Facebook
Twitter
RSS
![[Masthead]](http://www.marshallnews.com/images/nameplate.png)
|
|
Fair ~ High: 79°F ~ Low: 57°F Tuesday, May 22, 2012 |
|
I eat gross stuffPosted Monday, April 19, 2010, at 8:58 AM
So, I was on a long drive home while thinking about how satisfying a McChicken sandwich would be. For the most part, I've successfully avoided fast food for a substantial amount of time (for me), but it just sounded so good: that warm chicken smothered in mayonnaise. Mmm.
Then, I remembered a clip of Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" in which he shows children how chicken nuggets, and, hence, to my mind, McChicken patties, are made: after all the choice cuts of meat are gone, the remainder -- bones and all -- are tossed into a food processor, and, ta-da! chicken nuggets. Upon first remembering this, I felt disgusted with myself for even wanting one of these barely-chicken sandwiches. I thought about the bones, the marrow that would likely be part of my meal. I thought about how the hamburger I was also considering would be almost exactly the same. Maybe I was incorrect in my thoughts, but those thoughts stopped me from wanting my desired sandwiches, though only for a moment. Then, I thought to myself, "So, what?" It's nutritious -- okay, maybe not really nutritious, but it contains nutrients. And it would taste good, I expected. But I thought again about the sight of that chicken's ribcage, slivers of meat hanging on. And then I realized that to avoid that food because of its less-than-desirable contents, despite its expected taste and semi-nutritional value, was to promote something I think is awful: waste. That chicken's ribcage was to me what the buffalo's scrotum was to the American Indians: useful. It answered a need. Okay, maybe not a need, but a desire. I wanted a meaty sandwich, and they had them waiting at McDonald's. So I went. I got not only the McChicken, but a double cheeseburger as well. And, for the record, each was far from fulfilling. I felt full of grease and fat, but expect I would have felt no different after eating the same amounts of deep-fried chicken breast and steak marinated in lard. But I still can't wait until April 12, the first day it will be available nationwide, to try KFC's Double Down: bacon and cheese topped with some bastardization of mayonnaise, all sandwiched between two pieces of fried chicken. Just writing about it is causing my arteries to clog and my taste buds to dance in anticipation. In other words, Jamie Oliver, try another approach. Maybe if you show me how disgusting grease is, I'll have a chance at saving my heart from giving its final slow, sad pump before I hit 30. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
A Complicated Way of Saying 'Apples'  - Archives - Blog RSS feed ![[Feed icon]](http://www.marshallnews.com/images/icons/feed-icon-14x14.png){kind=icon} - Comments RSS feed - Login It was a beautiful summer day, and I was relaxing with my friends. One of them, Brian, was talking, and, as happens to me sometimes, my mind began to drift -- a bad habit, I know. When I snapped back to the moment at hand, I asked Brian what he had said. As he commonly does, he downplayed the importance of his statements, and when pressed, he merely said, "It was just a complicated way of saying 'apples.'"
And so, the smart-aleck that I often seem to be, I said, simply, "Apples."
The following silence was comfortable, but nowhere near as pleasant as being present for and party to a discussion, no matter how trivial, with two of my best friends.
So, while sometimes, all of my speech is merely a complicated way of saying "apples," I have come to enjoy those roundabout things that are perhaps unnecessary, because sometimes, merely saying "apples" isn't enough.
Hot topics I eat gross stuff(2 ~ 4:49 PM, May 24)
New Year's resolutions: A great way to not change
A relationship with Christ
Let him go
I Heart Sunshine
|
Email link
Read comments (21)
Blog archive
Oh yes, head cheese. Watched my grandmother make this many times back in the day. Never did have any desire to eat the stuff.
I guess the reason you can't buy head cheese, and souse anymore (at least here) is because the fast food franchises have sucked up all the ingredients?
A brain sandwich on white bread with catsup is also tasty. Forty plus years ago you could get a really awesome brain sandwich at Twilling's Tavern on W. North Street. Even though with the catsup it did look like the remains of a zombie's head that had been blown off with a shotgun, with a cold beer it tasted awesome.
My parents made head cheese and loved it-- I bet I ate it when I was little but once I realized what it was -- never again-- hey I saw in Patricia's deli case they were selling the stuff and it was a small portion left so I bet a lot of people still buy it.
