McFeh

I like to cook. I like good food. I'm kinda-sorta brave about new foods; I'll try most anything once and maybe even twice if I like it. Don't get me started on sushi, though. That's just bait; I like my mercury fully-cooked. The Moroccan food that my artist friend made on Friday was fantastic. I'll have to drop her a note to ask what it was called. It was oven-roasted chicken with a gravy/sauce that she made on the stovetop, which had some vegetables and roasted almonds in it. A little (okay, a lot of) couscous on the side and some veggies, and we were good to go.

I also like to experiment in the kitchen, usually to see what cool things I can do with the same-old, same-old stuff. I figure that's a little more difficult than going out and buying exotic crap from the store. But you know, even Julia Child enjoyed a Quarter Pounder once in awhile. She even said so (scroll down about 2/3 of the way). As do I.

I wind up eating at McDonald's maybe once or twice a week, usually in the name of expediency but I'm big enough to admit that I like the food, too. It's a kind of comfort food, and when I was a kid and we were usually broke after my parents split up, going to McDonald's was kind of a big deal, besides. The closest location was several miles away, so it was a real pilgrimage. (Back then, there was a great concern on the part of the corporation that one store not cannibalize the sales of another, so they were flung fairly far apart, at least by a couple of miles. Not so much, these days, although the Smithtown, NY McDonald's is still the closest one to the place where I grew up in Kings Park, NY. Go figure.)

OK, so here's the thing. My life vastly improved when they started making burgers more to order. I don't like pickles, for whatever reason, and I've always thought of mustard as more of an ingredient than a condiment. So I don't put it on anything. And as a native New Yorker, mustard on the burgers is just plain wrong. You got that, rest of the USA? Wrong!

On Tuesday, I went to a the McDonalds which is on North Avenue near the Board of Education. Because I was short on time, I went through the drive-through and ordered my Quarter Pounder with Cheese, no pickes and no mustard, etc. When I got around to the window, I paid the guy and got my receipt. I noticed right away that the person taking my order had put in for a sandwich with no pickle and no onion. I told him right away that this was wrong, and the young man (who didn't take the order) immediately called it to the attention of someone else. Ultimately I was asked to pull forward and they'd bring it out to me. So, not so much with saving time by using the drive-through, but at least I got my burger.

Incidentally, here's a rule for you: If you see more than three cars in the drive-through, just go inside. It's invariably faster.

Wednesday was the day with the first snowstorm and there were meetings for special education staff all over the city. I got a call that my meeting had been moved, and with the snow this all added up to leaving early and moving slowly. I wound up maybe five minutes late to the meeting (five minutes earlier than my usual ten minutes late, heh), so by the time I got out of there, I was pretty hungry. Hey, that same McDonald's is on the way back. So I go again through the drive-through (only two cars, yanno) and order the same sandwich. To her credit, the girl who took the order double-checked with me and enunciated: "No pickles and no mustard?" Yes, indeed. I go around, pay for my food, check the receipt and all is well. I get my food and off I go, munching french fries and negotiating the U-turn to get back on westbound North Avenue. Since the fries are the first to get scary when they've cooled off, I always eat them first. Which means that I'm nearly a mile away when I open my sandwich and find that it's no pickles and no onions. Nearly a mile away, in the snow, and again I'm short on time because of a chiropractor appointment.  Suddenly I flash back to Joe Pesci's character in Lethal Weapon 2:

They FUCK YOU at the drive-thru, okay? They FUCK YOU at the drive-thru! They know you're gonna be miles away before you find out you got fucked! They know you're not gonna turn around and go back, they don't care. So who gets fucked? Ol' Leo Getz! Okay, sure! I don't give a fuck! I'm not eating this tuna, okay?

Yeah. So this is not only two screwups, it's two screwups in a row, as far as my experience is concerned. And it's not the first time. So I'm basically done with this particular location. If I'm in that neighborhood, I'll hit the restaurant on Broadway, near Harford Road. They're not speedy but at least they get it right.

I sent an email to the company via their website. I'll let you know what kind of response (if any) comes.

Comments

[Kelli]

Here here! Mustard on hamburgers IS wrong. Mustard is for hot dogs, and only hot dogs containing chilli and onions, at that.

We have a Domino's Pizza here that is the same way. Unfortunately, they're the less expensive of only two pizza places that will deliver all the way out t our house, so if you want cheap pizza, you're risking it.

We haven't ordered thre since last summer, though, when they screwed up several consecutive orders by:

- forgetting the cheese sticks
- forgetting the 2 litre of coke
- giving us the wrong toppings
- forgetting the entire freaking order

I keep telling myself there's a reason these are minimum wage jobs, no offense to anyone who's passing through on their way to something greater... we all start soemwhere, but the ones who make a career of it....

[Claude]

Oh, well. Pizza.

I've already mentioned somewhere else that, as a New Yorker, I'm a complete snob about pizza. I never understood the appeal of Domino's, Pizza Hut, or other chains in the NY Metro area when the independents do such a good job.

There's nothing wrong with minimum-wage jobs; I've done a few of them myself. In fact, when I was in college I worked in a Burger King, which invented the whole "made to order" model. I don't think that, during that entire period of time that I worked there (five months, maybe), that there were *any* errors committed by me or anyone with whom I worked. But let's face it, that was a loooong time ago. I think they'd just invented beef. However, if mistakes were made, they were certainly few and far between.

There's no shame in having a minimum-wage job, even if that's what you do for your entire life. There IS shame in doing your job--whatever it is--poorly, when it's in your power to do it well.

[andrea thornton]

i need a part time job because i need to much stuff in its hard when you aint got no job iam 15 bout to be 16 in i want to much stuff in i now my mother cant get every thing for me thats why i need a job.can you please help me with a part time job.