Text 1374, 40 rader
Skriven 2006-05-12 14:11:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: bad things 666
======================
The Ground Round was the closest sit-down place to my rehearsal
hall, and the bus went right by there, so that's where I ate,
passing up a McDonalds, a Burger King, and a Taco Bell. I
should have perhaps, in retrospect, gone to one of those, or
perhaps all three (my meal cost what three fast-food meals
would have cost). The staff were perfectly pleasant, and after
I wandered in to find a seat at the bar and deemed the area too
cluttered for comfort and the safety of my violin, I collared
a hostess who quite happily seated me alone at a 4-top booth
nearby. I had a large Sam, which was comforting and which I
nursed throughout the meal. The menu looks like any chain
menu. I opted for the steak tips rare, topped with "our award-
winning whiskey-pepper sauce," with rice and broccoli. It came
about 5 or 6 ounces of little meaty nuggets done mostly rare,
with a copious amount of brown goo, lots of that prepackaged
pilaf stuff, and a half dozen small broccoli florets. The
meat, surprisingly, was not marinated in the Italian dressing
that is epidemic these days; it in fact might have been decent
meat at one time in its life but had been subjected to heavy
Adolphization and imperfect kitchen prep - so that some of
the pieces were like rubber and the rest were like sawdust
(but still rare). The sauce was this industrial brown stuff
with huge pepperiness but no discernible pepper (extract?)
and no whiskey flavor. Rice was extremely salty; the broccoli
was not previously frozen but not fresh either, if you know
what I mean (the beginnings of yellow on the tops) - it had
been steamed just long enough to turn the surface greenish
but was essentially raw; it was actually the best part of
the meal. I'd forgotten what it was like to eat at a Ground
Round (all independently owned but probably buying from a
central commissary somewhere in Nebraska or someplace). Ah,
well, it gave me energy for the 15-min walk (0.9 mi) to the
hall, past the fast-food joints that I should have considered.
How long has it been since I went to one such? Maybe we're in
an alternate universe where the McFood has actually turned
good, and I've missed it.

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