Sunday 27 April 2008

Diet

It's been a day of fast food. This morning Helena and I ate a cooked breakfast. Well, all right, we shared a tin of baked beans and sausages.

Then Helena wanted to go to McDonald's for lunch. We don't go very often, maybe once a month or less. It was a nice day, so we walked the 2 miles or so. She always has a "fillet-o-fish" with fries, and I always have a Big Mac.


There's something I've always wondered. Maybe one of my American readers can help me out. Why do they call them "big"? In the US, this word when used to describe food usually means that you're not going to manage to eat it all in one or two sittings, and that if you intend to try, you should first check your medical insurance is good and book an ambulance. Yet the total amount of meat in a "Big Mac" is less than a quarter-pounder.

Personally, I prefer BK's Double Whopper - the burger actually appears to be made of beef and you also get real bits of vegetable and pickle. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for my health), the nearest Burger King is in the middle of town, so I only tend to go there occasionally. Like yesterday at about 10.40 am, after I'd been to get my hair cut.


I developed a taste for burgers as a student - I don't think I'd ever really eaten them up till then. I was living opposite "The Canadian Charcoal Pit" (I think they were Iranians or something), which did great burgers. Though I'm sorry to say that a few of them that were eaten on top of far too much beer didn't stay down for long.

Anyway, while we were eating our nutritious lunch, Helena mentioned "Supersize me". "He's an idiot," I said, "what did he think was going to happen to him if ate nothing but fast food for a month?" I shouldn't criticise too much, as I haven't seen the film. As I understand it, a healthy fit guy stops exercising and goes on a diet of 3 McDonald's meals a day for a month, puts on weight and feels like shit. This hardly seems earth-shattering.

This evening, I've just had a tin of meatballs and microwavable rice. I had to have an early meal (4pm), because all this talk of food was making me hungry. Now I feel full and will have to stop writing before I start feeling ill.

Oh well, that's it for my weekend of indulgence. Back to healthy microwaved ready-meals next week...

17 comments:

Bee said...

FIRST!!!!!!

Bee said...

I haven't had a Big Mac in about 12-14 years. The only thing I'll have at Mickey Dee's is their breakfast sandwich.

They call it the Big Mac because, back when they made it from real beef, it used to be huge! The biggest burger they sold. Now it's just a pathetic little assembly line load of God knows what.

I can no longer have any of the fast food burgers. They all make me sick.

Brian o vretanos said...

Bee:

You're not missing much. I've tried (in the interest of research, of course) Big Macs in the US, thinking that perhaps they were bigger and better, but no. Though I've not been to Texas ;-)

When I went to Rome about 20 years ago, McDonalds in the Piazza del Republica was the best place to get a beer - everywhere else charged you double if you sat outside, and we could never work out how to buy things inside (you have to go to the till first, then get your drink after).

You're supposed to be able to go anywhere in the world and the McDonald's staff will speak English. The Italian staff weren't up to that, which was a problem, since my phrase book didn't have the Italian for Chicken Nuggets ;-)

Bee said...

One of the few good memories I have of my pops is him taking us to Mickey Dee's and the first time I was grown up enough to graduate from the kids meal to my very own Mac. He put ketchup on it for me and then wrapped it in a napkin so I wouldn't spill on myself. I'm sure I didn't finish it.

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

I try to stay away from the fast food places in our town, which isn't all that hard since we only have two, a McDonalds and a Dairy Queen.
But every now and then we'll stop and grab something.
We've had a new development that just shows that my kids are growing up too fast. Caroline used to love a Happy Meal. She would get so excited about the toy and the box, the whole bit.
Now she claims that she's too old for the box, the toys are for babies, and she'd rather have a chicken sandwich instead of nuggets. I almost cried in my fries!

Jean Knee said...

The Big Mac in Texas isn't really big either. false advertising

We don't have any white castles here so one day I found some in the frozen section. They were obnoxiously delicious just like at the restaurant. I opened one up for some reason and the meat had dime sized circles puched out of it to save on the meat. come on there was hardly any meat to begin with and they cut some out??

yeah I bought them again. so?


I've seen that same McDonalds, Brian. I didn't eat there because I was pregnant and all the food tasted horrible except for the sandwiches.
we had a hard time figuring the sitting inside outside ordering thing too.

Dan said...

When it comes to fast food burgers. I prefer Wendy's...somthing about her Pepelong hair doo.

I want to visit Rome!

Amanda (17) still likes happy meals but she always gives me the toy.

Bee said...

jean knee, White Castle tastes like, to use Dan's favorite phrase, dog ass! Blech!

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

I am partial to Chrystal's. They're a southern restaraunt like White Castle. Ooh and they have these chili cheese fries that are sooooo good! But like Jean Knee said, there isn't a lot of meat on those puppies. I think you'd have to eat atleast six to get the same amount as one real burger.

Brian o vretanos said...

Tracy:

Helena has the adult meals, though she was looking a bit longingly at the happy meal toys the other day...

Dan:

Hopefully you'll get to Rome one day. It's worth a visit.

Jean Knee:

They don't have White Castles here, either.

Tracy:

When it comes to burgers, quantity is almost as important as quality.

Dan said...

White Castel burgers are small but they cost like .50 cents.

Once!!!

does anyone still care about being eleventh ?

Brian o vretanos said...

Dan:

I care deeply about every comment that's posted on my blog.

What were you talking about again?

Dan said...

everyone was saying that White Castel burgers are small, I was pointing out that they are also cheep.

I was eleventh and was wondering if anyone still cares about that.

Brian o vretanos said...

Dan:

Oh, right. Yes. Well Done for being 13th.

Jean Knee said...

giggle

Jean Knee said...

knock, knock

Klearchos said...

Χριστός Ανέστη!!