kids in the hope that those activities will help them when they are older. Not that they expect them to become the next great musician or athlete, but that all of those will give them some kind of advantage. I know people who pick their kids from from school, take them to soccer practice, then a quick dinner, then to baseball practice.
raven
@Schlemizel: Microwaving rice works well.
Omnes Omnibus
@Schlemizel: The rule in our house when I was growing up was that one had to try everything. One did not have to like it. Also, one had to take at least a token amount of each type of food on the table.
I was lucky as a kid; my parents had wide ranging friendships and I grew up eating Asian and African food as well as the more common American and European options. Not everyone gets the opportunity to expose their palate to an extreme wide variety of things when they are very young.
ETA: I still don’t like cooked spinach or squash (in anything but pie form).
Schlemizel
@Betty Cracker:
Food can be a hobby & like any hobby many people don’t get it. Its a mistake to bore those people with the details of your hobby. Sometimes I can entice people into interest in the hobby by serving them some fabulous little thing & telling them how easy it was to do but many times its just “WOW, that great but I don’t care how you did it & don’t want to learn”
Their loss. I also think like other arts some people come to it naturally & others don’t & never will no matter how hard they work at it. If I pulled my old tenor sax out & practiced an hour or two every day I would still not be very good & I would just annoy the cat. Other people can pick it up & make nice music and draw joy from that. We get too hung up on this topic because food is basic to everyone and ther is so much personal history etc in it.
the Conster
@Omnes Omnibus:
It really doesn’t take real effort though – cut up apples and peanut butter, raisins mixed with almonds, carrots and hummus, a baguette sliced the long way with slices of real cheese and real turkey breast cooked at the grocery store or a whole cooked chicken all take such a short amount of time, and is portable. It tastes so much better, and is so much better for you. There are ads for Sonic restaurants on my TV although I’ve never seen one in my area, but the shit they show as food is mind boggling – it’s like they set out to create the saltiest sweetest empty calorie and chemical laden food like substances to mindlessly shove down a pie-hole the evil food chemists could ever dream up. In fact, flavor chemists migrated to Big Food from Big Tobacco, and have engineered foods to be chewed and swallowed in 9 chews, instead of the 20+ chews it takes to eat real food. My dream is that all of the fast food places go out of business for lack of customers. The entire planet would be better off.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: I fear for my niece. I come from a family of picky eaters. But she is in another world. I know she is only six, but alas I can almost count on one hand the foods she will eat on her own without pushing from her parents, bread being at the top. Heck she almost won’t touch meat of any kind. It is getting to the point her doctor is worried she isn’t getting enough protein as a young growing girl.
I like her parents are not sure what to do, cause clearly you can’t force food down her throat. I mean at X-Mas we had these huge, wonderful fillets. If you can’t get somebody to eat a grass feed filet mignon, well what the heck are you going to do?
NotMax
@Tommy
For whatever it may be worth, several chains couldn’t make a go of it here, folded up their tents and moved on.
Sizzler was one.
And Red Lobster, for reasons no one ever comprehended, opened the largest eatery in their entire chain here (seated over 800). That expensive experiment didn’t last long.
On the more upscale side, Ruth’s Chris has thrived.
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
restaurants die all the time, its the only feature they all share. Hip & trendy food is currently hot & a lot of the places Tony went to are the hip & trendy. If they are still there in 3-4 years I’ll be impressed. The best way to make a million in the restaurant biz is to start with 5 million. We have a bunch of them here including one that was named one of the top 5 & won a James Beard award that is less than 5 blocks from my house. We ate there when it first opened & it was good food with all the foam/frozen/deconstructed BS that is hot right now. It was good but expensive. We ate there a year or so later after they were named top 5 & the place is a mad house, waits of an hour or more to ge t in. The food is the same but I remain skeptical they can do it for a long haul. The chefs are all good people & I wish them well I just have no faith that they will not be left behind by the next hip & trendy thing.
raven
Lil Bit passed her ultrasound with flying colors. Weak valve but normal for a cocker her age!
Cassidy
@Tommy: You don’t have to do anything; not your kid.
But, she’s a kid and kids are picky. You let her eat what she wants because some food is better than no food and you supplement. If the concern is protein intake, protein shakes are very tasty.
raven
@Schlemizel: Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.
