BS: Danger Food

Subject: BS: Danger Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 12:08 PM

OK, fugu, but not what I mean. Food that's too hot (how did the hipsters burn their mouths? Eating their pizza *before* it was cool), yeah, still not what I meant.

I mean food like the caramel apples the (single) Chinese restaurant in Abidjan used to serve... a pile of apple chunks heated to some insane temperature covered with boiling sugar, served with a bowl of ice water. You grabbed a chunk of apple with your chopsticks and when you pulled it out of the pile, the sugar stretched, and when you dunked it in the ice water it hardened - then when you bit into it, you not only burned your mouth on the still-incredibly-hot apple, you could also spear holes through the top and back of your mouth seemingly straight into your brain with the hardened sugar spikes. Required serious attention, we always went home damaged, you can't find it nowadays, it's served so cool the ice water just makes the whole thing soggy, and the caramel is nowhere near as rich.

This thread inspired by the people who don't like to nuke their corn in the husk for fear of unwrapping a hot commodity.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Raedwulf
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 12:31 PM

Carbs. Sorry, Mrrzy, not what you meant (although there is the infamous burns case, the woman who won $3M-odd in compensation, having spilt her own coffee into her own lap, the court having decided that the coffee was being purveyed at a ridiculously hot temperature).

No, carbs, hot or cold, are the real danger food. The de riguer balanced diet has only been promoted since the 60's, mainly on the basis of one American who was convinced it was a good idea & was influential. We could not have evolved as we did had we been eating carbs (we'd still be in the forests with the gorillas). We did not have the modern carbs available, for a start. And there's a lot of reasons to question whether a high-carb low-fat diet (which is mostly what gets promoted) is good idea.

The "we only invented carbs *cough* agriculture 12,000 years ago" has recently been called into question, but there is nevertheless no evidence that the so-called balanced diet is healthy, bar scientific orthodoxy. Which is no different from the medieval church saying that the Earth was the centre of the universe!

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 01:04 PM

Any food served commercially should have reasonable warnings if it is

1) Very hot physically
2) Very 'hot', as in spicy.. like Habeneros
3) Contains ingredients known to be allergens to many people.
4) Is served on a plate which is itself hot (some steaks...etc.)
5) Has ingredients known to be forbidden to certain religious/ethnic groups.

All this is hard to regulate and enforce... all one can do is complain and/or avoid in the future.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: gnu
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 04:04 PM

There is only one "venue" in which I eat out.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Ed T
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 05:56 PM

I was in a restaurant a few years ago, and a bloke choked on a string from a roast of beef.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 06:35 PM

No, I mean foods we LOVE that are FUN to eat BECAUSE they are dangerous to your MOUTH/eating apparatus AT THE TIME you eat them, not if you eat too much of them later kind of thing.

Eating live crabs who can bite back would qualify, but I don't know if anybody eats crabs live. What do you eat that can make you pay attention?

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 09:04 PM

Rolled up slices of meat cooked with toothpicks in them to keep them rolled. Things stuffed with hot cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 10:31 PM

Ooh yeah, some crepes can really hide some heat!

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,Musket misunderstanding
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 02:21 AM

My last crepe packed some heat. Must have been that pork vindaloo last night.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 04:44 AM

You try selecting food that has no onions.

And when they suggest I might have an onion allergy my reply is always "No but my wallet has". It shuts 50% of them up, most others are thinking "why does he come here, that is all we serve" - it is written all over their face. And then there are those that don't know that a "pickle (d onion)" is an onion.

Simple - I am buying, not being sold a product. If you can't service, I can't be served. Eating out is rarely a pleasure.

Don't even get me started on curry. Temperatures will cool, chillies don't. Remember what meat tastes like? Bland these days because it is bred to have no taste that would worry the curry!

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 04:46 AM

this thread seems to have started half way through?

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 07:21 AM

Funny. I buy what is on the menu. I don't go into Halfords and demand they sell me a plasma telly.

I must ask the pig farmer whose land adjoins mine how he manages to rear tasteless pork?

(There again, a bit like eggs are better when chickens can peck at the midden, pork was slightly tastier when pigs were allowed swill rather than strict diets, as those reared for pork are these days.)

That said, I'm not sure I know of a danger food for me. Sure, celiac and other intolerances can mean danger food for some, but other than not liking celery other than cooked as a herb, I don't restrict my love of gastronomy by ignorance.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 07:36 AM

The only danger food in my life is that revolting sour and sloppy abomination apple sauce. The danger lies in the fact that if you try to put some on my plate I'm going to have you arrested.


