# Tony Roma's Dammam, Saudi Arabia **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 8, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960 "2010-07-08T14:58:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/41 "2010-07-09T19:11:49Z")
Nah, it’s better with increasingly hysterical gasps for air. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/42 "2010-07-09T20:03:16Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Dude, they just caught some people out here selling…fake peas. Fake freaking peas. How can it possibly be cost effective to make fake peas? I realize that in the developing world labor is cheap while goods can be expensive, but seriously? ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/43 "2010-07-10T04:23:30Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > How can it possibly be cost effective to make fake peas? I realize that in the developing world labor is cheap while goods can be expensive, but seriously? Exactly what I thought about the cooking oil. It sounds like a whole lot of work to make a fake bottle of oil, when the real thing is pretty damn cheap in the first place. How about going down to the Chinese Fred Meyer and buying a freaking bottle of store-brand cooking oil? Don’t they do “generic” in China? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/44 "2010-07-10T04:33:33Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Bonus points if that was all in one breath. By a rather amazing coincidence, I just watched that skit on DVD a few minute ago (Mr. Smokes-too-much). ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/45 "2010-07-10T04:38:45Z")
> [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](#): > > Exactly what I thought about the cooking oil. It sounds like a whole lot of work to make a fake bottle of oil, when the real thing is pretty damn cheap in the first place. How about going down to the Chinese Fred Meyer and buying a freaking bottle of store-brand cooking oil? I’m imagining some poor Chinese dude reading this post (I know, I know, it’s probably filtered; work with me here) and slapping his forehead and yelling, “JESUS CHRIST! Why didn’t anyone think of that!? Someone go down to Chinese Fred Meyer and buy a case of store-brand cooking oil! MY GOD!” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/46 "2010-07-10T04:59:32Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > We used to be able to do things. You know, like tie a continent together with railroads. Now we cannot quite manage to run a web site or a franchise operation. Once I built a railroad; now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a piss-smelling boneless chicken wing? I wonder if there’s any connection between the decline and fall of a civilization (as judged by the performance of an obscure chain restaurant in freaking Saudi Arabia) and the willingness of people like the OP to eat in such a place. On the bright side, my potential vote in the live-in-Saudi-Arabia-vs.-North-Korea poll is now tilting towards North Korea. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/47 "2010-07-10T09:00:36Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > How can it possibly be cost effective to make fake peas? I realize that in the developing world labor is cheap while goods can be expensive, but seriously? You would think, right? Apparently they are made from dried snow peas and soybeans, green food dye, and a potentially dangerous chemical used to make bleach. The pictures from the whole sewer/cooking oil thing are truly disgusting. It’s not just some one-off thing, it’s a huge industry producing about three million tons of the stuff. It’s believed one out of ten meals are prepared using “recycled” oil. People pay restaurants for their used oil or fish it out of the public sewers near large restaurants and hotels. They put it through a chemical “filtration” process and sell the aflatoxin-tainted results (aflatoxin is among the most carcinogenic substances on earth) at about half the price of regular cooking oil. Of course, the authorities have solved the problem by temporarily shutting down a handful of restaurants. :rolleyes: Luckily, the recently banned making soy sauce from human hair, so I have one less thing to worry about! ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/48 "2010-07-10T10:25:39Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > I mean what’s the point of being treated like a sheep… TLDNR Watney’s Red Barrel did jump out at me - and not in a good way. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/49 "2010-07-10T10:53:56Z")
On that sewer/cooking-oil thing, that reminds me of when I lived in Albuquerque. There was a scandal involving trucks going around late at night and stealing the used grease out of the grease traps behind restaurants, for resell to restaurants. Probably not as bad as that sewer thing, though. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/50 "2010-07-10T13:35:51Z")
Now I am really ticked off! The little shits have called and begged my forgiveness. But I shall deny it to them! Yes! I shall turn my back upon their laments! Grumble. Ruining a perfectly good outrage. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/51 "2010-07-10T13:43:36Z")
I think you should try for beheading of the manager. If they’d go that far – and I don’t just mean SAY they will, but actually lop it off – then I’d forgive 'em. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/52 "2010-07-10T13:57:04Z")
Oddly, I am not allowed to behead people. Something about violating a state monopoly. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/53 "2010-07-10T13:59:18Z")
No, no, not you. Get the local franchise owner to behead the manager. Say you’ll forgive them then. ---
**Author:** ![smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smoke)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/54 "2010-07-10T15:51:50Z")
This thread is the second-best thing to a sequel of _Confederacy of Dunces_. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/55 "2010-07-11T02:34:21Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > I would think that the fact that the restaurant was vacant and smelled like a urinal might have been a tip off that the food wouldn’t be all that good. Words to live by. When I was in vacation in Colorado in May, I went to a Mexican place in La Junta about 7pm for dinner. As a heavy smoker, I don’t have a great sense of smell. This place smelled bad (rotten meat bad) the moment I walked in the door. By the time I was seated and looked around to see that at dinner prime time, there were a whole two tables occupied, I was noticing the bad smell more and more by the minute. At that point, I walked out, and I can’t imagine why anyone with a sense of smell wouldn’t do the same. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960/56 "2010-07-12T05:47:21Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > \They put it through a chemical “filtration” process and sell the aflatoxin-tainted results (aflatoxin is among the most carcinogenic substances on earth)\ Well, China _does_ have an overpopulation problem… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-romas-dammam-saudi-arabia/545960.md?page=2)