[Apple Cheeks]

No, I honestly didn't know restaurants did that sort of thing. And it seems like most people don't know it, either.

Certainly I expect that eating out at a restaurant means higher calories, especially if I am not careful about what I am ordering.

But if I order a simple salad with dressing on the side I am not expecting there to be oil sprayed on the lettuce!

If I order a plain grilled chicken breast, I would not expect there to be anything other than a plain, grilled chicken breast on my plate.

Sneaking in butter, oil, and other crap into otherwise healthy choices without letting the consumer be aware of it is just wrong in my opinion.

So yes, I think they are shady snake oil salemsmen for doing it.

[mandalinn82]

Photo - I think it's the "weird" stuff that gets me most...can't speak for anyone else.

The ingredients in an omelette batter may include cream or milk, eggs, butter, and even, if you're an old-school French chef and feel like your eggs aren't fluffing up like you'd like them to, a bit of flour...and it may be cooked in even more oil and butter. That's OK - normal ingredients. I'd consider all fats and oils to be normal ingredients for most or all things...buttering bread so it gets golden, finishing a steak, even tossing lettuces with oil for glossiness. It's a normal ingredient for what you order, and I expect and anticipate that a restaurant will take liberties with these normal ingredients to make meals look and taste the best that they can.

But certainly you wouldn't add some of the ingredients in a pancake batter (like leavening agents or buttermilk) to an omelette. That is where the line is drawn for me - when an item contains an ingredient that a reasonable person would not expect it contains, and that isn't listed on the menu (like IHOP, before they added it on).

Sort of like if a chicken breast was soaked in shrimp stock for improving flavor...it might taste better to some or even most people, but someone with a shellfish allergy would have no reason or expectation to believe that they'd be allergic to a chicken breast.

[pinkcarnation]

I work around the corner from The Heart Attack Grill (Taste Worth Dying For!). The menu features Single, Double, Triple, and Quadruple Bypass Burgers, Flatliner Fries (Deep Fried In Pure Lard!), Jolt Cola, and unfiltered Lucky Stikes. The servers dress as "sexy nurses" (their website says the government makes them disclose they don't have any actual medical training.). I'm not kidding.

[mandalinn82]

Pinkcarnation - my dad has a list of restaurants he wants to try in his life...this is on there! I try to tell him that if he goes there, his time to try all the OTHER restaurants might be shortened significantly!

Each burger patty is a full half lb, so if you had a quadruple bypass, that'd be 2 lbs in meat alone. And if you finish the Triple or Quadruple bypass burger, the sexy nurse waitresses will wheel you out to your car in a wheelchair.

[EZMONEY]

The way I see it going to restaurants is a lot like dating.

You just never know what you really got served until maybe 2 years into the marraige...

the hidden calories start showing

you realize your old sweatshirts are never coming back.

[ddc]

I saw a show that featured a burger joint in Memphis that deep fat fries hamburgers--it's called Dyer's. The guy claimed that they have never changed the oil, other than to filter it and add to it, from when the place opened---90 years ago!!!!! I don't think it's a secret though, that they do that. The customers they interviewed said they were awesome

[mandalinn82]

I was making up the shellfish example - sorry to alarm! But I see them as equivalent (after all, putting flour in scrambled eggs could be problematic for someone with a wheat allergy).

[betsysunqueen]

Originally Posted by ddc

I saw a show that featured a burger joint in Memphis that deep fat fries hamburgers--it's called Dyer's. The guy claimed that they have never changed the oil, other than to filter it and add to it, from when the place opened---90 years ago!!!!! I don't think it's a secret though, that they do that. The customers they interviewed said they were awesome

I used to live in Memphis and Dyer's is awesome, if completely unhealthy. I don't think old oil is any worse for you than new oil. It's just . . . older.

[PhotoChick]

Manda you keep insisting that "no reasonable person" would expect pancake batter in their omelettes, but it's NOT hidden on the menu. It's not even fine print. It's right there at the top of the omelette section of the menu and has been for YEARS. I eat at IHOP fairly often, actually, since there's one w/in walking distance of my house. I've been reading it off of their menu for at least the last 7 years (which is as long as we've lived in this house). That information is quite simply not hidden.

I get frustrated with people who want to throw accusations and call names (snake oil salesmen) when it's not warranted. Perhaps because I'm a business owner and I get tired of my profession being called names (photographers are rip offs because they charge for their time and prints) and I am therefore sensitive to it when it happens to other professions as well.

