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Alan, all such questionable purchases should be weighed against a fine meal or a few of ones favorite beverages. How does it stack up against such competition?
Yes, because if you don't shop at McDonalds, how can the workers get paid?
We have 3 McDonald's in New Orleans. One in a WalMart.
We have 15 James Beard Award winning chefs (1 is retired)
I am CERTAIN that this is the highest James Beard to McDonald's ratio on this planet.
About 10% of the labor force works in restaurants.
In a conversation with a Kentucky Nat'l Guard soldier just after Katrina.
KY NG: I see lots of what looks like restaurants around here as we patrol. Are they restaurants ?
Me: Yes, about 400. 10% of the labor force worked in them before Katrina.
KY NG: I was wondering since I did not recognize ANY of the names.
Worst Hopes for Chain Restaurants,
Alan
Nice try Alan, but the yahoo yellow pages show at least 50 McD's within 10 miles of the center of NO. Plenty of wendys and burger kings also.
I agree about the food in NO (I used to live in Mississippi and went to NO all the time). However, there is NO city in America that isn't covered in fast food restaurants.
Ashland, Oregon! The story is that their only Mickey D's closed down for lack of business.... Apocryphal or not, a great tale.
Carmel, California has none. The chains are Piatti and Il Fornaio.
Beerwah, Queensland, Australia has no golden arches, but it has 2 asian take-away ,a subway, and 2 pizza shops. (and as far as i know there are no plans for one in the next few years)
Beerwah's population is, what, 1500? It barely counts as a town. Just with a brief Google/Whitepages search for Victoria, I found Swan Hill (pop 10000), Portland (8800) and Castlemaine (8700). In all cases the closest Macca's was at least 35km away. Indeed the closest Macca's I could find to Swan Hill was 150 km away in Echuca.
But there are some cities that only seem to have fast food restaurants. I swear Minneapolis has some of the worst food in the world and is limited mostly to franchises (excepting Kramarczuk’s Deli of course!). When I was going to the U there I could not find a decent meal, especially breakfast, for the life of me. It's impossible to find a decent pizza in that town.
Minneapolis does have overpriced food of poor quality in most of its restaurants. The neighboring city of St. Paul, however, has some first-class little-known ethnic restaurants at reasonable prices. Try for example, Cecil's Deli, same location since 1949 near St. Catherine's college on Cleveland Avenue. You won't find many slender or grumpy people there.
There are a number of good Vietmamese restaurants, both in St. Paul and at least two in Minneapolis. If you know where to get freshly caught walleye, you can dine well in Minnesota. Try Tavern on Grand (where the MN governor took Gorbachov for a Walleye sandwich, very resonably priced and utterly scrumptious) in St Paul. Grand Avenue in St. Paul also has several other excellent eateries, most of them modestly priced. For some reasons I cannot figure out, Minneapolis restaurant food tends to be both more expensive and lower quality than that found in St. Paul. The worst food is to be found in Uptown Minneapolis, followed by Downtown. Some of the suburbs have very good hole-in-the wall places that could probably hold their own in New Orleans, especially those that are not afraid to serve distinctive mid-western cuisine.
10 miles gets you into Metairie and the West Bank. Post-WW II Suburbia. NOT New Orleans ! Predominantly white, R voting, much more fried food, different culture.
New Orleans is compact. Do the same search for a 2.5 mile radius (still get some West Bank).
Alan
Donostia, Spain (Donostia is basque, in Spanish it is San Sebastián), pop. 182,930, two McDonalds, three Michelin three star restaurants (56 in the world, 5 in the whole USA), only behind Paris and New York (and I believe, the only city in the planet with an >1 McDonald's-to-Michelin-three-stars ratio). Also, the prettiest city in Spain.
If you like eating, you should go there. And I am not talking just fancy ultramodern does-not-look-like-food stuff.
Yes, well worth the trip !
Best Hopes for Fine Dining,
Alan
A few New Orleans restaurants have the formality that Michelin seems to require, but not that many.
Our local restaurant critic ate at the French Laundry (3 star in Napa Valley) and said that it was as good as the best New Orleans restaurants, and fairly experimental.
