Fast Food Culture

MAD:

Alright i will concede here that food can be both fast and good...

That stuff just isn't really what i was talking about when i say fast food culture.

Unless there is a massive move twards little salad bars pushing mom and pop restaurants out of business, that i didn't know about.

On the sushi though, that's artisan food, and if you are eating it in a typical fast food setting you're gambling with your life, as parasites in certain fish are far more deadly than what you risk from poorly cared for ground beef.
The equipment necessary to keep sashimi grade fish fresh is also much different.
Its not just a fryer, the refrigeration necessary is specialized equipment which you are required by law (at least here) to have if you run a sushi restaurant.

I refuse to eat at a sushi bar that isn't well known for that reason. Smaller businesses don't have health administrations breathing down their necks like say, Nobu does(and I absolutely love their red tailed snapper sushi..) I got sick from eating, er, puffer fish? at a local sushi bar. never again.

MAD:

Alright i will concede here that food can be both fast and good...

That stuff just isn't really what i was talking about when i say fast food culture.

Unless there is a massive move twards little salad bars pushing mom and pop restaurants out of business, that i didn't know about.

It must be different where Í'm from, then, because I see far more fast food salad bars and sandwich shops rather than McDonalds and KFCs. -shrug-
Perhaps it's just the shopping precincts I go shopping in. But to me, I find there's a lot more people these days queing up for salad bars than more traditional fast food joints.

The thing about the sushi is - a lot of people in the Western culture do not want to go to a traditional sushi bar to get their fix. Mainly because a lot of the more traditional sushi places do not cater for traditional Western tastes. Of course I'm generalising - there will always be those people who are genuinely interested in genuine Japanese food and culture. But I've found that at a lot of fast food sushi places they have more 'Western' sushi - they have tuna, salmon, chicken, beef and I've even seen lamb in sushi. Most of the fast sushi places in shopping precincts I've seen do not make traditional sushi. I guess that might be why a lot of people go to fast food sushi places, at least here.

fast food makes people fat.
bad cultural change.
bad.
no I have not sucuumb.

^Please watch your capitalization and whatnot honey. :cute:

Strider:

MAD:

Alright i will concede here that food can be both fast and good...

That stuff just isn't really what i was talking about when i say fast food culture.

Unless there is a massive move twards little salad bars pushing mom and pop restaurants out of business, that i didn't know about.

It must be different where Í'm from, then, because I see far more fast food salad bars and sandwich shops rather than McDonalds and KFCs. -shrug-
Perhaps it's just the shopping precincts I go shopping in. But to me, I find there's a lot more people these days queing up for salad bars than more traditional fast food joints.

The thing about the sushi is - a lot of people in the Western culture do not want to go to a traditional sushi bar to get their fix. Mainly because a lot of the more traditional sushi places do not cater for traditional Western tastes. Of course I'm generalising - there will always be those people who are genuinely interested in genuine Japanese food and culture. But I've found that at a lot of fast food sushi places they have more 'Western' sushi - they have tuna, salmon, chicken, beef and I've even seen lamb in sushi. Most of the fast sushi places in shopping precincts I've seen do not make traditional sushi. I guess that might be why a lot of people go to fast food sushi places, at least here.

That's the reason why I go to the sushi places, because I'm not particularly found of crab meat etc. I only eat the vegetarian sushi anyway. :shifty

I think more healthy food places are being pushed towards the people here in Australia. As I've grown up there has been more healthy fast food stores introduced than previously. It's all the effort to reduce the "obesity epidemic" (I'm not sure if you could call it an epidemic) of course. However, I don't view fast food as Maccas, fried food anymore, because there is the option to eat much more healthily. It's much more readily available than before that's for sure. I know at the shopping centre I work there are several shops in the small food court that offer healthy eating options. Even in larger shopping centres they're appearing a lot more frequently. That's just my general observation though.

I hate fast food. There aren't a whole lot of fast food places I like, and I'm a very healthy eater anyway, so avoiding it is no big thing. For all of 2007 and most of 2008, I ate no fast food whatsoever. But when I started dating my current boyfriend, we went and got Taco Bell about three times a week, haha. Luckily I didn't put on any weight from it.

But my New Years resolution was to eat no fast food at all - unless you consider Subway fast food, which I don't - and so far, I'm going strong. I'm also making my boyfriend cut down a lot on fast food and soda. He's 6'4 and about 170lb, so he's not fat at all, but he's really uncomfortable with his body. So he agreed to have only one day a week where he could get fast food and drink a soda. He's actually lost about five to ten pounds since he's been with me, and he's pretty ecstatic about it.

On a related note, I reallyreallyreally hate people who eat fast food almost every day, then get fat or get health problems, and then bitch about it and attempt to sue McDonald's or Burger King or whatever. It's your own damn fault so fucking shut up and die. Jesus Christ.

hello moscow;;:

On a related note, I reallyreallyreally hate people who eat fast food almost every day, then get fat or get health problems, and then bitch about it and attempt to sue McDonald's or Burger King or whatever.

I agree completley. It's their own choice if they eat fast food daily; it's nobody elses fault if they become overweight or obese.

