not a Big Mac kind
May. 31st, 2021 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacMatthew Yglesias goes on an extended rant in which he believes - or affects to believe - that there isn't anybody who hasn't tried a Big Mac. (Unless they're "a lifelong vegetarian" or "profoundly uncurious.")
I haven't tried a Big Mac. Why should I? It's clearly something I wouldn't like. A Big Mac is a McDonald's hamburger with a lot of extra crap on it. I like my burgers simple: maybe some steak sauce, perhaps a little onion. That's it. I've had burgers with a lot of extra crap on them. I don't like it.
And I've had McDonald's hamburgers, plain. I don't like those either. They're lousy hamburgers.
So why should I try a Big Mac? I've already triangulated it: two things I don't like put together, and not in a way that might make it unexpectedly good.
But I will agree with Yglesias on this: that if you're a food writer who's going to review a burger that's designed to be like a Big Mac done right - in which case you surely do like that extra stuff on your burger - and especially if you're going to directly compare it with a Big Mac, then you should have tried a Big Mac. Confessions of rank ignorance are rarely a good look on reviewers. Look things up, or try to write around your ignorance, not straight through it, or at the very least just say, as I might at a new-music concert, "Composer X is new to me." Don't boast of it.
I haven't tried a Big Mac. Why should I? It's clearly something I wouldn't like. A Big Mac is a McDonald's hamburger with a lot of extra crap on it. I like my burgers simple: maybe some steak sauce, perhaps a little onion. That's it. I've had burgers with a lot of extra crap on them. I don't like it.
And I've had McDonald's hamburgers, plain. I don't like those either. They're lousy hamburgers.
So why should I try a Big Mac? I've already triangulated it: two things I don't like put together, and not in a way that might make it unexpectedly good.
But I will agree with Yglesias on this: that if you're a food writer who's going to review a burger that's designed to be like a Big Mac done right - in which case you surely do like that extra stuff on your burger - and especially if you're going to directly compare it with a Big Mac, then you should have tried a Big Mac. Confessions of rank ignorance are rarely a good look on reviewers. Look things up, or try to write around your ignorance, not straight through it, or at the very least just say, as I might at a new-music concert, "Composer X is new to me." Don't boast of it.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-31 05:11 pm (UTC)I couldn't tell you what a 'big mac' is, but you tell me it's a burger so thanks for that.
I know an awful lot of people who have never been into a McDonalds.
He might be amazed at how much of the world isn't the US of effin' A!!
no subject
Date: 2021-05-31 05:58 pm (UTC)The basic structure is bottom bun, bottom pattie, middle bun (more like a circular piece of bread - no right/wrong side), top pattie, top bun. Add to that their "secret sauce" and lettuce. The standard must have tomato and pickle slices also, but as I'm allergic to raw tomatoes and don't like pickles, I haven't had that.
It's the same patties as in the standard burger: flat little circles. They're just stacked with another piece of bread between so it's a taller burger.
As a teenager, I thought they were fine.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 07:34 pm (UTC)