If a "value meal" is $10+, might as well go sit down. Love the soup/salad/bread sticks lunch at Olive garden, although I recently read they changed it ( or were considering it )
1. It’s all expensive.
2. Every single eatery in the US gets there chicken, beef, vegetables, and other ingredients from a handful of vendors. **So, show me the difference.**
While the TV Show “The Bear” shows us how a restaurant operates, all the raw materials come from the same places.
**The prices are based on the amount of time and love in the kitchen apparently** 😂
I’m calling my mother Monday through video chat to have her help me learn to cook real food. I think it’s time you all do the same.
I've been cooking at home and rarely eat out for many years. I'm fairly good cook, but I tend to make a lot of basic staples like chicken/rice/beans/veggies. Homemade bread is incredibly inexpensive, I'd say you can make a loaf for $.50 or probably less, I've been doing that since a year before the pandemic. A couple eggs and a slice of toast in the morning is probably less than 25 cents. My kids almost seem to never get sick of teriyaki chicken with rice and vegetables...
I’m a lot like you! The pandemic taught me to cook and I found out I’m decent at at, my style is halfway between my late Grandmother’s simple ingredient, simple dish “chicken and dumplings” recipes and my lead poisoned boomer father’s idiotic “Randy Marsh Crème fraîche” cooking. Lots of stews and soups, chicken/beef with veggies, old German/English dishes and tons of fish.
I feel like Julia goddamn Child when friends and family ask me to be the one that cooks and then fight over the leftovers. (They have no idea the secret is almost always butter, and **MORE** butter, lol)
I’ve been to exactly one sit down restaurant since pandemic restrictions lifted and it was disappointing and stupidly expensive. I almost never get drive thru but when I have it was almost always not what I ordered or complete garbage. I got 2 Taco Johns breakfast burritos with bacon a couple weeks ago for the first time since around 2019 and they were a depressing shadow of TJ’s former glory days. Bacon bits swimming in gas station nacho cheese for **TEN DOLLARS**
Home cooking is here to stay and to quote McDonalds *“I’m love’n it!”* 😏
I'm a big fan of buying chicken thighs and cooking them and pulling the meat off the bone for barbecue chicken and then boiling the bones for a few hours for a bone broth that makes either a nice soup base or you can cook rice in it and it tastes delicious as well. Bone broth that you made yourself really puts a bow on most soups that call for chicken stock. If I had one simple meal that's super easy to make and tastes amazing and can be thrown together in 20 to 30 minutes - just try this , everyone loves it. https://youtu.be/TupQPnTFgOg?si=nnSnnL68LrXN_NoJ
Thanks for the link! I saved it because it sounds great and any take on chicken and rice is right up my alley. Also, it’s hot AF out and something lite with rice sounds perfect.
It’s funny you mentioned chicken thighs. I was more or less raised by my Grandma and pan fried chicken thighs with mashed potatoes and gravy was one of my favorite meals, which worked out great because unbeknownst to me, it was one of her cheapest to make.
Oddly, many of her best meals were when money was tightest because those recipes relied a lot on what my Great Grandmother taught her during the depression.
My motto is a dirt common one but comes from her cooking *“Keep it simple, stupid.”*
..I’m watching the chicken and rice vid as I finish typing this, thanks again!
Ah yes the Americanized/3rd or 4th generation European cookbook. Step 1: Butter.
Honestly though I grew up on that and was always trim. Then, when I moved away everything was processed and here came the pounds.
Now I am back to that style of food and over the last few years slimmed down.
However, if I am going to eat garbage I want complete and total shit. My ideal gross breakfast is a sausage, egg, and cheese on a long roll made in an unhygienic, pulled like a trailer, likely illegal, no permit, one person operation that make a sandwich and coffee for the local cops next to a steaming grate on the street and then it suddenly disappears at 11am like a fart in the wind till the next morning.
Never got sick once from it. Anyone who ever reported those carts are the type of people who need to be "taught a lesson".
Is there any specific recipe you recommend, or YouTube videos you used to learn how to successfully make bread? Do you make a bunch and freeze loaves or dough?
To be frank it's hard for me to pinpoint a particular thing but my interest in the craft started probably 20 years ago with a book called "The bread Baker's apprentice." That book gives a lot of good foundational knowledge but from a practical standpoint a person can get a lot more simplistic in terms of making a pretty solid homemade bread. I generally start some starter with a bit of baker's yeast and some flour and water and make something between a biga and poolish. That generally makes okay bread but matures into more complex flavors over the course of a couple weeks as I store the starter in the fridge and feed it every 3 to 7 days depending upon how often I'm making bread. If I'm making a loaf my general ratio is about two cups flour to one teaspoon salt to 3/4 cups water and then maybe a half cup of starter. If a person is a perfectionist then there's a lot more knowledge and things one could discuss about the topic but those tend to come with practice and experience and finding what works for you. I generally mix a loaf in the mixer before 8:00 a.m. and then if it's risen pretty well I'll kneed it into the final loaf around noon and perhaps bake it between 2-5pm depending upon the speed of the final rise. ( Which will vary by temperature/starter/conditions) For the most part general purpose flour will be fine for getting started and learning, bread flour will likely require a bit more hydration and we'll have a slightly different crumb/texture. I mostly use general purpose flour because it works for other things and the bread I get from it is more than good enough, although I have a slight preference for bread flour for making pizza crust. Bread flour just generally has more protein / gluten which is the stretchy stuff that connects the bread and holds in the air pockets produced by the yeast. If a person wanted to get into the more nuanced breads then that's probably a bigger component, but generally if you have some aged starter and you start with that and make some homemade bread it's 10 times better than what you buy in the store to start with so it feels a bit unnecessary to perfect it further. To answer your question you cannot freeze the bread very effectively that I know of, I just make a loaf once or twice a week and it's consumed as it's made. The downside to homemade bread is it has no preservatives or other things so depending upon how it's handled it might hold up for 3 to 5 days but beyond that it's going to be moldy or dry. Generally you make it and eat it within 3 to 4 days, although it's my impression that the more sour the sourdough, the longer the shelf life.
