ignoring reality

The other day my husband and I were forced to have lunch at McDonald's because there was not an In-N-Out Burger or Chipotle in a 3 mile radius of where we were. I hadn't been to a McDonald's in I don't even know how long. I think we eat there on Thanksgiving when we drive up to San Francisco and it's the only thing open and we splurge on fat, calories, and chemicals. Not that I am opposed to eating those things, we just for some reason don't ever go to McDonald's unless a 5 hour drive is involved. I LOVE the fries at McDonald's. And there was a while that Karen was addicted to whatever that hamburger with mayo was. That was a tasty mix of stuff not good for you.  It was lunch hour when we stopped at McDonald's in a busy area and we were surprised how empty the parking lot was. When we walked in I was shocked to see it looked like Pottery Barn and not McDonald's. It still smelled like a salty, golden heart attack, so we knew we were in the right place. I looked up at the menu to see what number a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Fries was and there was a long string of numbers after the description. A number in the thousands. All the menu items had long numbers after them and they were not the prices. The price numbers had decimal points, these numbers did not. I realized why McDonald's was empty.
Yesterday, we went out to breakfast at Mimi's. Oh how I love their pain perdu, it's  worth the 20 minute wait on Sunday morning. There was no wait yesterday morning. That's odd. We were seated and handed the new Mimi's menu and that same string of long numbers that wasn't the price appeared next to each menu item. Luckily, the pain perdu had a number less than 500 next to it so I wasn't forced to cover my eyes in horror then eat celery the rest of the day.
Isn't part of the fun of going out to eat the part where you ignore reality for a meal? Calorie values should be available upon request not blasted at you in huge numbers. Who, aside from that town where Jamie Oliver went to change the food in schools, doesn't know that french fries and fried chicken are not healthy at every meal? Now, opening a menu is as frightening as watching a Dateline special about what lurks on hotel room bedspreads and remote controls.

Comments

[Chelsea]

Completely agree. It kills the fun...we already know it's not good for us and can't we treat ourselves?

[Nadia]

I totally agree as well and if I may climb up on my soapbox for un minuto...ahem, there are warnings on everything, cigarettes, food, hair dryers, plastic bags, BUT I have yet to see ANY warnings on a bottle of liquor that says DRINKING & DRIVING KILLS. okay, stepped off. why oh why do they think we are SO stupid that we need it thrown in our face? can we not do anything on our own anymore? xoxo ciao!

[Kim]

Seriously, sometimes you just don't want to know!!

[Sandy]

I'm not even stepping up on this one. I had to learn all the dreaded info in Nursing school. I don't agree with the numbers on the menu either and a lot of other things that are now going on with our food but I'll keep those to myself. Living in the South makes it even harder, we have so much great food to choose from.

[Norah Nick]

I got my first rude awakening recently at Baja Fresh. I won't ever be able to eat my beloved steak nachos again. That long number is too depressing.