I rarely eat fast food, but I don't really see a problem with it. People can eat whatever they choose and the outcome depends entirely on that.

In a shopping centre near me, the food court has a McDonalds, but it also has a Zest, which makes fresh fruit and/or vegetable smoothies, something to do with jacket potatoes with an embarrassing potato pun and a couple of oriental cuisine.. I don't want to say restaurants but I can't think of what else to say.

Interesting note about the different kind of fast food place you have in australia?

Is it australia you are from strider?

Anyway because of the stringent regulations there isn't really such thing as fast food sushi here in canada. no idea what your regulations are like there.

There are a couple of malls that have a sushi place, but the places are part of larger sushi businesses in the city, like small local franchises.

MAD:

Interesting note about the different kind of fast food place you have in australia?

Is it australia you are from strider?

Anyway because of the stringent regulations there isn't really such thing as fast food sushi here in canada. no idea what your regulations are like there.

There are a couple of malls that have a sushi place, but the places are part of larger sushi businesses in the city, like small local franchises.

Yep, I'm from Australia.

I'm not too sure about our regulations over here either, but all of the fast food sushi places I've been to have had nice sushi that didn't make me sick... although, I only ate the vegetarian sushi because I don't eat meat, so I'm not too sure about the chicken or salmon sushi etc.

But I wouldn't buy sushi from a convenience store. You can get it at some, but it comes in little packs and because you just take it out of the refrigerator at the store, you don't know where it was made or who made it or how long ago. Selling pre-made sushi in mini supermarkets seems weird to me.

But at least in fast food places you can see them making it :XD

hello moscow;;:

unless you consider Subway fast food, which I don't

Why don't you consider it fast food? Personally, I would. I would categorise it with KFC and McDonalds, to be honest.

Strider:

hello moscow;;:

unless you consider Subway fast food, which I don't

Why don't you consider it fast food? Personally, I would. I would categorise it with KFC and McDonalds, to be honest.

Mostly just because it isn't deep-fried in lard and unless you stick every topping on it, it's generally fairly healthy. Chicken, turkey, vegetables, lots of wheat and multigrain bread, etc. As far as I know, it's made and served fresh, and a lot of typical fast food isn't. You also can't just "order it on the go" like you can at KFC and McDonald's.

crappy mass produced sushi is fast food. good sushi is a work of art.

there IS a difference.

i mean, i don't know if you understand what sushi really is or not, but making proper japanese sushi rice (and its the rice which is the sushi) is an art. its not like flipping a burger where anyone could pick it up and do it.

its really challenging and an amazing skill. just because it is quickly prepared does not make it fast food.

if you are talking about something mass produced, then yeah thats crap and i wouldn't eat it.

i dunno how the meaning developed there, but here it directly means MASS PRODUCED grab and go food.

I have time to cook properly, but I'm out a lot and there's 12 other children in my family, so I just get a chippy on my way home so Ma doesn't have to cook as much. Cooking for your husband and your 13 children is a bit of a handful =D

i eat fast food because I enjoy it. I think if we want to eat it we should, and not have threats of a fatty death bombarded at us.

my issue is more with homogenization of food culture.

its a seemingly unstoppable force and its not good for anyone but corporate business.

That's the thing so, because our culture has become so rushed, hectic it's difficult to make time to cook a healthy meal for ourselves these; we try to cram too much into each day. Due to this people retreat to the fast food option, I know quite a few people who did, and they choose the wrong stuff, such as pizza etc. It's also comes down to affordability too, if a person pretty much survives on fast food, are they willing to pay more for a restaurant meal, that is much better yet more expensive, or for the latter, cheaper more flimsy version of food?

However, what I've noticed is that once people have kids they tend to go back a little more to the previous lifestyle of cooking at home. :shifty

But even when it comes to cooking your own food at home, who has the time, skill or patience to cook exquisite "cultural-rich" dishes?
I mean, mom cooks two meals almost every day, but it's just normal food. Sometimes we have traditional Romanian or Hungarian dishes- but for someone living here they're normal too. We eat maybe 70 different dishes in a year. -shrug-

The view that it is difficult or complicated or to time consuming to cook good food is the main thing stopping people from doing it.

I can make wild mushroom risotto with grilled rack of lamb and roasted veggies in about 20 mins from start to finish including prep time.

Most people who cook meals take about that long.

There are TONNES of good things out there to cook that take little time, little effort and just a bit of understanding of your ingredients.

Maybe it takes that long for you. Some people I know don't even know how to cook, and some are just to lazy too cook or learn.

In my family, cooking takes a bloody long time. We start out winter soups in the morning on a shimmer so that by evening the flavour is beautiful. Spaghetti bolognaise doesn't that long to make I know but somehow my dad made it into a three hour process of shimmering to let the flavour sink it. It tastes fantastic but the wait is unbearable.

I can make dinner that quick, it's just a matter of motivation for some people. Also, the most difficult thing is choosing what to eat in the first place. :XD

MAD:

There are TONNES of good things out there to cook that take little time, little effort and just a bit of understanding of your ingredients.

But wouldn't eating and cooking new dishes that aren't traditional for the region in which I live rob me of my cultural identity?