Oh yeah liver and onions----MMMMMMMMMMMMMM---one of my favorites.
Ewww...head cheese is gross!
However, I'm with you on that McChicken sandwich, Geoff! I choose to occasionally ignore what my head tells me is not good for me and gross and eat instead what my tastebuds crave. I think as long as someone is not eating at McD's 3 meals a day, 7 days a week, we'll all be okay.
Hey Oklahoma, those sandwiches at Twillings Tavern -- were the brains cooked? And how were they prepared -- boiled or ?
It doesn't sound appetizing but I'm darned curious about how they prepared them. Surely they're not eaten raw?
Deep fried, and sizzling when they hit the white bread, enough catsup on top that it kinda bled through the top slice...uh huh GOOD, calf brains they were. Aaaaarg!
Frank Brown's tavern took carp to another level, also with white bread, and catsup. Ordinarily I can't stand carp, but Frank's carp was boneless, and melted in your mouth.
I don't know whether Twilling's brains, or Brown's carp was the better. It is kinda like comparing rib eye, and lobster, both great, a matter of taste.
I am also a person who has trouble allowing all the horror stories of how our food is processed to affect my ability to enjoy those things that are not so good for you but taste oh so good. But as the resident film buff, may I suggest a few movies that'll make you cringe. "Food, Inc." was nominated for best documentary feature at the academy awards this past year. Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" is a fun and frightening look at what my father affectionately calls "America's Restaurant", McDonalds. And "Fast Food Nation" is a fictionalized account, based on the non-fiction book of the same title, of how illegal immigration and the processing practices of our fast food culture are related.
notgvn,
I confess, I usually disregard pretty much anything with your handle on it. However, in this case I must give you a new level of admiration and respect. Good for you for taking your children's healthy diet to a new level. Way to go:)
What boggles my mind is how expensive it is to eat healthy...
What's in Shake 'n' Bake:
"Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate Vitamin B1, riboflavin Vitamin B2, folic acid), salt, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, sugar, contains less than 2% of paprika, dextrose, dried onions, spice, caramel color, yeast, annatto (color), and natural flavor. Barbecue flavor Shake 'n Bake includes sugar, maltodextrin, salt, modified food starch, spice, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, brown sugar, mustard seed flour, dried onions, dried tomatoes, dried garlic, beet powder (color), citric acid, natural flavor, caramel color, vinegar, and sodium silicoaluminate as an anticaking agent."
come on people-- If we aren't milking it, growing it, or raising and butchering it ourselves there are going to be additives -- not healthy but -- but shake and bake is the healthier alternitive to fried processed chicken nuggets
Scarpetta, I have to respectfully disagree. At Patricia's this week (and I'm not promoting one store over another, I just happen to have their ad handy), chicken breasts are $0.97/pound, a 5-pound bag of potatoes is $1.29 and a 16-ounce bag of frozen peas is $0.99. With a little salt, pepper and butter, you've got a meal for several people right there, all for less than the cost of Geoff's "sandwich," which was more than $5.
Any Braunschweiger connoisseurs out there? Mmmmmmmm good:)
I guess I should have been more specific and not just said eating healthy. While those "sale" items are a good deal (thanks for the tip)...you purchase fresh produce that isn't on "sale" and this is where the cost of eating healthy comes in.
In addition to that let me add...I if I look at making homemade hamburgers and french fries for the fam for dinner, that cost will be much more than buying 4 double cheeseburgers and dollar fries at McDonald's.
Cheetah - I do love braunschweiger with bread n butter pickles... ;>)
Including you and myself, NanaDot, that makes only three people I know who even like the stuff.
I convinced my wife try it once. It's an amazing physiological occurrence when the contents of one's stomach exit through their tear ducts. But the REALLY funny thing was when she asked me what it was--through the gagging and wiping of her tongue with a Brillo pad. I told her it was processed parts of what's left-over after the calf fries are removed:)
And the fight was on :o
LOLOLOL..:>D
Talk about 'gross stuff", latest on HFCS:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/player.html?cate...
Make it four. I love braunschweiger!
Make it five that favors braunschweiger, but that shouldn't surprise anyone after my brains, and carp bit. Wife won't get near it though.
I wonder which of my relatives it was that own the Twilling's Tavern. I have always heard that the food was good. Too bad that it was before my time.