Feelz hurt again @Cracker Barrel

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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
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I prefer Waffle House to both. Because I do not eat anything but breakfast in places like that. The hash browns menu at WH is the best thing out of all of them IMO. I can watch them make my food too. A point that can't be emphasized enough.
If I'm the mood for a chicken fried steak, IHOP can usually be relied to produce a good one. Oddly enough my favorite item at Waffle House is the grilled chicken sandwich.
The food from my Cracker Barrel experience was not better than any of these places ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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Bourdain went to a Waffle House with an established chef. He liked a couple things but when the other chef lauded more stuff Bourdain basically said he didn't get it.

He like the waffles by any chance? ;)

(I miss Anthony Bourdain)
 

DAPUNISHER

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Bourdain went to a Waffle House with an established chef. He liked a couple things but when the other chef lauded more stuff Bourdain basically said he didn't get it.
Dude was a badass in the kitchen, and even a fantastic writer and travel guide. But as far as his food reviews, the fact he was a cig smoker always made me doubt I'd share a lot in common with him there. I think it's why he was so into spicy food.

triple order of WH hash browns with everything but the chili and gravy wins the 3 chains contest for me.
 

DAPUNISHER

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He like the waffles by any chance? ;)

(I miss Anthony Bourdain)
HIs wife fought MMA, and he did some BJJ, all around cool dude.

Now let me throw one last rabbit punch from our scrap earlier in the thread. :D You MOFOs nit picking over why you think beef is better than impossible. But you know you eat snacky cakes, cheesy poofs, candy, fast food, and a bunch of other garbage. The whole thing is bullshit on the order of the people getting spicy about fake sausage. ;) Like you sit there eating microwave popcorn or something, thinking, yup! fake meat, that's where I draw the line. :p

Looks like they fixed micro popcorn, so my bad.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
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Dude was a badass in the kitchen, and even a fantastic writer and travel guide. But as far as his food reviews, the fact he was a cig smoker always made me doubt I'd share a lot in common with him there. I think it's why he was so into spicy food.

triple order of WH hash browns with everything but the chili and gravy wins the 3 chains contest for me.

He didn't trash the place, in fact he liked some stuff, but the other chef did just really sing a lot of praises and Bourdain couldn't agree with the whole 9 yards.

Also Bourdain quit smoking in 2007 when he had his kid, so for a lot of his tv shows he was not smoking.
 
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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
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Dude was a badass in the kitchen, and even a fantastic writer and travel guide. But as far as his food reviews, the fact he was a cig smoker always made me doubt I'd share a lot in common with him there. I think it's why he was so into spicy food.

triple order of WH hash browns with everything but the chili and gravy wins the 3 chains contest for me.
I quit smoking 6 years ago, and I use more hot sauce now than I did then :p
 

DAPUNISHER

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Also Bourdain quit smoking in 2007 when he had his kid, so for a lot of his tv shows he was not smoking.
Jonny Carson - I did not know that.

I still agree with the other chef. WH is way better than it has any right to be, all things considered. FEMA uses them to assess disasters here. If the WH is closed shit got real.
 

DAPUNISHER

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I quit smoking 6 years ago, and I use more hot sauce now than I did then :p
Would you say food started tasting more complex after x amount of time? Or no change.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
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Jonny Carson - I did not know that.

I still agree with the other chef. WH is way better than it has any right to be, all things considered. FEMA uses them to assess disasters here. If the WH is closed shit got real.

Yeah he smoked here and there after a decade of no smoking from 2007. I think he picked it up more as his relationship soured and he killed himself.

On a random note, Bourdain got offered to put his name on a number of business projects, especially food-related ones, for tons of money, and said no to all of them. He would not sell out and he said as much. But he did endorse an idea for an Anthony Bourdain Market (food court style) in NYC with a ton of actual Singapore hawking vendors cooking in stalls in NYC. He wanted to have around 30. Well that died with him but the go to guy for like Singapore street food that I think was working with Bourdain on this project, is launching it this year in NYC. The lineup has gotten smaller. But the space is just about ready in midtown and the vendors are here. Now it will be 11 actual vendors straight from Singapore, and then 5 or 6 more vendors that are not from there. I'm pretty excited to go eat some mainstay Singapore street food dishes.
 

Pohemi

Lifer
Oct 2, 2004
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Bourdain went to a Waffle House with an established chef. He liked a couple things but when the other chef lauded more stuff Bourdain basically said he didn't get it.
The in-house chef should have lauded the Ayahuasca. :p
I still agree with the other chef. WH is way better than it has any right to be, all things considered. FEMA uses them to assess disasters here. If the WH is closed shit got real.
For really real? Wow.

Jonny Carson - I did not know that. Weird, wild stuff. ;)
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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HIs wife fought MMA, and he did some BJJ, all around cool dude.

Now let me throw one last rabbit punch from our scrap earlier in the thread. :D You MOFOs nit picking over why you think beef is better than impossible. But you know you eat snacky cakes, cheesy poofs, candy, fast food, and a bunch of other garbage. The whole thing is bullshit on the order of the people getting spicy about fake sausage. ;) Like you sit there eating microwave popcorn or something, thinking, yup! fake meat, that's where I draw the line. :p

Looks like they fixed micro popcorn, so my bad.


Every time I eat beef (even the really good/pricy stuff) without a ton of veggies and other high-fiber foods as part of the same meal I feel like utter garbage vs pretty much any other meat short of bacon or spicy pork sausage that's all I know.

:)

As for "impossible" the main thing for me is I just don't like it very much.... it tastes like something to me but that "something" is not beef.

