Zardnaar
Deity
Where so you draw the line? Eg kebab from food truck vs a cafe vs typical fast food.
Cost of Living Crsis: Fast Food
- Thread starter Zardnaar
- Start date
Where so you draw the line? Eg kebab from food truck vs a cafe vs typical fast food.
PPQ_Purple
Purple Cube (retired)
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2008
- Messages
- 5,764
A restaurant is a place you sit down to eat. And I don't mean sitting on a bar stool in front of a stand either. Anything less than that is fast food.
Also, anything with a chain attached to it. I'd literally drink poison before I would sit down to eat at McDonalds or equivalents.
Zardnaar
Deity
PPQ_Purple
Purple Cube (retired)
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2008
- Messages
- 5,764
Basically it's all just fake food. Proper food is made properly from scratch with love and effort in order to be enjoyed and not just shoveled out so that people can eat as quickly as possible to satisfy their base biological urge for sustenance.McDonalds you can sit at.
And by now you can probably tell I like cooking as well.
Zardnaar
Deity
Fair enough. I like mymom and pop type places dining out.
Fast food once a month type thing.
Last edited:
Bestbank Tiger
Deity
A little more than that for me. Fast food if I'm pressed for time or really, really hungry and want a heavier meal.
Narz
keeping it real
Fast food is garbage. I'm sad I ate it for 20+ years and angry that it's pushed so heavily on our children who need healthiest food the most.
It's a sick culture where the worse food is subdizied and fruit and veg are expensive to the point of being out of reach as a staple for many folks.
In 50 years (assuming we avoiding the collapse of society) our whole junk food culture will seem as shocking as doctors recommending ciggeretes was.
This crisis isn't that junk food is expensive it's that people eat it at all.
It's a sick culture where the worse food is subdizied and fruit and veg are expensive to the point of being out of reach as a staple for many folks.
In 50 years (assuming we avoiding the collapse of society) our whole junk food culture will seem as shocking as doctors recommending ciggeretes was.
This crisis isn't that junk food is expensive it's that people eat it at all.
Last edited:
Narz
keeping it real
I was thinking about the subject of food the other day thinking about my gf breastfeeding and making me food.
Food is hardwired into our brain as love. People used to live in big families, cook for each other.
Hippie brands of overpriced kale chips like to cringedly advertise 'made with love'. But that's what food is supposed to be (actually made with love that is not advertised as such).
Back in the day if no one loved you no one would cook for you (but at least you could cook for yourself). Now fast food sells scientifically designed addictive 'food' to make you feel sated physically and emotionally the way porn makes you feel sexually sated, that is, artificially and addictively.
I have a friend who doesn't know how to cook at 43, she knows it's bad so she goes on binges buying already prepared ready meals but still they end up rotting in her fridge as ordered Ubereats somehow feels more convenient.
Not knowing how to prepare food is a preventable disability. Feeding oneself is the first step of survival after breathing, should really be taught in schools from at least age 10
Food is hardwired into our brain as love. People used to live in big families, cook for each other.
Hippie brands of overpriced kale chips like to cringedly advertise 'made with love'. But that's what food is supposed to be (actually made with love that is not advertised as such).
Back in the day if no one loved you no one would cook for you (but at least you could cook for yourself). Now fast food sells scientifically designed addictive 'food' to make you feel sated physically and emotionally the way porn makes you feel sexually sated, that is, artificially and addictively.
I have a friend who doesn't know how to cook at 43, she knows it's bad so she goes on binges buying already prepared ready meals but still they end up rotting in her fridge as ordered Ubereats somehow feels more convenient.
Not knowing how to prepare food is a preventable disability. Feeding oneself is the first step of survival after breathing, should really be taught in schools from at least age 10
Zardnaar
Deity
I'm not great at cooking but at least can do it.
Narz
keeping it real
No need to be a chef (altho I had a chef as a roommate once and it was pretty cool) but basic turning of raw ingredients into food is a pretty essential skill, that has been eroded over time (I wouldn't be surprised if processed food lobbyists have worked to get stuff like home economics out of schools)
Zardnaar
Deity
We still have that here or at least did at my school.
Called those subjects manual. Woodworking, metalwork, art, sewing and cooking age 10-12.
So in early teens could bake a basic cake eg chocolate and cook something basic.
I do most of the cooking and food prep.
Home economics has been degraded twice - once by gendering it (as a girl's option) and the second time as a "soft" or "social" science that people seem to treat as less important than other subjects.
Bestbank Tiger
Deity
Need to bring it back. Along with wood shop.
