New Yorker Article on Poutine
 

It started as a joke dish, like Rochester's "garbage plate". But then people started taking it seriously.

See Calvin Trillin's New Yorker Article about Poutine

I've had it in Nova Scotia. We ordered a "small portion" and it was enough to feed four people. Crinkle cut french fries, meat gravy and peas. It varies from place to place though.

Comment: My sister-in-law is a trucker. She transports all kinds of most
interesting cargoes. She told me a story recently, that I just had to
investigate to see if it was possibly true.

Well, much to my disappointment, IT WAS TRUE!!!

She recently transported barrels of LARD for MacDonald's restaurants. Her
friend brought in barrels of MEALWORMS.

She asked her friend (a veteran trucker) what they were for, and was told
that these are mixed together into the burgers served at MacDonalds.

NO REALLY???

Apparently, the mealworms are high in protein and thus are considered
acceptable to serve. Plus they are prolific breeders, so they are
plentiful for the high consumer demand.

NO WAY, I thought!!

Well, lo and behold, I didn't have to go very far doing some basic
research on the mealworm ... starting with Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealworm

"They can be purchased at most pet stores and bait shops. They are also
available via mail order and via internet suppliers (by the thousand).
Mealworms are typically sold in a container with bran or oatmeal for food.

Mealworms are also used as food additives. Two large consumers of
mealworms are McDonalds and Taco Bell. Mixed with burger meat they are
excellent meat fillers."


OH GROSSSS!!!

Connie went on to explain that the TRADEMARK (all-beef) name, gets them
off the hook to actually provide real beef. You can trademark anything,
and apparently that exempts you from actually using the described product.

Okay, Connie, you were right.

NO MORE MacDONALD's or TACO BELL FOR ME!!!

Would you belive that the bit about McDonalds isn't on Wiki now? And doesn't appear to be in the history of the page?

I'm still confused as to why so many people are so convinced that McDonalds or what have you don't use real beef/chicken/etc. Yes, the prices are fairly cheap but they're not THAT cheap.

I found this part on the web paged linked. How ever I see nothing about the part below.



The closest they came to mealworms in food was.

Personally I have no problem with mealworms or even lard used in foods. I just think it should be labeled like everything else.

I assume this means that live mealworms are typically sold in containers that include bran or oatmeal as a food supply for the worms during their time in transit, and someone is trying to interpret it as meaning that bran and oatmeal sold for human consumption typically include mealworms.

Comment: I heard that taco bell uses meal worms in their beef, that they
had to adverstise they were increasing the amount of it that it uses..

I sure hope they get them a lot cheaper then you find mealworms on the net for. Twenty dollars a pounds is not cheap filler.

Comment: I heard a rumor that Taco Bell uses some kind of "liquid meat"
that solidifies into little meat chunks when heated.

I don't understand the chemistry of it, but from a practical standpoint it
doesn't sound like a cost saving measure, since the liquid meat goo would
weigh more (therefore cost more to ship) than in it's solid meat form.

Things definitely might have changed but when I left Taco Bell in 1996 they used boil in a bag meat- precooked and seasoned and you just cooked the plastic bag for X number of minutes in boiling water- 30, I think- until it reached temperature. The combination of the seasoning- which when we used to make it ourselves way back when we cooked the meat ourselves had oatmeal listed as a thickening agent- and the fat made it look rather liquidy when it was freshly cooked, but really it was about the same consistency as the taco meat you make at home.

Wouldn't liquid meat (if there is such a thing) be, I dunno, not meat-y-like when it solidified?

I never got the rumor about McDonald's food never rotting. If that's true, then how come the Dumpster behind McDonald's smells like, well, a Dumpster?

A friend of mine used to insist that Taco Bell had a "meat tube" for dispensing the meat for tacos-she described it as being similar to the hose from a vacuum, with a nozzle on the end that you squirted the meat out of and into the shells. She claimed that the meat was filled from big bags-at least I know she's partially right!

-RB

(or do they really dispense taco meat from a tube? I thought they used a scoop?)

When I was there it was a pie knife. Like this, only no frilly edge. The beans were scooped with a scooper, though.

They only squeak when they are fresh, and they are beyond delicious. Though the deep-fried ones at the Lincoln County Fair in Wisconsin are sinfully delicious.

As far as the authenticity of local beef in McDs burgers, we recently started getting certified Angus patties here in New Zealand. I have a friend at the slaughterhouse who said that they got inspected prior to the contract being awarded. When an Angus run is done for McDonalds, they have to completly close down the killing chain, clean every surface and change tools so that there is no cross contamination from regular beef to the certified Angus cattle. He also mentioned that a McDonalds representative takes tissue samples at the farm and the abbatoir and confirms that the meat is from the designated suppliers.

The boxes indicate that the beef is certified Angus breed, and may be from either Australia or New Zealand.

Do they have this variant in other countries?

Because waste items other than prepared food products also go into the Dumpster.

Comment: This isn't a new rumor, however I am quite surprised that it
hasn't been addressed. I have heard over the past few years that
McDonald's puts anti-nauseants in their food. I can't imagine that this
would get FDA approval, but I would like to get a definitive answer. Is
this true?

Comment: I heard that McDonald's cows do not have arms or legs, they are
suspended in the air and just eat until they are mature enough to be
harvested for only beef. Is this True?

I have never seen a cow with arms (but I might be mistaken).

For some reason I can not see McDonald's going to all that extra trouble and extra expense for their burgers.

Comment: I just heard a rumor that McDonald's puts additives in food to
make you excited about their food or to get you hooked on their food.