So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Edward]

@Edward
The ESP Ltd. EC-10 is mine, now. And yes, the playability seems to be excellent.
But what's really fun to me, is the Chorus option on this headphone amplifier! I LOVE IT SYNTHY!

Excellent, enjoy!

Spuds are cheap, relatively, especially when purchased by the carload. So giving me a big ol’ pile fries is the least they should do when I’m paying 31 dollars and 5 cents for two burgers and that order of fries.

Can't knock a good plate of chips (the real name for "fries" ) - fat, greasy, soft and piled high. None of this "crispy" nonsense. It's not a meal unless there's potato in it somewhere, as we said in the Old Country...

 

[Fifty150]

The older I get the happier I am with just a burger and a bun

I don't know about that. Nobody sells it that way. Even the old McDonald's burger had ketchup, mustard, and a pickle slice. I like cheese. Plus lettuce, tomato, and onion. Grilled onion if they serve it that way.

I used to go to Johnny Rockets. But I was going there for reasons other than the food. The food was good. The prices were a lot higher than fast food. That was a problem. You were paying for a restaurant meal. You were expected to tip. So the average ticket was double what you would have paid for fast food. You only got a burger, not a restaurant meal.

Just like Hamburger Mary's, they are still in business. Even though a lot of the franchisees went bankrupt. Where I live, there used to be 3 locations on commercial blocks where high priced brands were sold. They had a market niche - people who had money to spend. Hamburger Mary's actually started out here, and that flagship location was abandoned when the owners were more focused on selling franchise agreements instead of hamburgers. The Hamburger Mary's website has a page for merchandise, a page for buying a franchise, but no menu for food.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Keyboard warriors who pull that online More Patriotic Than Thou cr@p.

A lot of people disagree with me on even the most hot- button issues. But who who am I- or anyone else- to question their love of their country? Anyway, that's my take on it.

 

[Fifty150]

People online can say whatever. I live in the real world. Actions matter more than words. To be patriotic in your own mind's eye? Or act patriotic. Do something patriotic. Right or left. Take an action in furtherance. Be that person. Enrich your community. Sick & tired of something? Do something about it.

Me? I'm perfectly content to sit around, as the world turns. I'm not going to protect the border. I won't launch my own rescue mission in Afghanistan. I'm not going to Germany or Okinawa to entertain our troops. I'm not standing by the side of the road when there's a presidential motorcade. I won't even volunteer at my local fire department. I'm enjoying my freedom at the expense of those soldiers who fought and died for me to do so. I drink to excess, and couple with strangers who have had more to drink than me. I eat fried chicken right out of the bucket.

You guys can be better than me. Be a better citizen. Be a better person.

 

[tonyb]

…

Can't knock a good plate of chips (the real name for "fries" ) - fat, greasy, soft and piled high. None of this "crispy" nonsense. It's not a meal unless there's potato in it somewhere, as we said in the Old Country...

What with the murkiness in my family history (don’t ask, don’t tell), it would come as no great surprise to learn that I have a drop or two of Irish blood in me.

Among my people, potatoes could be their own food group.

If you’ve never grown your own, I recommend trying it sometime. A potato fresh out of the dirt is a revelation.

 

[Zombie_61]

What with the murkiness in my family history (don’t ask, don’t tell), it would come as no great surprise to learn that I have a drop or two of Irish blood in me...

If I hadn't been adopted my last name would have been "Thompson". Some websites say that's an Irish name, other say Scottish, all because of the "P". Without the "P" it would be English. My adoptive parents told me my heritage is Irish, Scottish, English, and German. So, yeah, murky. I'm pretty sure potatoes somehow play a part in my personal backstory.

 

[Harp]

Excellent, enjoy!



Can't knock a good plate of chips (the real name for "fries" ) - fat, greasy, soft and piled high. None of this "crispy" nonsense. It's not a meal unless there's potato in it somewhere, as we said in the Old Country...

There is a scene in the film The Commitments where one of the principals stops by an outdoor stand
somewhere around Dublin and orders fries: "Give us a bag of chips." And the girl splashes some vinegar
atop the stacked bag. I love that. Here in Chicago large cut fries are still available, some places oven baked,
and always delicious together or just the chips. MickeyD's shoestrings I detest.

 

[Fifty150]

If you’ve never grown your own, I recommend trying it sometime. A potato fresh out of the dirt is a revelation.

Old potatoes went into the compost. Compost was turned and I didn't see chunks of potato not completely composted. Compost was added to the soil, as I do every few months. Somehow the eyes sprouted. The plant grew. I didn't know what it was. left it. When I finally got around to digging that patch of soil, I found potato. Not sure that I could eat them, I tossed them back into the compost. Now, several times a year, potato plants come up. Sometimes I dig up the tubers and eat them. They are so much better than store bought; flavor, texture, and maybe more nutrition.

