the chain’s initial frothy foray into Middle Tennessee

Um… no. Th McD’s at VUMC has had this for a while.
.

well just like the Tennessean to get it wrong…

JP, I hadn’t noticed. Shows how much I go there, despite it’s being less than 50 yards from my office.

You have to respect MacDonalds as far as marketing and products are concerned. I’m not a fan of the place, but I respect what they do. I also think that movie kind of misrepresented them. Even the biggest fan of the place only eats there once every couple of weeks. That guy ate there every meal, every day.

Glen Dean:

There are people who virtually live on fast food. They are not, in general, the ones who watched “Supersize Me”. Yes, he ate there every day, every meal, for what a month?

I go to Wendy’s for a small chili and a Jr. Bacon Cheesegodknowswhatthemeatis on a fairly regular basis. Why, because it’s cheap and no worse than anything else (if you discount the possibility of BCE) from the chains. It’s quick, and it gets me back to the job in a hurry. I would not recommend the diet to anyone. SmackDonalds like to portray its offerings as good, wholesome food. Most of it, at best, is the equivalent of a Twinkie–nutritionally and in terms of guilty enjoyment.

Claudia

As far as their coffee is concerned, I drink it occassionally. I always tell the counter person to give me three creamers and a single sugar for a 16 oz coffee (and usually leave one of the creamers on the counter). They always want to put it in and I always tell them the same thing I tell the Dunkin Donuts counter people. The little Pour-shun pack units are 1/2 oz, their metered cream machine puts out an ounce or so, per shot. So, their coffee is more like “coffee milk”, a big hit with the Portugese-American residents of Fall River and New Bedford, MA–for me,not so much.

I foam my own at home every morning before I leave (and then make a pot of my own at work). And if it wasn’t for the sweetener in my coffee, I would never be sweet.

glen - i know people who choose fast food ALL the time. a woman who works for me always shows up with an arbys bag and her husband eats at burger king every day for lunch - occasionally sonic. nearly every worker (except the mexicans who bring their own) that has come to fix/build something here break for lunch to a FF place.

it is epidemic. then there are just places like, chili’s for instance. the portions are out of control. o’charleys desserts have 2000 calories in a serving. i asked the waiters if people order them to eat for themselves - they say ‘all the time’.

i suggest you watch the movie again. the food is close to poison in my opinion. the chicken mcnuggets are all but ‘constructed’. there is a great book called ‘the omnivores dilemma’ by michael pollan. it’s a brilliant read and i highly suggest it.

demo - duncan donuts coffee is pretty damn good too! again, black for me so i feel i really kinda know that mcds does a good job as i drink it in its most basic form.

jim - you are a prince and a scholar…

Er, I drink tea. Green or herb tea. Regardless, I haven’t been to a McDonald’s since 1993 and will never go, particularly if I have children.

My great-nephew nailed them when as a young child he called them FatDonalds.

i will buy mcd’s coffee on occasion. but the last burger i had was about a year ago - with fries. it was a bad week overall. but i do like the taste of the food. yup. i do. but i like my own food better. i am certainly not their target audience. ombi on elliston does a fine burger stuffed with foie gras… talk about fat grams. YUM.

mcd’s is what’s bad for america. this i believe.

As a public service, I ran through the McD’s drive-thru this morning and ordered a hazelnut iced coffee.

It is SO sweet, I almost spewed it out when I took my first sip. It’s just like their sweet tea…which tastes like watered down pancake syrup.

Major thumbs down. It’s awful.

once you go black…

The Scottish opium burritos, though… mmmm. It’s tough to screw up eggs, cheese, peppers, onions, sausage and a flour tortilla.
.

in an alternate universe i’d make you my version of above combo - with GREAT ingredients. as in real cheese and great homemade sausage - etc.

but i hear you. i do. me? i just will stick to their black coffee.

I’ll be honest. I’ve never “gotten” Starbucks coffee. It tastes horrible to me. It tastes like someone burned the beans before grinding.

