disturbed by processed, fast-food chicken. i can't believe i used to eat it..

warning: disturbing images below. please continue to read!

i am not a vegan, nor am i a vegetarian. i do highly respect all vegetarians and vegans, however. so this is not about me not eating meat. its about me not eating fast-food meat, like chicken nuggets, chicken burger patties, etc. see photo below:

photo from this blog. read more here.

they mechanically separate the chicken, grind it all up, remove the bacteria (apparently by soaking it in ammonia), add food coloring and flavor... its disgusting. why go through that much bother to make something that doesn't really look like chicken, doesn't really taste like chicken, and is so unnatural? and yet we consumers totally buy it. its fast, its easy, and we put it in our stomachs anyways.

jamie oliver does these experiments where he shows kids the process of making the chicken nuggets, and then has the kids decide between the nuggets and the real chicken afterward. worked well in the UK (see video below)...




... but then he tried it in america. (see video below).



...failed. which is really sad what it says about america. i think he'd do a lot better in canada, but i still think there's a good number of people here who would react just like those kids in the video. sadly, i think i know of a few people too who just might not care where their food is coming from.

would you still eat the chicken nuggets? i want your thoughts and opinions!
i won't condemn you if you would still eat them. i'll just shake my head and invite you over for some real, homemade food. or you can answer anonymously and i'll never know.

update: october 11, 2010

some more posts to read:

huffington post
peas and thank you - hilarious, have to read it
potted meat product - i can't believe anyone would buy or eat a product (it doesn't deserve the title 'food') called 'potted meat product'!?

uncle fatih's

okay, i know uncle fatih's pizza doesn't really need any more advertising, they have line-ups 24/7. and i am not even a huge fast-food-pizza-eating-type of person. but i do occasionally indulge in greasy pizza goodness once in a while, and i'm on a tight budget lately, so cheap pizza makes sense when i'm out.

oh yeah, and also (you can tell i feel shameful for my pizza indulgence when i have to make a million excuses), sherri hadn't eaten pizza from uncle fatih's before, so we had to go. so there.


my brother would recommend the beef-and-blue-cheese pizza here - its amazing, but its super rich and i already had eggs benedict this morning, so i opted for the slightly less rich slices of olive-and-pesto and the just-cheese.


so for those of you who haven't tried this joint but would like to, it is conveniently located on broadway just west of commercial. (and another location i just noticed, thank you google, is on denman, just off davie st.) they are open from 10:30am until 1 on sundays, til 2 every other day, til 3 fridays and saturdays.

should one ever try eating 'western' food in asia?

my answer? no. as in, 'avoid it like the plague!'

but if you are desperate for 'western' food (i really hate labeling), at least do it in limited quantities. or make it yourself.

on the weekend i went for brunch with my family. i ordered an eggs benedict, and an americano. i was asked what size of americano i wanted, small, medium or large, so i asked back: 'how many shots do you put in your small?' two. in my barista mind, i am thinking that seems alright, since where i used to work, we also used 2 shots in our 'small' 12 ounce cups. but then i get my americano, and i can see through the glass it is so watered down. i have no idea what size their large is, since their 'small' appeared to be a 16 ounce cup. oh well. i sucked it up because i don't want to appear to be a stuck-up foreigner. or an ang mo, which is a slang word for foreigners. it literally means 'red devil.' haha... so apt.

but my tangent about coffee is over for now. except to say that local coffee beats espresso-based coffee here. so far. i will be sure to let you know if i have a pleasurable encounter with an americano.

as for the eggs benedict... it was okay. i won't say much except that vancouver still has the best eggs benedicts i've ever had. hands down. the west coast of north america does eggs well. very well. i really need to learn how to poach eggs. i hear its easy, but i figure i'm either lazy or i'm scared i'll fail at something easy.


anyway.

i have a confession to make. the other day i had not only 1, but 3, substances that i have pretty much successfully avoided for the past 2 years.
1) fast food fries
2) fast food burger
3) coca cola

i'm not going to mention the name of the place, because i don't want to provide any marketing for this company (yes, bad marketing is still marketing).

but, needless to say, i did not feel good that night. my innards are not used to that many fake substances at once. the fries aren't so bad i guess. but why eat generally tasteless fast food fries that aren't good for me when i can eat tasty homemade yam fries at almost any restaurant in vancouver? sigh. i miss vancouver. kind of.