Why I Don't Eat Out

Around here you're taking your life into your own hands when you eat out.  So, we don't eat out.  Yesterday, though, I had to make a run up to the county seat to get plates for the Jeep before the end of the year.  And I was so hungry by the time I got through the lines and the stuffs that I took a chance and stopped at the McDonalds. 

I got a bacon, egg, & cheese McGriddle, a hash brown thing, and a cup of coffee.  The food was quite tasty.  The coffee was too hot to drink until I was almost home.  And it was exactly as I remembered - gross.  Later in the day, I reheated the coffee with some cappuccino mix, because I paid for it, dammit, and I was going to drink it.

And believe me, I paid for it again in the middle of the night.  I still feel like crap.  Live and learn.

I haven't actually had McDonalds in years - not since I heard that the one I usually visit gave someone food poisoning.  But I figured this was a different location in an entirely different state.  Live and learn. 

I used to eat out all the time when I lived in Michigan.  Road warrior and all that, it was kind of necessary.  Every rare once in a while, I'd get hit with something gross from some roadside diner.  I learned where was safe and where wasn't.  Except when the safe places changed while I wasn't looking.  Usually the chain restaurants were fine.  Except when they weren't.

There was an Applebys I used to hit when I was in a certain town where I could grab a friend and take him to lunch.  They brought out a platter with chicken so rotten I could smell it when she set it down in front of me.

There was a TGIFridays near there I used for the same purposes.  I was halfway through a meal once when I noticed what looked like a price sticker floating in the juices underneath my food.  (It was a date sticker off the packaging the chicken came in.)  :gag:

And that was in the 90s.  Move forward 20 years and miles away, and here I am reading the County Health Department Report that comes out in the paper every month and seeing just about every eatery in the county showing up with dings for not meeting the health code.  Not keeping food at the proper temperature, not cleaning the utensils, mice, bugs, food past its date...  Some places are worse than others, but eating at the least bad place doesn't appeal to me. 

There's this Mexican place up near the top of the county.  They regularly have 10-12 violations.  How they're still in business escapes me.  Even if they still had customers willing to risk their health by eating there, the health dept ought to have shut them down by now.  I know there's no way in hell I'd ever eat there. 

The local grocery store that gave me food poisoning in 2018 is still open, too, even though everyone I've talked to says you really have to watch what you buy there so you don't get sick.  Buyer beware, I guess. 

Me, I'll stick to buying my food at Wallyworld and checking the dates on everything there, too.  I'll cook it myself and we'll eat it with less worry whether we'll get sick.  Knock on wood, we've never gotten sick from something I've cooked. 

Good thing I was selfish and didn't buy Hubs a breakfast, too.  He's fine this morning.  (Which is how we know it was McDonalds and not home-cooked food.  It's the only thing I ate that he didn't.)

On the upside, I have nowhere to go today and not much to do.  If you've gotta feel gross, that's the best day to do it, I guess.