Fast food rumors

[Keket]

Originally Posted by MichiganGirl

cheese curds and Gravy on french fries? Yuck.

As someone that hates gravy and isn't big on french fries, I can honestly tell you... Don't knock it until you try it. I've yet to find anyone that doesn't like poutine. It's really just a food that you have to try to appreciate.

A&W does a good poutine, but McDonald's doesn't serve it around here (Nova Scotia). They do serve the famed McLobster though, as Dadof3 said, although I've never had it as I prefer lobster freshly boiled and hot.

As for fast food being almost the same everywhere, I was quite happy to walk into a KFC, a SubWay and a Dunkin Donuts in Madrid and found everything I was used to. This was after a week of eating traditional Spanish cuisine, and I just wanted to make sure I was going to like the food I was paying for.

[Jay Tea]

Originally Posted by monkster

Just to chime in, we still have deep fried apple pies in Australia, also our "regional" burger is the McOz which I hate and wish would go away because it replaced the McFeast which I loved so very very much.

OK so what ingredients make the 'McOz' Australian? I'm struggling to imagine what would make so universal a food uniquely Australian...

ETA:A colleague has just informed me it's beetroot? Not something I 'normally' associate with Australia but there ya go - I would have guessed a Kangaroo patty or something.

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

I would have guessed a Kangaroo patty or something.

I would have guessed vegemite...

[Eddylizard]

I would have guessed a Kangaroo patty or something.

I can imagine that would leap off the shelves!

Actually more on the topic of how McDs have regional menus. I remember during one of my business classes in college we talked about the first McDs in Moscow and how they had to adjust the cooking of french fries since for some reason the potatos grown in Russia took longer to cook or something like that. Also that the McDs in India actually server goat burgers.

Originally Posted by matches

Now I
Definatly a sobering dish after a long night drinking in Newark.

Or after a night in Hoboken...

[Kallah]

[minor annoyed hijack]
What ever happened to “Have it your way?”

It might be that they decided to teach him a lesson and made a creative interpretation of the rules. I for one fully support such an action, I'm tired of him annoying every fast food place with wierd special orders (typical order: Pizza X with extra cheese, fresh tomatoes, shrimp instead of muchrooms and whole pineapple rings instead of small pieces). I always suspect I get a sneeze pizza just for knowing him...

If you’re in the process of spending some absurd amount of money for a low-quality, low-quantity food source like McDonald’s what is wrong with getting exactly what you want? While your friend might just be ordering additions and subtractions because that’s how he enjoys his food, what of people with allergies who can not have certain ingredients in our food? I am deathly allergic to tomatoes. So, when ordering, I ask for no tomatoes, no ketchup, and almost half the time I had to return my food because they’re still on there. I explain that I can’t just take them off, if I touched them I would break out in hives. If I accidentally ate some, I might even die. After a while I took to just ordering my food “plain” and they still get it wrong a lot of the time. If someone tried to charge me a buck fifty for each thing they had to take off your normal fast-food burger to make it plain, I would laugh myself right out the door and never return.

Pizza, on the other hand, generally has obnoxious fees for adding an ingredient and everyone knows it. If ordering a cheese pizza is $7 bucks, and each additional topping is $2, it’s cheaper to get the $10 Deluxe Pizza and have them take off what you want, rather than ordering a pizza with two or more toppings. Unsurprisingly, the worst offender (for me) in the no-tomatoes category are pizza parlors, who seem completely unable to comprehend “No tomato sauce, please.”
[/minor annoyed hijack]

[Beachlife!]

McDonalds is low-quantity?

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting something your way. But it would be wise to know how some minimum wage workers fell about people they think are too picky. It doesn't make it right for them to spit in your burger, but just because it's wrong doesn't mean they won't do it either.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

McDonalds is low-quantity?

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting something your way. But it would be wise to know how some minimum wage workers fell about people they think are too picky. It doesn't make it right for them to spit in your burger, but just because it's wrong doesn't mean they won't do it either.

When I was working at McD's though, making a burger to a different specification didn't seem like a really big deal. Get the grill slip from the front, and leave out the pickles or put in an extra squirt of ketchup or whatever, then attach the grill slip to the box and put it on the rack with the others. Not terribly frustrating You're only being asked to exclude or put in more of whatever is already in the burger recipe, not to add some exotic ingredient.

The problem with the getting the wrong order could be either the grill slip doesn't get attached to the box properlly and falls off, or due to the robotic nature of flipping burgers I would occaisonally make one up to the 'normal' recipe. Not a huge problem, stick it on the rack as someone will want it, and start again. However maybe the staff out front could assume the next Mac on the rack was the specially ordered one, without checking for the grill slip.

[Kallah]

McDonalds is low-quantity?

