Foods for those that just don't care anymore

[Cancer]

Ah, OK.  For half of the 60s we were in our own food deserts, sort of, living at US military installations in Germany.

 

Velveeta was never something my folks brought home.  It was only in grad school in Austin that I learned the con queso thing.

[unclevlad]

I vaguely remember they had that as an ad campaign...with specifically Ro-Tel.  

 

One of the (figurative and somewhat literal) issues with Velveeta is the salt.  There's a TON of it.  Now, OK, cheese generally is on the high side...but Velveeta has double the salt listed for cheddar cheese.  And while I'm not a diehard organic-only type, to get the kind of shelf stability Velveeta has, takes a WHOLE lot of preservatives.  

 

When I found out my blood sugar was closer to incipient hospitalization than to being healthy, I really started reading labels a lot more.  BP was also high, so, not just sugar/carbs, but also salt.  I used to like having some Campbell's Chunky Soups around as a quick, no-work lunch...but then I saw the salt.  GAH!!!!  Fruit juice...that's a healthy drink, right?   BBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTT!!!  Sugar contents are THROUGH THE ROOF.  8 ounces of Mott's Apple Juice...29 grams of sugar.  7.5 ounce can of Coke...25 grams.  Greek Gods yogurt had some really nice flavors...and 15 grams of added sugar.  Sneakier?  Plain yogurts have the lowest sugar;  the same brand, same style, but vanilla flavor...major added sugar.

 

One of the issues is...ok, it's easy to recognize that yummy big burger, large fries, and 32 oz non-diet soft drink is Really Bad For You on multiple levels.  Cutting those out is a matter of willpower.  What's harder is those nasty, hidden sources in the choices we make...like the Chunky Soup, like the Velveeta.  And that's the chunk we have to learn to...if not remove, at least recognize.  (Lunch today had deli ham and smoked turkey...fair bit of sodium.  In a grilled meat and cheese sandwich.  But dinner...only salt was what I put on.  Breakfast was actually 0 salt, as it was liquid...strawberry-cherry smoothie and coffee.) 

[Cancer]

I've found that my addiction to carbonation can be satisfied by pouring 4-6 oz of orange juice in a large glass and then pouring 12 oz of seltzer water into it.  As I age, I find I react badly to artificial sweeteners, so diet sodas have come off the menu.

[Cygnia]

 

[Cygnia]

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

18 hours ago, Cygnia said:

 

 

This looks fun. 

[Cygnia]

Made With Lau is a great channel

[tkdguy]

On 7/23/2022 at 9:54 AM, Cygnia said:

 

 

I love pork satay with peanut sauce. My sister makes one of the noodle dishes, but she uses sunflower butter because she's allergic to peanuts.

[Cygnia]

There's a fancy place in the next town over that does small plates thatyoupaytoomuchfor that has on their seasonal menu heirloom tomatoes w/sunflower butter, avocado oil, sunflower seeds, mint & black salt.  It's tasty enough that I've attempted to replicate it at home with olive oil and tahini used instead (and Thai basil for the mint).

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Pariah]

I'll take a half-gallon of that second one, thanks. 

[Cygnia]

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

In case you haven't heard,

 

Choco Tacos Are Officially Being Discontinued by Klondike

[Cygnia]

How Dim Sum Legend Koi Palace Preserves the Legacy of Cantonese Banquet Culture

[death tribble]

On 7/26/2022 at 7:23 PM, Cygnia said:

For the non-Americans just what am I looking at ? It is burger and cheese certainly but what else and why ?

And what is the Merry Christmas Ale ?

[Ternaugh]

43 minutes ago, death tribble said:

For the non-Americans just what am I looking at ? It is burger and cheese certainly but what else and why ?

And what is the Merry Christmas Ale ?

 

I believe it's a double cheeseburger using two battered and deep-fried grilled cheese sandwiches as a bun. It looks pretty horrible to me. As to the Merry Christmas Ale, I would assume that it's spiced, but I don't drink, so that's not something I'd seek out.

 

 

 

[Cygnia]

Aye, Melt calls that special "the Reverend Horton 2x4 15th Anniversary Burger".  And it's tradition in Cleveland for Great Lakes Brewing Company to put a little Christmas Ale out in July.