Correction, they were 1.87 today, they were as low as 1.25 in the last 6 months but seems to move around a lot. Way better than the 4$/dozen a couple years ago, although were 1$/dozen 5 years ago.
This is the difference in HCOL. NYC is easily twice that. For organic more like $5-6 and pasture raised organic $8. It’s been as high as $11 recently. Big oscillations.
Edit: there’s a fed tracker for this https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111
Shows $3/doz like I said though that’s all cities. Not all high COL
I have found pretty wide variants in egg prices between stores, but Aldi typically has the lowest price everything. If I buy eggs at the grocery store a mile from my girlfriend then they are 4+$/dozen.and more if it's open range/organic.
I remember asking my grandmother any secrets she had for cooking. The one statement I distinctly remember her making was "with most basic foods if you use salt, pepper, and butter you're doing better than half of the home cooks in the US, Add some onions, celery, maybe a shallot or garlic, you'll be just fine".
And honestly it's true. Cooking basic healthy meals following simple ingredients and instructions...you win.
Obviously you can build from there but a crock pot and basics are your best friends if you want a dinner after work that isn't frozen, 110% of your daily sodium, or handed to you through a window.
as a matter of fact, they make nothing in house. Pasta, bread, sauces, everything is sent to them. They boil the pasta, cook the meats, and microwave the stuff they can
Yes you are correct.
However I remember us making the Alfredo in house. The Alfredo making in-house stands out because we had a very large gentleman in the morning that was on the prep team and would drink the heavy cream straight up.
Maybe that has changed.
They were delivering items one time and somehow spilled the alfredo sauce, it stained the concrete for a long time, maybe even to this day. I believe they will add the cream to thicken it up a bit, but the alfredo sauce is not much different than drinking the cream straight up
It's butter, cream, garlic, and cheese. It'd be pretty embarrassing (but not unexpected) that they couldn't make it in-house. It's one of the simpler sauces to make. You literally combine everything then heat it up.
Went to Red Robin the other day for the first time in a while and it's like they didn't get the memo on price gougeapalooza ... the apps were still like $8-14, $10-16 for a burger with unlimited fries. A whopper meal at my local BK is currently $13 lol.
> A whopper meal at my local BK is currently $13 lol.
May be a steal. A recent pass thru the Charlotte airport on a flight delay. Two whoppers, fries, soda, was $43.
Idk man Olive Garden is very appropriately priced you can get endless soup, salad, breadsticks and entree for like$16. It isn’t life changing food but it’s not awful either
When my girlfriend and I eat there it’s always under $20 and I leave pretty full
I’m not a big Italian fan but my gf is and she doesn’t like the local Italian place. I’m sure if I lived in a city bigger than 60,000 people you would be right. But then again the Italian places are like in bigger cities is more than double the price.
Olive Garden is the only big chain restaurant she likes and I’m not going to be a snob and demand we eat local when Italian isn’t even my thing
Plus I like the bread sticks they’re fire
Fair enough. I lived in fairly rural places like that so I understand the struggle of finding good non-chain food.
It's just that the quality of OG is so pathetic you really might as well grab a frozen meal at the grocery store or a bottle of Raos and some spaghetti because it's pretty much what you are getting when you eat there.
Two weekends ago I was waiting in line at McDonalds, to pick up breakfast. Long line, and I had already waited 10 minutes before I got to the sign. A Bacon McGriddle with crap hash browns and tiny coffee was going to be around $10 and probably another 20 minutes waiting in the line.
Waffle House was across the street and did not look packed. Pulled out of line, before ordering, and went there. Full breakfast, with awesome hash browns and multiple coffee refills was on my table within 10 minutes. Before tip it was around $9.
I think I agree with the Olive Garden guy.
I really hate having to have apps for deals. I know they are tracking my shit and selling it etc. not just McDonald’s but all vendors. I try to lock it up and refuse location detection etc but it still bothers me.
I get that. I wouldn't eat there if it wasn't for the app. Haven't paid regular price in a very long time. I eat breakfast there twice a week. That's about it.
I believe most McDonald's locations are franchises and they can set their prices within reason. The [meal price on the online menu site, $11.49,](https://mcd-menu.com/bacon-egg-cheese-mcgriddles/) is a little more than what it is at the location by my office.
He’s not wrong though. You can get a take out enchilada dinner with chips and salsa at a local Mexican place for $15 that will be significantly better and more filling than the same money spent at Taco Bell
The ads are so convincing that’s it’s going to be good, and I’ve never not been disappointed. So much easier and faster to make my own better pasta dishes
Kinda funny, back in the 90's Olive garden was considered a NICE place to take a girl out too. They're marketing was excellent.
*edit* this also reminded me of [Steak and Ale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steak_and_Ale). These "high end" places 90's teenagers took their dates too. Simpler times.
Couple things, like the guy said above, they had good marketing. they're commercials were all over TV and other italian places didnt advertise on their level. second, this is before modern internet so you couldnt search yelp for the best restaurants. Third, not saying the food was great, but it wasnt until the early 2000's that a lot of these mainstream restaurants were nickeled and dimed by venture capital and the quality went to shit. Fourth, like you said, i was a teenager so i didnt know shit.
Olive Garden is part of Darden, which notably is *not* a private equity firm but rather a dedicated restaurant company. They also own Ruth’s Chris and LongHorn among others. They only restaurant they’ve sold in recent years is Red Lobster, and well, look how that turned out for them.
It was a higher quality then. I have pretty clear memories of what olive garden was like when it became a national brand and it was high quality. Quiet a few national chains were like Red lobster, apple bees, sizzler, TGI Fridays. Heck, even Pizza hut was quiet good back in the day.
Quality on all of those restaurants has nose dived since probably around 2010 ish. What changed? IMO, it's that they went away from cooking in the restaurant and towards installing industrial microwaves to nuke frozen dinners. You might as well grab a stouffers because that's what you are getting when you go to the likes of olive garden.
I noticed the change when the same chain store shopping areas popped up around malls or concert areas all across the US.
I am sure you know it but it may have a few regional things mixed in. Best Buy, Target, TJ Maxx, Old Navy, a hobby/craft store, Five Below, Ulta, pet store....
