There’s a bloody good chippy in Tavvy. McCrap - who needs 'em!
AMEN Wanderer!
I cook for a family of 4 and can make a very healthy meal for a lot less than a fast food restaurant. And as a nursing student, I find the time to cook is an issue as well–but my trusty rusty crock-pot does the trick…great for those nights when I don’t get back form class til late (smoked ham hocks and greens, or hocks and butter beans with some okra, roast and potatoes and onions with sliced cabbage, soup, stew, chili–sluuuurrrp!). Just add salad or cole slaw or green beans for a green veggie.
Check the smaller meat markets in your areas–there’s one just a mile from the local Walmart that has better quality meat, cheaper, and fresher, than most anyplace around here. I can buy a 10# bag of chicken quarters for $3.90, 10# of ground beef for $14.90. (of course, I live in a rural and economically depressed area, so food costs are a bit lower here than other places). I also grow my own tomatoes and okra and corn to go in the freezer, and have some layers for fresh eggs (they are soooo much better than store bought! I highly recommend raising a few chickens just for the eggs).
(Now I’m hungry… 
)
When I lived alone, I found it difficult to cook anything decent for cheaper than the local fast-food joints.
Now that I have a family, I certainly can cook cheaper and better. I shamefully admit that every now and than I crave the Big Mac..and I get one. I really don’t have fast food more than once every couple months though…that stuff will kill ya.
McDonalds closed a store.
OK, so what’s the point?
I’ve been considering going to the meat market here…the only thing stopping me is the lack of a good dust-collection system for the woodworking in my garage. I think once I get some good dust collection set up, I’ll get me a big freezer and hit the meat market.
You’re right in that meat market prices are hard to beat…and at least around here, if you buy a good chuck of of beef, they’ll throw in chicken at outrageously low (like 29 cents a pound!) prices. The meat market closest to me is kind of neat in that they have a “subscription” service…you set up in advance how much meat you want over the year, and every month they deliver what you’ve ordered and bill you. Nice!
I think the point is that some pepole are happy that McDonalds isn’t going to displace quality food everywhere. Because while it has its place, McDonalds isn’t what I’d call quality food.
It is certainly cheaper here to make your own than to buy any prepared food. However, it is not cheaper to go to a “better” restaraunt than McD’s or Burger King.
I can get a BK burger for $1.05. (~£0.5) If I wanted a real hamburger at a restaraunt I’d have to pay around $4 - $8 depending on where I went.
During the proper seasons I can get vegetables and fruit very cheap.
Except citrus of course.
As a single person myself ( 
) I find that the secret is cooking for multiple days. For example I cook things that I can eat one night and take in what’s left for lunch the next day. It makes things a bit more economical.
That does help.
The challenge my wife and I often face is that we rarely have time to come home and cook a meal. When you’re down to around five hours of sleep a night already, it’s really hard to trim things any tighter.
We’ve started preparing meals far ahead of time and then freezing them in a ready-to-be-cooked two-serving size, and then thawing and cooking as needed. It takes some planning but drastically reduces the time on the weekday evenings that it takes to get a good meal in you. Weekends aren’t nearly so tight–that’s when we usually shop and put these things together.
Still, though, there are times where for one reason or another it just doesn’t work out right and we wind up having to find an alternative. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that…
–James
I would expect some marriage proposals from the ladies! A guy who cooks ahead AND makes his own lunch!!!
Oh yeah, and as for what’s the point, as a question.
Though it makes me feel like a geezer to so admit, within my liftime I have seen the “New, Improved” corporate way reach into just about every purchasing option, goods or services or whatever.
There is a sensation of waiting and hoping that I bear in my heart that people will reject that corporate way after the glimmer has worn off.
It surprised the hell out of me when McD’s started opening international “restaurants”. I have never seen what the big deal is about a hamburger, even though I am a voracious meat eater and supporter of beef producers (ranching family). To me, a hamburger is something I could live with about every six months or not at all. It’s just not that big of a deal, culinary or otherwise. Why anybody in a country like France, with its incredible gastronomic history and standards, would opt for a burger mystifies me, beyond initial novelty.
Also, even if the food choice is mundane, like burger or fish and chips, I would prefer that a local, non-franchised place serve it.
In the US, I believe fast food places spread because it offered a secure and predictable option for people doing business or pleasure travel. I have to admit, it might be true in international places as well; a person might not know where to get a good meal and had no one to ask so they offer this option. That’s the single best reason to use a franchise, imo.
So, yeah, if I see an international McD’s go under in a place where I know the locals can do better, I get a bit of satisfaction about it…
Especially if they keep all those places that offer cream teas in Devon open…mmmmmmmmmm…Contrast and compare with McDs phony apple pie things…
Perhaps you have no kids, or have forgotten what they were like when they were younger. Most kids won’t eat whole wheat bread if they know they can hold out for white bread. Most kids would eat hot dogs and hamburgers every day of the week if they could. Lots of kids never grow up, and continue to eat like kids even though their bodies haven’t the capacity to fight off all the bad stuff anymore.
Junk food sells. It has nothing to do with mumbo jumbo visions of dark corporate specters. Junk food sells no matter who is doing the selling.
djm
I certainly have kids, two boys (now 16 and 14) and yes, they like burgers and i was the stay-at-home parent when they were younger. But I serve em whole wheat buns with my Dad’s beef, not drive-thru. My boys have learned from early on about good food. Both of them, if they are to have fast food, prefer deli sandwiches, like Subway, or fancy pizzas (an option here in culinary snot-land). I have purchased my share of Crappy Meals when they were younger, but mostly to get beanie babies. The hamburger itself was never the main point of it… Neither of my boys would put McDs on their first choice, but they wouldn’t turn it down, either, to be precise. My oldest son really likes multi-meat subs from the local deli and the younger one likes pesto pizza..
Maybe I should walk around town with a sign hanging round my neck:
“Will cook you dinner”
Might try that tonight actually…
Even better. Make your sign say “Will cook you dinner. Side orders free.”
You’re being too kind to McCrap and their ilk. What place would that be, then?
Where would you be walking, exactly?
<packing little bag right now . . . >
So what are Big Mac’s really made of? I heard once that the number of Big Mac’s sold exceeds the amount of beef on the planet - maybe someone can confirm that.
http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/eat/quality0/meat.html
"McDonald’s is the largest single purchaser of American beef, buying nearly one billion pounds per year. "
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/04/111140.php
“The U.S. Agriculture Department tests only about 20,000 to 30,000 cows per year out of a total of 104 million”
1 billion divided by 104 million is only 9.6. I think each cow probably gives up more than 9 and a half pounds of beef when slaughtered.
There have been numerous rumors that fast food burgers have various horrifying things in them…most often quoted are either cow eyeballs or worms…snopes debunks this pretty thoroughly:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/wormburg.asp
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/coweyes.htm
McDonalds burgers may not be made from a very lean cut of beef, but they actually are 100% beef, not just cow parts or “generic protein.”
Beef is actually pretty cheap…most of these horrifying alternatives are actually much more expensive by the pound.
–James