I agree that soup should be pretty easy to make reasonably well. Worst I ever had was French Onion from a local pizza joint. The broth was salty water. The cheese barely melted. Yeah, I know, in retrospect what was I expecting?
Went ahead and got myself my annual McRib today, as I usually get one every time they’re available. It wasn’t great, but it was decent, and since we don’t really have much of a BBQ scene around here it’s definitely an improvement over the gas station rib sandwiches that are available.
The problem I’ve had with them the last few times is that they absolutely murder the thing with barbeque sauce. There’s so much sauce on the thing that it’s leaking out the sides and pooling in the carton and the bottom bun is soggy and fragile because of how much sauce it’s soaked up. I had them add mustard to mine (because South Carolina knows what it’s doing and mustard goes great with BBQ) and I could barely even taste it over all the sauce. All it really needs is a smear of sauce on both sides of the patty, but it seems like they’re taking a ladle to the thing.
Ok. It wasn’t a restaurant per-se but a retirement home. And a good one. My Wife and I visited her mother, and two uncles and an aunt in-law there recently. At one meal they had a salad bar available, that was fine. Kind of hard to screw that up.
At another meal, oh my god. Salad bar not available. MIL and the others (except my Wife thought it was great)
The starter, which was called ‘salad’ (???) was some sort of Jello formation with I think pineapple inside. It had some sort of frosting on top that I also could not identify. My Wife and I gently pushed that aside without comment. The bread was ok. You can buy a bag of those at any supermarket. I should have had more of that.
Oh, the main course. Advertised as Roast Beef. Well, Ok. Highly processed Roast Beef that had been through more machines than it deserved. They tried to hide it with canned brown gravy. The canned carrots where tolerable. I discreetly covered the ‘meat’ up with my bread plate to hide it and had the waiter take it away.
Desert was ice cream and apple pie. The ice cream was ok. The apple pie oddly really, really dry.
We had another meal there that was just as frightening. But my MIL and her brothers love it. I understand that a retirement community will have many, if not most with dietary restrictions and different tastes. Along with the need for generally softer digestible food.
After this ‘meal’, my Wife discovered that we could have ordered a cheeseburger and french fries. Should have done that. But it may have been just as scary.
After this ‘lunch’ my MIL bugged me that I didn’t eat enough. Well, I may never eat again was my feeling. Not there, that’s for sure (of course I did not actually say that)
Truth is, I never found it much better than a Speedway (or other gas station) rib sandwich, unless that sandwich had been hanging out in the warmer too long. Speedway at least doesn’t use metric assloads of sugar sauce on it (though theirs is still sweet). And they are available year round if that’s your jam. The mustard is a good addition, and I approve. Cuts through that syrup. But gas stations do vary wildly in the quality of their food. Here in the Midwest, Casey’s does a good job. Out towards the east, Wawa and Sheetz are pretty solid, too. Speedway is just meh, but I’ve had rib sandwiches there that have been on par with McD’s without all the extra sauce.
I think the French would disagree. You are thinking only of the US context.
Andouille and Andouillette are of French origin and the main difference is that the former is smoked and eaten cold and the latter is not smoked and eaten warm. Both can contain colon (though to be fair, there exist regional varieties that do not). I avoid both like the plague.
There are also restaurant meals that disgust your fellow diners, while you enjoy the meal. We were out with my kids in Smicksburg, a largely Amish community. My kids ordered standard foods, while I ordered a big plate of liver and onions. My son was appalled.
Not to be outdone, the next time we took them out we ate at a fancy little bistro. My gf figured she’d freak out my kids. She ordered calf brains. She had never had them and really didn’t want them. Luckily for her they had just run out (out of brains, heh). It worked out well for her, as my kids still talk about that day.
Eggplant parmesan; but it was not the restaurant’s fault – I’m sure it was sublime for an aubergine lover, but it was the first time I tried it and it was like eating a huge booger, only not as tasty! My wife agreed!
It is actually a challenge to get the correct booger consistency. You have to salt, bread and fry the slices just right. And then it is just wonderful!
That’s a congealed salad! I like them.
No food should have the word “congealed” in its name.
This is what Hercule Poirot ate in a recent episode we watched. I’ve never had calf brains, but I’ve had sweetbreads several times and enjoyed them a lot.
I thought pineapple, fresh or canned, had an enzyme that prevents the gelatin from jelling.
Friends talked me into eating at a catfish restaurant. I don’t like fish and planned to order an alternate item.
Fried chicken sounded good. The first bite revealed they didn’t have a 2nd fryer. The chicken reeked of fish. I almost threw up trying to eat that fried chicken.
None of those places exist in the PNW. The only place I know of aside from McDonald’s where you can get a boneless rib sandwich (unless you buy the frozen On-Cor rib patties and make your own) is AM/PM, and their hot foods are sub-public-school-cafeteria quality. We’re pretty starved for quality BBQ up here - Dickey’s was honestly the best we had, until our location closed a few years ago.
I guess the next time McRib fever strikes me I’m just gonna have to remember to ask them to go easy on the sauce.
heh I ate a rib sandwhich everyday for 2 years in jr high school and if I didn’t eat that well everything else was covered in bbq sauce… the food was so bad that you’d get a barley thawed out cheeseburger or one that had been in the freezer so long it was green and smelled …
What made it even worse was the school was split in 3 sections the first was a normal jr high the second was the physically and mentally disabled/delayed area and the 3rd was basically the future felons of America classrooms
its probably the only time in the history of jr high school that as a protest we mass called the county health office for 2 or 3 weeks …and even then the only reason is we all shared the same cafeteria and someone at county health realized that if any of the kids from the second part ate questionable food and it messed them up more than they already were lawsuits would be filed
So they cleaned up the place but the food was pretty much still gas station dive food
Ironically the place managed to become a more enormous dump than it already was and about 10 years later it failed 2 federal inspections and would have cost 30 million to fix so they sold it to a guy who wanted to get a trade school/junior college going and he fixed it up for less than half that …
I believe cooking the pineapple destroys the enzyme and allows gelling to occur.
Zanzibar. Pemba island (the northern part of Zanzibar)
Luxury travel only. Not a great place for backpacking.
Breakfast at the only functioning hotel in Chakechake, the biggest town there: cold leftover chicken drumsticks with a slice of stale white bread.
On the bright side my wife and I gatecrashed an army barracks officer’s bar later that day and got distinctly drunk with a major in the Tanzanian army, so not all bad.
Still would not recommend it unless you are in the 1% who can afford those super-expensive resorts, 2 weeks of scrounging both food and shelter was pretty tough, and I am an “adventure” tourist.
Canned pineapple is OK since it has been cooked.
Fresh or frozen won’t gel easily, but canned will.
Raw pineapple does. Cooking the pineapple (which the canning process does) destroys the enzyme that prevents gelatin from setting.