Fast food

[haunted]

I don't like fast food in general. But, what is your favorite? For me its Publix subs, jersey mikes, chick fil A, and cookout.

[Sgt. Dick]

I like a Five Guys cheeseburger with Cajun fries.  I don't get it very often because it is probably a full day's worth of calories 

[haunted]

I agree, but 5 guys sucks

Cookout is starting to infiltrate FL. Check them out if you get a chance. The normal burger is 1/3 lb for 2.39, but you pay extra for cheese and tomato. The "huge" is 2 1/3 lb patties for 2.99 . super cheap for the best tasting fast food burger. I get the regular one though.

[|iR|Focalor]

I don't know if Cookout is "fast" food. I think there was one somewhere near Alpharetta GA that me and a guy I worked with stopped in for lunch one day. This was probably 2006-ish. Dunno if it's still there, and haven't noticed any other anywhere else in the Atlanta area. It wasn't fast food prices, nor did we get our food fast. It took them maybe 10 or 15 minutes to get it ready. It was REAL food though. REAL beef patties. McDonalds and Boogar King is like 10% beef and the other 90% is soy, binders/extenders, fat and food starch cocktail slime, coloring agents, and god only knows what else.

I don't really do fast food anymore. It's just disgusting. I'll eat it if it's all there is, but usually I'd rather go without eating than eat that shit. Unless it's chicken places. Chick-fil-a is good. I have 2 different Bojangles down the road from my house. My old lady picks us up breakfast from there about 3 days a week. I'll always get the spicy cajun chicken biscuit with hash brown rounds. But I don't really like it. Sometimes they have horrible cuts of chicken with rubbery tough spots in the middle and I end up having to toss out 80% of the damn biscuit. Their sweetened tea is fucking AWFUL. It's obviously that instant powdered shit. It tastes like dirty water with perfume spritzed in it.

I'll eat Zaxby's too, usually the chicken finger plate, but I don't really "like" it. They tend to use FUCKLOADS of salt in the batter and overcook the shit out of it until the crust is too hard.

Tried a Jimmy Johns for the first time the other week. Was pretty good.

Best burgers in the world are the ones I grill at home. Usually I just do beef that I get at Fresh Market (for some reason they have the juiciest burger beef), but sometimes I'll do bison burgers. I make them thick as a fucking softball which makes the burger 5 miles tall once you get the lettuce, tomato, pickles, mustard, mayo, and ketchup on it.

Eating out, best burgers in my opinion are probably at Red Robin.

[haunted]

Cook-out first went out of state in 2010, and it's first two states I believe we're SC and GA. I'm sure Atlanta was one of the first locations they chose outside NC. When I was 16 there was only two, Raleigh and Greensboro.

I agree that cookout doesn't TASTE like fast food which is why it's a unique place, but nowadays when I pull up it's staight up faster than McDonald's, Wendy's or wherever. Which is saying something given they have the longest lines and a double drive thru. I guess they're prepared.

I have never eaten at red robin but it's funny you say that. I drove past one yesterday and told my wife maybe that's where we should get a burger if we feel like it sometime, opposed to continually getting disappointed at other places.

As for bojangles (another NC establishment) it's good in doses haha. I get the 4 piece supreme combo maybe twice a year?  Tenders, fries seasoned with old bay, biscuit and sweet tea. Can't remember the last one I got, but its salty as fuck. Which all fast food is.

Jimmy John's is cool because its the fastest "fast" food there is. I'd take them over subway. Just not jersey mikes or publix.

As a child I loved arbys. But too salty..... A burger from cookout won't make me feel dehydrated.

[Punk_FAS]

I get Jersey Mike's and Jimmy John's confused. I think it was Jersey Mike's that I've had just once. I got the largest sub they had; I paid like $12 or more for it; it was just 'OK'. I wasn't impressed and haven't been back. It wasn't bad, per se, but way overpriced and nothing special (it's been a number of years since I went that one time).

I like Chipotle. I always get a burrito and generally only eat about half of it in one sitting, and the other half the next day. For the price, and how fresh the ingredients are (or seem to me to be), I think it's great. You can get a similar burrito from Taco Bell for maybe just a little less, and it's significantly less food, and nowhere near as good.

I like Firehouse Subs, the Hook & Ladder, but, like Jersey Mike's, it's just too expensive for what you get. I got one tonight, a large Hook & Ladder. My total was around $9.60 with tax. It'll feed me twice(ish), but still, almost $10 for a big sandwich. Just seems hard to justify that cost (but I still pay it... somewhat reluctantly).

Other than the fact they're closed on Sunday (and I inevitably get a craving for them on that day), I love Chick-fil-A. Quality seems good, price is generally fairly reasonable, and I even appreciate the staff, which always seems to be super friendly.

I'm also a fan of Publix subs (though I don't really think of that as fast food as much).

