Posts Tagged ‘french fries’

24 Aug

If You Talk About it Enough …

Posted by hlward in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , .

This past Friday was “meet the teacher” day for Sprightly Daughter 1, a rising first grader.  We decided, she and I, that it would be fun to have lunch after said meeting and before returning her to the Y for the afternoon.  Thursday evening, in preparation, she wrote up a list of possible local eateries in one of her many journals so, you know, we wouldn’t have to waste time thinking about it on Friday.

After leaving school, full of the promise of the Best School Year Evah, we hopped in the car and went through the (comprehensive) list she had prepared.  We decided Tasty Buddha, our go-to family place, would be the best choice, and off we went.  On the way, she saw a big red sign that read, “Five Guys.”

“Dad, why are there five guys in that building?”

“Huh?”

“Over there.  That red sign.  It says ‘five guys'”.

“Oh, yeah, that’s Five Guys Burgers and Fries.”

“Hey, that rhymes.  I get it.  Do they just have burgers and fries?”

“Yes, but all kinds of burgers and really good french fries. Do you want to go there instead of Buddha?”

“No.  Fries aren’t healthy.  We can get food that’s good for us at Buddha, and it tastes good.”

Now, I should point out that my Lovely Wife and I talk a lot about healthy eating options, and Sprightly Daughters 1 and 2 are quite good at asking questions about what constitutes healthy food – and why – and they’ve come to know pretty well when they’re eating junk (which doesn’t always stop them, nor should it).

Even in that context, however, it was heartening to know that she gets it, at least so far, and occasionally.  And that she was lookin’ out for ol’ Dad in my moment of weakness.  ‘Cause I wanted me a big bag of Five Guys fries.

—

By the way, if you’re a Gainesvillian, or just passin’ through and looking for a good meal, you could do a lot worse than Tasty Buddha (formerly known as Buddha Belly) – either location.  Also, it’s owned by friend of the blog Parker Van Hart.  And yes, Parker, you can use this true story in your advertising if you ever need to hammer the guys across the street.

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22 Jun

Five Things I Thought I’d Miss But Don’t

Posted by hlward in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

It’s Five Things Wednesday, so let’s get started with this list of five things I thought I’d miss when I gave them up, but don’t miss at all:

1.)  Diet Coke.  I’ve been drinking Diet Coke (just for the taste of it) since the early 90’s.  I’ve put away enough Diet Coke to, in the immortal words of Lynyrd Skynyrd, turn a battleship around.  As regular readers know, I gave it up before I committed to my current weight-loss/healthy living goals, and haven’t had a DC since Christmas Eve (2010).  For months I couldn’t pass a cooler in a convenience store without desperately wanting to reach out and grab a cool, refreshing, contour-bottled Diet Coke.  And then one day I looked at a cooler and realized I had no interest in drinking a Diet Coke.   For those of you contemplating walking away from aspartame-sweetened sodas, it may be helpful to know it took me about four months for the craving to go away.  Your mileage may vary.  I’m happy to have it behind me – there’s way too much stuff on that ingredient list that I can’t pronounce, and that can’t be good.  Side benefit:  I save an average of about a buck-and-a-half a day by leaving that stuff alone.

2.)  Elevators.  Since I started taking the stairs I’m amazed (and saddened) at how much time I used to waste in those tiny mechanical boxes, waiting for something to happen after I pushed the button.  I still use them sometimes (for instance, if the sprightly daughters are with me, stairs take a really loooong time, and I don’t take the stairs more than about three stories), and when I do I can’t believe how frustrating they are.  Most of ’em are kinda nasty as well.

3.)  “Good” Parking Spots.  The parking spots right next to the door (whatever door that is) are crowded, difficult to turn into and often without shade.  And I don’t waste time waiting for somebody to vacate a spot.  Viva shady parking spots!

4.)  Double Quarter-Pounders with Cheese.  I’m a little surprised McDonald’s stock price hasn’t tanked since I gave up fast food back in December.  I used to eat A LOT of these burgers.  Sometimes with fries (I still maintain that McD’s fries, direct from the fryer, with the proper amount of salt added at the proper time, are the very best fries anywhere), sometimes with a Filet-O-Fish on the side, usually with a tub of the aforementioned Diet Coke.   Not only were they quick and portable, they were tasty.  But it only took me a couple of weeks to forget about ’em.  At this point I can’t even remember what they tasted like.  The fries, they’re a different story.

5.)  Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate-Chip Cookie-Dough Ice Cream.  Sorry Ben and Jerry.  I want to save the world, just like you do (although when you sold-out to Unilever I suspect your interest in saving the world waned a bit), and I will attest that you make the very best mass-produced ice cream there is, bar none.  But eating your fine product a full pint at a time (’cause I never left any in the container) was making me think I should reserve a room at the local cardiac ICU facility.  This was one of the easier foods to give up, actually.  No cravings at all.  Which tells me it probably had fewer strangely-addictive chemicals than most of the stuff I was consuming, but it still had to go.

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I noticed yesterday that the fine folks at WordPress.com have added a “share” bar at the bottom of my posts on this blog for those of you who use The Twitter and/or The Facebook.  While I primarily write this blog to keep myself on the straight-and-narrow, food-wise (and eventually exercise-wise), I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t really dig it when people actually read what I’ve written.  So don’t be shy about using those little buttons.  Thanks!

— (part II)

I’ve been advised that at least one of you is perturbed that I sometimes promise to write about a particular topic but never seem to get around to it. I do feel guilty about that, but let’s face it, I have a fairly short attention span.  That said, I’ll be making a concerted effort to address the issue and clean out the promised-posts backlog within the week.

And again, thank you for reading!

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