I like pickles.
However, I don’t like them infecting everything else in the meal. As stated previously, the brine is still there and while you are eating a hamburger, presumably to taste the hamburger all you can taste if the PICKLE. PICKLE PICKLE PICKLE
I don’t like it when places put your pickles next to your fries, bread, potato chips, whatever reasonably absorbant item on the plate.
ISOLATE THE PICKLE!
[QUOTE=Wallet]
M: Now wait a sec, please just change the fries and the soda for me!
STW: You gotta come inside.
[/QUOTE]
Ten years ago, I would have gone inside. Now, I’d politely say, “No, I’ll wait here until you get my order correct.” and put the car in park. There are some benefits to getting old and crotchety.
What’s he gonna do? He’s gonna get the (bagged) apples and (sealed) juice box. It’s not like he can do anything nasty to 'em. And it’s not like he has to drop another pile of fries and hold up the rest of the line. Apples and juice box. They’re both in the fridge under the counter.
Ben’s in Montreal is now closed (after a long decline). Sniff . . . Ben’s, the Forum, the Rocket and the Pocket were key to my parents’ courtship, so without them I would never have been.
That leaves us with Schwartz’s in Montreal and Moe Pancer’s in Toronto for truly great smoked meat and pastrami.
[QUOTE=jjimm]
Pickle brine is just vinegar or salt water. Are you “allergic” to vinegar? It’s in ketchup, mustard, and relish too. And you can’t be “allergict” to salt, since you’re eating burgers. So what caused the cramps? A tiny residual trace of vinegar?
You sure the stomach cramps aren’t from being whacked by a car?
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know. I’ve never been hit by a car before this. I take the occasional high speed tumble while skiing without it upsetting my gut.
Yes, vinegar and salt do not agree with me. In limited amounts I can handle most condiments. With large amounts I have trouble – usually no big deal – just scrape off the excess. Vinegar alone makes me barf, so I keep clear of it. Salt alone makes be cough, so a lot of prepared foods are embarassing to eat.
Pickle brine also has seasonings in it. In fact, one can buy a jar of pickling spice mix in the grocery store. I don’t remember what spices this mix contains (it’s been more than 30 years since I’ve made home made pickles), but Muffin might be sensitive to one of the ingredients, as well as not being able to tolerate salt or vinegar very well.
In any case, a customer should get what s/he requests, if the request is reasonable. A hamburger sans pickles is certainly a reasonable request.
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
It’s clearly a conspiracy by the pickle cartel. Bunch of fookin’ gherks.
[/QUOTE]
Ah, just dill with it.
I’m having a hard time understanding why some folks don’t understand why Muffin can’t just take the pickle off. Medical reasons aside, she simply doesn’t like, no, *hates * the taste of pickles. Do you not have strong likes or dislikes when it comes to food? I’m being serious. I have never understood how people can eat things they don’t like. Personally (and I’m admittedly uber picky so I may not be the best example) I won’t eat anything I have even a mild distaste for. I either like something or I am absolutely unwilling to put it in my mouth, nor eat anything that has been touched by the offending substance.
I also don’t accept the whole minimum wage = excuse to not do your job correctly and therefore I as a consumer have no right to expect to receive what I pay for. As long as I’m not being a douchebag about it, there isn’t a reason in the world why my order shouldn’t be made as requested (if my request is reasonable, which **Muffin’s ** most certainly was).
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
Special sauce pickles are sweet gherkins with the loose brine drained off chopped into relish. The slices are dills, and strong fucking dills at that, and they’re positively dripping in brine. Two totally different Taste Sensations.
I actually like pickles, but McDonald’s (or maybe it’s Burger King, I forget which) gets a little - overzealous. I choose to pick half of them off and eat them one at a time, or they overwhelm the sandwich and I end up eating a Pickle burger.
[/QUOTE]
I worked at both McDonald’s and Burger King when I was a kid. My boss at BK was the Pickle Nazi. He’d check the hamburgers and Whoppers and count the pickles we put on. ONE on a hamburger, THREE on a Whopper. Do NOT veer from the prescribed number or you’ll catch hell.
At MickyD’s I used to make little pickle ‘n’ cheese sammiches to munch on. They had the best pickles!
I always take the pickle off, but never ask for it to be left off, because I like the residual flavor which it clearly does leave behind.