Because there's always a few potato left in the ground which I missed digging, they always sprout new plants for another crop. I saw 3 plants in the yard this morning. So I think I will have more potato soon.

Some plants have been able to seed themselves, or somehow regrow, and grow in my yard, and every year, I get free produce without buying seed. Mint, garlic, celery, tomato, cabbage, basil, beans, onion....... And I have a few trees that came from seeds in compost which actually grew. Avocado, lime, tangerine, plum, peach, apricot.

I have never bought seeds. Everything is a result of home composting. I have 5 gallon buckets which kitchen scraps go in. Worms find their way in, and eat almost everything. Then when the bucket is mostly worm castings, I dump it into the soil. The worms become free range, and find the next bucket of compost. Whatever isn't completely composted will continue to break down in the ground. This also allows random plants to grow.

 

[Hercule]

I don't know about that. Nobody sells it that way. Even the old McDonald's burger had ketchup, mustard, and a pickle slice. I like cheese. Plus lettuce, tomato, and onion. Grilled onion if they serve it that way.

Order a "quarter-pounder-ham" and that's what you'll get. Just a burger and a bun. "Ham" is apparently their cue to not put anything on it.

 

[Fifty150]

I didn't know McDonald's has a secret menu, with just meat and a bun. Thanks for sharing that. What else is on the secret menu?

 

[tonyb]

…
They are so much better than store bought; flavor, texture, and maybe more nutrition.
…

Ain’t that the truth.

It was 20-plus years ago when friends keeping a garden in my backyard (they were apartment dwellers) shared some of their spuds with me. Waaaay better than anything I’ve ever gotten from the store — including the high-priced hippie co-op place with all the organic stuff.

 

[Zombie_61]

I didn't know McDonald's has a secret menu, with just meat and a bun. Thanks for sharing that. What else is on the secret menu?

I don't know that they have a secret menu, but at their restaurants around here they're willing to accommodate reasonable requests to modify whatever you're ordering. They might not get it right on the first try, but they'll give it a shot.

In this part of the world McDonald's had the best french fries out of any of the fast food burger chains back in the 1960s and 70s. At some point during the late-70s or early-80s they decided to change the oil in which they fry their fries in order to make them healthier, and they went from being the best to the worst. McDonald's needs to stop trying to be all things to all people and stick to giving their customers the best burgers and fries they can muster; no one who is trying to eat healthier is eating there anyway.

 

[Fifty150]

McDonald's needs to stop trying to be all things to all people and stick to giving their customers the best burgers and fries they can muster; no one who is trying to eat healthier is eating there anyway.

That's In-N-Out Burger. Just burgers and fries. Before their expansion, when they were only in Southern California, no road trip to The SouthLAnd was complete without a stop at In-N-Out.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
They recently opened here. I’ve been meaning to give ’em a try, but every time I’ve been by the place the lines were longer than any I would subject myself to for a hamburger. I’ll wait for the novelty to wear off.

 

[Zombie_61]

That's In-N-Out Burger. Just burgers and fries. Before their expansion, when they were only in Southern California, no road trip to The SouthLAnd was complete without a stop at In-N-Out.

I was actually thinking "In-N-Out Burger" because they pretty much do what McDonald's should be doing--they make burgers and fries, and do a good job of it. Period. But with In-N-Out being primarily a California business I thought some members here might not have heard of them.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Oh my, I miss the good old "Pommesbude" of the 90s. Just Pommes, Currywurst, drinks, period.

 

[Hercule]

I don't know that they have a secret menu, but at their restaurants around here they're willing to accommodate reasonable requests to modify whatever you're ordering. They might not get it right on the first try, but they'll give it a shot.

I suspect that's pretty much it. Actually, the thought of MacDonalds having a secret menu is kind of scary if you think about it. It's already bad enough as it is, and ordering anything with special instructions is iffy enough. As my son's kindergarten teacher was wont to say "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

In this part of the world McDonald's had the best french fries out of any of the fast food burger chains back in the 1960s and 70s. At some point during the late-70s or early-80s they decided to change the oil in which they fry their fries in order to make them healthier, and they went from being the best to the worst. McDonald's needs to stop trying to be all things to all people and stick to giving their customers the best burgers and fries they can muster;

I think they were also infamous for specifically lowering the temperature at which the fries were cooked which made them retain more oil and made them decidedly more unhealthy.

no one who is trying to eat healthier is eating there anyway.