Remorseless1
Emperor
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2022
- Messages
- 1,214
Speaking solely on the US experience, fast food remains a staple for many, many people. Two factors influence this trend:
-- American employers demand long hours from its employees, leaving little time to prep and cook a meal, particularly if there are a partner and/or children
-- A horrific portion of Americans work at jobs that pay them poorly, and fast food was and is cheaper than restaurant food.
These two factors often overlap, putting pressure to grab a burger at Mickey D's.
Now that my wife and I are retired, we both cook. Dining out is rare. Yesterday was my wife's birthday and I took her, our youngest and her partner to a Tucker's on 23rd St. Four burgers, three orders of fries, four drinks and a 15% tip -- $75 plus. Full disclosure -- I got a double.
-- American employers demand long hours from its employees, leaving little time to prep and cook a meal, particularly if there are a partner and/or children
-- A horrific portion of Americans work at jobs that pay them poorly, and fast food was and is cheaper than restaurant food.
These two factors often overlap, putting pressure to grab a burger at Mickey D's.
Now that my wife and I are retired, we both cook. Dining out is rare. Yesterday was my wife's birthday and I took her, our youngest and her partner to a Tucker's on 23rd St. Four burgers, three orders of fries, four drinks and a 15% tip -- $75 plus. Full disclosure -- I got a double.
We are retired too. We cook breakfast and lunch from scratch. Dinner is just whatever is around that is simple, if needed. Once a week (usually Saturday) we pick up nice restaurant made lunches. My wife's a vegetarian; I eat chicken sometimes.
Voidwalkin
Emperor
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2024
- Messages
- 1,522
I don't eat fast food.
I also don't cook.
I basically subsist on peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, chips and caffeine. It's not very healthy. I guess I don't see a reason to do better.
I also don't cook.
I basically subsist on peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, chips and caffeine. It's not very healthy. I guess I don't see a reason to do better.
Narz
keeping it real
Think of all the people reading your posts!
The main strategy I use for USA McDonalds is the daily $1.39 French fry (any size).
Paired with the buy one, get one for $1 until September 16th for cheeseburgers and mc-chickens, that is a solid meal.
A large 2 cheeseburger meal with a soda and fries is $8.19 plus tax in my area.
With the app, I can get the 2 cheeseburgers and the large fry for $4.18 plus tax.
So skip the soda, save $4.01
As a true American, that is impossible.
So I stop by the local WalMart and get a 12 pack of 16.9 ounce bottles of Mountain Dew for $6.99 plus tax.
16.9 fluid ounces (500mL) is a good amount of soda with consistent quality.
Fountain soda can be a gamble!
Call it 59 cents plus tax for 1 bottle, and it is possible to eat cheap still.
Cheeseburger 300 calories
Cheeseburger 300 calories
Large Fry 420 calories
Mountain Dew 240 calories
1260 calories total for $4.77 plus tax.
It will of course cost more in areas with higher labor costs.
Last edited:
Samez
Emperor
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2005
- Messages
- 1,642
Maybe a bit offtopic:
Most processed foods contain ridiculous amounts of sugar (IIRC Subway is not allowed to call their loafs as bread in some nations and it has to be classified as cake due to the high sugar content) which the food industry counters with increased amount of salt - both are cheap and in the end and both will intensify the flavor.
Today we had pupils (around 13-14 years of age) in our company for an excursion - one of the experiments we do with them is to dissolve sugar in water and use the solution/sludge as a glue - it amazes me every time how much sugar can be dissolved in water (200g sugar in 100g water is quite possible if you use warm water) -
Sugar content in food it's totally bonkers if you consider that sweetening with sugar (cane or beet based) was not part of the human diet until about 200 years ago.
Most processed foods contain ridiculous amounts of sugar (IIRC Subway is not allowed to call their loafs as bread in some nations and it has to be classified as cake due to the high sugar content) which the food industry counters with increased amount of salt - both are cheap and in the end and both will intensify the flavor.
Today we had pupils (around 13-14 years of age) in our company for an excursion - one of the experiments we do with them is to dissolve sugar in water and use the solution/sludge as a glue - it amazes me every time how much sugar can be dissolved in water (200g sugar in 100g water is quite possible if you use warm water) -
Sugar content in food it's totally bonkers if you consider that sweetening with sugar (cane or beet based) was not part of the human diet until about 200 years ago.
Bestbank Tiger
Deity
That's juuuuust a bit high in calories for one meal. And cheeseburgers and fries don't reheat well.