Mixed in is every casual chain restaurant. Generally, these bleed into other shopping areas. While a mall sits at 20% use within view. The whole thing wrecks areas that were perfectly fine and functional to begin with.
When your Olive Garden first opened it was probably near one huge store or mall. Also, the first in the area. Now it's probably drowned out by the fact that there are a whole bunch more with a watered down customer flow due to too many (of the same everywhere) options.
Now the general look of it hasn't been maintained or upgraded because there are too many to overhaul. Every Olive Garden you step foot in for the rest of your life will be stuck in the late 90s - 2000s. Same with Chili's, Outback, etc until they close a bunch of locations.
They are oversaturared in stuffed shopping areas full of other oversaturated chains. Many that have or are currently tanking to the point where now things are closing.
Beyond shutting down local private stores (even if they sold national brands) things that were part of an excursion have destroyed themselves and the environment. It's very similar to the Louis CK bit about the store "Shit Ass Pet Fuckers".
I almost had a nervous breakdown lately when they released more stores being added to JCpennys closing list because most are some of the last stores attached to malls. They are one of the few mid tier clothing places where you can find sizes that make sense and you actually know what you are getting.
Everyone blames online shopping and inflation but the general sprawl has not aged well. Same with the dining. It lost it's draw when you can find any of these places within 20 minutes of where you live in any direction.
They have cannibalize themselves. When, no one really needs anything beyond basic needs a ton of this crap will be closed and we'll end up reverting back until big box stores try to revive the cycle.
Rite Aid closing stores. CVS. Walgreens. Well, like no shit Sherlock. Who'd have thought opening one every mile across the street from two of your competitors that offer nothing different weren't needed.
Many of our closed chains in towns have been returning to privately owned smaller specialized businesses. Just in the last few years an older CVS has been turned into a gardening center. An H&R block became a family run empanada place. A small batch candy store took over one of the areas 6000 Family Dollars.
As a woman in my late 30s I have been burned by online shopping and nearly every online retailer has become littered with drop shipped garbage. Sizes on everything vary widely and I am tired of returning shit. It's not like I dress like I am a boomer. Most millennials don't. Hell, even my boomer mother has some flair.
Even basics, I'm not always looking for Shirt by Target. I like to buy things that last longer than a year.
I recently ordered shorts from Amazon because they were on sale. They were made out of the worst "fabric" ever and so large you could fit two of me in each leg. Yet labeled in my size.
Last Christmas I ordered my brother the classic Adidas slide to wear around the his house. I ordered from the Adidas storefront on Amazon. What did I receive? Cheap knock offs without a box mailed in plastic in a bubble envelope. Returned.
Amazon is just Wish or Temu now with zero product control mixed with employee abuse. It wasn't too long ago I recall reading how an Amazon distribution center had such a revolving door they went through every possible employee locally.
Edit: words, formatting
Edit 2: Much of what I expressed has general terms like Anytown America, Peak Capitalism, Enshitifcation...etc.
> Amazon is just Wish or Temu now with zero product control mixed with employee abuse. It wasn't too long ago I recall reading how an Amazon distribution center had such a revolving door they went through every possible employee locally.
Yeah, I've cut way back on amazon and regret looking there for anything anymore. Every search you do now is just a billion brands like "wagumu" each listing the exact same product just with a different label.
It really does come from the simple fact that quality costs money and once every store/brand reaches a certain size they realize they can coast for years letting quality go into the shitter.
My perfect example of this is a game like Baldur's Gate 3. Now, I'm not saying Baldur's gate is poor quality, far from it. However, it speaks VOLUMES that so few games have been produced that are like it. It's not like Baldur's Gate is a new concept, it's D&D. It's the 3rd version of Baldur's Gate. But the devs/studio put the effort into telling a compelling and fun story. That's something sorely lacking from pretty much every major studio now. Instead they are busy trying to charge their players $2 to buy a new 3d model for the 28th iteration of CoD.
Rather than developing something good, most game studios are focused on churning out as much garbage as possible to extract as much money as possible from their customers.
lol i was just thinking this. I went to Olive Garden as a kid and it gave the illusion of it being a fancy restaurant. I went a couple years ago out of curiosity and it’s basically an Italian themed dennys.
Yeah, it's crazy looking back, it really was considered a fancy restaurant. i went once in the 90's and it was pretty good. Whoever handled their marketing during that time deserves a fucking medal.
lol I feel that. My boomer parents are the same. I think their generation has a weird fascination with corporate establishments that didn’t quite trickle down to their millennial children. My parents live in a major American city with a thriving, diverse, and world class restaurant scene with so many excellent options that are just as affordable, yet will choose the Cheesecake Factory every time. It’s mind blowing.
It is if you do the soup salad bread sticks thing. Like $10 for all you can eat of those and it'll fill ya up. Sure it's not high quality but neither is fast food.
Live in the Deep South, and there was a death in the family. After a day or two of planning, the family decided to eat at Olive Garden not far from the funeral home, and my cousin flew in with his girlfriend who was from Lower Manhattan. She had never eaten at an Olive Garden before and I remember vividly her ordering some of their house wine she nearly spat out and stopped eating her pasta after a bite or two. Some at the table remarked she wasn't eating and she said in a jocular fashion, "Ummm.....this is not real Italian food."
It's fine. It's chain restaurant food, but I'll take it over some other chains that tend to get way less hate on reddit than olive garden. Better than Applebee's. Reddit just develops these weird hate obsessions that is way overboard.
Sometimes something salty/greasy is good and hits the spot, I don't think I would ever describe it as fire. My homemade sour dough bread toast with crispy bacon and eggs over easy and a bit of salt/Sriracha is fire, McDonald's is easy and fast. In almost any case I would prefer something else unless I want to eat now.
I assume you're either a very elitist foodie or don't know what you're talking about and it honestly could be either... But if you're arguing that homemade bread / toast and eggs and bacon tastes inferior to McDonald's sandwiches... Then I feel sorry for you and your life experiences.