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting something your way. But it would be wise to know how some minimum wage workers fell about people they think are too picky. It doesn't make it right for them to spit in your burger, but just because it's wrong doesn't mean they won't do it either.

I guess I worded that poorly about the quality and quantity. McD’s price-per-ounce is higher, and their quality is lower, than several middle-of-the-road restaurants where I used to live (haven’t gotten out much in my new home, as I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with a local deli). I know for a fact I can get more meat on my burger and more potato on my plate at Fuddruckers for the same price as a value meal and that leaves out the fact that it’s a much higher quality of food. Yes, the last thing most Americans need is more food, but if you stack up a real* burger next to your BigMac, suddenly the later seems awfully lacking.

I also get a feeling for how the employees must feel (my ex was in customer service, and I heard all the horror stories) and that’s why I do my best to be polite at all times, even after they’ve been rude and/or ignorant to my face. I give a smile (if I’m out to eat it’s genuine - treats like that put me in a good mood!), make sure to say please and thank you where appropriate, and if they make a mistake I’m apologetic for having to come back up there and take more of their time. None of that seems to detour the questions of “Can’t you just pick them off?” and having watched an employee pick off tomato slices, re-wrap the same sandwich, and try to hand it back to me. What goes around comes around: if an employee is pissy over a perfectly reasonable request I request to speak to their manager to have my money refunded and to file a complaint that their employee deliberately put my health and my life in danger. That usually gets them to scurry off and apologize.

Oddly, someone’s spit in my food doesn’t really bother me, since the things I can get from saliva generally aren’t near as bad as anaphylactic shock (granted, that is only the worst-case outcome of my allergies although the lesser ones aren’t much fun either).

*If you’re up to a tasty (if not very healthy) challenge go and buy some ground beef and do home-made burgers. You’ll see that there’s a lot more to that quarter pound of beef that what meets the eye at McDonald’s.

[snapdragonfly]

Originally Posted by matches

See we always pressumed it was some sort of health thing. Deep Fried pies seem so much worse for you than Baked Pies. Though I had often heard there was actually more fat in the baked pies than the deep fried pies, it was the image people had.

Either way, I recently found out Crown Fried Chicken in Newark carries deep fried apple pies. Popeyes chicken does too. Taco bell has something similar (an apple empenada) but they put cinnimon sugar on them and I feel that violates the spirit of the pie.

Glad to know they still have the deep fired pies in Germany, I'll be back there next summer.

You would THINK a "baked" pie has less fat than a "fried" pie, but if you check out the fat grams in that flakey baked crust, it's about the same as a fried pie. It's just shortening and flour. I think I might rather just have the fried pie and get my grease jones out of my system!

I vote for "longer shelf time" as the probable reason for the change. They also probably figured, "hey, baked SOUNDS healthier, can't hurt" as pretty much EVERY food vendor in the world likes to pretend their sugary fat laden crap is not the crap that it is...jelly beans carrying "as always, a fat free food!" on the bag...fat free, maybe, food? well, you can digest it but I wouldn't really call it "food." They'll do just about anything short of actually making something with some nutrition in it. Which is fine as long as they don't pretend that's what they are doing.

...they used to have cherry pies too, (fried) but now they only have those sometimes, generally on president's day. (george washington/cherry tree)

Also the Mc Rib is just an occasional menu item at our local Mc D's. I've never had any desire to eat one, my husband says they are disgusting.

In New Mexico where there were a lot of Catholics, they would have the fillet o fish at a special price for all of lent and they DID sell a lot of them on fridays. I haven't noticed it here as much.

[monkster]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

ETA:A colleague has just informed me it's beetroot? Not something I 'normally' associate with Australia but there ya go - I would have guessed a Kangaroo patty or something.

Apparantly it's traditional to have Beetroot on a burger in Australia, can't say I ever bought a burger from a Fish n Chip shop that had Beetroot on it before I moved to Queensland but on the other hand my fiancee (who grew up in NSW) was surprised when I told her I'd never had Beetroot on a burger, maybe they should call it the McNSW/Qld

As for Kangaroo patties I'm surprised they haven't had a McRoo yet considering the relative popularity Kangaroo has gotten the past few years.

[Graham2001]

Originally Posted by Vanilla Gorilla

Actually more on the topic of how McDs have regional menus. I remember during one of my business classes in college we talked about the first McDs in Moscow and how they had to adjust the cooking of french fries since for some reason the potatos grown in Russia took longer to cook or something like that. Also that the McDs in India actually server goat burgers.

According to the NZ Herald you can get McCurry in India, McTeriyaki in Japan & McBulgogi in Korea.

See: http://tinyurl.com/yuh38d

For the details on their 'secret lab', which also makes sure that BigMacs taste exactly the same no matter where you buy them.....

