Monday "in the middle of a chain reaction..."

The weekend brought news that Olive Garden cooks don't put salt in the water when cooking pasta. Trivial and inconsequential as that is, it offered a break from other available news diets: ISIS, Ukraine, miscellaneous sporting "celebs" who delight in giving their wives a good slapping around - or worse.

We don't eat out a lot, other than when away from home on one of our trippy explorations. Eating out then becomes part of the adventure. To those who've lived their lives in the USA, chain restaurants may seem, from what I read online, to be an anathema. To me, relatively new to the USA's version of "cuisine", American chain restaurants were, and still are, an interesting concept waiting to be explored.

I'm no foodie. I cannot be doing with effete and elitist crap on any front, including would-be food critics' ideas on "cuisine". I suspect that a good percentage of the derision aimed at US chain restaurants boils down to pure snobbery.

It all depends on whether one eats to live or lives to eat, I guess.

My main complaint about chain restaurants in the USA is the way they treat their staff. Ridiculously low pay rates, poor if any health insurance, leaving servers to rely on customers' tips. Yet, if we were to boycott chains, more people would lose their jobs. Catch 22 .... or something like it.

I grew up, as did most of my contemporaries in England, eating good plain home-cooked food. Typically English food is also a target of derision by effete and elite foodies. But that's another story.

Of the USA's major chain restaurants so far explored, my personal favourite is Cracker Barrel - spoiled only by a recent comment indicating that the chain is frequented mainly by Republican-loving folk. Much the same applies to country music - which used to be my favourite musical genre until sullied by a similar connection to Republicanism. Still though, Cracker Barrel's Haddock Dinner with home-style fries and some sides is the best fish dish, beautifully cooked, even if from frozen as it must be, that I've tasted since living in the USA.

Applebee's. Their menu these days isn't as good as it used to be a few years ago. A favourite Bruschetta Salad has disappeared, and their fish and chips leave much to be desired. Chili's is like Applepbee's younger sister. It's nice to be able to have a glass of beer or wine with a meal in these venues.

Olive Garden has never been a favorite of ours. In fact, I have never had a really good Italian meal since I arrived in the USA. I put this down to the fact that we've lived and travelled mainly in the mid-section of this vast land, and mostly outside of huge metropolises. Proper ingredients for Italian cuisine just are not available in these parts of the country, or if they were to be ordered in from Italy, would put meal prices through the roof. So what we get, at chains like Olive Garden, or privately-owned Italian-style restaurants, is "pretend" Italian food, of varying quality.

Mexican restaurants, whether chain or privately owned are likely to have similar, though less severe, problems to Italian restaurants. I've never been to Mexico so have nothing to compare Mexican food in mid-America, with food in Mexico. From what I can gather from others, there's a vast difference. I find most Tex-Mex a bit bland, but very occasionally have struck unexpectedly lucky in small, privately owned cafes.

Of the steakhouse or barbecue chains I've had little experience. We frequent these only when no alternative exists (quite often in small Texas towns). I'm not a meat eater by choice but not strict vegetarian; husband's not a steak enthusiast either, so if alternatives exist, then we go for them.

IHOP - I like IHOP, but this year their menu has gone through subtle changes. A favourite item - crepes filled with scrummy soft custardy stuff, then covered in fruit, has disappeared, with a much less delish alternative in its place. I think IHOP merged, or were taken over not long ago. This doesn't bode well! They're not as good as they were, but still quite acceptable.

Buffet type chains such as Golden Corral can be good or poor depending on the franchise holder. I find their salads sections most inviting. I think this style of restaurant will soon be a thing of the past, the branch in our town closed a couple of years ago, and another buffet-style restaurant closed in Lawton a year or so before that. I can imagine the reasons. To be profitable there'd have to be a constant stream of customers, otherwise waste involved would be huge. With so many other choices in most towns these days, customer volume would be bound to decline.

In our general area, within 50 or so miles, we're limited to Applebee's, Chili's, IHOP, Olive Garden, Red Lobster (been there only once - didn't enjoy), and Golden Corral. I know there are other chains out there, such as Ruby Tuesdays, TGI Fridays, Spaghetti Barn, and others, where we might, over the years, have sampled a single meal, but no lasting impression remains.

All in all, though most big chain restaurants don't inspire enthusiastic "ooohs" and "aahhs" when dishes are tasted, the establishments and their restrooms are always reliably clean, service is usually decent, and food good to acceptable - for the price - and that is no small consideration. So...what's to deride about chain restaurants, unless one hopes to appear as one of those insufferably sniffy food critics?


PS: The song in the post heading? Here it is: Chain Reaction, sung by Diana Ross backed by the Bee Gees, who wrote it.