Restaurants aren't scamming anyone. It's up to the consumer to be knowledgeable and to read the materials they provide. (And don't get me started on people who don't actually read price lists/menus/contracts and then pitch hissy fits and call names because they didn't bother to understand what they were buying.)

.

[mandalinn82]

Photo, the last time I was in an IHOP, it wasn't there...I checked because I'd just learned about it. Maybe it was a franchise decision (is IHOP even franchised?)? I haven't been to one in YEARS, in any case, since a friend worked there. So as I said previously, I'm glad it's there now.

I'd moved to a more general topic, whether or not I think it is acceptable to include weird ingredients you wouldn't expect in a restaurant dish without listing them on the menu...I was just using the IHOP thing as an example (which is no longer true, since it is printed on menus now). I'm kind of curious where other people draw the line on that, which is why I used a no-longer-true example, to try to move the conversation forward. Sorry if I wasn't clear!

[JayEll]

Naturally people get hot under the collar, as the old phrase says, when they learn what they were really eating. They may have been in denial and not wanted to know, but once you know, it's maddening.

I had a wonderful sandwich at Panera one day--and I hadn't looked up their food beforehand. Turned out I ate 1200 calories in one sandwich. Oops. Now I can't really say this was Panera's fault--I should have looked ahead of time--but, it wasn't that long ago that you couldn't find the nutritional information at all! So things have improved in that respect.

Restaurants want to appeal to the public, and so of course they want their food to taste good and look good, according to what the public desires. But also, they create that desire to some extent. The two things feed into each other.

The auto industry is a good analogy. They have been making bigger and bigger SUVs because that's what the public wanted--but at the same time, they have not given the public much in the way of other choices.

Now, more people are insisting on knowing what they are eating in a restaurant--and on more healthy options--and more people are insisting on fuel economy in their vehicles. So, both restaurants and auto makers are changing in response. This is how a so-called market driven economy works. What isn't acknowledged is that the industries create the market to a great extent through advertising. Thin young people eating massive plates of food in a party atmosphere...

So, PhotoChick, I'm a business owner, too--but I don't feel like defending chain restaurants... or auto makers!

Jay

[Tomato]

Originally Posted by pinkcarnation

I work around the corner from The Heart Attack Grill (Taste Worth Dying For!). The menu features Single, Double, Triple, and Quadruple Bypass Burgers, Flatliner Fries (Deep Fried In Pure Lard!), Jolt Cola, and unfiltered Lucky Stikes. The servers dress as "sexy nurses" (their website says the government makes them disclose they don't have any actual medical training.). I'm not kidding.

Wow - and people actually eat there? Of course I know (and I expect anyone else would know as well) that burgers are not the best food to eat, although that is not stopping the masses from flocking to Burger King, McD's, Harvey's and other burger joints. But when you add such an appealing name like Trip Bypass Burger, I can quarantee you I would think twice, even in my pre-weight loss days, about eating there.

[Tomato]

Originally Posted by betsysunqueen

I used to live in Memphis and Dyer's is awesome, if completely unhealthy. I don't think old oil is any worse for you than new oil. It's just . . . older.

I beg to differ. Repeated use of oil speeds up its deterioration. If you already want to use oil for deep frying repeatedly, it should be filtered after use and stored in refrigerator - but show me a restaurant that does that. Also, new oil should not be added to used oil - the whole batch of used oil should be discarded.

[betsysunqueen]

Originally Posted by Tomato

I beg to differ. Repeated use of oil speeds up its deterioration. If you already want to use oil for deep frying repeatedly, it should be filtered after use and stored in refrigerator - but show me a restaurant that does that. Also, new oil should not be added to used oil - the whole batch of used oil should be discarded.

That's interesting--I had no idea! Thanks.

[BrandNewJen]

I consider myself to be insanely well informed about dieting, nutrition, etc (the hard part is DOING what I already know!)

Like others, I go out very rarely and I know when I do my diet is going to suffer for the day, no matter what.

But spraying oil on lettuce???? That one is TOTALLY new to me... and ridiculous and appalling. Fresh, uncooked veggies, something that requires very little involvment from the cook, I would expect to be served as such. FRESH UNCOOKED... and unmolested.

Oil sprayed on lettuce... that's crazy.