About a week ago my wife and I started talking about the potential storm that was due to pass over our area on the coming Tuesday and Wednesday. In other words, yesterday.Despite an ever-wavering forecast that seemed to call for a little snow, rain, freezing rain, sleet, chubby rain, a lotta snow and – in some forecasts – nothing, we were both pretty convinced the Baltimore area wouldn't be lucky enough to get another free pass from Mother Nature.
So it came as little surprise that yesterday morning's slushy inch had turned into a thoroughly inconvenient three inches and that the evening's forecast was shaping up to be a doozy. With my better half stranded at work, the sitter unable to get here and a three-year-old who decided that hanging on the arm of Daddy's chair was the best place to be... all day... what should have been a busy work day turned into a day of reading articles and posting snarky links on our Twitter feed and Facebook page.
In case you missed them (and, shame on you if you did), here's a roundup:
- Next time you're in the mood for seven hamburgers from the Golden Arches just go for the Cheesecake Factory's Grilled Shrimp and Bacon Club instead. Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you The Worst Sandwiches in America.
- Everybody thinks "cheesesteak" when anyone mentions Philadelphia's culinary contributions, but any good DelVal resident knows that the really best sandwich in the City of Brotherly Lunch is the roast pork. Reliable sources tell me DiNic's in Reading Terminal Market is the way to go and Serious Eats' A Sandwich a Day seems to back up that claim.
- Every fast food joint has some kind of "dollar" or "value" menu featuring cheap eats. What I didn't realize was that so many people had strong opinions about what were the best things on those menus.
- If the term "food porn" gets tossed around long enough somebody is going to make, well, a food porn. This flick has been the subject of some controversy after the owner of the food truck used as a set claimed ignorance that a porn was being shot in his kitchen and food prep area. Needless to say the controversy has only brought more attention to the flick and you can get in on the fun with an essay contest.
- Slow food movement? Childhood obesity in the news? Bad weather? Apparently none of these things can slow down McDonald's, which posted 5% worldwide growth in the fourth quarter.
- I'm all for Wal-Mart introducing healthier foods, selling fresh produce, etc. But when I go to Wal-Mart and shop, that's not what I see in people's grocery carts. I see crap and I fear this quote can be applied to the vast majority of Wal-Mart grocery shoppers: "Honestly, I don't know what a trans fat is, but everybody says that's why I'm so fat... Why do they sell it to me if it's bad for me? Aren't foods supposed to be checked or something?"
- The recent controversy over the ingredients in Taco Bell food has stirred up an interesting debate. Namely, what are we expecting from food that costs 89 cents? ABC News poses the question, "Do We Ask Too Much from Fast Food?" ... and gets some interesting answers.
- We all know about the "secret" lingo used to order the variety of offerings at In-N-Out. But did you know you can walk into some McDonald's outlets and order a McGangbang or Sex in a Sandwich? The Guelph Mercury looks at how social media is helping create extreme menu item crazes.
- What's worse than being attacked by a gang of adolescents? When the little bastards pour your bottle of vodka over your head.
- A thief at a Philadelphia-area Whole Foods must have thought the gentle hippies who work there wouldn't notice him pocketing $200 worth of meat. Doesn't he know they probably all ran cross country in high school?
