I worked, as a teenaged, pimply boy, for Chi-Chi's, McDonald's, and Burger King. (Well, for B.K., I wasn't teenaged - I'd wanted the extra "income"!) I did not seek for flies to be within the menu (though, they gave a level of protein, mind you.) Frozen beef Junior B.K. burgers are not too different from the beef B.K. burger meat. They aren't! I swear! (Well, when I'd heard that Shel90 was there, I'd spat into the food . . . all in good fun, though!)
My Worst Restaurant - Landry's:
Very recently, I'd gone to a family reunion in St. Louis (Union Station). There, shockingly, was a restaurant touting a New Orleans-based diet. Such delicacy! Such temptation! Such draw! I had to dine!
Having resided in New Orleans, NO ONE can make gumbo properly. Gumbo is an art that is reserved for the homely style. (Read: HOME.) Gumbo is VERY subjective. (Like beef stew for ya'll yankees!) There's gumbo that you can mass market to the tasteless "north of I-10 of the United States" crowd and there's REAL gumbo - home's gumbo. No one can compete with "home." Would you believe that, even, the waitress had advised against the gumbo? I told everyone at my table not to get the gumbo if they'd trusted me. "Don't get the gumbo . . . it ain't that good." (Maybe she'd gotten the impression that we knew too much!) She knew that much.
Landry's. I'd hoped for so much. I ate there. I sought real food . . . REAL food. No. No. No. This was mass-marketed food. This was food catering to those who were NOT from Louisiana. This catered, apparently, to a crowd that had nothing to do with New Orleans. I was from New Orleans and went there because I was from New Orleans . . . and the food was not New Orleans. It was not, even, Louisianan. It was mass-marketed. What for? I guess: money, money, money.
You can't go wrong with bisque. A bisque is prepared in a particular way that you'd can't go wrong (if you're taught properly). They'd prepared it right. Very right. It was good. I had two bowls. Bowls; not cups. Corn bisque at Landry's is good. The rest, with all of its New Orleanian names, were crap. CRAP. What for? I guess: money, money, money.
When asked if there were other locations of the same restaraunt and the reply was, "I don't know <cheerleader giggle> . . . I think there's one in Florida." I wanted to die when she'd said that.
Want New Orleans or Louisiana food? Talk to me. Want Landry's? I kill you.
Moral of the Story:
Mass-marketed food will always be different from real food. Pay cheap and you will get cheap food. 99-cent sandwich? You want $199.00 quality? Stop being silly!
Landry's hurt . . . I shoved my food to the homeless. What for do I eat such crap?
I MISS REAL FOOD.