Mediocre chain restaurants

[Balderdasha]

I might be wrong, but I thought that British macaroni cheese was slightly different to American mac'n'cheese? In that the British version generally starts with a white roux sauce with shedloads of cheese added, then mixed with the cooked macaroni and baked in the oven. The American version seems to refer to any combination of macaroni and either grated cheese, cheese sauce, weird spray Kraft cheese, etc. I stand to be corrected.

[Bored Of Education]

If any correcting is to be done, I am sure Ursus will do it but you have raised the point that America doesn't do cheese properly so who knows what their mac and cheese is.

[Hot Pepsi]

I dunno, I remember it didn't review very well at the time. That's why I didn't see it, despite the subject matter being of interest.

It got a 66 on MetaCritic, which is pretty good* and the bad reviews I saw still commended Michael Keaton’s performance. It felt like a sure Best Actor candidate.

It isn’t very exciting, but it is still very interesting to see how the ideas for McDonald’s - which were then replicated in all of fast food, fake ice cream in a bag - came to be. Limited menu, paper wrappers, “family friendly,” etc. It also shows how McDonald’s is as much a real estate company as a food company.



* That compares favorably to some Oscar winners . https://www.metacritic.com/pictures/...cture-nominees

[Patrick Thistle]

I worked with a guy whose idea of a perfect vacation was driving around the wilds of Scotland or Finland or wherever took his fancy.

But not driving...stopping to look at antiques...driving...stopping for a distillery tour. No, he liked to just drive for 8...10...12 hours a day, then stop for the night and do it all again the next day.

He said it was the end of many relationships for him.

I've done days of driving in the States and sometimes those days are the best. Drove from Albany to Marblehead one day. Fab.

[WOM]

Now WOM needs to tell us why the stuff in the box is "Kraft Dinner" in Canada

Good ol' KD. Kraft by brand, dinner by aspiration. If we have sufficient stores in, my kids will eat that for lunch 3 times a week. And leave a mess of pasta, cheese powder and flattened cardboard box littering the kitchen. At the beginning of school terms, regular stores will sell it by Costco-sized case. Like 24 boxes for $16.99 or so.

[WOM]

I've done days of driving in the States and sometimes those days are the best. Drove from Albany to Marblehead one day. Fab.

Preaching to the choir. I could drive around the US for months on end. I should have been a trucker. I'd have gotten punched a lot, but the scenery appeals.

[Hot Pepsi]

I've done days of driving in the States and sometimes those days are the best. Drove from Albany to Marblehead one day. Fab.

I once lived in Marblehead. Have we discussed this?

[Patrick Thistle]

I once lived in Marblehead. Have we discussed this?

We have. I liked it.

[Sporting]

Preaching to the choir. I could drive around the US for months on end. I should have been a trucker. I'd have gotten punched a lot, but the scenery appeals.

Do you enjoy the views more, or the driving? And if it's the views, shouldn't you be concentrating more on the driving?

(Only joking)

[Hot Pepsi]

I might be wrong, but I thought that British macaroni cheese was slightly different to American mac'n'cheese? In that the British version generally starts with a white roux sauce with shedloads of cheese added, then mixed with the cooked macaroni and baked in the oven. The American version seems to refer to any combination of macaroni and either grated cheese, cheese sauce, weird spray Kraft cheese, etc. I stand to be corrected.

In the US, macaroni and cheese can refer anything from the aforementioned Kraft Dinner industrial food-like product to a fairly expensive dish served at proper restaurants. The latter version is usually baked, and it features a few kinds of cheese. It might also have bacon, ham or some other kind of tasty murder. It’s more popular in the south, I believe. Some people make it for Thanksgiving Dinner.

[ursus arctos]

There are restaurants in both NY and the Bay Area that serve nothing but variations on macaroni and cheese.

[WOM]

Do you enjoy the views more, or the driving?

The two are one.

Namaste.

[WOM]

Expanding slightly, I just love driving...but there has to be something to gawk at. We did Vegas to the Grand Canyon (South Rim) and back in one day last November and it was glorious. Scenery is beautiful and relatively varied.

Honestly, one of the nicest places to drive is in HP's back yard. Anything from one end of Penn to the other is just gorgeous. Trees...hills...rivers...trains...the lot.

[3 Colours Red]

Is the boundary between "fast food" and "restaurant" different in the UK?

Surely the need for cutlery is one of the main factors.

As for whatever you want to call the combination of macaroni and cheese: if you insist on making the stuff out of a packet, I'd much rather go for the pale yellow Ragu/Batchelors style than the dayglo orange Kraft-type. So pretty much what Balderdasha said, then.

[sw2borshch]

Are Akbar's (of Bradford) the biggest Indian chain in the UK? Thy have about a dozen places.

[Bored Of Education]

There are restaurants in both NY and the Bay Area that serve nothing but variations on macaroni and cheese.

...and here but, of course, they call it Mac'n'cheese.

I am with WOM. I just love driving. If I could get paid as well as I am now for driving, I would go back to it.

[San Bernardhinault]

Expanding slightly, I just love driving...but there has to be something to gawk at. We did Vegas to the Grand Canyon (South Rim) and back in one day last November and it was glorious. Scenery is beautiful and relatively varied.

Yeah. Having driven across the country a couple of e times, and absolutely loving a road trip, I can say that the slog across Kansas/Oklahoma/Nebraska is just horrible. And I stayed off the Interstates and on the more interesting minor(ish) roads, to have at least something to look at. They are charming for the first few hours when you get down from the Rockies and you're in the really big open prairie of eastern Colorado or New Mexico, which is just about still rolling and all you see are distant grain silos and it's almost romantic. But then the scenery gets a little more full of people, and little uglier, a little flatter, and nothing changes for hours and hours and hours and hours. When you have nothing to gawk at, the drive stops being enjoyable. When you decide that you need to stop somewhere, anywhere, and stop in Dodge City because of its fame, and you get out of the car and all you smell is the rank toxicity of cattle feedlots, and that is a welcome break from the road... the driving has stopped being enjoyable. It's only 10 hours of (foot to the floor) driving, but it's soul destroying.

You definitely need something to look at. Fortunately, most of America is unlike Kansas.

[Hot Pepsi]

Hence the expression “get the hell out of Dodge!”

[DCI Harry Batt]

Macaroni cheese is macaroni cheese. I don't have time to explain why just now. You'll have to take my word for it.

[ursus arctos]

And yet when we say that about Times Square . . .

[San Bernardhinault]

Is the problem with Times Square the apostophe situation or the quadrilateral situation?

[DCI Harry Batt]

It's neither, as it goes. It's not a square. Not "it's not square" - most squares aren't. It's just not a square.

[Sits]

Pizza Express in the UK? If they’re still going.

Over here, Fratelli pizza and Crust pizza, plus Zeus.

I thought of another couple of decent chains in these parts: Grill’d (nice burgers) and Roll’d (Vietnamese). What is it with apostrophes?

[ad hoc]

I've never eaten macaroni and cheese but even I know that is clearly called macaroni and cheese. Logically "cheesy macaroni" would be possible but seemingly rejected back in the mists of time.

[Moonlight Shadow]

They are quite popular in Switzerland, macaroni du chalet or macaroni d'alpage. Original recipe below, includes potatoes and is serves with apple compote on the side.

https://www.helvetibox.ch/recette-ma...lpage-dobwald/