I love McD’s and Dunkin Donuts coffee - black.

Ginger, friends don’t let friends put sweet stuff in their coffee.

slartibartfast - good call. we are over-roasters in this country for the most part. the french and italian roasts especially offend me. but my guy loves those. the french roast that starbucks sells at costco to me is undrinkable.

Someone once left me some Starbucks French Roast beans in a baggie on my desk once. By the time I got back, other papers were hiding the beans and I didn’t see them. I could swear someone had left a dead animal in my cube. I hate burnt beans. Only Starbucks seems to be able to make a pot of their beans taste like it’s potable.

I like my coffee BLACK!
Of course, a bit of Baileys isn’t too bad in it on a snowy day but we haven’t seen one of those in awhile so it’s: BLACK.

I can take Starbucks espresso roast, all other roasts taste putrid to me. Yes, I have tried all of them minus the decaf varieties. There’s no local coffee roaster that has decent roasts. I do like Whole Foods Allegro coffee, roasted in the store but I don’t consider it local since it really isn’t a local company.

As far as McDonalds, I have not set foot in one in over ten years. I have a friend who eats a burrito from there every morning. He eats fast food every other meal of the day as well, so yes, some people do eat that gut-putty everyday.

Claudia, read “Fast Food Nation”, it will change your life. Don’t bother with the movie, loosely based on the book and contains none of the pertinent info you’ll get from the pages.

I like Pank Sugar in mine, as Katherine Harris likes to say.
.

nashveggie - i bought FFN about 4 or 5 years ago when i heard the writer interviewed on NPR. great book. loved it. also - i agree - the espresso roast is better than the french or italian. verona is ok too. but overall i don’t care much for starbucks beans. it does always taste much better when they make it. once i grind and drip at home - it’s just burnt. i do want to get a burr grinder soon. i think that will help. lately i’ve taken to mail ordering my coffee. but i am a freak.

when allegro coffee was sold at sunshine grocery i used to buy it and loved it dearly. i think they’ve slid…

I never knew Allegro was sold at Sunshine as it has always been Whole Foods store brand. I’m drinking the Allegro Ethiopian Yergacheffe right now, pretty good for sock juice.

A burr grinder will make a huge difference in your coffee, I picked up a Cuisinart burr grinder at Williams-Sonoma for $19 just recently.

sunshine used to an independent store owned by nashville hippies before it got bought by wild oats

a $19 burr grinder? well, i’ll be…
the ones i’m looking at are close to $200!!! i need to check that out!

I am aware of where/what Sunshine was. I’m just curious as to why they were selling Whole Foods store brand.

I bought the burr at Williams-Sonoma outlet store. They had a 50% sale on electrics plus my wife gets 40% on top of that (employee), we usually load up when we’re there.

all i can say is… will your wife marry me?

Claudia:

Have you read “What Einstein Told His Cook 2″? It’s by Robert Wolke.

One of the many things he talks about in the book is “mechanically separated” meat. I used to think it meant meat that was processed by mechanizecd de-boning. Sadly, that is not the case. The process makes Soylent Green sound appetizing.

all i can say is… will your wife marry me?

I’ll propose the question. You’ll have to cook vegan but she’s very low-maintenance.
She does ALL of the baking, trust me, it’s better that way.

demo - nope. but now i am very curious!

nashveggie - perfect. i’m not an ace baker. she’ll love my kitchen. i used to be vegan AND raw all at once. i know it’s kinda shallow to marry someone for their discount but i’m willing to allow you limitless conjugal visits. WAIT. better idea, you could adopt me!!!

Adoption! Great idea and I need another dependent for tax purposes!

I shouldn’t mention the All-Clad for $10 each, should I?

Back on topic…have you tried roasting your own beans?