Perhaps I should review the stars & reviews of our best.
*I* will not be buying one. Too many charitable and culinary alternatives here in New Orleans.
But for those more deprived, err "isolated", I thought that I would bring it to their attention.
Best Hopes for Doing Good and Eating Well#,
Alan
#Blue Plate Cafe just reopened a few blocks away. I had a brie and fried oyster wrap for lunch yesterday with a friend. Desert was grilled cantaloupe with caramelized sugar a la mode. $20 + tip
A friend of mine from NOLA told me once "Its possible to get a bad meal in New Orleans, but you've got to work at it."
One of the most agravating things about New Orleans people is going out to eat with them in a decent restaurant out of town. They'll sit, and the whole time they're eating, reminice about a fine meal they had in New Orleans. Alan, if I were eating at my computer you'd be guilty of the same thing, darn your eyes and drat your hide. I ate lunch yesterday at Shrimp N' Stuff at 39th and O in Galveston, had the seafood platter, 4 fried shrimp, 4 fried oysters, a piece of fried fish (unidentifiable, but not catfish, maybe whiting), 2 crab balls, slaw,rice and gravy, homemade remoulade sauce and spectacular hushpuppies-$14.00. Its a walk up to the counter joint, no tip. I waddled home and took a nap.
At any rate, come to the ASPO convention in Houston this October and I'll buy you a good meal. Its actually a good eating town, Vietnamese, Mexican, soul food, redneck chicken fried steak-even a few Creole spots. But sadly, bad meals are the norm.
One of the most aggravating things about New Orleans people is going out to eat with them in a decent restaurant out of town. They'll sit, and the whole time they're eating, reminisce about a fine meal they had in New Orleans
This is a fine and long standing tradition in New Orleans !
We talk about food we have eaten and will eat while eating. Kind of a food monomania. Can't argue with the results :-)
Perfect example.
A friend and I were the only patrons in routine need of sunscreen at a local "hole in the wall". I ordered the special of the day; white beans with pig tails. Quite good despite being about the cheapest foodstuff available.
As we ate, I was explaining to him the annual October White Truffle specials at Bacco. The world's most expensive food stuff.
Eating the cheapest, discussing the most expensive. All good and all Naw'lins :-)
Best Hopes for Fine Dining,
Alan
You could be onto something. They say that if you want to buy happiness, you should buy experiences, not things. Like Spock said, having is not so pleasing as wanting. Research suggests that this is true, at least when it comes to material things.
But it doesn't necessarily apply for experiences. People tend to remember events as being better than they actually were. (Otherwise, no woman would have more than one child. ;-) So money spent on experiences tends to be a good investment, when it comes to happiness.
A saying of mine.
"A meal is not over till it is forgotten".
Best Hopes for MANY memorable meals AND life experiences,
Alan
I have never regretted money spent on travels and the great experiences that resulted. I regret the trips that I declined to make. In the end memories are what we have left, any expensive crap that we buy that restrains us from travel and experience is wasted money. My best experiences are those that resulted from spur of the moment decisions with no planned destination or timetable. Motorcycles are fine company for such trips.
Well, heck, that's a crusty old saying: "It's better to regret something you HAVE done than something you HAVEN'T done."
Yeah, that's from a Butthole Surfers song. And by the way, tell your mother, SATAN, SATAN, SATAN. Duh Duh, DUH DUH DUH, Duh Duh...
As long as it is a function of money spent, it will be a status symbol and as such not pursued for its intrinsic value, but to gain rank in the hierarchy. Hoarding experiences is still not a good way to become happy.
So next trip I will hitch-hike and eat grass along the way. Get a life pal.
I travel exactly for its intrinsic value. I seldom share my experiences with anyone. I definitely would not share them with someone that believes travel is a way to gain rank in the heirarchy. I will leave that to Mad Max.
It doesn't have to be a function of money spent. My next trip will probably be a two-hour drive to the coast, where I will stay in a budget hotel, take in a minor league baseball game. and enjoy the ocean. I grew up by the sea, and miss it now that I am inland.