Well. . . .

I have to admit if we're going to go down that road, I'd prefer a Burger King burger with Macdonald's fries and Arby's poppers. The drink would be a toss up, irrelevant (to me) really.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The secret to the old McDonald's fry formula was beef tallow. They used a shortening called "Smargon's Fry All" that was a combination of cottonseed oil and rendered tallow, with the balance slanting heavily to the "tallow." This was, in the 1950s, a much cheaper product than Crisco or any other straight vegetable shortening, and they stuck with it into the 80s because it gave the fries a distinctive flavor. They got rid of the tallow when saturated fat became an issue in the 70s, and replaced it with vegetable shortening "flavored with beef extract." That wasn't, and isn't, quite the same thing.

If you're going to have fast food fries today, your best choice is Wendy's. KFC and Popeyes both have excellent fries as well -- not very crisp, but highly seasoned and very tasty.

 

[Edward]

Supposedly McDonalds do indeed have more items in their system than the menu allows, but you have to know what they are.... I've yet to see any evidence of this in reality, tbh - I suspect it may be one of those urban legend things.

What with the murkiness in my family history (don’t ask, don’t tell), it would come as no great surprise to learn that I have a drop or two of Irish blood in me.

Among my people, potatoes could be their own food group.

If you’ve never grown your own, I recommend trying it sometime. A potato fresh out of the dirt is a revelation.

If there's no potato, it's not a meal!

There is a scene in the film The Commitments where one of the principals stops by an outdoor stand
somewhere around Dublin and orders fries: "Give us a bag of chips." And the girl splashes some vinegar
atop the stacked bag. I love that. Here in Chicago large cut fries are still available, some places oven baked,
and always delicious together or just the chips. MickeyD's shoestrings I detest.

Funny thing, I like the McDonalds stuff, and of all the big box fast food brands, their chips I like the best. Not as good as 'real' chips, BUT sometimes a McDs is what I fancy. In my head it sort of classifies as a different genre of fast food than a more traditional F&C place in the UK, even if the latter more often than not also do burgers nowadays. (Traditionally they didn't - your non-fish options would have been pie or some variety of sausage, often battered.)

Old potatoes went into the compost. Compost was turned and I didn't see chunks of potato not completely composted. Compost was added to the soil, as I do every few months. Somehow the eyes sprouted. The plant grew. I didn't know what it was. left it. When I finally got around to digging that patch of soil, I found potato. Not sure that I could eat them, I tossed them back into the compost. Now, several times a year, potato plants come up. Sometimes I dig up the tubers and eat them. They are so much better than store bought; flavor, texture, and maybe more nutrition.

Because there's always a few potato left in the ground which I missed digging, they always sprout new plants for another crop. I saw 3 plants in the yard this morning. So I think I will have more potato soon.

Some plants have been able to seed themselves, or somehow regrow, and grow in my yard, and every year, I get free produce without buying seed. Mint, garlic, celery, tomato, cabbage, basil, beans, onion....... And I have a few trees that came from seeds in compost which actually grew. Avocado, lime, tangerine, plum, peach, apricot.

I have never bought seeds. Everything is a result of home composting. I have 5 gallon buckets which kitchen scraps go in. Worms find their way in, and eat almost everything. Then when the bucket is mostly worm castings, I dump it into the soil. The worms become free range, and find the next bucket of compost. Whatever isn't completely composted will continue to break down in the ground. This also allows random plants to grow.

My mother always insisted on "new potatoes", claimed there was a big difference between those and older crop. I wouldn't like to claim I could tell the difference, but I can see the argument.

I don't know that they have a secret menu, but at their restaurants around here they're willing to accommodate reasonable requests to modify whatever you're ordering. They might not get it right on the first try, but they'll give it a shot.

In this part of the world McDonald's had the best french fries out of any of the fast food burger chains back in the 1960s and 70s. At some point during the late-70s or early-80s they decided to change the oil in which they fry their fries in order to make them healthier, and they went from being the best to the worst. McDonald's needs to stop trying to be all things to all people and stick to giving their customers the best burgers and fries they can muster; no one who is trying to eat healthier is eating there anyway.

I'd love to compare them to what we get over here again. I know the ingredients are different owing, historically to EU law (which may or may not change in the UK going forward now, of course). I only remember having a McDonalds in the US in NYC, but that was back in 2004. The big thing I remember was how much bigger all the portions and the drinks were compared to the UK, but I don't recall them tasting different. Pretty similar in China too, though the one I've used in Beijing in recent years has a fantastic, spicy chicken burger we can't get in the UK.

 

[MisterCairo]

Crane flies.