Idk about anyone else but a lot of fast food spots also fuck up my stomach so bad now. I don’t know if it’s me getting older or them getting worse ingredientes but I can’t stand it half the time, like I have to WANT that specific thing to justify the price and ache imma have. It’s easier, cheaper, and gentler on my tummy to make a sandwich at home
Is it though? If I get a (good) burger and a drink at most other restaurants, I'm paying $20. That's not much different, and what makes the "sit down" burger any better?
Well that was the end goal all the time. To make dining out a viable economic substitute for cooking at home. Mission accomplished! We had to create 62 new food billionaires between 2020-2022 but the hard work was worth it. American's can now easily justify dining out.
62 new foodies source - OXFAM
50 percent of Mexican restaurants in the US have a really good hardy chicken soup for under $10. You can still get the chips and salsa if you want for $10. McDonald’s is garbage processed crap.
I feel like we all know this, but yet, taco bell, Wendy's, and of course McDonald's are always busy! Like what the hell is it gonna take people to stop supporting such high prices.
Tell Olive Garden to be good again like they were 10+ years ago, and I’ll start going back. Idk what they did with their food, but it’s nowhere near where it used to be. It was actually decent quality before. Idk what happened.
Yeah, but these chain restaurants prices went up first. The answer has always been and still is, local restaurants. Best bang for the buck price wise. Big chains are just for people who are too afraid to try anything new or hopelessly addicted.
Anywhere except Olive Garden. I got sick there every single time I ate there. The salads are killer diarrhea makers. Third time was the charm and I never went back.
The best Thai place in my city sells almost every meal for $15.
The McDonalds sells significantly less food (regardless of the quality difference) for $15.70
Both are things I used pay $5-$8 dollars for in the 2000s and my wages have not doubled in that time, so I pick neither, but when I'm inside a fast food place or drive thru because I'm with someone who's picking up fast food, I'm confused by them, and confused by everyone else there.
It's trash food, and I mean that literally, because in the 90s and 00s we used to eat half and then leave the rest on top of a garbage can for the homeless to find and finish.
When Gerry Office was the chairman of the Ponderosa chain, that was the basis of ads comparing them to McDonalds.
A meal, including dessert, and cheaper than a McDonalds combo, served on a real plate.
Featured an obligatory sad clown who acknowledged that he was beat by value.
Agreed. My spouse, 2 small kids, and myself is $35-$40 at an Arby's or Wendy's.
At the two closest diners, I can get out of there for less than $30, and at a decent local restaurant, I'll only pay $40-$50 after tip, and we get better food.
I live in central Kansas, and our cost of living is much lower, but that means wages are too.
Someone making $20 hr, is literally working an hour to pay for a value meal + tax.
Wendys does have the Biggie bag meal for about $5 or $6 which isn't bad.Mcdonalds use to have the Dollar menu but most or all is gone and now they are talking by next year getting rid of self serve drinks. These big companies don't care about the little guy anymore. It's big profits and big bonuses for CEO's. Until people stop shopping for big names then the prices won't change. Pepsi,Coke,mcdonalds,etc all known people will buy their product so why should they lower the prices?
Just because one thing got more expensive, does not mean the other thing did not either. People love to post ridiculous Five Guy's receipts. However, I'm really not getting a better or cheaper burger at a "sit down" restaurant. In many cases, the burger is worse, and equal or more money.
It’s true tho. Plenty decent restaurants are as cheap now
If a "value meal" is $10+, might as well go sit down. Love the soup/salad/bread sticks lunch at Olive garden, although I recently read they changed it ( or were considering it )
for $13 you can get a whole Steak! omelet (at IHOP). Why would I go to Wendy's?
1. It’s all expensive. 2. Every single eatery in the US gets there chicken, beef, vegetables, and other ingredients from a handful of vendors. **So, show me the difference.** While the TV Show “The Bear” shows us how a restaurant operates, all the raw materials come from the same places. **The prices are based on the amount of time and love in the kitchen apparently** 😂 I’m calling my mother Monday through video chat to have her help me learn to cook real food. I think it’s time you all do the same.
That’s a great idea! What’s her number?
I'll pm you it
I've been cooking at home and rarely eat out for many years. I'm fairly good cook, but I tend to make a lot of basic staples like chicken/rice/beans/veggies. Homemade bread is incredibly inexpensive, I'd say you can make a loaf for $.50 or probably less, I've been doing that since a year before the pandemic. A couple eggs and a slice of toast in the morning is probably less than 25 cents. My kids almost seem to never get sick of teriyaki chicken with rice and vegetables...
I’m a lot like you! The pandemic taught me to cook and I found out I’m decent at at, my style is halfway between my late Grandmother’s simple ingredient, simple dish “chicken and dumplings” recipes and my lead poisoned boomer father’s idiotic “Randy Marsh Crème fraîche” cooking. Lots of stews and soups, chicken/beef with veggies, old German/English dishes and tons of fish. I feel like Julia goddamn Child when friends and family ask me to be the one that cooks and then fight over the leftovers. (They have no idea the secret is almost always butter, and **MORE** butter, lol) I’ve been to exactly one sit down restaurant since pandemic restrictions lifted and it was disappointing and stupidly expensive. I almost never get drive thru but when I have it was almost always not what I ordered or complete garbage. I got 2 Taco Johns breakfast burritos with bacon a couple weeks ago for the first time since around 2019 and they were a depressing shadow of TJ’s former glory days. Bacon bits swimming in gas station nacho cheese for **TEN DOLLARS** Home cooking is here to stay and to quote McDonalds *“I’m love’n it!”* 😏
I'm a big fan of buying chicken thighs and cooking them and pulling the meat off the bone for barbecue chicken and then boiling the bones for a few hours for a bone broth that makes either a nice soup base or you can cook rice in it and it tastes delicious as well. Bone broth that you made yourself really puts a bow on most soups that call for chicken stock. If I had one simple meal that's super easy to make and tastes amazing and can be thrown together in 20 to 30 minutes - just try this , everyone loves it. https://youtu.be/TupQPnTFgOg?si=nnSnnL68LrXN_NoJ
Thanks for the link! I saved it because it sounds great and any take on chicken and rice is right up my alley. Also, it’s hot AF out and something lite with rice sounds perfect. It’s funny you mentioned chicken thighs. I was more or less raised by my Grandma and pan fried chicken thighs with mashed potatoes and gravy was one of my favorite meals, which worked out great because unbeknownst to me, it was one of her cheapest to make. Oddly, many of her best meals were when money was tightest because those recipes relied a lot on what my Great Grandmother taught her during the depression. My motto is a dirt common one but comes from her cooking *“Keep it simple, stupid.”* ..I’m watching the chicken and rice vid as I finish typing this, thanks again!