Books: My wife read “Skinny Bitch” a couple years ago and really enjoyed it, she said it had some enlightening points.

all clad
$10
wow
i am trying my very buddhist hardest to be joyful and happy for you and not GREEN with envy
i lost some key pieces in my divorce…

never roasted my own beans
never crossed my mind

i read about the ’skinny bitch’ women in the ny times not too long ago. they’re doing a cookbook now. i was very steeped in raw vegan cooking last year at this time. it was a cool and fun phase. now i am back to being an omnivore.

I am going to make an attempt at roasting my own beans this spring when it is warm enough to get outside and do so.

I noticed “Skinny Bitch In The Kitch” in the bookstore a few weeks ago. They are also writing a book geared toward men as well.

raw vegan cooking
oxymoron?

Regardless of how unhealthy MacDonald’s is, or how many times people eat there, it is still their choice. I will never watch that movie again, because it is based on the idea that MacDonalds should be punished. MacDonald’s sells a product. Some people use it irresponsibly. Most don’t. It is their choice though.

and the tobacco industry has been punished. and rightly so. they are liars. and they were caught.

often the ones who suffer are the ones who do not know the real facts. the uneducated. the poor. of course they are not being force fed. but they are not truly aware of better options. in the end - it is the tax payers paying for the unhealthy… the obese are costing this country a fortune and living shadows of the lives they could.

anyway - this is just my opinion. i am sure i can’t make you see it my way and i can rest easy knowing that. the facts speak for themselves. 60% of Tennesseans are overweight. what would you attribute this to?

our kids are smoking, eating FF and watching MTV at 9 yrs old. it’s just not pretty…

anyway - i will still buy my coffee there because then maybe starbucks will be forced to lower their prices!

Claudia, do you really think that the poor and uneducated don’t know that french fries and cigarettes are unhealthy?

Now if you want to start a campaign of educating people, then that is cool. But nanny state laws are not the answer. Sorry if I hijacked the thread.

By the way, I don’t drink coffee. I stay away from large doses of caffeine. I prefer large doses of cheap domestic beer instead.

glen - i think re: food, they “know” on one hand but have no idea what their options really are…

hey - hijack away. i live in the tangents of life.

cheap domestic beer? (gasp)

[…] has already linked to her twice in the last week, but I just have to post on something she said in this post. I can’t help myself. I am a government hating, live and let live, small L libertarian who […]

after the above ping - i posted this response to glen. thought i’d put it here too…
—————–
hi glen

hey - i’m not a delicate flower. i can hold my own and would not take an attack or a compliment all that personally. either would be your opinion - based on you - not me. so fire away any ol’ time. no blog arguments are capable of altering my well being or mood.

but i appreciate your views on this. it’s a big complicated world - no doubt. i do feel pretty passionate about big business messing with our health and giving their dollars to politicians who in turn put policies in place that do more harm than good - and see it all in share holders dollars as opposed to what is the better way to live.

when it comes to details - i am often out of my realm. i only pay so close attention to most of this and forget half the details i hear and read. but our food supply is getting messed with bigtime and it is rearing its ugly head via increased obesity, diabetes, unexplained depression/fibromyalgia, cancers, heart disease - etc. and there is a cost associated with this. and you are paying it. as am i.

it just feels very wrong to me. on some inherent level i believe that we are making very bad decisions with our food that will bite us very hard. and i also believe this country is not prepared for a big crisis - either due to a widespread illness or a compromised food supply.

anyway - i am not much of a debater or a writer. but thanks for taking the time to say how you feel.

Glen Dean:

Your position has morphed from:

“Even the biggest fan of the place only eats there once every couple of weeks.”

to

“Claudia, do you really think that the poor and uneducated don’t know that french fries and cigarettes are unhealthy”.

without any apparent attempt to defend your original premise.

As far as the movie is concerned: It is undoubtedly some fine propaganda. There is, however, no misrepresentation of McDonalds business model. McDonalds exists to make money–not Happy Meals or happy people, unless they somehow boost the bottom line–and that’s their sole purpose for what they do. If McDonalds’ management was committed to the health of their customers they would reduce portion sizes, serve more healthful food and lower prices.

“