[Cygnia]

 

[Cancer]

Definitely remember and ate at Burger Chef.  Those did penetrate into the far west, which is where we were most of the time we were in the country.  Most of the others didn't.

Never ate at Treacher's, though I saw a couple in my youth.  Same thing with Red Barn.

HoJo was something we went to while traveling cross-country, but not otherwise.  In summer 1968 I got a jonesing for their open-faced hot turkey sandwiches.

Sambo's ... I had a really bad customer experience in one once, and made it a point never to go to one again.  I shed no tears when the chain faded away.

Never heard of Toddle House or Lum's before.  Obviously I'm not from that part of the country.

Trying to decide if I ever saw a White Tower.  Same thing about Bresler.

Unaware of Kenny Rogers at all.

 

[Cygnia]

The last Treacher's is over in Garfield Heights and does a TON of business during Lent.  There's always a news item or article on Cleveland dot com about it during that time.

 

Toddle House and Bresler's were the only places I never heard of in prior articles/videos like this.

[unclevlad]

Some of these died ages ago, like HoJo's.  Not sure I can remember Arthur Treacher's at all....

 

I do remember Sambo's...and hooooo boy was their imagery racist as heck.  I mean, it was blatant enough for a kid to see it, if not exactly understand it.

 

Several of those are victims of corporate shenanigans...which isn't surprising.  The ownership history of companies can be convoluted as heck, and as the (very good) host mentioned...buying a company can be done for a multitude of reasons.  My favorite root beer was Hires...but they were bought out *many times*.  

 

Quote

Consolidated Foods bought the company from the Hires family in 1960, and sold it two years later to Crush International. Procter & Gamble bought Crush in 1980, and sold it to Cadbury Schweppes in 1989. Cadbury divested its soft drinks arm in 2008, and the beverage company renamed itself Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

 

They're a subsidiary of Keurig (yes, the coffee pods company) Dr. Pepper...and basically quashed in favor of A&W...which is a gross miscarriage of commerce.  

 

Speaking of franchise spaces getting razed...we had a Church's Chicken that was closed...oh, several years ago now.  Before Covid.  The building remained boarded up and fenced off...really something of an eyesore...for quite some time, then the whole site was leveled.  It's still empty...at least a year later.  But this hasn't been a great period to expand.  Conversely...one of the local McD's decided it was a pretty good time to remodel.  They took out the *entire* existing site;  it had one of those play areas in front, that I heard was generally MUCH more of a problem than a draw...and a weird caboose-like thingy, disconnected from the main storefront, in the back...and rebuilt the entire site.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Mom has informed me many times that she used to work at an Arthur Treacher's, but I've never seen one. 

[Ternaugh]

About the only time that we would go to Howard Johnson's was when my grand-mère was with us. The food was good, from what I remember, but the restaurant was "too expensive"* according to my Dad.

Arthur Treacher's was another chain that I knew about, but where my Dad would never go. He'd complain about them using "trash fish" whenever an ad would come on TV (I'm guessing it was the switch away from cod mentioned in the video). The nearest one was over an hour away, in Orlando, so it was highly unlikely we would ever go to it.

I've eaten many times at various Sambo's restaurants back in the 1970s, the food was comparable to a good Denny's. They briefly tried marketing in Florida as "Family Sam's" in the late 70s/early 80s.

We had a Burger Chef in our town, and it was essentially across the street from the only McDonald's. Dad liked their burgers better, so we'd usually pick up an order for dinner. I lobbied pretty hard to get the Star Wars kids meals back in 1977.

Kenny Rogers Roasters was good, but they were essentially killed when the supermarkets and warehouse stores started selling rotisserie chicken. 

I don't really know the other restaurants on the video.

 

 

 

*Dad was notoriously cheap, unless it was something that he liked. At one point, when I was little (I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6), we were seated at our table, and Mom needed to go to the Ladies' room. She told Dad to watch me, which he immediately disregarded, and he left me alone at the table as he went to the Men's room. They both arrived back as the order of crab legs was being placed in front of me. Dad was angry and wanted to send it back, but Mom wouldn't let him, as she said that it was his fault for not watching me. 

 

[IndianaJoe3]

 

[Matt the Bruins]

My hometown had a Sambo's when I was a kid, and I've eaten at a Howard Johnson's on vacation. Of the others I'd heard of Arthur Treacher's and Red Barn, but can't recall ever eating in one.