Food/restaurant rant

I'm pretty simple. I like a good Highland or Speyside single malt. Not a huge fan of the killer peatiness of the Lowland varieties.

 

I like them a great deal, but the wife and kids make such a damn big stink (no pun intended) out of it any time that I even open a bottle that I only really can enjoy a glass on a night that I've outlasted the family.

She's such a little dynamo in the sack, though, it's tough to stay mad at her for long.

 

A lot of overwrought griping here.
I'll never understand someone getting angry about being called 'hun' or 'honey' or anything similar that is intended to be friendly.

As for taste notes, it's an attempt to describe a flavor, and the default method in language to describe something that is inherently ineffable is to compare it to something similar.
I'm not a wine drinker, and although I like an occasional scotch, I'm not really a scotch dinker.
However, with beer and bourbon, I use language in my attempt to describe the flavor. That's part of what we enjoy as beer and bourbon aficianados. It's part of the hobby. All IPAs are hoppy. Saying an IPA is more or less hoppy does little to describe the flavor. Depending on the hops variety, one might better describe the beer as having citrus or grapefruit notes, or pine or juniper or just generally coniferous. Those are known flavors and smells used to conjure an impression of what the flavor of a given beer might be.
The same is true of bourbon. Depending on the mash bill, a bourbon might generally be described as grassy or spicey, but that does little to provide real impressions of the flavor. Vanilla or orange peel conjure a better impression.

 

About Cracker Barrel ... I don't like having to walk through/wait in a tacky gift shop selling overpriced, home-cookin-country-comfort knick knacks. And the food is, meh. I'd take Denny's over the Barrel any day.

Then there's Golden Corral: They opened one in our town a few years ago and you would have thought it was manna from heaven, the way the locals flooded the place. My high school-aged son and I finally tried lunch there and he said, "School lunch is better than this." And he's a teenage boy who eats just about anything. (Actually, I'm a 44-year-old man who eats just about anything).

Their fried chicken, a staple of the buffet line, was slimy and seemed undercooked. The fried fish, on the other hand, was dried out and stiff as a board. And I wasn't brave enough to eat the "mystery" meatloaf. Only things I liked were the breakfast stuff (they left it out for lunch) and the dessert table (no, not the chocolate wonderfall. I'll pass on chocolate syrup flavored with little kid germs).

 

I'm OK with Olive Garden, especially the endless salad bowl that has a pretty good light Italian dressing. As someone said earlier, chains exist for a reason.

Not a real big fan of Cracker Barrel, but when we do go there, it's usually for breakfast. And I actually prefer their pancakes to IHOP's.

But if I want a quick breakfast out, any time of the day or night, nothing beats Waffle House. Sure, it's greasy as hell, but they get it to you quickly and I don't have to fuss over the menu (I always get the All-Star Special: two eggs, bacon or sausage, grits or hash browns and a waffle for under $7). And if you're there after witching hour (2 a.m. in my town), the drunken entertainment can sometimes be off the charts.

 

You make a good point about late-night drunken entertainment, albert. Denny's is good for that, too.

And I'll second your thoughts on Olive Garden. We have a local Italian joint I prefer in town, but if you're traveling, Olive Garden fits the bill. Quality food that's not crazy expensive (provided you don't buy their booze).

 

Who the hell knows what an actual orange peel tastes like?

 

I have a general rule to never, ever eat at a buffet unless it's at a wedding reception.

They're disgusting. The last time I ate at one was about 15 years ago, when I found a used Band-Aid in the "oriental" rice noodles.

 

Having to ask for ketchup because the bottles on the table are often empty.

Places that think Tabasco sauce is hot sauce

Restaurants getting stingy with the lemons for the water

 

Cracker Barrel was started by my high school theater teacher's family on their farm in Lebanon, TN. As you can image, they are extremely wealthy now, but I don't think they still own a controlling interest...which could explain why its quality is indeed, like a poster above noted, below Denny's (which I have to admit is my go-to-in-a-pinch junk chain).

You have to wonder how many illness outbreaks started with patient zero playing one of these: