(no subject)

[shinytoaster]

I don't understand the McDonalds adverts.

I mean, no, that's not strictly true. I get it fine. They're running scared. They hear the rumblings of discontent and read the obsessive rantings on childhood obesity, and they're smarting from pointless lawsuits and plagued by indie film-makers on a mission. I don't eat at McDonalds often, and so I'm not sure if Super-Size meals ever made it to Britain, I don't think they did but I could be wrong. Anyway, they want to nip it in the bud before we get all litigious on their asses, and try and sell us carrot sticks and little salads that are smothered in fat and calorie laden dressing apparently healthy. And they've even signed up Ashley Cole and some other England footballers to do a TV commercial. Which is really quite upsetting in and of itself.

The thing is, on the rare occasions when I go to Miccie D's (there's no sense in pretending I don't get cravings), I go because I want fries and a burger. I don't go because I have the munchies for carrots - which are lovely, but for which I don't feel the need to go out for. I have raw carrots in the fridge now. I like carrots. They're great for nibbling. I might even go eat one after I post this. Vegetables in general are cool. They're healthy and I'm a fan. But I don't want to get them from the Golden sodding Arches. Dude ... if I want a salad that bad, I'll stay home and make a fucking salad, you know?

I just don't see the point. Seriously, if you ever ate a McDonald's salad in anger then a) What were you on? and b) For Pete's sake, why? I really want to know.

Comments

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

In the US, anyway, the primary advantage of McD's new menu has been that when you're on the road and have to choose between Sbarro's pizza or McD's, you aren't necessarily doomed to consuming your weight in grease.

A smaller advantage is that they're a cheap place to eat -- in the neighborhood where I work, McD's is the only place where you can get a decent-sized salad with meat on it for less than $10.

Other than that, though...yeah, you know, it's all very surreal.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of the grease issue. Happily I have a Boots across the street from my office and they do nice food.

[reservoir.livejournal.com]

Mm, really it's so that if you're out at the McDonald's already, but aren't sure what you want, you can try to pick the healthy option. They have to at least make it look like they're trying.

And when I go there, all I can eat is either salad or fries, with the whole vegetarian thing. Hence why I don't frequent there too often :D

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

I think I work in a cheap-groceries-free zone. Tis very unfortunate. However, it's loaded with cheap Japanese, so I manage ;}

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

*sniffles*

If there is one thing my part of London is not loaded with, it's Japanese. Cheap or otherwise.

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

I gathered as much when Richard almost ate his hand by accident in his eagerness to devour a plate of sushi last thursday ;}

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

You are? Gods, I'm so bad at spotting these things. I actually had a friend at secondary school who was a vegetarian and always was, and he just assumed I'd noticed and one day we were in, I think it was a Burger King, getting food before going to see the new Bond film - and he just ordered fries and I said something along the lines of;

"You're not getting a burger?"
"No, Alex. I'm a vegetarian."
"Oh. But I thought .. you always eat meat at school ..."
"No, I don't."
"Oh, fish then?"
"No. I've been a vegetarian since I was 10. When did you ever see me eating meat?"

And it dawned on me that I never actually had seen him eat meat. At school he'd always gone straight to the salad bar and piled his plate with vegetables, and in four years of knowing this guy and sitting with him and our friends at lunch, I had never. fucking. noticed.

Moral: I am a t00b.

[reservoir.livejournal.com]

XD XD XD

It's okay, I wouldn't expect you to know something like that, it's not the sort of thing Lowell would really mention, and except for a few brief references in my interests, I never really talk about it in my journal.

But yes, I've been a vegetarian my entire life, my parents raised me that way. I've never eaten meat, though I have sampled seafood, when I went to North Carolina with Lowell last summer.

And yes, you are a t00b, but we <3 you for it.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

I know, I've not spent enough time in your company to know something like that, I feel it's just ... kinda ... oh. A mild surprise? Less mild than a mild surprise even. Like I said ... oh. Okay. Actually, I think it's like coming out, because everyone assumes everyone else is a meat-eater in the same way everyone assumes everyone is straight. So, hm. Yeah. Brighton has some great veggie restaurants if you need incentive to come visit Lowell ever.

[reservoir.livejournal.com]

Boy, I haven't assumed everyone is straight in a long, long time. Wonder why that is :D

And I need no other incentive than the two of you to come visit, though of course good veggie restaurants certainly sweeten the deal.

[melieltathariel.livejournal.com]

Well, I once ate a McDonald's salad because I was on a chorus trip with about 40 other people, and everyone else wanted to go there, and it was the only thing I could eat. (Vegetarians can't eat McDonald's fries, as they are cooked in animal fat, except in India.) But the rest of the time, I would never voluntarily set foot in a McDonald's, so there is no point, no.

[ina]

I actually like their salad, becaus most of the time I am just too lazy to make one myself especially one with grilled chicken on top.
Unfortuantely we don't have many supermarkets that sell ready too eat salads, carrots or fruits like you have. So getting a McD salad is a nice options when you don't want to do the "cooking".

[ina]

I think we also have a vegetable burger at McDonald's.

[reservoir.livejournal.com]

I know that they were testing it out at a few around here, but I didn't get a chance to try it before they took it off the menu-hopefully they'll bring it back at some point.

