Text 6578, 119 rader
Skriven 2008-05-06 09:16:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE
Ärende: fast food burgers 261
=============================
 -=> Dave Sacerdote said to Jim Weller <=-

 DV> From reading your posts I'm beginning to wonder if I should eat at ANY
 DV> chain rest. if I ever go to New England. Sounds like they are all
 DV> substandard up there.
 JW> I think chains are pretty consistent across the continent. 
 DS> Dallas must have hit a couple negative reviews - I've given positive
 DS> reviews of fast food before.

I don't think chains are consistent across the continent, more
because the clientele isn't consistent than because of raw materials
or labor issues. Out here in the big city the fast food places are
home to the down-and-out and the growing-and-never-satisfied, so
there's really no incentive to make the food better than merely
sanitary. As one goes south and west of Boston such places seem to
gradually increase in quality.

It's saying a bit that the best fast food in the area - Popeye's -
got driven out of the area.

 DS> Dude, no matter where in the country you are, you can't go wrong
 DS> with Wendy's Spicy Baconator.
 JW> A decent product, at a decent price? I must seek one out the next
 JW> time I'm in Edmonton.

So I got this yen for some unhealthy chow and was passing by
the Wendy's in Salem, MA (this the one I described a year or
two ago as having burgers that tasted like old sweat socks)
and went in, used the rest room (semi-clean, yay), and sidled
up to the posted menu. No Spicy Baconator, so I left. There's at
least this one place where you can't go right with one.

 DS> An Arby's opened here in town a few years ago and we took advantage
 DS> of a "grand opening" promotion to try them out.  They were really,
 DS> REALLY bad.  The roast beef is some sort of processed beef polymer
 DS> now.  Lynn and I call it "bubble beef" because it's made of compressed
 DS> meat that inevitably traps tiny bubbles of air that reveal themselves
 DS> as pinholes and tiny shallow "craters" when the meat is sliced.  It
 DS> also tasted heavily of salt and flavor enhancers, kind of like a 
 DS> cheap bouillon.

We've discussed this here before. You should pay attention to
what I write. I sacrificed those taste buds back in 2001 for
a purpose, you know. What destroyed my mouth: "something chopped
and formed that could only loosely be termed beef. It was sort of
half-way between the meat in hash and Carl Buddig's thin-sliced
lunch meats, only not as, er, good as either."

 DS> Thing is, the reason we went to begin with was I had fond memories
 DS> of an Arby's in a nearby town from back when I was in high school.
 DS> You pegged them: real roast beef, piled high, more expensive than
 DS> a burger but worth more than a burger, too.  That was 1978 or so.

That'll learn ya to have graduated from high school.

 DS> Today I would take a McDonald's double cheeseburger over an Arby's
 DS> _anything_ and that includes if that bastard white glove of theirs
 DS> personally handed me the sandwich free.

Whose bastard white glove?

Bacon-Chocolate Brownies
cat: odd, vegetable, yummy, cookie, dessert
yield: 1 batch

1/2 c butter (1 stick)
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 c lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 ts pure vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c unbleached white flour
1/4 c chocolate chips
8 oz chopped, cooked and cooled bacon

I know you are all curious how the brownies turned out. =)

They were fabulous, although perhaps someone less enchanted
with bacon than I am might want to use less bacon. Dan
thought they were "okay" which is a man's way of saying,
"Um...no." I think it's the knowing there's bacon in them
which could be a bit off-putting to some.

Anyway, all I did was take the basic Moosewood Cooks at Home brownie
recipe and add 8 oz of maple bacon. Mmmmm....bacon!

Preheat your oven to 350F and butter up an 8x8" pan. Then melt
butter and chocolate together in a large bowl. Mix in brown sugar
and vanilla, then slowly add beaten eggs.

When you have a lovely, gushy blend of wet ingredients, stir in
flour, chocolate chips, and bacon...you can reserve some of
these pieces to sprinkle atop the batter so folks can see what
delight awaits them.

Now, if you like bacon, this is just enough to make sure every bite
has a little bit of bacony goodness. If you just want the taste
without so much pork, you can put in however much you want, but
sprinkle most of your bacon on the top of the brownies.

The thing to remember is that you must cook the bacon first. I found
it easiest to scissors the bacon into 1/2" bits before cooking them.
They seem to render their fat more easily in this miniscule form, and
they are also then the same size as the chocolate chips.

Pour this lovely, chunky batter into your buttered pan and bake
20 min until the brownies pull away from the pan. You can cook it
a couple minutes longer for cakey brownies, but with the bacon in
them, a more fudge-like consistency is really ideal (the bacon is
a bit on the dry side). Cool, slice and enjoy!

If you don't want bacon, feel free to substitute chopped nuts or
some other textured bit. I like adding the chocolate chips into
the batter as they add a bit extra.

source: owlchick.net

___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)