Mind you, at a fiesta in Andalucia a couple of weeks ago the village bar served everyone up with a paella tapas that no-one could even imagine trying to actually eat. The rice was a lurid yellow colour and smelled of drains. Mine contained what appeared to be a piece of raw pig hide and a small whole octopus that looked like it had just died (probably of food poisoning). My sister assured me that the bar redeemed itself the following week with some very nice food.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Ed T
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 09:30 AM

""I don't eat applesauce, but I do eat applause. I don't use a spoon—I eat applause with my hands.""
― Jarod Kintz, The Merits of Marthaism, and How Being Named Susan Can Benefit You

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Ed T
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 09:40 AM

""The most dangerous food is wedding cake.""
― James Thurber

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 09:41 AM

Raw onions are a caution for me, as is sauerkraut (not helpful during my recent Germany trip). Except for my grandmother's kraut, but she made that herself.

And, of course, haggis. Wild or tame, no haggis. Not even curried or with chocolate sauce or both.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 09:48 AM

If you pour chocolate on haggis you deserve to lose yer taste buds.

Clockwise haggis caught illegally during the mating season has a particularly good taste to it. McSween is widely available and up there with the best.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 09:53 AM

The MacSween haggis is indeed a thing of great beauty. I generally have one of those mini ones in the freezer which I eat only when alone. Mrs Steve is no aficionado, more fool her.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 09:54 AM

Sigh.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 10:08 AM

Smoked salmon, which I truly enjoy, can hide "pin bones" that lodge inside your mouth. So can cooked salmon. I've also found bone shreds in some homemade sausages.

I was once preparing a venison roast given to me by my little brother and dug out the ball he'd used to shoot it. (Yes, ball. He'd used a .54 caliber flintlock.) If someone had swallowed it (unlikely but possible) they would have broken the bowl.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,Bizibod
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 11:31 AM

When we were kids, my brother and I would occasionally pool resources in order to buy 2 ozs of sherbert lemons, despite knowing full well that they ripped the roof of your mouth to shreds! Could actually feel with your tongue,the flaps of skin hanging down and wafting.....
Hardness of the boiled lemon-flavoured sugar shell, acidic burst of lemony sherbert - and there you go - hanging shreds!

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 12:12 PM

From a guy who calls himself 'The Coffee Detective':

"Coffee is best served at a temperature between 155ºF and 175ºF (70ºC to 80ºC). Most people prefer it towards the higher end, at about 175ºF.

Do you remember that lawsuit that MacDonalds lost when a customer scalded herself after she spilled some of her coffee? Back then the MacDonalds manual for its employees stated that coffee should be served at "195 to 205 degrees and held at 180 to 190 degrees for optimal taste."

As they discovered when they lost the case, that was too hot.

You won't go far wrong at 175ºF. That said, there are some coffee experts who like to drink their coffee at much lower temperatures."

===========
Two weeks ago, my sister burned her mouth on MacDonald's coffee after putting two creamers in it. The manager criticized her for not putting ice in it, and she said, "We keep our coffee at 200 degrees."

MacDonald's doesn't seem to have learned anything. Food is supposed to be good for you, it's not supposed to hurt you.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,CupOfTea, no cookies
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 12:18 PM

I think Stouffers has a patented "never cools down at the same temp" cheese they use on thier frozen French Bread Pizzas. When you heat them in a regular oven - I don't have a microwave- when the rest of the pizza is hot, the cheese is molten. When the rest of the pizza has cooled down to a reasonable temperature the cheese is STILL molten.

I have had "pizza mouth" so severe I had the roof of my mouth in shreds from eating this pizza when the crust was only lukewarm. I tried different ways of heating it, but pizzamouth was the only result. After a few tries, I just gave up on it, no matter how good the rest of Stouffer's line is (their Lasagna is scrumptious!)

I also crunch ice cubes when I'm alone, though I KNOW it's dangerous to my teeth, even after having a mostly filling tooth fall apart crunching on a hard candy, which takes less pressure. On the run, I'm drinking out of a bottle with a small opening, so I can't be tempted. In a restaurant, in polite company, I refrain.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 12:24 PM

'MacDonald's doesn't seem to have learned anything. Food is supposed to be good for you, it's not supposed to hurt you. '

Two points:

1. If food or drink is heated, you let it cool before eating or drinking. Common sense.

2. Do you really believe McD'S serves food that is in any way good for you?

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 12:36 PM

This is the country where allegedly a woman tried drying her wet dog in a microwave and sued the manufacturer successfully.

If you eat junk food, then caveat emptor. I didn't know adults actually went to McDeath?

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 01:53 PM

I got stabbed once in the tonsil by a rosemary sprig that had been on fish so I thought it was a fishbone in my throat but it was the rosemary... nearly nailed one of my uvulas to the back of my throat!

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Ed T
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 01:55 PM

Is McDonalds coffee actually coffee?