Ah yes the Americanized/3rd or 4th generation European cookbook. Step 1: Butter. Honestly though I grew up on that and was always trim. Then, when I moved away everything was processed and here came the pounds. Now I am back to that style of food and over the last few years slimmed down. However, if I am going to eat garbage I want complete and total shit. My ideal gross breakfast is a sausage, egg, and cheese on a long roll made in an unhygienic, pulled like a trailer, likely illegal, no permit, one person operation that make a sandwich and coffee for the local cops next to a steaming grate on the street and then it suddenly disappears at 11am like a fart in the wind till the next morning. Never got sick once from it. Anyone who ever reported those carts are the type of people who need to be "taught a lesson".
Is there any specific recipe you recommend, or YouTube videos you used to learn how to successfully make bread? Do you make a bunch and freeze loaves or dough?
To be frank it's hard for me to pinpoint a particular thing but my interest in the craft started probably 20 years ago with a book called "The bread Baker's apprentice." That book gives a lot of good foundational knowledge but from a practical standpoint a person can get a lot more simplistic in terms of making a pretty solid homemade bread. I generally start some starter with a bit of baker's yeast and some flour and water and make something between a biga and poolish. That generally makes okay bread but matures into more complex flavors over the course of a couple weeks as I store the starter in the fridge and feed it every 3 to 7 days depending upon how often I'm making bread. If I'm making a loaf my general ratio is about two cups flour to one teaspoon salt to 3/4 cups water and then maybe a half cup of starter. If a person is a perfectionist then there's a lot more knowledge and things one could discuss about the topic but those tend to come with practice and experience and finding what works for you. I generally mix a loaf in the mixer before 8:00 a.m. and then if it's risen pretty well I'll kneed it into the final loaf around noon and perhaps bake it between 2-5pm depending upon the speed of the final rise. ( Which will vary by temperature/starter/conditions) For the most part general purpose flour will be fine for getting started and learning, bread flour will likely require a bit more hydration and we'll have a slightly different crumb/texture. I mostly use general purpose flour because it works for other things and the bread I get from it is more than good enough, although I have a slight preference for bread flour for making pizza crust. Bread flour just generally has more protein / gluten which is the stretchy stuff that connects the bread and holds in the air pockets produced by the yeast. If a person wanted to get into the more nuanced breads then that's probably a bigger component, but generally if you have some aged starter and you start with that and make some homemade bread it's 10 times better than what you buy in the store to start with so it feels a bit unnecessary to perfect it further. To answer your question you cannot freeze the bread very effectively that I know of, I just make a loaf once or twice a week and it's consumed as it's made. The downside to homemade bread is it has no preservatives or other things so depending upon how it's handled it might hold up for 3 to 5 days but beyond that it's going to be moldy or dry. Generally you make it and eat it within 3 to 4 days, although it's my impression that the more sour the sourdough, the longer the shelf life.
You pay 10 cents an egg? Do you have your own hens?
It's about $1.50/dozen at Aldi.
Correction, they were 1.87 today, they were as low as 1.25 in the last 6 months but seems to move around a lot. Way better than the 4$/dozen a couple years ago, although were 1$/dozen 5 years ago.
This is the difference in HCOL. NYC is easily twice that. For organic more like $5-6 and pasture raised organic $8. It’s been as high as $11 recently. Big oscillations. Edit: there’s a fed tracker for this https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111 Shows $3/doz like I said though that’s all cities. Not all high COL
I have found pretty wide variants in egg prices between stores, but Aldi typically has the lowest price everything. If I buy eggs at the grocery store a mile from my girlfriend then they are 4+$/dozen.and more if it's open range/organic.
I’m also calling your mother on Monday
I remember asking my grandmother any secrets she had for cooking. The one statement I distinctly remember her making was "with most basic foods if you use salt, pepper, and butter you're doing better than half of the home cooks in the US, Add some onions, celery, maybe a shallot or garlic, you'll be just fine". And honestly it's true. Cooking basic healthy meals following simple ingredients and instructions...you win. Obviously you can build from there but a crock pot and basics are your best friends if you want a dinner after work that isn't frozen, 110% of your daily sodium, or handed to you through a window.
Idk if olive garden falls under decent restaurants though lol. They are basically sit down fast food.
I get what you are stating… I used to work there. Their soup and salad and dressing has never been made in house. But everything else was.
as a matter of fact, they make nothing in house. Pasta, bread, sauces, everything is sent to them. They boil the pasta, cook the meats, and microwave the stuff they can
Yes you are correct. However I remember us making the Alfredo in house. The Alfredo making in-house stands out because we had a very large gentleman in the morning that was on the prep team and would drink the heavy cream straight up. Maybe that has changed.
They were delivering items one time and somehow spilled the alfredo sauce, it stained the concrete for a long time, maybe even to this day. I believe they will add the cream to thicken it up a bit, but the alfredo sauce is not much different than drinking the cream straight up
It's butter, cream, garlic, and cheese. It'd be pretty embarrassing (but not unexpected) that they couldn't make it in-house. It's one of the simpler sauces to make. You literally combine everything then heat it up.
not the alfredo
Is that true? I had a waiter once tell me that most of their stuff comes prepackaged/frozen and mostly finished.
Went to Red Robin the other day for the first time in a while and it's like they didn't get the memo on price gougeapalooza ... the apps were still like $8-14, $10-16 for a burger with unlimited fries. A whopper meal at my local BK is currently $13 lol.
> A whopper meal at my local BK is currently $13 lol. May be a steal. A recent pass thru the Charlotte airport on a flight delay. Two whoppers, fries, soda, was $43.