My solution would be to stop eating in McDonalds. Apart from the sheer nastiness of the food, they aren’t ever going to start getting this right. Should you be able to expect them to listen to your request? Absolutely. But they simply don’t. THe only benefit I hear about places like McD’s is that they are fast. They are no longer fast if you have to go back inside and get them to change your order to what you requested.
That said, I think I might have to waddle over to Five Guys for lunch. Or Ollie’s Trolley. Neither of them have ever got my order wrong.
[QUOTE=WOOKINPANUB]
I’m having a hard time understanding why some folks don’t understand why Muffin can’t just take the pickle off.
[/QUOTE]
I agree. I would just take the pickle off but it’s a strong flavor and I could see how it would ruin the taste for some people. What is so difficult to understand about that?
Now I was a very picky eater as a kid and would only eat my McD’s burgers with only ketchup. Probably one in five times I would have to send it back. When I turned sixteen, I worked at McD’s for a year, most of that time on the grill. It’s a very, very easy job. Everything is on timers. A monkey could easily do it. Maybe it’s because I was so picky growing up but I did not one time in the entire year I worked there have a “grill” order returned to me. In my day we would get a little slip of paper with the special order marked on it. Now I think that it’s on a monitor above the cooking area.
[QUOTE=Sean Factotum]
Are you sure that’s not the relish you’re tasting? It’s in the special sauce.
And I order only Big Macs from Mickey D’s and take the pickles off. It’s the mustard on the other sandwiches I can’t stand.
[/QUOTE]
Haha, I don’t eat at McDonalds, are you kidding? That place is fucking gross. I quit eating there when I was ten.
I’ve taken the offending pickle off other food items and you can still taste the pickle-ness. Nasty. It makes me almost physically sick to see someone eating one of those huge, whole pickles on a stick or whatever. I don’t like ketchup and like mustard in small quantities only. I rarely order fast-food burgers because I know I am picky about my burger toppings. And fast food burgers aren’t really any good anyway. If I’m gonna eat a burger, it’s gonna be from Fatted Calf in Clayon, MO and covered with soft cheddar and crispy bacon, thankyouverymuch. Or I’m gonna make it myself indentical to aforementioned burger from Clayton.
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
I worked at both McDonald’s and Burger King when I was a kid. My boss at BK was the Pickle Nazi. He’d check the hamburgers and Whoppers and count the pickles we put on. ONE on a hamburger, THREE on a Whopper. Do NOT veer from the prescribed number or you’ll catch hell.
At MickyD’s I used to make little pickle ‘n’ cheese sammiches to munch on. They had the best pickles!
[/QUOTE]
I lasted one day at McD’s in highschool before quitting. While I didn’t like it, I remember being told that the Big Mac was a trademark sandwhich and must be served with all the trademark ingredients on it, or it may not be sold.
If the OP had been to that McD’s back then, the manager would have said that they could either buy a Big Mac, which comes with pickles included, they could buy something else on the menu, or they could choose not to buy anything at all.
I can still hear him saying “You may not serve a Big Mac w/o any of these ingredients. If someone asks, explain that you can’t. If they argue, come get me.”
[QUOTE=Who_me?]
I’m always amazed that people think that getting minimum wage is an excuse for bad service. Although I never worked in fast food, I have worked minimum wage jobs in my past and I was expected to do my job properly.
[/QUOTE]
I’m always amazed that people will go to a shitty restaurant that serves shitty food and expect the service not to be shitty, as well.
[QUOTE=Miller]
I’m always amazed that people will go to a shitty restaurant that serves shitty food and expect the service not to be shitty, as well.
[/QUOTE]
Well. I agree it wouldn’t make much sense for someone to go to a restaurant they consider shitty and order food they consider shitty, but not everyone considers McDonald’s (or necessarily any other fast food place) shitty. What does the quality (or lack there of) of the ingredients have to do with someone doing what they’re paid to do(whatever that amount of pay is)?
[QUOTE=jjimm]
Pickle brine is just vinegar or salt water.
[/QUOTE]
Nope. I’ve made dill pickles. Besides water, vinegar and kosher salt, there’s peppercorns and…wait for it…dill! And garlic, if it’s a kosher dill. And some recipes have additional spices. So maybe what upsets the OP’s stomach is one or more of the other items.
Anyway, does it matter? Not putting something onto a sandwich has got to be the simplest request possible, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t have been done properly.
