I am convinced that Starbucks’ success comes from taking something that is zero fat and zero calories—black coffee—and turning it into high fat and high sugar comfort food.
I always saw that talked about as the selling point of McDonalds and Starbucks, that it is the same everyplace. Until encountering people like you describe, I never understood why that was a selling point.
I’d much rather try the local variation on something I’m familiar with. Sometimes that is fun (Chicago dog!) other times it is not good (I think it was Montreal where the nachos were potato chips with cheese sauce and sliced green olives, should’ve stuck to the poutine).
Maybe because I grew up eating all different kinds of food (and always had a wide variety of dishes at any potluck I’ve ever been to), I prefer variety, as well. Eating the same thing all the time is something I have trouble wrapping my head around.
A few months ago I was grabbing lunch at a Jack in the Box at the airport and discovered that that location didn’t carry the tacos or most of the other fried sides - no egg rolls, no jalapeno poppers, etc.
The thing today IMO is the large number of adults who still eat like the children they once were. My niece is one such. She doesn’t have food “issues”, but kid-like convenience food is her natural fodder and is the only food she actively wants as opposed to grudgingly tolerates in small doses until she can get some kid food.
Yep. Serve them an ice cream sundae mislabeled as a “coffee”. All the psycho-social virtue of a sober adult beverage and all the kidly sugar-fueled enjoyment of a dessert.
A co-worker who was trying to eat healthy was surprised to find that the “flat white” coffee thing he was ordering from Starbucks had 53 grams of sugar. Of course he ordered the same thing the next day.
My impression was that Five Guys fries were also mediocre. The only thing they had going for them is that they were very generous in how many fries they poured into the bag, after putting the little sleeve of fries there.
Their fries are… not good as served by default, but I like them ordered medium-well animal-style. They are crispy, with the bonus of a cheese, sauce, and onion topping.
The thing that always surprises me is how many people can’t tell what they are eating. I got a strawberry frappuccino once, at an airport. It was my supper time, and i was hungry. I was unable to finish it, because it had SO much fat and sugar. It was delicious, but after about half the cup, i was full. I might have been able to nibble on a bit of lean protein, but i was full up on fat and sugar.
It was awkward, because i was on an airplane, and i had to hold the damn thing for ages before the flight attendant can’t buy and i could their the rest away.
Both Five Guys fries and In-N-Out fries are war crimes. At least In-N-Out has decent to excellent burgers. I’ve never had one at Five Guys that was worth writing home about. The two chains have locations basically across the street from one another right at the freeway exit for my town. I usually skip both of them and go to Baker’s instead, which is between the two.