It's also really not that "healthy" looked at on its own either. ;)
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
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Would you say food started tasting more complex after x amount of time? Or no change.
I can't say I specifically noticed a change, but I also wasn't looking for one, and that seems like it could be a gradual thing, IDK. I didn't quit cold turkey, I slowly migrated to vaping for a while, and then eventually quit that too.
 

DAPUNISHER

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It's also really not that "healthy" looked at on its own either. ;)
There you go again, stop that. It is healthy. Much more so than most of the garbage people are stuffing down their gullets all day.

As to taste, you are preparing it wrong. Don't eat it like a burger, it just doesn't...wait for it... cut the mustard.

It is great for chili, burritos, tacos, that kind of stuff. Where you can use aromatics, herbs, and spices. Impossible has done such a great job with the texture that we seriously can't tell it isn't burger prepared that way.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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we seriously can't tell it isn't burger prepared that way

I would bet you a lot money that I could tell which was which between "impossible" and "actual" beef prepared identically and served side by side from texture alone.

Having said that a taco place we thought was terrific and ate at all the time as kids turned out to have been mixing beef with horse-meat so what do I know?

:p


It is healthy. Much more so than most of the garbage people are stuffing down their gullets all day.

Put that way I can't really argue.... but not because "impossible" is super-healthy it's because most folks eat really badly especially in America.
 
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iRONic

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Jan 28, 2006
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I’ve been avoiding our local WH since forever simply because of the stereotypical “slop house after bar-closing” labels.

This hashbrown take has piqued my gluten free options curiosity. I shall give them a go…

Sean Brock is the guy who took AB there in Charlestown SC.
 
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DAPUNISHER

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I would bet you a lot money that I could tell which was which between "impossible" and "actual" beef prepared identically and served side by side from texture alone.

Having said that a taco place we thought was terrific and ate at all the time as kids turned out to have been mixing beef with horse-meat so what do I know?

:p
You pay extra for wagyu burgers, probably from the super market worse yet. the fuck would you know about beef? :p Get rekt Ron Swanson. ;)

Okay fights over, it's a no contest. We both suck.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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You pay extra for wagyu burgers, probably from the super market worse yet. the fuck would you know about beef? :p Get rekt Ron Swanson. ;)

Okay fights over, it's a no contest. We both suck.

They cost $1 more then the regular Stop & Shop 85% ground beef and the same as the "Angus" version.... not exactly "cutting loose the purse strings".

IDK about the "Wagyu/Kobe" nonsense but whatever meat they're made from is a lot better quality in terms of wondering exactly what parts they ground up to make them!

My FAVORITE supermarket burgers however are actually these guys:

SweetOnion_Newbox_RightFacing-Current-View.png
 

DAPUNISHER

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I’ve been avoiding our local WH since forever simply because of the stereotypical “slop house after bar-closing” labels.

This hashbrown take has piqued my gluten free options curiosity. I shall give them a go…

Sean Brock is the guy who took AB there in Charlestown SC.
The last time I was in one, the cook was still cleaning the grill after the lunch crowd left. The whole place was basically spotless including the bathrooms. Sit at the counter and watch them make your food. It won't knock the old socks off, but it is a good solid breakfast joint.

Do not want. Grill my own onions thank you. Now, if we hide in our duck blind and wait. We might get some hipster douche to come along and tell us how we suck for not grinding our own burger blend every time. :beercheers:
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,338
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The last time I was in one, the cook was still cleaning the grill after the lunch crowd left. The whole place was basically spotless including the bathrooms. Sit at the counter and watch them make your food. It won't knock the old socks off, but it is a good solid breakfast joint.

Do not want. Grill my own onions thank you. Now, if we hide in our duck blind and wait. We might get some hipster douche to come along and tell us how we suck for not grinding our own burger blend every time. :beercheers:


What leads you to believe I don't put fried/grilled onions on top of them along with the ones chopped up inside? (the plain burgers are good too even if they are "slumming it" with ground chuck!)


EDIT: We should only be eating grass-fed free-range organically raised bison patties, hand-ground at home then cooked rare on a cedar-plank! (served with truffle-aioli on a lightly toasted brioche bun accompanied by a medley of summer vegetables!)
 
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Pohemi

Lifer
Oct 2, 2004
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I wish we had WH this far north. I loved them when I was working down south 20ish years ago, ate there almost daily while living in a motel room and working 7 days a week, heh.

I've not eaten at a Cracker Barrel in about as long. I never thought their food was very good (in the locations I visited), but they are also notoriously shitty to their employees. It's saying a lot in the food service industry that they one-up most other food chains for how (poorly) they treat their workers. I vote with my dollar and there are plenty of better places to eat.

That said, I certainly didn't throw a fit and boycott them because of some specific new menu item or because they started a gluten-free bread option, lol.
 
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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
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Was there a similar uproar when Burger King started selling the Impossible Whopper? I did a quick search and only found upset vegans, I think.
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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Was there a similar uproar when Burger King started selling the Impossible Whopper? I did a quick search and only found upset vegans, I think.

Yeah they were pissed because BK was cooking up the "vegan" burgers right next to the beef on the same grill surface.

:p

When it was first released they had a combo-special where you got 1 regular Whopper & one Impossible.... I had a coupon so I tried it.

Even WITH the toppings and all the BK fake-smoke flavor and god-knows what else it was still easy to tell which was which and the original just tasted better.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
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I prefer Waffle House to both. Because I do not eat anything but breakfast in places like that. The hash browns menu at WH is the best thing out of all of them IMO. I can watch them make my food too. A point that can't be emphasized enough.
Never heard of how many ways to get your hashbrowns. I can't remember how they call it out. So Too many trips to Kings Bay.