Pesky Food Snob disagrees about pairing wines with McDonalds paper- or plastic-wrapped anything. (See previous post.)
Complicated grape blends and top vintages are not a match for this straight-on salted, sweetened, melt in-your-mouth fare.
But blue agave may be worth a try.....Aka tequila, on ice. Mixers include fresh lime juice and Cointreau. Numero uno pairing choice: French fries.
Baseball Cap, have you tried absinthe with McDonald's? What happened?
Seen a lot of online exchanges about whether or not it's good for Rochester to have more chain restaurants come to town. (See Feb. 15 post and comments in Kiger's Notebook: http://postbulletin.typepad.com/kiger/)
GG's reaction:
1. There are already plenty of chain restaurants in Rochester.
2. Chain food is usually cheap, processed food served in too-ample portions....In the long run it's not ideal for one's health, and, when a person experiences health problems, it sure ain't cheap these days to go to a doctor and get that wellness back.
3. Some may think that more chain food restaurants equal "progress." Here is a kind of progress GG would prefer to see in the Rochester area: http://www.twinfarms.com/dining/Flash/dining.htm.
Where is Rochester's own version of Twin Farms for the discriminating Mayo visitor (aka, people who put thousands, if not millions, of dollars into the local economy during a visit)?
Time to wake up and smell the locally baked bread (using locally ground, organic wheat in the dough).
Let's face it, in the depths of winter, local fresh foods are limited. At times GG--that is, Great Taste's incognito foodie Gourmanda Galore--wants that midwestern slam-dunk of red meat and carbs, aka, a drive-thru burger.
It's hard to put the following burgers in an order of preference. Maid-Rite is a "loose meat" style. Wendy's burger meat is cut square. In January in Minnesota they all satisfy.
1. Culver's Deluxe
2. Wendy's 1/4 lb. Single with American cheese and the works
3. Maid-Rite Classic
Lately the chef has been in Huntington, West Virginia:
Is fast food consumption a problem in Rochester, population 101,659? Let us count the franchises within city limits. Also, how 'bout those slogans? Looks like five words or less "seals the deal."
KFC, 3 locations: "We do chicken right."
Arby's, 3 locations: "I'm thinking Arby's."
McDonald's, 6 locations: "I'm lovin' it."
Burger King, 3 locations: "Have it your way."
Taco Bell, 2 locations: "Think outside the bun."
Wendy's, 3 locations: "You know when it's real."
A & W, 1 location: "All American Food."
But poor dietary habits aren't just about trips to the "usual suspect" fast food chains.
How many different types/brands of chips are sold in the grocery store? More than Great Taste cares to count. How many different types/brands of sweetened beverages are out there?
Great Taste observes: It's not so much about the chocolate eggs tomorrow.....It's the day-to-day convenience consumption that's nasty. If you have time this holiday weekend, go online and follow the money in corporate America. Just type in the name of your favorite junk brand and see where it takes you.
How cute are advertising slogans when some people develop health problems such as diabetes by regularly consuming cheap, processed food?
Jamie Oliver, America needs you, from sea to shining sea.
Great Taste features two writers, doncha know, and they provide readers with a great difference in taste. Scroll or click down and see two recent posts--one about sous vide, a slow, pricey, Frenchy cooking technique, and the other: fish fry.
In a parallel cyberspace is PB business blogger Jeff Kiger. He awaits a White Castle representative to whisper four magic words: "We're coming to Rochester."
Ah-hem. To handle the greasy stuff that Gourmanda's colleagues type about, try Cynic, by Surly Brewing Co. Bon Appetit magazine recently selected Cynic as one of its "Top 10 Artisanal Canned Beers."
GG
Amid the Is-White Castle-coming-to-Rochester? mania lies the overlooked fact that sliders are here in town.
You can buy frozen White Castle burgers at places like Walgreens and Hy-Vee in Rochester. You have the option, today, to take them home, nuke them for 60 seconds and --voila--enjoy something surprisingly close in taste to what you would receive from an actual White Castle location. A box of six sliders, two each to a microwavable packet, should satisfy the need. Add pickle slices and condiments if you desire.