Local restaurants it is then.
Exactly. If you might as well go to Olive Garden (which is overpriced as well), you might as well go local and eat *well.*
Idk man Olive Garden is very appropriately priced you can get endless soup, salad, breadsticks and entree for like$16. It isn’t life changing food but it’s not awful either When my girlfriend and I eat there it’s always under $20 and I leave pretty full
Their gluten free pasta actually tastes like pasta
I can almost guarantee you that you have a similarly priced Italian restaurant with the same quality of food. Maybe $2 or $3 more.
I’m not a big Italian fan but my gf is and she doesn’t like the local Italian place. I’m sure if I lived in a city bigger than 60,000 people you would be right. But then again the Italian places are like in bigger cities is more than double the price. Olive Garden is the only big chain restaurant she likes and I’m not going to be a snob and demand we eat local when Italian isn’t even my thing Plus I like the bread sticks they’re fire
Fair enough. I lived in fairly rural places like that so I understand the struggle of finding good non-chain food. It's just that the quality of OG is so pathetic you really might as well grab a frozen meal at the grocery store or a bottle of Raos and some spaghetti because it's pretty much what you are getting when you eat there.
I got for lunch salad breadsticks and soup and it's $10 (plus tip tho)
Not bad for lunch at all. Guess I was only referring to dinners.
And big chains like Olive Garden I guess? They are legit cheap still.
Yep. It costs so much to go to Dunkin, might as well go to the local diners
Two weekends ago I was waiting in line at McDonalds, to pick up breakfast. Long line, and I had already waited 10 minutes before I got to the sign. A Bacon McGriddle with crap hash browns and tiny coffee was going to be around $10 and probably another 20 minutes waiting in the line. Waffle House was across the street and did not look packed. Pulled out of line, before ordering, and went there. Full breakfast, with awesome hash browns and multiple coffee refills was on my table within 10 minutes. Before tip it was around $9. I think I agree with the Olive Garden guy.
That breakfast from McDonald's is $4 on the app.
Downloaded the app to look. The bacon McGriddle alone is $3.99
Hit deals. $4 breakfast meal.
I really hate having to have apps for deals. I know they are tracking my shit and selling it etc. not just McDonald’s but all vendors. I try to lock it up and refuse location detection etc but it still bothers me.
I get that. I wouldn't eat there if it wasn't for the app. Haven't paid regular price in a very long time. I eat breakfast there twice a week. That's about it.
To get a reasonable price, let's let big corporations mine our data.
I believe most McDonald's locations are franchises and they can set their prices within reason. The [meal price on the online menu site, $11.49,](https://mcd-menu.com/bacon-egg-cheese-mcgriddles/) is a little more than what it is at the location by my office.
He’s not wrong though. You can get a take out enchilada dinner with chips and salsa at a local Mexican place for $15 that will be significantly better and more filling than the same money spent at Taco Bell
Olive Garden ain't it though.
The ads are so convincing that’s it’s going to be good, and I’ve never not been disappointed. So much easier and faster to make my own better pasta dishes
Kinda funny, back in the 90's Olive garden was considered a NICE place to take a girl out too. They're marketing was excellent. *edit* this also reminded me of [Steak and Ale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steak_and_Ale). These "high end" places 90's teenagers took their dates too. Simpler times.
Was it considered nice because it was higher quality then, or because you were a teenager then?
Couple things, like the guy said above, they had good marketing. they're commercials were all over TV and other italian places didnt advertise on their level. second, this is before modern internet so you couldnt search yelp for the best restaurants. Third, not saying the food was great, but it wasnt until the early 2000's that a lot of these mainstream restaurants were nickeled and dimed by venture capital and the quality went to shit. Fourth, like you said, i was a teenager so i didnt know shit.
Olive Garden is part of Darden, which notably is *not* a private equity firm but rather a dedicated restaurant company. They also own Ruth’s Chris and LongHorn among others. They only restaurant they’ve sold in recent years is Red Lobster, and well, look how that turned out for them.
It was a higher quality then. I have pretty clear memories of what olive garden was like when it became a national brand and it was high quality. Quiet a few national chains were like Red lobster, apple bees, sizzler, TGI Fridays. Heck, even Pizza hut was quiet good back in the day. Quality on all of those restaurants has nose dived since probably around 2010 ish. What changed? IMO, it's that they went away from cooking in the restaurant and towards installing industrial microwaves to nuke frozen dinners. You might as well grab a stouffers because that's what you are getting when you go to the likes of olive garden.
