Got a craving for the Golden Arches?

[dmc]

Those are downright bland compared to pepperoni or portuguese chourico.

Both very good points....

 

[ctenidae]

Those are downright bland compared to pepperoni or portuguese chourico.

Exactly.

Less heavily spiced does not mean less flavorful- good ingredients taste great with little extra flavoring. Spoiled ingredients need a habenero.

 

[tarponhead]

Those are downright bland compared to pepperoni or portuguese chourico.

Both are good. I had some killer pepperoni from Mulberry St and Newarks Ironbound section has the best portugese cooking I've ever had. Love that food at times.

But I'll always take a kielbasa from a legit deli (think little Ukraine section in Manhattan) with the right mustard, or a good bratwurst (Union Sq) with killer kraut and roll and I'm in heaven.

Sorry for the tangent. Just defending some great beer-food I grew up with. Hillshire farms do neither well.

 

[severine]

Sweet tea? Bleeeeeech.... I'm no southerner... Down south you have to say unsweetened... haha..

All I'm saying is - I don't think a twice a month fast food meal is going to kill you...

Agree and agree.

Sweet tea is nasty.

Fast food once every two weeks is a non-issue. The health problem comes when people use it as their primary source of calories. Fat, salt, simple carbs, really short on vitamins and minerals. If you eat off the dollar menu every day, you're going to have problems.

Agreed. And yes, sweet tea is pretty gross.

 

[snoseek]

Most quality meals out are LOADED full of evil shit. A simple meal like filet w/mashed and bordolaise is more often than not creatively loaded full of calories. Most sauces start and end with butter. You would never even consider putting that much butter in your food ever. There are exceptions but even then they are usually a crock of shit. Oh and I can think of two places right in Portsmouth that at least used to sell regular chicken and call it free range. Wanna guess how many calories are in a creme brulee. Hint-if you eat it your fuct!

What I'm saying here is that yes McD's totally blows dick but it's not really all that much worse than eating out anywhere else. Cook more often at home, the restaurants are not in the business of improving your health.

 

[Marc]

Exactly.

Less heavily spiced does not mean less flavorful- good ingredients taste great with little extra flavoring. Spoiled ingredients need a habenero.

I wasn't talking about spice per se, I was talking about the level of salt...

 

[severine]

I wasn't talking about spice per se, I was talking about the level of salt...

Iodized salt, no less. Sea salt, theoretically, isn't processed the same way...

 

[ctenidae]

I wasn't talking about spice per se, I was talking about the level of salt...

Good kielbasa isn't very salty, really. Bad (I'm looking at you, Hilshire Farms) is, for sure. Of course, cured sausage has to have some salt, right? But dishes like pierogie don't have much salt in them, and neither do golubki or zradzi. Of course, every Polish dish known to man has Vegeta in it.

 

[Marc]

Good kielbasa isn't very salty, really. Bad (I'm looking at you, Hilshire Farms) is, for sure. Of course, cured sausage has to have some salt, right? But dishes like pierogie don't have much salt in them, and neither do golubki or zradzi. Of course, every Polish dish known to man has Vegeta in it.

Well, I've never been to Poland, so I'll defer to your judgement on that one. But my uncle gets this stuff out in Agawam that's supposedly made by Polish immigrants that's very salty, and pretty good at the same time. Maybe they salt it up for the hypertensive Americans.

 

[o3jeff]

Well, I've never been to Poland, so I'll defer to your judgement on that one. But my uncle gets this stuff out in Agawam that's supposedly made by Polish immigrants that's very salty, and pretty good at the same time. Maybe they salt it up for the hypertensive Americans.

Try this for kielbasa, not sure if they have it in MA, but the Stop and Shops here in CT sell it
http://www.martinrosols.com/default.cfm

A lot of my family is from Poland and this is the only one they recommend.

 

[ctenidae]

Well, I've never been to Poland, so I'll defer to your judgement on that one. But my uncle gets this stuff out in Agawam that's supposedly made by Polish immigrants that's very salty, and pretty good at the same time. Maybe they salt it up for the hypertensive Americans.

Interesting- don't know the Agawam sausages (not, I know, shocking). The Polish store in Worcester gets all their stuff from Chicago, and we don't think their sausage is very good. The Baltic Deli in Boston gets theirs from Brooklyn, and we like it a lot better. Sausage is totally personal, though, so it's tough to make generalizations. Even tougher to generalize a cuisine from something like sausage.

I highly recommend Warsaw as an interesting city to visit in Eastern Erope.

 

[Geoff]

Interesting- don't know the Agawam sausages (not, I know, shocking). The Polish store in Worcester gets all their stuff from Chicago, and we don't think their sausage is very good. The Baltic Deli in Boston gets theirs from Brooklyn, and we like it a lot better. Sausage is totally personal, though, so it's tough to make generalizations. Even tougher to generalize a cuisine from something like sausage.

I highly recommend Warsaw as an interesting city to visit in Eastern Erope.

Western Mass seems to be stuffed full of place that make the various kinds of Polish sausage. I have a few friends who bring things up for tailgate BBQing in the spring. It's way better than grocery store Kielbassa. As the town just south of Springfield, it doesn't surprise me that Agawam has a place.

I remember in the early 1990's going to the Kielbassa festival in Chickopee where they made the world's largest kielbassa every year.

By southern European standards, Polish sausage is quite mild. Spain, Portugal, and Italy tend to go much heavier with the spice blend and way heavier with the various kinds of pepper to give it heat.