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.

Untangling Chains

I've read through yards of comments, this week, relating to articles about the rash of CEOs in the catering or restaurant business whose hackles have been well and truly raised at the prospect of the Affordable Care Act's mandate that they must, if their staff numbers reach a certain level, provide health care insurance cover for full-time employees. A common response from commenters is something which, after a while, began to strike me as tiresomely smug and self-righteous: e.g. "We never, and have never eaten, (alternatively will not in future eat) at Applebee's, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Denny's, Dairy Queen, Papa John's....." the lists go on. These people obviously must live in urban areas where choice abounds. Usually there are added remarks about the quality of food in the named establishments, words such as "garbage" "swill" appear. The usual internet hyperbole!

Whereas I do fully understand the principle and value (in some cases) of boycott, and acknowledge that people are free to choose their eating places, for taste or other reasons, it does seem kind of counter-productive to boycott all chain restaurants if the main reason for doing so relies on the inhumanity of their CEOs. All that's likely to happen, should boycotts become widespread, is that even more jobs will be lost, more people will become unemployed. It's unlikely that small cafés would suddenly spring up to take up the slack and offer jobs in small local establishments, whose owners would not be required to provide health insurance anyway!

Here's an idea: if a person decides to dine in one of the offending eateries, where the chain is not conducting itself well regarding matters mentioned above, why not carry a personal, signed letter addressed to the Manager or Area Manager, expressing concern at the attitude of their company on the matter of health care insurance provision? Withering remarks could be backed up with a link to an on-line article. Ask that the letter, delivered locally by hand, be copied to the company CEO.

The type of food most chain restaurants dish up is not to the taste of everyone. Some of it is certainly not to my own taste, but most of it, especially in the non-fast food places, couldn't, in all fairness, be categorised as "swill" or "garbage". Unimaginative - perhaps! Some of it is unhealthy too, but then, so is some food served in local, privately-run diners. We frequent chain eateries in the course of our road trips, we have a few favourite venues; a few we routinely avoid when possible, too, for reason of our own tastes.

There are certain advantages to chain eateries. 1: Consistency. You know exactly what you're going to get when you order a certain item - wherever you are in the vastness of the USA. Some might consider that not to be a good thing - but it does have advantages. 2: In most states you can be reliably assured that high standards of cleanliness in food preparation and proper storage are fully adhered to in chain establishments. In independently owned businesses, one cannot always be as confident on this score - if you've ever watched TV's Restaurant Impossible
you'll not need convincing!

Another post of mine about the injustices restaurant staff must endure is HERE.