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Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob-a-rama

I drifted away from fast food in the mid 1970s.

In the mid 1980s, I was working on a project with 5 or 6 guys, and it was getting really late. A guy went out for "Burger King". Being that I can't digest onions, I had him get me two plain cheeseburgers.

By then, it was probably about 10 years since I ate at a fast food joint. When I got my burgers, I realized neither the bun, beef, nor cheese had any flavor. Well, it filled my stomach and I haven't stopped at a fast food place since.

On the road, I bring mixed nuts and/or 'emergency food' keto bars. If decide to stop at a restaurant, I look for a small, mom & pop, non-chain restaurant, judge the cars in the parking lot before going in, and then the aroma when I walk in the door.

I've had very good luck with that.

Back on topic...

Not only can I not see why a vegan would want to eat at McDonald's, I really can't understand why anyone would. Life is too short to eat mediocre food.

Besides for being mediocre, it's full of ingredients that are not good for your health, but instead are good for corporate profits.

That makes me think about a bit towards the end of the Salad-Size me article, because what he says can apply to almost any chain restaurant vs any restaurant that sources their foods locally:

Quote:

By Day 15, I couldn’t look at another salad. I took the subway to the lone Queens branch of Sweetgreen in Long Island City, situated next to a cluster of luxury high-rise apartments and office buildings, and customized an Elote Bowl with cucumbers and chipotle crema. The herbed quinoa tasted like bird feed, and the cucumber skins were thick and bitter. Sweetgreen relies on fresh produce from a network of over 200 domestic farmers and producers, which makes McDonald’s level consistency near impossible. While the company’s commitment to ethical sourcing and sustainability is admirable, consumers don’t patronize chain restaurants for nuance. They want consistency.

I asked a supply chain expert with more than 20 years of experience whether she thinks Sweetgreen is equipped to become the McDonald’s of our generation. “On the very highest level, no,” says Karen Karp, who founded KK&P, a consultancy that advises companies like Pret A Manger on food sourcing. “The main reason is that everything except for maybe coffee grounds and milk in the McDonald’s supply chain is a nonperishable product or frozen. It’s a product that is manufactured in some centralized place and shipped to thousands of franchises.” Because Sweetgreen’s business model is predicated on highly perishable food, it can’t benefit from the same protracted shelf life of processed foods like McDonald’s does.

That's the attraction of fast food places in general - consistency. Most of them are mediocre, but when you walk inside or pull up to that drive thru, you have a pretty good idea what it's going to taste like - bland but filling.

And as you also pointed out, independent restaurants run the gamut from yuck to wonderful - because just like was pointed out in that article, if they have good sources, it'll be good. If not... bleh.

Here in Pa Dutch country, the independent restaurants are all pretty much the same though - sugars and starches fused to everything on the menu, with 6 different potato sides and just as many corn sides, with rarely a green vegetable in sight. Most everything swimming in sugary starches or starchy sugars.