[HazyCosmicJive]

Originally Posted by Keket

As for fast food being almost the same everywhere, I was quite happy to walk into a KFC, a SubWay and a Dunkin Donuts in Madrid and found everything I was used to. This was after a week of eating traditional Spanish cuisine, and I just wanted to make sure I was going to like the food I was paying for.

Ooooh...this was not my experience at Taco Bell in Australia. Although I love meat pies and sausage rolls and a bunch of Aussie things you can't get in the states (I'll pass on the vegemite though, blech), I happened to be jonesing for a Taco Bell bean burrito one day. So I got one, and it wasn't the same at all. The beans weren't refried, for starters (which is normally my preference, but not at the Bell), and there was like, lettuce in my bean burrito! The horror!

Also, IIRC, you could get fries at Taco Bell in Oz. This was before the big Bell/KFC/Pizza Hut merger, so it was weird to me.

It was definitely an interesting experience, though.

Speaking of regional McD's specialties, in New Mexico you can get green chile burgers at many McDonald's.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by monkster

As for Kangaroo patties I'm surprised they haven't had a McRoo yet considering the relative popularity Kangaroo has gotten the past few years.

But then the rumours would start circulating that it wasn't real roo, but was padded out with Witchetty grubs

[Die Capacitrix]

Originally Posted by Graham2001

According to the NZ Herald you can get McCurry in India, McTeriyaki in Japan & McBulgogi in Korea.

See: http://tinyurl.com/yuh38d

For the details on their 'secret lab', which also makes sure that BigMacs taste exactly the same no matter where you buy them.....

I don't think the BigMacs here taste exactly the same as those in the U.S. My husband agrees.

The fries are definitely different since they use Swiss potatoes.

[Hero_Mike]

Back in the early 90's (1992 IIRC), McDonald's Canada became this country's biggest pizza restaurant overnight. It was marketed that each and every McD's would now serve pizza in both a "personal" and "family" size. The product failed to sell and disappeared from the menu. I assume that the pizza ovens were removed and sold, as around 1994/5, there was this huge explosion of 2-for-1, 3-for-1 and even 4-for-1 pizza places in the area. My theory is that they have the surplus ovens from McD's after they got out of the pizza business.

Originally Posted by Lunasa

although I did learn that the Polish for fries is friski

Not funny to make fun of ethnic/cultural stereotypes, even with a smiley.

Originally Posted by lynnejanet

We can't get poutine at any McDonalds in Ontario, that I know of. I think there was a very brief promotion once, a few years ago, but it's certainly not a regular menu item.

Umm, not true. The "promotion" was not very brief nor was it years ago. I just saw it on the menu in North Bay, ON, twelve days ago. It may not be everywhere, but poutine still exists in McD's in Ontario.

[monkster]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

But then the rumours would start circulating that it wasn't real roo, but was padded out with Witchetty grubs

LOL funnily enough we haven't really had those sort of rumours here, also just last week my SIL told me the "100% Beef" rumour and I have occasionaly heard the "chicken substituted for rabbit" one.

[lynnejanet]

Originally Posted by Hero_Mike

Back in the early 90's (1992 IIRC), McDonald's Canada became this country's biggest pizza restaurant overnight. It was marketed that each and every McD's would now serve pizza in both a "personal" and "family" size. The product failed to sell and disappeared from the menu. I assume that the pizza ovens were removed and sold, as around 1994/5, there was this huge explosion of 2-for-1, 3-for-1 and even 4-for-1 pizza places in the area. My theory is that they have the surplus ovens from McD's after they got out of the pizza business.

Re: poutine in ON McDonalds[Sorry - I haven't figured out imbedded quotes yet]

Umm, not true. The "promotion" was not very brief nor was it years ago. I just saw it on the menu in North Bay, ON, twelve days ago. It may not be everywhere, but poutine still exists in McD's in Ontario.

Thanks, Mike. I had no idea that some Ontario McDs still sold poutine. Was it a promotion, or a regular menu item? I wonder if its because there are so many Francophones in North Bay?

AFA the pizza ovens: I heard at the time that McDonald's pizza ovens were highly specialized, and used a type of sound wave to cook the pizza. I have no idea if that is true, but theory was that it was the best technology for preparing pizza quickly. Off I go to google....

ETA: Well, I struck out on google. I couldn't find anything about any kind of sound energy being used to generate heat in an oven. This might just possibly be the only UL that my dad ever told me.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by lynnejanet

ETA: Well, I struck out on google. I couldn't find anything about any kind of sound energy being used to generate heat in an oven. This might just possibly be the only UL that my dad ever told me.

Perhaps this might be related which refers to using ultrasonic steaming for better results in baked prducts.

There are no technical details though, and the equipment seems to be geared towards large industrial bakeries. I can't find any suggestion that MacDonalds ever utilised the technology.