07.08.08
I just had…
one of the best McDonald’s burgers, ever. Sometimes they just taste great, not at all mediocre or cheap, not the embodiment of all America’s flaws. This particular Big ‘n Tasty lived up to its name. Adjectives like “juicy,” “hot,” “fresh,” and “altogether fantastic” also popped into my brain as I shoved this thing down my throat in the parking lot a few minutes ago.
I owe my health and happiness to a variety of international Mickie Dees’. I grew up an Army Brat in Germany, and traveled all around Western Europe in a ‘94 Toyota pickup. Without the cheap and satisfying delights of little cheeseburgers and fries, my family would likely have starved in the process.
I’ve eaten at McDonald’s in: Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Lichtenstein, England, Scotland, possibly Luxembourg, Austria, and the Czech Republic.
Not to say authentic European food invariably stinks — some of it’s quite good, albeit seriously overrated. An eight-year-old’s tastebuds resist fine French dining, which usually involves something unrecognizable swimming in gravy. And you can only eat so much schnitzel and kraut. Italy involved the fewest frenzied runs to McDonald’s… But the bulk of foreign food is weird (and generally quite pricey) to a young Army family with children.
Europeans do have bakeries, however. Fresh bread and pastries just don’t exist in the States the way they do over there. And they have a seemingly limitless supply of fresh Nutella (a German-made hazelnut-chocolate spread, and no, you haven’t had it if you bought the jar west of the Prime Meridian, it’s just not the same, I don’t care what you say) and other decadent sweets.
I plan to spend my next trip across the Atlantic bouncing between McDonald’s and bakeries, regardless of what happens to my waistline. I miss Berliners (jelly-or-Nutella-filled donut-like sweets) and REAL croissants and Jakob’s coffee and oh, I could keep going.
And okay, I miss real bratwursts and Doner Kabobs and gyros and spaetzle. (I’ve tried all these here, and it’s just not the same.)
But I still have McDonald’s — the solitary edible link to my childhood rambles that I can find in North Carolina, and it’s glorious. Unlike many of my contemporaries, I’m never too snobby, health-conscious, or politically disinclined to chow down at McDonald’s. It’s a, er, vital cultural experience, linking us to fellow Big Mac eaters worldwide, yeah.
06.09.08
Tomato-free
Because slaving over the stove was completely out of the question this stifling evening, and because I am babysitting my seven-year-old brother, Liam, who eats like a full-grown man, I decided to eat out tonight. Although the Western Harnett area is expanding, dining options are still sadly limited.
I decided to branch out slightly and try the new-ish Subway at the Exxon at the Buffalo Lakes/ Hwy 27 intersection.
Before leaving the house, I asked Liam exactly what he wanted on his half of the footlong. If you’ve ever ordered with kids, you can probably appreciate why advance knowledge is invaluable.
“Oh, I just like turkey, and salad… and tomatoes!” he said. His face really lit up when he got to the tomatoes bit.
“Well, uh,” I articulately begin. “We can’t have tomatoes… because… some tomatoes are bad.”
Yeah, I’m off to a fabulous start here. How do you explain the salmonella outbreak to a kid without permanently altering his opinion of the fruit? I don’t want him to get the wrong idea, and think that tomatoes are permanantly off limits.
“Some tomatoes in the United States right now have a really bad germ on them called salmonella. The tomatoes at Subway might not have it, but we’re not going to take the chance of getting sick,” I offer.
“You mean, all the tomatoes? At all the Subways? Even the one by Food Lion? AND the one at the gas station?” he replies.
“Maybe. We’re not sure. But we’re not going to risk it, okay?” I tell him. He agrees without any complaint.
Sure enough, when we get to Subway there’s a notice about recalled tomatoes. We get our tomato-free food and head home to enjoy it in the comfort of our own kitchen.
Liam keeps referring to the sad lack of tomato slices on our sub. The Subway wrapper, adorned with fat and juicy tomatoes, mocks us. Grrrr. We want tomatoes.
Nonetheless, we made it through the meal all right.
“Well, that was a good meal. Tomatoes would have made it a little better… but everything was still good,” Liam concluded.
Link:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/812069/fda_updates_tomato_recall.html
(still very new to word press… so putting in a fancy hyperlink seemed out of the question… good ole cut and paste works, I guess)