[haunted]

You're probably getting Jersey Mike's and Jimmy John's confused. Jimmy John's will deliver a sub on par to subway or better in less than 10 minutes of calling or ordering online. They kill it at college towns.

Jersey Mike's does a classier sub like Publix(boars head meat, good whole wheat bread, etc). Firehouse and Quiznos do hot subs more so, but are both good. I've never heard of the hook and ladder.

I call Publix fast food cuz it's fast, but then again if you're at the back of the line things can get a little slow.

And yes, I like how I'm treated at chick file A. Jersey Mike's is like that to. I know sometimes it's overkill but it's better than then being assholes. I've been to chick fil a maybe 5 times in the past year(grilled nuggets are an easy snack for a child especially at a mall). And they are always SLAMMED. But two of those times they gave me several free meal vouchers for my wait and apologized. Two different locations too. I wasnt surprised when I saw that chick fil a had surpassed subway at #3 for the biggest fast food chains in the nation. Mcd's and Starbucks are 1 and 2.

[Sgt. Dick]

I agree Cookout is good.  I there for the first time last year when I was in Statesboro, GA. 
Publix does make good subs, probably as good or better than all the other chains.

[|iR|Focalor]

Had Pube Licks subs (thats what I call it, haha) for dinner last night. Italian on white bread. Loaded up with everything except cucumbers and bell peppers. Banana peppers and jalapenos are okay though. Damn things 9 times wider than my mouth. Gotta eat it in a fuckin' rain poncho cuz it's so messy.

For a while I was making subs at home. Pepperidge Farms has some sub rolls, was putting Boars Head tavern ham, salami, hot capicola, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomaytors, greek kalamata black olives, jalapeno slices, and some kinda sub dressing stuff they sell near the sandwich area in Publix. Shit was good as hell.

[haunted]

I sound old for saying this but I get the whole wheat for more fiber. Luckily public's whole wheat is really damn good. My favorites are the italian as well, and the boars head roast beef. My wife gets heart burn from onions but we'll add pepperoni plus banana peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, etc on the italian. Boars head is the only roast beef I'll get just about. Its crazy how a roast beef sub from subway has a rainbow hue to it like you poured diesel in the water but publix/boars head looks perfect medium to med rare

And yeah they're huge. Its no wonder publix is expanding so much. Plus they play their employees more and actually give them share holding opportunities.

[Punk_FAS]

Its crazy how a roast beef sub from subway has a rainbow hue to it like you poured diesel in the water but publix/boars head looks perfect medium to med rare

Ugh... I remember noticing that for the first time with Arby's roast beef years ago. I used to love Arby's, but when I noticed that, it totally tanked my desire to eat there. I can't recall the last time I was there. I don't think I've ever gotten a roast beef sub from Subway. I generally avoid roast beef unless it's homemade. Maybe I'll give the Boars Head RB a try sometime. What the hell is that rainbow stuff anyway? Off to google I go...

Its no wonder publix is expanding so much. Plus they play their employees more and actually give them share holding opportunities.

I've heard it's a great company to work for. An acquaintance of mine started working there while still in high school, as a bag boy I believe. ~23 years later, he's still with them, and manages his own store. Another guy I went to high school with has also been with them for nearly that long. He's in management, but doesn't oversee an entire store. He also seems very happy with them.

[|iR|Focalor]

Its crazy how a roast beef sub from subway has a rainbow hue to it like you poured diesel in the water but publix/boars head looks perfect medium to med rare

That's because it's old and probably ready for the trash. So much for "Eat FRESH". The Boars Head you get at Publix does that too about a week after it's been sliced. That deli meat is really only good for about 5 to 7 days after it's been sliced. You can eat it after that and not get sick, but it won't taste so great. But yeah, all the deli meats get that strange hologram slime on them when they turn funky. I dunno what it is though, nitrate preservatives breaking down perhaps, who knows.

[Punk_FAS]

I just found this:

However, when cooked beef is sharply sliced against the grain of the muscle fiber, this, coupled with the moisture in the beef, creates an excellent surface for producing rainbows

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/what-causes-beef-rainbows/273534/

I dunno... I'm still apprehensive...

[Sgt. Dick]

That's good to know, but that rainbow still turns me off 

[|iR|Focalor]

Nah, I don't buy it. It's a little more than light refraction on a wet surface. Because when I buy deli ham, there's ZERO to very little of that rainbow-ish shit on it. But 2 weeks later... different story. Same thing with roast beef deli slices. Same thing with deli sliced turkey. Almost no rainbow shit on it the day I buy it, but plenty of rainbow-ing on it 2 weeks later. It also all starts getting a slimey film on it about that time too, especially turkey. True, that slime is probably refracting light, thus the rainbow shit. But why slime? Probably the curing/preserving process. Ever seen uncured ham? It's fucking gray like rotting flesh... cuz that's what it is, really.