Tommy
@NotMax: You might get a kick out of this. When I lived in DC, well Northern Virginia I lived a block from the first Five Guys. At one time they didn’t even have tables or chairs in the place. People would just sit on the sidewalk to eat in their cars. Still hands down the best burger I’ve ever had. We got one here now they are doing the franchise thing, and it is about to go out of business. I can’t ponder how the Taco Bell and McDonald’s next to it are packed and the Five Guys parking lot empty.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Rice cookers are very much authentically Asian. After all, Asians invented them to cook the grain most commonly eaten by Asians, and I’ve never heard of anyone here not having one in their kitchen.
Tommy
@Cassidy: Exactly.
My parents. All their family members have all this advice. I don’t say a single thing, cause well not my child and really none of my business. If they wanted my opinion they would ask :).
NotMax
@Tommy
Six is a little young (except for licking cake batter off the mixer beaters), but she’ll soon be of an age where she can help out, supervised, in the kitchen.
Perhaps pride of ownership in a dish or meal will help dilute her finickiness.
Schlemizel
@Omnes Omnibus:
When I was a kid the rule was simple – “This is dinner, eat it if you want or don’t eat tonight” They was no money or time for fooling around or short-order meals. WHining was not going to make it any better. I tried to maintain a similar policy but with more of an eye to making sure there were things the kids would eat that were healthy.
I am not fond of cooked broccoli or cauliflower but love both raw. Over cooked veggies are a crime against humanity. But I can’t think of anything that I hate.
Betty Cracker
@Tommy: I wouldn’t worry too much about a six-year-old being picky. Mine was like that (she’s still annoyingly picky at 15, as a matter of fact), and the pediatrician said he’d never heard of a picky eater dying of malnutrition in proximity to a stocked fridge.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Excellent! Long live cockers!
Tommy
@Betty Cracker: The pediatrician just pointed out it wasn’t a problem yet, but it was something to keep an eye on. The scary thing is she is better then she was. She used to almost refuse to eat meat of any kind. I guess the good thing is she’ll eat peas and blueberries by the pound if you let her.
Schlemizel
@raven:
8-{D for sure – people are fighting to get in there this week. But I worry that if Greek-Norwegian fusion frozen with liquid nitrogen & served on a bed of deep fried krill become hot next month they will be closed by the end of the year. The food is very good but to me not that much better than what I can get at lest trendy places for less money & without the hassle. A big part of their current condition is that they are the place to be. I have sen that with places doing well & then just wasting away.
Good news on the pooch, glad to hear it.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker:
When he was little, we called my nephew “the air fern”.
Subsisted on a very limited diet.
Now he’s 15, running track and field, and 6’2″ and still growing.
NotMax
@Tommy
Best burger I can remember paying for was at a long-vanished ancient drug store (still called an apothecary) in one of the towns grew up in.
Soda fountain was all dark walnut, marble and brass. They ground the meat for each patty to order in front of you.
jibeaux
My daughter doesn’t like any meat in the world except salami, but she loves beans. Black beans and rice with pico de gallo, cheese, and sour cream, she would eat five nights a week. Bean tacos, bean burgers, cheese pizza. Not your kid, of course, but if she lives close enough you could take her some evening and try cooking some different things for her. Almost every kid likes to build their own tacos or pizza or pasta toppings. Then you could watch Frozen together and your brother could have date night and everyone would love you even more.
Schlemizel
One of the biggest killers of long-term success for a restaurant is the mistaken belief that every place must always make more money every month than it did last month. This is a horrible thing MBAs have done to every American business but it is particularly deadly in food.
Your plant is fixed cost, its not going down as long as there is a mortgage on the place. Staff costs are going to be mostly stable with slight increases over time. Food costs are going to go up as are things like power & gas. Your place only seats so many people and people seem to eat at certain times so you may turn people away at the peak & have empty tables shortly before and after. You can offer ‘early-bird’ or late night specials but they are limited. You can raise your prices but if you took basic economics in school you know that generally raising prices reduces sales. SO you are stuck reducing both the quality and quantity of ingredients. I have seen this repeatedly. Good food decent prices a year later same menu, mediocre food, small servings & the same price. Instead of being OK making a go of it for the long haul they want to have year over year profit growth. Its a dangerous tightrope & very few make it. The mon-n-pops do in part because they tend to be immigrants & the whole family is working their butts off and they are OK with just making aliving from it.
fidelio
@Tommy: Given how close you are, in transit time, to The Hill and all its handmade Italian delights I have to weep at the thought of chain restaurants.
I’m going to go think about toasted ravioli and weep. Then about Volpi’s Meats, and weep some more.
Tommy
@NotMax: Oh the “old school” drug store. My great uncle owned one. Best root beer ice cream float ever. I just miss places like that. There just are not many of them around anymore. Heck I love myself a “greasy spoon.” All by me closed. I just guess you can’t compete with Denny’s and IHOP.