[QUOTE=StarvingButStrong]
Nope. I’ve made dill pickles. <snip>
[/QUOTE]
whoops, should have finished reading the thread before I replied.
What Lynn Said.
I too dislike pickles on my burger. That’s why I always order my burgers “ketchup only”. That way, when I come across a one of those Bizarroworld McDonalds that automatically puts mustard, squished slugs or something equally grotesque on their burgers, I avoid all that stuff too.
Only problem is the places that interpret “ketchup only” as “the only thing I want to taste is ketchup”.
[QUOTE=WOOKINPANUB]
Well. I agree it wouldn’t make much sense for someone to go to a restaurant they consider shitty and order food they consider shitty, but not everyone considers McDonald’s (or necessarily any other fast food place) shitty. What does the quality (or lack there of) of the ingredients have to do with someone doing what they’re paid to do(whatever that amount of pay is)?
[/QUOTE]
Because McDonalds is a low quality restaurant across the board. They use the cheapest ingredients possible, and the cheapest employees possible. Most people can understand that “cheap ingredients” = “shitty food.” Why is it so hard to also understand that “cheap labor” = “shitty service?” The counter jockies at McDonalds are doing what they’re paid for: speed. They get the burger in the bag and the customer out the door as quickly as possible. And that’s all McDonalds cares about. You want good customer service and accuracy in your order? That costs extra. You’re not going to find it at McDonalds. That’s not what they do.
[QUOTE=Count Blucher]
I lasted one day at McD’s in highschool before quitting. While I didn’t like it, I remember being told that the Big Mac was a trademark sandwhich and must be served with all the trademark ingredients on it, or it may not be sold.
If the OP had been to that McD’s back then, the manager would have said that they could either buy a Big Mac, which comes with pickles included, they could buy something else on the menu, or they could choose not to buy anything at all.
I can still hear him saying “You may not serve a Big Mac w/o any of these ingredients. If someone asks, explain that you can’t. If they argue, come get me.”
[/QUOTE]
The McD’s near me all permit special orders that add or remove condiments. The special order is printed on the receipt, and is displayed on an overhead screen at the grill.
[QUOTE=Miller]
Because McDonalds is a low quality restaurant across the board. They use the cheapest ingredients possible, and the cheapest employees possible. Most people can understand that “cheap ingredients” = “shitty food.” Why is it so hard to also understand that “cheap labor” = “shitty service?” The counter jockies at McDonalds are doing what they’re paid for: speed. They get the burger in the bag and the customer out the door as quickly as possible. And that’s all McDonalds cares about. You want good customer service and accuracy in your order? That costs extra. You’re not going to find it at McDonalds. That’s not what they do.
[/QUOTE]
I think a lot has to do with adult supervision, or lack thereof. When the same McD’s in my city have adults on shift, there are very few errors with my meals. Notably, the 0 for 4 last night involved two McD franchises that had no adults (as in mature adults, not kids who have reached 18) on staff at the time.
There are several Taco Time fast food franchises in our city, all owned by the same fellow, who makes a point of working the line at each of them fairly often. The service at these places is always excellent. He has a couple of motel franchises as well, which he also takes turns at staffing. He told me that he believes that hands on involvement at the ground level of his buisnesses makes for better service/quality. I agree with him.
When three fellows purchased the Wendy’s franchise in our city, they all took turns working the line, and again the service was excellent. Since then, they had a falling out with each other (our firm represented two of them), and they are no longer spending as much time working the line. The level of service has declined.
What it comes down to is that there is no shortage of applicants for minimum wage jobs where I live (many of the local mills have closed). If a kid is found to be a slacker by an adult supervisor, then the kid will be replaced. If there is no adult supervisor on the ground, then the sad sacks can get away with what they do best.
I don’t know the owner of the McD franchises here, so I don’t know what the staffing constraints are, but I expect that finding adults for the evening shift this close to Christmas must have been a problem.
Yeah, I’ve worked at McDonald’s and other liw-wage service jobs. It is entirely reasonable to make a simple food request and have it met.
When I was working for a college on the East Coast, a kid going through the cafeteria line asked not to have the shrimp. His request was acknowledged and, as it turned out, he received shrimp. After one bite, he died of anaphylaxis. Food requests may be serious. Being paid minimum wage is no excuse for ignoring them.