7.359 Taste Test : Double Cheeseburger v Tomato Cheeseburger

7.359

29 (Thu) December 2016

Taste Test : Double Cheeseburger v Tomato Cheeseburger

2.5

at McDonald’s

(E-Mart)

(see most recently 6.042 Double Deluxe Shrimp Burger)

-Seongsu, Seoul-

solo

Home for the Holidays, Day 10 (see previously 7.358 Chili Lime Shrimp Tacos).

In Seoul.  Winter break. Going back to Manila on the 31st — can hardly wait.

“The tomato and lettuce from McDonald’s are just like what my mother chooses at E-Mart?!” — well, kid, so long as you’re asking, the freshish veg may be the same, but the rest of it ain’t, unless your mom cooks with ultra-processed ingredients.

10th day in Korea, just 7 posts remaining in Cycle 7, and I’m eating yet another throwaway fast food burger, the third in ten days, the second from McDonald’s.  Which goes to show how exhausted I must be these days, even where food is concerned, even [gasp] where GMTD is concerned — say it ain’t so!  Or maybe I’m just trying to reestablish culinary karmic equilibrium from that overblown 3-star experience the other day (see 7.357 La Langoustine de Jéju), though that would take more than a few burgers.


In line with my assessment about other McDonald’s products a couple days back (see 7.356 QPC v SAB), I’ve concluded one step further that the “uniquely delicious, je ne sais quois artificiality” of the brand is best in its purest form, undiluted by natural ingredients, like fresh tomatoes, fresh lettuce.

As such, the winner here is clearly the Double Cheeseburger.

I’ll say it here, definitively, no room for negotiation : the McDonald’s Cheeseburger is the greatest fast food item ever invented.  Its younger yet bigger brothers, the McDouble (personal favorite), the Double Cheeseburger, and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, may even be better, but the original is the Mac Daddy of them all.

On this episode of HOARDERS … In the MIL’s absence, I took it upon myself to clean house.  Plastic, styrofoam, and glass containers, two decades worth — including, I kid you not, what appeared to be original series Tupperware, so old that they were literally melting — DAMN, shoulda taken photos!!  26 Costco bags full of it — I kid you not — and only the pieces that were stained, cracked, warped, melting, moldy.  And yet somehow, after I was done, the shelves miraculously remained packed with containers, making me feel like Jesus with the fucking loaves of bread.

More important, I also cleaned out the kitchen of foodstuffs.  Anything visibly bad, or with an expiration date beyond 1 month for perishables, 1 year for dry goods — including, I kid you not, I swear, a jar of mustard expired in 2004 —  DAMN, shoulda taken photos.  In the end, the fridge was 3/4 empty, the freezer 1/2 empty, the cupboards almost completely empty, like Jack and the Beanstalk empty.  Must’ve been excited beyond my fucking mind not to have taken photos.

One photo that I did manage was this shot of a used plastic bag hanging to dry, ready for the next frugal use.

[Although W had initially sanctioned the project, she panicked after seeing the outcome, thinking that her mother would either go homicidal or suicidal.  We would safely be back in Manila, but the FIL would have to deal with it.  Ultimately, when MIL did come home and find the barren kitchen, I explained to her over the phone that we had simply stayed home throughout the holiday and gratefully eaten the bounty that she had left for us, so sorry we didn’t have time to replenish.  I didn’t think for a second that she’d buy it, but for whatever reason she didn’t get upset — then again, maybe she did believe me, trusting that her kitchen was stocked with nothing but goodies, the way that hoarders find value in all their crap.  The FIL was thrilled, as he would later tell me on the sly.]

Why W and I maintain separate bedrooms : this is how she unpacks, clothes for herself and the kids.

Without an official place of residence here — my parents find me intolerable after a couple hours, so staying with them isn’t so great, and I find my in-laws intolerable after a couple minutes, so staying with them is out of the question— and perhaps also because the Philippines has become home — Korea doesn’t feel much like home anymore.

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