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,Jacqui.c
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 06:18 PM

The coffee at McDonalds is Newmans Own and the only reason that Kendall would go there. That's the coffee he drinks at home and which many people have enjoyed. There is nothing else on their menu worth even thinking about so far as I am concerned. BTW, I don't drink the stuff myself - don't like coffee.

I agree about carbs. I've been carb free for about fifteen years now and feel great for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 09:31 PM

My grandmother made a "nut bread" from black walnuts, and it was delicious. However, we had to crack the nut and pick out the meat and you would assuredly end up with a bit of shell. No matter how hard you tried, you would get a bit of shell. Nevertheless, the taste was worth it.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 12:31 AM

Yes, I have 2 uvulas. Not from danger food, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 12:34 AM

Oh, yeah, the one pit from each can of cherries in mom's cherry crisp. I think they left the pit there so you knew it was really cherries, or something. Watch your teeth.

Once as a child I thought I heard crackling - turned out to be the wine glass I was about to bite through. But that's not danger food, that's me being lame.

"Buster, you quit that!" Cried Mama Jukes, as was her wont whenever she heard crackling...

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Musket
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 03:16 AM

Funny that McDeath coffee is being mentioned. By weird coincidence last night, someone mentioned that it is just about drinkable, largely because they use Nescafé in their "restaurants."

It does beggar the question, why were adults in there in the first place, but to be fair, I did go in one a few times many years ago as a treat for my children whose friends tended to go in. Once or twice a year isn't going to kill you, and lifestyle pressure means kids will want to go. I genuinely cannot see why people on here are moaning about types of food yet walk into these places with the intention to actually eat the stuff. I recall sitting with a coffee of some description whilst they ate a greasy burger and American style fries. Made me wonder where our good home cooking and taking them to nice restaurants failed.

To be fair, my eldest has the exact same attitude with my granddaughter.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 10:40 AM

OK, a different danger: I thought I was a responsible single parent of preschool twins, hardly *ever* doing fast food, till I went through the drive-through at the bank and two little voices from the back seat cried-- in harmony -- "Friiiies!"

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 03:12 PM

MacDonald's offers some perfectly good food. Just make good choices.

Most Americans know that if you buy coffee from MacDonald's, it is so dangerously hot that you have to put ice in it. When you think about it, that's ridiculous.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 03:39 PM

'When you think about it, that's ridiculous.'

Yes, it is. Putting ice in hot coffee rather than waiting for it to cool a bit, bonkers.

'MacDonald's offers some perfectly good food.'

If you feel that's the case, your choice.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 04:30 PM

I wish to make an announcement. I am 64 years old and have never set foot in a McDonalds. Not even to take a McShit.

I was, however, when a student in London in the late 60s/early 70s, very appreciative of the existence of an all-night Wimpy on Gloucester Road. To me, in a student B&B in Earl's Court with no cooking facilities, this was nirvana. The imbibition of eight pints of Tartan Keg did tend to make one peckish (though, at just over 2% ABV, not exactly pissed), and a Wimpy cheeseburger and chips was eminently affordable. And especially delicious at three in the morning. Naturally, this meant missing chemistry the next day, but I didn't want to be there anyway, and neither did the chemistry lecturers. There was nothing not to like, and, as you can see, I survived the Wimpys.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: gnu
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 05:40 PM

Smoked boiled ham dinner tonight. 1kg of fresh green beans (yes, 1kg). Fresh carrots. Fresh spuds. Fresh cabbage. Screw McD's. I can hardly move and I won't gain weight. Seriously, this boiled dinner is far better than any takeout and it costs far less. I get the late night munchies stuff, Steve, but, for me, and, apparently for you, that is long ago and far away.

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: Musket
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 05:40 PM

Ah well. We've all had the post night club munchies. Kebab meat and chips with chilli sauce. I would put it down the bog and miss out the middle man now like, but after eleventeen pints and failing to get laid for some inexplicable reason, it seemed perfectly ok.

I have never had a McShit food offering either, although my children had whilst I sat with a coffee many years ago. There is a KFC next to a car park I use regularly and how the flying fuck they sell anything is beyond me because the smell of rancid chicken flesh coming across the car park fair makes you gag.

We can put junk food and the influence of American lack of culinary culture on the world in perspective by reading the PhD thesis of a public health doctor I know. His mother is Greek and he got his doctorate by putting a time line on a graph. Rise of American imported lifestyle and associated junk food outlets such as McShit etc and lowering life expectancy / increasing morbidity in Greece. Fascinating read.

Danger food indeed. Even more dangerous to point out how dangerous it is. McShit strung out a court case where their danger to childrens' health was exposed in an action that made Bleak House look tame.....

Subject: RE: BS: Danger Food
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 06:05 PM

"F" off Ronald.