Schlemizel
@Elizabelle:
When our oldest was just a baby my wife fretted if it seemed like he was not eating enough (solid food not nursing) I always told her at that age you don’t worry, they eat what they need. He proved that time and again. He would go with the ‘air fern’ thing for days in a row sometimes but I remember one night at the age of about 3 when he ate an entire half of a grilled chicken and multiple servings of broccoli in one sitting! She quit worrying & the other kids were the same expect I don’t remember any night like that one.
schrodinger's cat
I am in food heaven right now. Fresh sea-food, veggies and homemade chapatis. Even the street food is delicious. I had vada pav, spicy potato patties in a fresh made roll.
Updates from India here and here.
NobodySpecial
Dunno if anyone saw this, but I’ll pass it on. As you may have heard, the GOP party chair from Winnebago County, Illinois made his racist yuk-yuks and they went public.
Well, the final upshot after his ‘apology’ (You know the kind), was there was a secret meeting of the party leaders…..and……surprise surprise…..they voted 24-0 to keep him in his post.
Party of inclusion keeps rolling along!
Schlemizel
@Tommy:
This is sooo “old guy” but I am sure that the root beer available today is crap compared to what we used to get. Don’t know if it is the cane/fructose thing or what but I have tried every brand & nobody makes anything like A&W or Hires used to sell.
Now get off my damn lawn!
Tommy
@fidelio: Oh the Hill. What a treasure. Of course the chain the Pasta House Co. started here (not sure how far it has spread). So many people I know think that is fine Italian dinning. I am like “dude, are you high.” You can’t walk a block in any direction on the Hill and not get an amazing meal.
Schlemizel
@schrodinger’s cat:
I worked with an engineer from India and we talked alot about food. I mentioned I would love to go there some day & eat street food. His comment was “You could do that . . . but you will need to see a doctor after you do!” He seemed to think that even clean cooked foods would cause problems because I am not used to the things they use. I’m not convinced. After I win the lottery (Pasta hear my prayer!) that is on my bucket list.
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemizel: I think you are OK as long as it is cooked. I wouldn’t eat raw ingredients and not in the first few days after landing.
Tommy
@Schlemizel: I just miss places like that. In college in the 80s I lived in town, on an actual town square with the court house in the middle. Above a shoe store. There was this drug store, with one of the old time counters. I think they boil the hamburger to make their burgers. Not really a burger, it was not a patty, lose meat. Maybe I was just a hungry, poor college student (which I was both of those things) but I sure recall those were some of the best things I’ve ever had.
NotMax
@Tommy
Only place in town to get sticks of horehound candy. Two for a penny (later two for a nickel), displayed in a cut-glass jar.
Cobalt blue curved glass urns on high shelves behind the drugs counter, holding herbs and other mysterious stuff to be ground and concocted into medicine.
negative 1
@Omnes Omnibus: The other issue is that everyone assumes this is planned — like “oh, we’ll drive through McDonald’s on the way to soccer practice”. Most parents I know swear they don’t give their kids fast food, myself included, but they mean they don’t want to. You have to feed them meals, after all, and when you’re late getting dinner ready dance won’t wait, so your only choice is eating on the fly, which means fast food. It happens a lot. I realize this isn’t what keeps fast food afloat or causes the health crisis, but it does happen to even well intentioned parents.
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemizel: The root beer that you get at the Eastern Market near Capitol Hill is the best root beer I have had.
raven
@Tommy:Maid Rite is a famous midwestern burger joint that sells loose meat burgers.
The Moar You Know
I was good friends with a guy in high school whose father owned the local McDonalds.
If a manager went over 15% labor on any given shift (labor as a percentage of gross receipts) they were fired. The usual level was 8%.
Even with the extortionate franchise lock-in (all items, food or otherwise, must be bought from McDonalds corporate) the place was a money-making machine. Because they won’t let you build one that will lose money. Seriously.
They can afford far more in labor, and for all I know the franchisees are all for paying it (lol) but the final say is with the folks in Oak Brook and they have said no to wage increases. As far as unions, McDonalds may have the most effective (and most extreme) union-busting team on the planet.
I found it a not-terrible job as a teen (Starbucks was far worse in any way you’d care to name) but the idea that people are making a lifelong career out of these kinds of jobs is genuinely horrifying to me.