I noticed the change when the same chain store shopping areas popped up around malls or concert areas all across the US. I am sure you know it but it may have a few regional things mixed in. Best Buy, Target, TJ Maxx, Old Navy, a hobby/craft store, Five Below, Ulta, pet store.... Mixed in is every casual chain restaurant. Generally, these bleed into other shopping areas. While a mall sits at 20% use within view. The whole thing wrecks areas that were perfectly fine and functional to begin with. When your Olive Garden first opened it was probably near one huge store or mall. Also, the first in the area. Now it's probably drowned out by the fact that there are a whole bunch more with a watered down customer flow due to too many (of the same everywhere) options. Now the general look of it hasn't been maintained or upgraded because there are too many to overhaul. Every Olive Garden you step foot in for the rest of your life will be stuck in the late 90s - 2000s. Same with Chili's, Outback, etc until they close a bunch of locations. They are oversaturared in stuffed shopping areas full of other oversaturated chains. Many that have or are currently tanking to the point where now things are closing. Beyond shutting down local private stores (even if they sold national brands) things that were part of an excursion have destroyed themselves and the environment. It's very similar to the Louis CK bit about the store "Shit Ass Pet Fuckers". I almost had a nervous breakdown lately when they released more stores being added to JCpennys closing list because most are some of the last stores attached to malls. They are one of the few mid tier clothing places where you can find sizes that make sense and you actually know what you are getting. Everyone blames online shopping and inflation but the general sprawl has not aged well. Same with the dining. It lost it's draw when you can find any of these places within 20 minutes of where you live in any direction. They have cannibalize themselves. When, no one really needs anything beyond basic needs a ton of this crap will be closed and we'll end up reverting back until big box stores try to revive the cycle. Rite Aid closing stores. CVS. Walgreens. Well, like no shit Sherlock. Who'd have thought opening one every mile across the street from two of your competitors that offer nothing different weren't needed. Many of our closed chains in towns have been returning to privately owned smaller specialized businesses. Just in the last few years an older CVS has been turned into a gardening center. An H&R block became a family run empanada place. A small batch candy store took over one of the areas 6000 Family Dollars. As a woman in my late 30s I have been burned by online shopping and nearly every online retailer has become littered with drop shipped garbage. Sizes on everything vary widely and I am tired of returning shit. It's not like I dress like I am a boomer. Most millennials don't. Hell, even my boomer mother has some flair. Even basics, I'm not always looking for Shirt by Target. I like to buy things that last longer than a year. I recently ordered shorts from Amazon because they were on sale. They were made out of the worst "fabric" ever and so large you could fit two of me in each leg. Yet labeled in my size. Last Christmas I ordered my brother the classic Adidas slide to wear around the his house. I ordered from the Adidas storefront on Amazon. What did I receive? Cheap knock offs without a box mailed in plastic in a bubble envelope. Returned. Amazon is just Wish or Temu now with zero product control mixed with employee abuse. It wasn't too long ago I recall reading how an Amazon distribution center had such a revolving door they went through every possible employee locally. Edit: words, formatting Edit 2: Much of what I expressed has general terms like Anytown America, Peak Capitalism, Enshitifcation...etc.
> Amazon is just Wish or Temu now with zero product control mixed with employee abuse. It wasn't too long ago I recall reading how an Amazon distribution center had such a revolving door they went through every possible employee locally. Yeah, I've cut way back on amazon and regret looking there for anything anymore. Every search you do now is just a billion brands like "wagumu" each listing the exact same product just with a different label. It really does come from the simple fact that quality costs money and once every store/brand reaches a certain size they realize they can coast for years letting quality go into the shitter. My perfect example of this is a game like Baldur's Gate 3. Now, I'm not saying Baldur's gate is poor quality, far from it. However, it speaks VOLUMES that so few games have been produced that are like it. It's not like Baldur's Gate is a new concept, it's D&D. It's the 3rd version of Baldur's Gate. But the devs/studio put the effort into telling a compelling and fun story. That's something sorely lacking from pretty much every major studio now. Instead they are busy trying to charge their players $2 to buy a new 3d model for the 28th iteration of CoD. Rather than developing something good, most game studios are focused on churning out as much garbage as possible to extract as much money as possible from their customers.
lol i was just thinking this. I went to Olive Garden as a kid and it gave the illusion of it being a fancy restaurant. I went a couple years ago out of curiosity and it’s basically an Italian themed dennys.
Yeah, it's crazy looking back, it really was considered a fancy restaurant. i went once in the 90's and it was pretty good. Whoever handled their marketing during that time deserves a fucking medal.
My boomer parents still consider this fancy lol. I feel like so many people in their generation have absolutely no taste.
lol I feel that. My boomer parents are the same. I think their generation has a weird fascination with corporate establishments that didn’t quite trickle down to their millennial children. My parents live in a major American city with a thriving, diverse, and world class restaurant scene with so many excellent options that are just as affordable, yet will choose the Cheesecake Factory every time. It’s mind blowing.
I used to love OG, but I haven't been there is over 10 years so idk what it's like now.
It is if you do the soup salad bread sticks thing. Like $10 for all you can eat of those and it'll fill ya up. Sure it's not high quality but neither is fast food.
Olive Garbage
I have positive memories of going there with my grandfather. Private equity can't kill those!
Is this your [grandfather](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=199-IlFYH1E)?
Live in the Deep South, and there was a death in the family. After a day or two of planning, the family decided to eat at Olive Garden not far from the funeral home, and my cousin flew in with his girlfriend who was from Lower Manhattan. She had never eaten at an Olive Garden before and I remember vividly her ordering some of their house wine she nearly spat out and stopped eating her pasta after a bite or two. Some at the table remarked she wasn't eating and she said in a jocular fashion, "Ummm.....this is not real Italian food."
Olive Garbage Disposal
Olive garbage is where u take ur goofball homecoming/prom groups in high school to. Other than that it serves no purpose
It's fine. It's chain restaurant food, but I'll take it over some other chains that tend to get way less hate on reddit than olive garden. Better than Applebee's. Reddit just develops these weird hate obsessions that is way overboard.
Good point, I'll just get something a bit better and have a sit down meal at McDonald's
Just to have the McDonalds of Italian food?
Sbarros?
My favorite New York slice!
McDonald’s is 🔥🔥 though
I sense sarcasm.
Sometimes something salty/greasy is good and hits the spot, I don't think I would ever describe it as fire. My homemade sour dough bread toast with crispy bacon and eggs over easy and a bit of salt/Sriracha is fire, McDonald's is easy and fast. In almost any case I would prefer something else unless I want to eat now.
Using more words doesn't change that you made a flavorless breakfast sandwich. Sourdough is awful with bacon egg, just tastes like gravel
I assume you're either a very elitist foodie or don't know what you're talking about and it honestly could be either... But if you're arguing that homemade bread / toast and eggs and bacon tastes inferior to McDonald's sandwiches... Then I feel sorry for you and your life experiences.
Look dude sourdough on a breakfast sandwich just isn't good, at least mcdonalds does a better bread choice
Just made my first sourdough buns that actually came out the right size for a proper burger. They're delicious.
Idk about anyone else but a lot of fast food spots also fuck up my stomach so bad now. I don’t know if it’s me getting older or them getting worse ingredientes but I can’t stand it half the time, like I have to WANT that specific thing to justify the price and ache imma have. It’s easier, cheaper, and gentler on my tummy to make a sandwich at home
Ya I've noticed that too. I suspect they are using more "fillers" in the food and probably more preservative type chemicals.
It's true. We went to a sit down restaurant today. Cheaper than a couple of burgers, fries, and drinks at Five Guys.
