The accidental fast food thread

Djonko, isn't there a pretty popular practice of fermenting the fish (I want to say buried in the ground) for a few weeks prior to eating? Maybe I am crossing cultures on this one, but it seems like a pretty gnarly practice.

On the subject of McDonalds, they've always been disappointing IMO. It's one of those places that you go there knowing that the food is likely to at least have set under a heat lamp and gone soggy, best case scenario. It's a convenience over quality kind of place for sure. Not sure if they season the same over there, but here there's enough salt to satisfy a herd of deer just in a large fry.

Decent fast food, at least here is basically contained to Wendy's, Checkers (our version of white castle) and Sonic. Love me some Sonic.

If you want value and the opportunity to keep your fast food meal relatively healthy, I recommend Subway. I like the veggie on whole wheat with no dressing or sauce of any kind. They'll load it right up and you've got a huge salad on a bun.

The other extreme for me is Burger King. That chain has probably got the highest fat content/calories of all the burger chains, but I find them the tastiest for it.

The value is at Burger King especially when they had the 49 cent cheese burgers 99 cent doubles & $1.49 triples. But for a good charbroiled fast food burger give me just about anything at carls jr nom nom nom

I miss White Castle.

Vicki said:

I miss White Castle.

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Why is it they don't come west? And why doesn't in n out go east?

I know they are in Georgia, but not Florida.

I think they are just pretty much in the middle of the country.

Harold and Kumar taught me there in New York/Jersey

Seth Rogan eats an Angry Whopper.

White Castle is a quarter mile from my house. The cheapest colonic you will ever receive.

In the tri-state area, you are pretty much surrounded by great pizza places so I've only had Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Pappa John's while in other parts of the country that aren't exactly known for their awesome pizza. The same goes for Subway, Blimpie, and Quiznos. Soooo many good delis around here, I can't bring myself to walk into one of those places.

As far as burgers go, I've really taken a liking to Five Guys and Smash Burger. Although, I don't know if I'd refer to these establishments as fast food compared to places like McDonald's and Burger King.

Five Guys makes burgers to order so not really fast food in my opinion. Then again, Subway prepares to order as well, hmmmm....

My wife cracked me up on her first visit to Five Guys, she ordered a "large fries". (If you've been to Five Guys you'll get the humour.)

pakalolo said:

Five Guys makes burgers to order so not really fast food in my opinion. Then again, Subway prepares to order as well, hmmmm....

My wife cracked me up on her first visit to Five Guys, she ordered a "large fries". (If you've been to Five Guys you'll get the humour.)

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Precisely. It's food that's fast, but not exactly fast food.

Large fries at Five Guys? Lol! I think that was a challenge on Man vs. Food. My wife, a buddy, and I share a small. Love those fries with that malt vinegar.

Trever said:

Pizza hut sucks but my neighbor ordered a white sauce alfredo with all the veggie fixins and i was serriously surpised it tasted really really good!

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Yeah, I ended up eating the Pizza Hut over the course of 1.5 days but I don't think I'll order from there again.

Subway is franchised, so each Subway is slightly different since the owner who operates it may / may not adhere to the freshness standards. For example the subway near my house is awful, you can see the cold cuts and other stuff has just been sitting there and does not look remotely fresh prepped.

The quiznos near me is just not run correctly, sketchy meat pieces and way too much salt/pepper without even asking for it etc.... California is known as being a desert of sandwich options. I've noticed most people here on the west coast don't even really like sandwiches and only eat them because they are in an office meeting or in a rush.

People look at my funny when I talk about what makes a good sandwich. "Just throw some meat on some bread, how hard is that?" They ask. That's exactly the problem They don't know any better. They don't understand that a well made sandwich with choice ingredients is better than LOVE.

I recently had KATZ deli in NYC. OMG that rye bread was the best rye bread ever.

Seems like Pizza Hut is just a lil Cesar's with more options now a days. If your starving it'll do otherwise I'd rather have a TV dinner lol.

This thread has me hungry for a sammich. I'm going to Jersey Mike's for a #13 (Italian Sub) right now. Make it a giant!! Fuck yeah.



Edit: I took a pic of my sammich being made. It was delicious. (the 2 on the left were mine. I'm saving the other half for late night munchies tonight.)

greenmunster said:

Why is it they don't come west? And why doesn't in n out go east?

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This is the best answer I could find and I'm sure it applies to in n out also.

Why White Castle Doesn’t Franchise
Surprisingly, the reason White Castle doesn’t expand (and use the franchise model to do so) isn’t so much that they hope to keep their restaurants as elusive as the famous Harold & Kumar buddy movie would suggest. It’s actually that White Castle’s core offering of quality food and semi-localized menu options at low cost demands that its restaurants be located near its supply facilities. And guess what? Building out or sourcing new facilities to support dramatic expansion across the country would require a huge investment (and, most likely, external capital and investor scrutiny). So, don’t hold your breath.

Perhaps this is why people swear by White Castle’s bite-sized sliders and launch grassroots petitions begging the company to open facilities in more cities. Instead, White Castle opts to operate a limited number of restaurants, all near the meat plants, bakeries, and fresh produce facilities form which they source their raw materials — thereby keeping costs manageable, keeping profits up, and maintaining high levels of food quality while still allowing for special, localized menu options based on each restaurant’s region. If customers have to go out of their way to enjoy the White Castle experience, it’s no big deal — as long as White Castle maintains that experience and the people keep showing up.

greenmunster said:

This is the best answer I could find and I'm sure it applies to in n out also.