Schlemizel
@schrodinger’s cat:
That would be my plan. I get that the local water & things washed in it might upset my gut but would expect most cooked foods to be no problem. He was not an adventurous eater, which I found hilarious given that he eats Indian food exclusively. To me that stuff with its complex flavors is adventurous. I couldn’t convince him to come to a local Latin American place or a Caribbean place that has similar to Indian sorts of spice mixtures.
Gin & Tonic
@Schlemizel: I’ve had no issues with street food in SE Asia. Some of the tastiest food I’ve had, in fact.
Fair Economist
@jonas:
This is a common theme in modern corporate exploitation – they outsource much of the really nasty activities by underpaying captive business partners, which forces the business partners to exploit their workers or go out of business. Then the corporation itself can say “oh, we’re not the ones exploiting the workers; we just offer them low prices”. Of course it’s all deliberate, but not 1 person in 100 understands what’s going on. In effect they’re hiring goons to do their dirty work, but with plausible deniability. The Walton fortunes in particular are based on this tactic.
Truly evil, but as Alison Bechdel said, you gotta admire their technique.
Julie
@NotMax: It’s been awhile, but, yes, the saimin is pretty good. As is the Portuguese sausage and rice breakfast plate. McDonalds in Hawaii is a whole different beast.
Fair Economist
@Tommy: You don’t need meat for a healthy diet and you certainly don’t need it for protein. If you eat nothing but bread, you get enough protein in an absolute sense (8 slices of bread have the RDA of protein). Not perfectly balanced, of course, but a little milk or moderate amount of veggies will balance it out. With the majority of vegetables, even, the calorie/protein ratio is just fine. You’ll come up short only if you eat almost exclusively starchy foods like rice, potatoes, and squash – and even then you don’t come up that short.
The idea that you need meat for protein is created by a lot of advertising on the part of the meat industry. A *little* meat makes for a healthier diet, but it’s a very small amount – 3 ounces or so per day, and you don’t have to eat it every day. And the real benefits come not from protein but from trace minerals – plants need a very different set than we do, and it’s very possible to have a reasonable-looking vegetarian diet without enough zinc or selenium. But even there you don’t *have* to have meat, you just need to eat more of the right foods. If your niece gets a multivitamin with zinc, selenium, and B12, she probably doesn’t need any meat at all.
evodevo
@Tommy: She’s 6? She’s using it to manipulate. Have a grandchild who’s 5 and he’s a master at it. And if I think back to my youth, I probably did the same thing. I remember having a calendar chart on the fridge with gold stars if I ate …. don’t remember what. If you don’t fall for the manipulation, it will pass. By the time I was 11, I was eating anything set in front of me, and except for a very few things, I will try anything but haggis.
Svensker
@Gin & Tonic:
When he was 4, our son decided his favorite food was pate, especially duck liver pate with green peppercorns. He’s still pretty adventurous.
His best friend — whose parents were excellent cooks — would eat only pizza or hot dogs, no fruit, juice, vegetables, etc. And he once lost his appetite because a bit of ketchup at a picnic got on his pizza slice — he was so grossed out he couldn’t eat the rest of the day. He once spent the night at our house when he was around 12 and “ate” only water.
Some kids are “picky” for different very valid reasons when they’re young. So long as others around them are eating and trying different things and not making a big deal about it, the kid may try some things when he or she is older.
We very occasionally will have fast food if we’re traveling and we can find a Wendy’s or Subway. I will not eat at McDonald’s. The smell alone is enough to make me gag, and the chocolate shakes taste like salted algae.
J R in WV
Fast food varies, there are local fast food style places here that serve good things.
I was an adventurous eater as a kid. I ordered frog legs once, my parents said, “You’ll have to eat them!” – no problem. Won’t be doing haggis – organ meats don’t do it for me, but all kinds of seafood, raw oysters, etc. Sushi, Indian food, All kinds of Asian food, European food, etc.
German isn’t really attractive for every day, too heavy, not enough variety of flavors…
I’m liking to eat!
mclaren
Now you understand why it’s so urgently necessary to buy all those SWAT tanks and armored miltary vehicles and miltary weaponry for all the local police departments, as well as the Department of Homeland Security.
It should be called the “Department of Anti-Union Brutality.”
Just wait for the rollout of militarized goon squads to teach these uppity strikers a lesson. It’ll make the massacre during the Pullman strike in 1894 look like an episode of Mr. Rogers.
You’ll see DHS agents hosing down strikers with kerosene and setting ’em on fire. SWAT-armored cops will yank babies away from their striking mothers and bash the infants’ brains out on the sidewalk.
Get ready for kristalnacht, with labor activists the target instead of Jews this time.