Today I went to burger king for the first time in years. It was even worse than I remembered it. (had the vegetarian option, don’t know if it’s as bad with the meat burgers) Additionally it’s fucking expensive and not as quick as it used to be. So my question is why do some people go there regulary?
All the answers will be the same:
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I have limited choices and this is all I got.
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It comfort food. I have fond memories.
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Don’t yuck on people’s yum.
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The King is holding my family hostage unless I order two whoppers a week please send help
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I like tasty gourmet food. But I also like junk.
I genuinely like a big Mac or a domino pizza. Are they as good as a gourmet burger or a wood oven pizza? Not even close. Can I enjoy them regularly? Absolutely.
Same. I’ve had Michelin star meals, meals from world famous chefs, and everything in between. And sometimes the only thing I want is a McDs double cheese burger.
Tastes are funny. Sometimes I want a steak and salad, sometimes I want a shitty greasy burger with a pile of fries.
Same. There’s a strange allure to cheap fast food. Ig it’s a childhood thing for me, forbidden fruit and all, but I really love cooking all kinds of meals myself too.
Sometimes I channel my spirit animal
And I hunger for a pile of garbage.
Fast food is pretty gross if you don’t eat it regularly. I think a lot of it is how addictive it can be. A hit of caffeine, sugar, salt, and fat when you are hungry and tired hits the spot.
People get stuck in these routines, and the companies have apps and reward programs to gamify people into coming back.
Yeah I remember being in my twenties and absolutely salivating over a $2 Tuesday lunch special near my work, which is not something I could stomach now that I’ve got some years of home cooking in me.
I think this is the only answer that I can understand
Yeah I was just reading through these comments totally confused what was going on, I might get a KFC once a year and that’s it. All the rest of them make me feel slightly ill just from the smell.
I do have a great Indian place locally I use fairly often and a couple others, just can’t imagine buying the chain stuff.
You get tired of eating microwave meals, and anything that leaves dishes I have to clean later is certainly not easier than going to fast food
I consumed fast food regularly when it was cheap. Maybe today someone consumes fast food regularly, because it can still be cheap, but only if you collect points, coupons and such.
On top of that, they’re always around you and you know what they offer, if you get used to it. Sometimes I want a satisfying safe bet instead of an unknown experiment.
Lack of time, lack of energy, or both. Cooking is exhausting and difficult when you’re already tired from working.
Air fryer and sous vide has made it easy for me to do quick cooking when I don’t have time.
I love the idea of sous vide but I associate hot water and plastic with leeched chemicals and microplastics.
You can use silicone sous vide bags. Which are re-useable, so no plastic waste at all.
I’ll check that out! Thanks!
Hi, that’s me. I get an hour for lunch during the week, and there are a handful of fast food places minutes from my work. I drive through, and sit in the parking lot eating my lunch and playing games on my phone. It’s my quiet time for the day.
There’s a bit of a game for some of these fast food places. Most people just roll up and order a #1 or whatever was in the commercials. That’s how they get ya!
Sometimes you need to download the app, or check the menu for a budget meal. A slightly smaller burger and less than a pound of fries is an adequate meal for around $5-7.
I used to order a kid’s meal, and it was more than enough food for an adult. My kids enjoyed getting toys at the end of the day, too, but they were all plastic garbage.
One of my coworkers lost a lot of weight, and when I asked him what he was doing to lose weight he said he was ordering kids meals.
Honest question: Why not cook a bunch of meals once or twice a week and eat that instead? It can be cheaper and it’s way less likely to get you sick in the long run.
Honest answer: Because that sounds terrible.
I’m not going to waste my time cooking food that I won’t eat at it’s prime, just so it can take up my fridge space until I inevitably ruin it with a microwave later in the week.
Also, storing and reheating good creates MUCH more potential for contamination and food borne illness.
I can pay for my lunch with the money I make in the first half hour of the day. It’s not breaking the bank.
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And meal prepping is 2 hours of your week every week, plus however long you have to work to pay for the ingredients, which is probably another 2 hours
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You are missing the point, it’s not “4.5 hours a week of work” vs “absolutely nothing”, it’s 4.5 hours of work vs however long to have to work to pay for the ingredients, plus the time to make the food. If I spend an hour meal prepping and it takes me an hour and a half to pay for the ingredients, eating out at lunch only costs me 2 additional hours of my time, not 4.5
I also don’t know what meal you are preparing where chopping veggies, searing meat, packaging and cleaning up afterwards only takes 20 minutes. Even making chili, which is the prototypical “throw everything in a pot” recipe takes me north of an hour when all is said and done
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This is what I do - make a big pot of chili or soup for the week. But I recognize that this might not work for everyone. At my work there’s a conveniently located fridge and microwave, and I can eat in my office with the door shut for a quiet meal. If any of those things weren’t there it might not be worth it.
I also enjoy cooking, and don’t mind spending time making my meal for the week. If the prep work was a real chore then it’d be much more tempting to buy something premade every day.
I tend to do it by cooking extra portions for dinner each night and taking in that portion/leftovers the next day, that way there is no meaningful extra work.
And if we have time to plan on a weekend i like to do a meal that i can cook a big batch on a sunday that will reheat well, ie: chili (as you said), lasagna, spaghetti bolognese, thai curry, stir fry with rice, etc.
Edit: also wanted to note that yes buying lunch occasionally is super tasty but i feel much worse afterwards that afternoon, and it has also pushed me to step up my cooking skills and think i am quite good for a home cook now.
Same, when I ate fast food a lot it was because there were places next to work. Eat in my car and read for the short amount of time I had.
Every time I eat a mcD cheeseburger I get a tummy ache. That shit is concrete.
Lovers of asparagus, how and why do you eat it? No matter how it is cooked, I don’t enjoy it. There’s something about the taste I do not like. I had some again recently, and it was just as bad as I remembered it.
Why do you eat a food I don’t like?
To increase the area of effect when I piss on something to claim territory
I have trained myself to enjoy a wide range of foods. Only thing I can’t get behind is mango
asparagus
Bake in oven with: Olive oil, 1 lemon’s juice and zest, and salt.
Or BBQ. A lot of veggies get a bad rap because the older generations just boiled everything.
Yes! In that case, let the asparagus marinate in what I wrote for a few hours, then grill over charcoal. I have a grill basket I use a lot in the summer for the above and other veggies.
If you’ve never done this with parmesan…you really, truly should. 😙🤌
C’mon, you can’t say no matter how its cooked. You sure I can’t interest you in some fried asparagus with a cheese-based sauce? Yeah, any nutritional value you’re getting out of them is pretty much ruined, but who cares.
The quality depends on locations and staffing, etc. Also vegetarian options at fast food joints are a guaranteed way to have crappy food. The big name fast food places have never had good choices for vegetarian/vegan stuff.
I visit some fast food chains but I avoid Burger King at all costs. Some of the worst burgers I have ever seen and eaten in my entire life have come from that dump.
Prices are getting out of hand, though. Fast Food is quickly reaching price parity with actual quality restaurants which is insane.
Well, you see, the combination of mayonnaise and melted cheese creates a chemical chain reaction in my brain that makes me feel good.
Before the pandemic I was on the road sometimes and it surprised me how many towns / tiny cities would have 1 grocery store and then a couple fast food chains as the only (obvious) to-go food options.
Many seem to have one particular mini-mart or gas station that has surprisingly good food, but you tend to need some local knowledge to find that.
It’s fast and McDonalds is one of the only places in my city that is open 24/7
I don’t go there regularly anymore after I stopped working as a service technician who had to travel a lot.