[hermorrine.livejournal.com]

I've never had a McDonald's salad, but I have been getting a lot of salads from Wendy's especially. My reasoning is this: because of how I eat now, a typical fast food restaurant salad costs about $5 and gives me two meals (even with throwing away the majority of the lettuce). There is no possible way I could spend that much and get the meat I need for the salad plus all the fixings AND have it stay fresh long enough for me to consume it, because obviously at the grocery store you buy a whole head or bag of lettuce, whole tomato, chicken, etc etc etc, and it only stays fresh for so long, and that amount of food would probably keep me for over a week - and I don't like eating the absolute same thing every day. So one way or another, it works better for me.

Have I rambled enough for you?

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. On the rare occassions I go to McDonald's, it's because I'm PMSing like crazy and the hormones are telling me they want fat and grease. And I love salad. I eat much more salad than McDonald's food. This is why I have a kitchen. (Besides, my blueberry-pomegranate salad dressing? No fat, hardly any calories, and SO much better than the crap they pour out of a mix.)

[mayhap]

The McDonald's advert campaign I really don't understand is the one for that fruit and walnut salad, which promises you a "fruit buzz"™. It's a bunch of fucking apples and grapes with walnuts and yogurt on top. I'm sorry, but it's not going to get you high.

[cat-mom.livejournal.com]

I rarely eat fast food anymore, esp. hamburgers, but my dad is totally addicted to them and when he was visiting recently I was forced to take him to a few places. I ordered the salad because it would have been rude to just sit and gape at him and his disgusting triple bacon cheese thingy.

[icantdenyit.livejournal.com]

You should see the commercials here. I gather that in your part of the world, they're not as grating as they are in the States, but the faux-poetry spots on TV are enough to keep me from McDonald's until the end of time, even if I were inclined to eat there. Bad commercials or no, I wouldn't touch anything but ice cream there with a 10-foot pole.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

When I get the coach down from Middlesbrough to London, it stops at a service station about half-way. The service station has a Burger King with the prices pumped right up, a KFC with the prices pumped right up (two of them, I think?), a sit-down restaurant with the prices pumped wayyyyyy up and a Mickey D's with the prices pumped up only a little. Accordingly, I go to Mickey D's - it's about the only time I ever do. (That, and when I'm on my own, such as at an airport, and am looking for something more substantial than a sandwich.) If you're at McDs and want to have something that'll contribute towards your five fruit and veg a day, the salad is really about the only option. It's not a brilliant salad as salads go - lettuce, carrot and tomato and that's it - but it's the best option they have going. The chicken is passably nice, too.

[benjj.livejournal.com]

I sometimes have salads when going to Pizza Express. Despite the whole more-calories-than-a-pizza-but-shush-it-feels-healthy thing. though that's bolstered not only by the dressing but also by the garlic bread / dough sticks :)

I suppose there is a point MaccyD's salads if there's a service station or something and you don't want yet another thing innabun*. Though motorway services seem to be breeding Costa coffee shops...

*though, now I think of it the best innabun McD thing I've had was at a service station (one bizarrely not on the maps, at the junction of the M27 and A36 if you ever happen to be driving there and in need of a carrot stick)

[padders.livejournal.com]

you keep carrots in the fridge?

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say I've ever eaten a McDonald's salad in anger, but I have eaten them, chiefly because, as a mom, I sometimes go to McDonald's with my kids and that way I get to eat something that's not fried and/or breaded and fried. I don't take them there often, so it's an "event." (She's really "off" McDonald's lately, however--can't stand the smell. Plus she was greatly affected just by seeing the trailers for "Super-Size Me". I think she'll be declaring vegetarianism any day now.)

The last time we went to a particular theatre and needed to eat lunch before the film I went with my son to Mickey D's to keep him company and my husband took the daughter to a nearby Indian buffet, so they got to have lovely curry and Tandoori chicken and nan with cucumber-yogurt dip and basically what I had to choose from were a few McDonald's salads while the son ate fries and those breaded chicken strips (larger and breadier than chicken nuggets but less "processed"). The salad I had was pretty good, but I could have made it for myself at home far cheaper. (Apples, grapes and walnuts with a vanilla yogurt "dressing"). For the money, my husband and daughter got more and better food for less money. Of course, over at "Tandoor India" they don't have to pay for national advertising campaigns. ;)

Erg. Now I'm hungry for Indian food...

[sashatwen.livejournal.com]

I think the general idea is to sell you a salad WITH the burger. So that you feel a little better about it :-P. And end up spending more, of course.

The thing about Germany... we don't really need McDs that much. We have Doener or Falafel stands everywhere. You can get a fresh salad there for the same money. And they're bigger. And taste better. And with a Doener, there's actual, real meat in there. And bread. (So I don't really see the point of McSalads.)

[heyorion.livejournal.com]

There's an article on Maccy D's in this week's New Scientist. The nutritionist is quoted as saying there's nothing wrong with a little sugar since it's only 4 calories a gram or some shit. Perhaps he lives in a world where everyone has dentures and excess sugar isn't bad for small kids' tempers.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Ah, this is one of those 'yes, it really is just you' moments, isn't it?

[crankyasfolk.livejournal.com]

i was just wondering when are you planning to post chapter 12 of Snitch. i'm a huge fan and and i know you're probably over the fandom and you have a job and a life, but i don't. please post back. love and kisses.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Um. Never. I left fandom 18 months ago. I'm not trying to be mean but, dude, seriously, if you're here looking for fic you're going to be very disappointed.