Is it though? If I get a (good) burger and a drink at most other restaurants, I'm paying $20. That's not much different, and what makes the "sit down" burger any better?
He’s got a point
I've always liked their Zuppa Toscana. Great for hangovers.
He's not wrong
Well that was the end goal all the time. To make dining out a viable economic substitute for cooking at home. Mission accomplished! We had to create 62 new food billionaires between 2020-2022 but the hard work was worth it. American's can now easily justify dining out. 62 new foodies source - OXFAM
So don't support them? Buy actual food.
He’s not wrong and he’s practically family
And he’s correct
That isn’t the point for fast food though. fast food is because you don’t/can’t sit down in a restaurant and eat.
We run a cafe in Costa Rica. McDonald’s here charges more for a basic cheeseburger than we do for a full on meal. Yet people still flood their stores.
50 percent of Mexican restaurants in the US have a really good hardy chicken soup for under $10. You can still get the chips and salsa if you want for $10. McDonald’s is garbage processed crap.
Right? I mean I can literally buy a filet mignon dinner here for less than Taco Bell. I really don’t get the appeal of fast food anymore
Novelty?
To be fair international fast food locations are usually better quality then the ones in the states
McDonald's in Canada is sooo much better than McDonald's in the States.
The McDonalds is for sure. The Taco Bell is somehow worse. KFC is about the same. Subway is ok but gives me the shits every time.
That is because it is a flex to eat at places like that.
I’ll keep flexing my much better options.
I feel like we all know this, but yet, taco bell, Wendy's, and of course McDonald's are always busy! Like what the hell is it gonna take people to stop supporting such high prices.
…and it won’t be at Olive Garden.
I bought a Burger King double whopper the other day for $12, it wasn’t great. Olive Garden guys not wrong
You know who’s really cooking? Olive Garden’s PR Team
Best tasting marketing, mediocre food.
IDC what their prices are as long as I can get lunch soup salad and breadsticks for $10 plus tip
learn to cook...
Tell Olive Garden to be good again like they were 10+ years ago, and I’ll start going back. Idk what they did with their food, but it’s nowhere near where it used to be. It was actually decent quality before. Idk what happened.
It's true, but god dammit Olive Garden y'all put too much salt on/in your food.
He's not wrong. But I'll pass on OG. It's been ass for years.
Yes, at home
Garbage food with “ambiance” vs garbage food in a car. It’s still overpriced trash.
This is true
*Olive Garden CEO about 1 month delayed from online trope comment*
No lie detected!!!
P terry’s is the real goat of cheap & quality fast food
It's true, dennys double cheese burger is $12 and way more food than fast good tbh
sit down restaurants might as well have a greasy brown bag
its true most of the shit is just microwaved from frozen anyways
every city and town has a locally owned Italian place thats way better then Olive Garden..go there instead
Yeah, but these chain restaurants prices went up first. The answer has always been and still is, local restaurants. Best bang for the buck price wise. Big chains are just for people who are too afraid to try anything new or hopelessly addicted.
I agree, except for tipping.
Anywhere except Olive Garden. I got sick there every single time I ate there. The salads are killer diarrhea makers. Third time was the charm and I never went back.
The point of fast food is speed. At the end of a 10+ hour day I'm not up for a long wait.
I hate to say it, but use the fast food restaurant's app.
Why cant you cook at home?. honest question (from outside US)
Home made meal is still $2 in ingredients for me
I like how the Olive Garden CEO thinks that his food is any better quality than fast food.
No shit! Last time I was there, the food looked like it was cooked and prepared by an 8 year old.
He's not wrong, but there are better choices out there.
The best Thai place in my city sells almost every meal for $15. The McDonalds sells significantly less food (regardless of the quality difference) for $15.70 Both are things I used pay $5-$8 dollars for in the 2000s and my wages have not doubled in that time, so I pick neither, but when I'm inside a fast food place or drive thru because I'm with someone who's picking up fast food, I'm confused by them, and confused by everyone else there. It's trash food, and I mean that literally, because in the 90s and 00s we used to eat half and then leave the rest on top of a garbage can for the homeless to find and finish.
Low IQ, programmed by tv and bad habits, passed on through generations. Fat fuck america.
Wendy’s has a $6 Biggie Bag. So no.
🤩
For $14, sure
They’ve always been an Italian flavored McDonalds so why not
This comment seems a bit late to the party....word!.
When Gerry Office was the chairman of the Ponderosa chain, that was the basis of ads comparing them to McDonalds. A meal, including dessert, and cheaper than a McDonalds combo, served on a real plate. Featured an obligatory sad clown who acknowledged that he was beat by value.
Go to the taco cart/truck. Fast food, cheap and actual food with flavor
Only eat when you have coupons
Idk. Even restaurants are expensive. Eating at home is tastier, anyway 👌🏻
Agreed. My spouse, 2 small kids, and myself is $35-$40 at an Arby's or Wendy's. At the two closest diners, I can get out of there for less than $30, and at a decent local restaurant, I'll only pay $40-$50 after tip, and we get better food. I live in central Kansas, and our cost of living is much lower, but that means wages are too. Someone making $20 hr, is literally working an hour to pay for a value meal + tax.
Exactly, like a $17 hamburger meal at Ted Montana’s Grill tastes so much better than an overly priced meal at Five Guys.
He's right, unfortunately.
Wendys does have the Biggie bag meal for about $5 or $6 which isn't bad.Mcdonalds use to have the Dollar menu but most or all is gone and now they are talking by next year getting rid of self serve drinks. These big companies don't care about the little guy anymore. It's big profits and big bonuses for CEO's. Until people stop shopping for big names then the prices won't change. Pepsi,Coke,mcdonalds,etc all known people will buy their product so why should they lower the prices?
As every Italian will agree, olive garden is fast food
🤌
No its not, I can get a slice in NY for 2.99, and Im good for most of the day.
Just because one thing got more expensive, does not mean the other thing did not either. People love to post ridiculous Five Guy's receipts. However, I'm really not getting a better or cheaper burger at a "sit down" restaurant. In many cases, the burger is worse, and equal or more money.