There must be more to this pining, this quest.
What holds the fascination of Rochester's denizens? The thrill of the chase? The packaging? Great Taste has heard from an aficionado that the mustard is quite special....But is mustard driving this train?
Or, is it the idea that WC (as some believers refer to it; apparently they haven't traveled to Europe, where WC means toilet) is as far from anything that smacks of "Chateau Blanc" as possible?
Burgers are probably more American than apple pie. Great Taste isn't too puritanical to admit that she has dispatched family members on brittle wintry nights to satisfy a Wendy's craving. She has savored a Big Mac or a Whopper with Cheese as much as any loyal Mickey D's or BK customer. In the West, In-N-Out Burger has been a destination.
But White Castle? With its puny square of punctured meat in a puffy little bun?
Great Taste has tried in vain to figure out the brouhaha. She is fairly stumped about palpable suffering for lack of a physical White Castle site when frozen sliders are easy to come by.
Readers, would you share the meaning of your special handshake?
While we're on a tater tot stairway to junk food heaven, let's look upward at the big stars.
Great Taste--in this case, Gourmanda--likes the Angus Third Pounder Deluxe at the eatery with the mascot named Ronald. It's more like a burger served at a fine steakhouse than drive-thru fare.
Request it with "Mac" sauce, as it is a little dry. There is a slight barnyard taste.
For more visit: http://www1.mcdonalds.com/angus/
Reader, what's your opinion of this new (launched nationally this year) McDonald's item or its variations?
GG
Many people are concerned about health effects from cigarette smoking. But why does soda pop get less scrutiny?
After all, virtually no children are allowed to smoke (thankfully), but they are allowed to drink pop--sometimes in large quantities.
Why is pop perceived as relatively harmless when evidence is pointing us in a different direction?
http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=10884
Great Taste enjoys soda on occasion. But soda should be a special treat, like a Belgian chocolate piece of candy, instead of something bought in six packs or cases and offered or served regularly around home, work or school.
This is the season for making or picking up fresh apple juice. It's delicious and refreshing, particularly if it's unfiltered. Great Taste's personal favorite in Minnesota is from Fireside Orchards, Northfield.
More info: http://firesideorchard.com/
Great Taste wonders: Would you pay more for soda pop?
What a minute!
Who wants to pay more for anything!???
But Great Taste likes the soda pop tax.
Do you know that mercury has been found in high fructose corn syrup (a key ingredient in standard soft drinks)?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html
Great Taste as a child loved Coca-Cola but the company reportedly changed one or more ingredients in the 1980s and Great Taste tasted a subtle difference and started to like it less. Great Taste also doesn't like drinks out of plastic bottles with screw-off caps or little cans.
But here's what it bubbles down to: Most standard American soda pop is junk food. Gar-bauge. Nasty. You don't put pop, for example, in the same sentence as "milk"--as though the two have anything in common. Soft drinks are bad for the environment. Bad for health.....Just plain bad!
Pepsi has entered the U.S. market on a limited basis with "Pepsi Natural"--the company's response to consumers seeking products with ingredients they easily recognize, like "sugar." But we think "too little, too late."
Great Taste believes that there should be a 100 percent tax on soda pop. And, while we're at it, why not ban soda pop vending machines in schools and all public institutions?
The soft drink business doesn't exist to nourish us. People in soda commercials aren't our friends. And don't get us started on agri-business and HFCS......Tax away, Uncle, tax away.
Love McDonald's?
Loathe it?
Or do you occasionally find McDonald's a convenient, familiar, clean, good-enough cheeseburger-and-Coke drive-thru stop? (Great Taste does.)
Food for thought: http://www.weathersealed.com/
Great Taste deserves a break today. We want to get up and get away---from under the junk food heap to the Salmon River mountains of Idaho!
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