Let’s get this out of the way to begin with: This will NOT be a politically correct editorial. Yes, eating out is bad for you. Yes, if you eat out then eating “fast food” is the worst thing you can do. This probably led to my heart attack and is probably why we are losing the war on drugs, the terrorists, global warming, GMO’s, and whatever else we are warring with. I am a child of the 60’s and this is what I was raised with and on…and we liked it! Do as I say, not as I do. Please wait until the end of the post to begin the berating. On with the list!
In reverse order:
5. McDonald’s
This is probably the most criticized and ridiculed fast food restaurant (FFR) in history…and yet it still stands in just about every town in every state in the nation and in several other countries. Micky D’s was the subject of a documentary in the 90’s that proved to be (like many documentary’s these days) somewhat of a hack job. While this FFR may be low on the list for proper daily nutrition, it is not nearly as medically harmful to the human condition as some would like you to believe. All that rhetoric aside I have actually liked the taste of the Quarter Pounder and chicken nuggets for as long as I can remember. Perhaps the most precious guilty pleasure of McD’s are the french fries, which may the most debated subject of many high school aged persons in a certain state of mind.
4. Wendy’s
Rectangle beef patties. This to me was honesty goodness. I am a processed food and you like me…I’ll not try to hide what I am from you…I’ve got corners! These days I will more likely choose one of the salads on the menu but once a quarter I will enjoy and single with cheese! Like the McD french fries, there is only one Frosty…chocolate please! The introduction of the vanilla and strawberry frosty is folly. There is only one Frosty…and it’s CHOCOLATE!
3. Chick Fil A
The original fried chicken sandwich. Don’t think it too much…a bun, a lightly fried chicken breast…two pickles. Anything more would have been overkill. I do like the wraps they have nowadays but nothing hits the spot like the original. Oh! And waffle fries…they almost make you forget about McD’s fries…almost.
2. KFC
This one is probably just more sentimental than anything else. KFC original recipe and the bucket it comes in just takes me back. Add the mashed potatoes and that almost too thick brown gravy, biscuits and corn on the cob (cole slaw for my Pop as well).
1. Jack In The Box
Definitely on the list for the memories as much as the food. This is historically where the munchies began and ended for much of my adolescence. I can’t tell you all the things that I have seen, done, and possibly hallucinated at JITB…but if I think about it hard enough I think it’s entirely possible that I have in my life time eaten at every hour of the day there. One of my classmates managed a JITB during high school…I hate to say it but we took advantage of that fact way more than we should have. The menu item of choice is of course the 99¢ Taco! I imagine the invention of the JITB taco was an accident…someone was making the taco and accidentally dropped it into the fryer…the rest is history. Crunchy, greasy, chewy, beefy history.
Peace!