Why White Castle Doesn’t Franchise
Surprisingly, the reason White Castle doesn’t expand (and use the franchise model to do so) isn’t so much that they hope to keep their restaurants as elusive as the famous Harold & Kumar buddy movie would suggest. It’s actually that White Castle’s core offering of quality food and semi-localized menu options at low cost demands that its restaurants be located near its supply facilities. And guess what? Building out or sourcing new facilities to support dramatic expansion across the country would require a huge investment (and, most likely, external capital and investor scrutiny). So, don’t hold your breath.

Perhaps this is why people swear by White Castle’s bite-sized sliders and launch grassroots petitions begging the company to open facilities in more cities. Instead, White Castle opts to operate a limited number of restaurants, all near the meat plants, bakeries, and fresh produce facilities form which they source their raw materials — thereby keeping costs manageable, keeping profits up, and maintaining high levels of food quality while still allowing for special, localized menu options based on each restaurant’s region. If customers have to go out of their way to enjoy the White Castle experience, it’s no big deal — as long as White Castle maintains that experience and the people keep showing up.

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Oddly tho, there is White Castle in the Frozen Foods section in a supermarket. Which is LOL as you'd expect. Not frozen burger meat, frozen, FULLY COOKED burger and BUNS! I suspect it tastes nothing like a real WC, I've only had the frozen stuff

Hexi said:

Oddly tho, there is White Castle in the Frozen Foods section in a supermarket. Which is LOL as you'd expect. Not frozen burger meat, frozen, FULLY COOKED burger and BUNS! I suspect it tastes nothing like a real WC, I've only had the frozen stuff

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greenmunster said:

In the Bay Area while we have an in-n-out on basicly every other corner, if you want White Castle, frozen sliders from Safeway are pretty much your only choice.

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Had em and they weren't half bad. Then again I've never had the real thing so I don't really know what I'm missing.

Anybody else think this thread is gonna add a couple inches to their waistlines

Oh man! All this talk of food and I can't help but crave a grilled corned beef Reuben sandwich. Restaurants and even deli's don't have a clue anymore what a real Reuben is all about. Don't even know about good corned beef and pastrami. Oh well...memories of heaven:-)

djonkoman said:

on the subject of hamburgers, I'm always disapointed in mcdonalds hamburgers. in the commercials those burgers look great, fresh lettuce and tomato, goodlooking meat, fresh tasty-looking bun.

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I know everyone commercials are like that, people still think dunkin makes donuts in house around here, and in the commercials it shows a real egg on a grill when in reality it's a frozen puck in a supercharged microwave! McDonalds cracks me up they get rid of the angus their only true meat hamburger but dress up their quarter pounders the way the angus were, total bullshit!

Snappo said:

Oh man! All this talk of food and I can't help but crave a grilled corned beef Reuben sandwich. Restaurants and even deli's don't have a clue anymore what a real Reuben is all about. Don't even know about good corned beef and pastrami. Oh well...memories of heaven:-)

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I got a few Kosher Delis near me that make their own Corned Beef and Pastrami. They roast their own turkeys as well. Soooo good. You'd love the Reuben at these places. Unbelievably good Rye Bread. Oh man, I want a sandwich now!

greenmunster said:

Why is it they don't come west? And why doesn't in n out go east?

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I'd glady make that trade. I hate White Castle and keep hearing about how awesome In-N-Out Burger is. I imagine they're somewhat similar but I'd still like to try it once to see what the hype is all about.

Stu said:

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Is it bad that I immediately recognized that topping station without even reading your post?
The red pepper relish was a dead giveaway (for me at least, I love that stuff). And they always have those thick pickle slices with ridges. BTW- I always get an Italian too. Never anything else.

Snappo said:

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That's what I'm talkin bout!!

How come Krystal isn't getting any love?!? You guys must be biased of mustard...

What's this "Krystal" you speak of???

Basically a white castle but they put mustard on the sliders...

that herb guy said:

Djonko, isn't there a pretty popular practice of fermenting the fish (I want to say buried in the ground) for a few weeks prior to eating? Maybe I am crossing cultures on this one, but it seems like a pretty gnarly practice.

On the subject of McDonalds, they've always been disappointing IMO. It's one of those places that you go there knowing that the food is likely to at least have set under a heat lamp and gone soggy, best case scenario. It's a convenience over quality kind of place for sure. Not sure if they season the same over there, but here there's enough salt to satisfy a herd of deer just in a large fry.

Decent fast food, at least here is basically contained to Wendy's, Checkers (our version of white castle) and Sonic. Love me some Sonic.

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I think you mean surstromig(or however it is written, I don't rememver the umlauts), wich is danish. here in the netherlands we just keep our herring unfermented. although, I did look up the preparing process on wikipediua, and it did mention something about removing all internal organs except the pancreas because the pancreas contains enzymes that 'ripen' the herring.
I've never had fermented fish, and having seen some of the youtubevideos about it I don't think I want to try. but unferemented herring is delicious I think, although as a kid I didn't like it and rather opted for deepfried fish.

we don't have that many fastfoodchains around here mcdonalds is the most common, burger king has also been appearing in some places(the only ones I've seen where all in railroadstations), but I've only been at burger king once and can't renember much about it. subway has also been appearing in some places the last few years, my hometown has one since 1-2 years(they still don't have a burger king as far as I know), but I've never been at subway. what I nhear about subway is that the food is ok, but very overpriced.

but we do have a lot of snackbars without chain, most of them serve pretty much the same(although there are a lot run by turkish people who also have an assortment of turkish food, like turkish pizza), fries and snacks like kroket, frikandel, hamburgers, shoarma, turkish pizza etc.
and there is also a chain around here wich is more like those snackbars, but scaled up, the febo. personally I refuse to buy anything there after a bad experience, but I know a lot of people who go there since it's located next to the primary bar-alley in my hometown(an alley I also avoid, because it's always packed and hard to get trough, and the kind of people that go to the bars/disco's there mostly isn't really my kind of crowd)