Man Has Eaten 23,000 Big Macs

Don Gorske, the man who claims to have eaten 23,000 McDonald's Big Macs since 1972, could very well be the nagging thorn in the side of health food proponents...

A 54-year-old man says his obsessive-compulsive disorder drove him to eat 23,000 Big Macs in 36 years. Fifty-four-year-old Don Gorske says he hit the milestone last month, continuing a pleasurable obsession that began May 17, 1972 when he got his first car.

http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880908073

That works out to an average of two Big Macs every day.

The article goes on to say that's he physically fit.

That's good news for all of us, because it tells us it's possible to live at least 54 years eating nothing but Big Macs, and only Big Macs.

Touche! All you health food fanatics!

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McDonald's and Gays

Good as You writes about McDonald's coming under fire (what tiny little fire it might be) from the American Family Association, because the company took action that made it appear as if they support gay rights...

...Mickey D's has become the latest American corporation to suffer at the baselessly extremist, rabidly anti-gay hands of Don Wildmon Inc. The McNugget company's "sin"? The refused to shun Vice President of Communications Richard Ellis for his decision to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).

Read on...

http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2008/07/exlcusive-afa-t.html

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What Happened to Bob's Big Boy?

Bob's Big Boy announced today that they've brought back the "Super Slim Jim", a ham, swiss sandwich, witht their "special sauce", on a grecian roll.

Here in Southern California, there are some Bob's Big Boy restaurants still around, but not many. There used to be just many Bob's as there were Denny's here in the Southland. But then one-by-one, they all went away.

I know just a few of them are still here.

There's one in Baker, CA, which took over the old "Bun Boy". But this Bob's is nothing like the old Bob's. You set foot in there, and it feels like a "fake Bob's". The Big Boy statue may be outside, but the restaurant doesn't have that genuine Bob's feel to it. About the only menu item that has carried over from those glory days is that "Big Boy" double decker burger.

My wife and I used to go to Bob's in Laguna Hills for their breakfast buffet. I always found their bacon to be the way I like it, soft and dripping with oil. Let that oil drip down over the hash browns. Their hash browns was also the way I liked it, soft.

I just got news that a Bob's Big Boy is coming to Temecula, CA, just about 20 minutes from my home. It's taking over the old Ritchie's Diner. I'm sure my wife will be setting up a new home-away-from-home in there.

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Win Free Beef Jerky for a Year

House of Jerky announced their video contest, where you can win free beef jerky for a year.

What you do is create a video saying how much you love House of Jerky's jerky, and upload it to their contest site...

http://youtube.com/group/houseofjerkycontest

The top two winners get the free chew.

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Dairy Queen Launches New Girl Scout Blizzard

Dairy Queen officially launched its new Blizzard flavor of the month for July, Girl Scouts Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard.

The best selling Girl Scouts cookie is now a Blizzard variety, in a cool green color, minty flavored ice cream, with chunks of Thin Mint cookies.

The company sent me a coupon for a free sample of this new Blizzard flavor, so I hopped over to my nearest DQ, and tried it out.

It tastes very much like a mint chocolate chip ice cream, except instead of chocolate chips, it just has chunks of cookies in it.


The Blizzard got its start in 1985 as a soft serve ice cream with flavoring and bits of candy. However, the Blizzard trademark has been within the company since the 1950s, representing various concepts.

In China, DQ actually sells green tea Blizzards. I wonder why they don't offer that here?

The Girl Scouts Thin Mint Blizzard are available in DQ stores right now, and will be around indefinitely.

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We Can Now Sue Our Mothers

At least that's all I'm getting out of this report...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/ momsunhealthydietmayhavelongtermimpactonbaby

The article says that if you feed a pregant rat a diet of donuts, muffins, cookies, chips and sweets, its offspring will become more likely to develop heart disease and diabetes.

Even though I haven't been diagnosed with either of those, I guess it's still an ace-up-my-sleeve should I need to point the blame at someone.

But then again, my mother never ate ONLY donuts, muffins, cookies, chips, and sweets while she was pregnant. She actually mixed in some vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. So maybe I don't have that ace after all.

And why did they have to test this on rats? Couldn't they have gotten more realistic results comparing Americans with some nomadic tribe from Siberia?

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Carl's Jr Endorsed by Drycleaners

Carl's Jr, this week, announced that it received an endorsement from the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), because of the increased business that drycleaning businesses have received since the launch of Carl's new chili cheeseburger.

"People have been ordering a lot of Chili Cheese Burgers and Chili Cheese Fries from Carl's Jr. Clearly, people don't mind getting a little messy for a great burger," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl's Jr. restaurants.

Seizing the opportunity, the execs at Carl's Jr are now supplying drycleaning bags emblazioned with the Carl's Jr chili cheeseburger to participating drycleaners, as well as Carl's Jr branded window signs. These have been distributed to some 1,250 drycleanners around the country.


Additionally, Carl's Jr. has teamed up with cleaning guru Jeff Campbell of The Clean Team to give television viewers additional tips on how to get chili cheese stains off clothing and any items which may have been sullied in the "drip zone" of Carl's Jr. chili menu items. Mr. Campbell will appear on morning programs throughout the Western states to provide his expert stain removal tips.

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Mississippi HB 282 - Denying Food to Obese

Some legislators in Mississippi have introduced a bill that will make it illegal for restaurants to serve fat people.

HB 282 will revoke the health department license of any restaurant, fast-food or otherwise, if it serves food to anyone who meets the department's criteria as being, "obese".

As the bill states...

Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor.

The bill will require the State Department of Health to distribute materials to restaurants that will define what an obese person is.

Imagine going to a Subway, who claims to help you lose weight by eating their sandwiches, and having a "sandwich artist" tell you, "Sorry but your ass is TOO FAT!"

And in Mississippi, such a law could put every restaurant out of business.

Here's a link to the bill...

http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2008/pdf/history/HB/HB0282.xml

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Pizza Hut and Pasta Hut

TradeMork says today that the Pizza Hut chain filed an application to claim the "Pasta Hut" trademark for themselves. You can read their article here...

http://www.trademork.com/pasta-hut/

The name "Pasta Hut" is already in use by a handful of restaurants around country.

Will Pizza Hut open up a chain of pasta restaurants? The fast food pasta concept is not new, with many restaurants already doing well in this sphere, the biggest chain being Fazoli's.

It could also be that Pizza Hut is concerned an established Pasta Hut restaurant could gain a large enough influence to take away from their brand.

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Carl Karcher, 1917-2008

Carl Karcher, the founder of Carl's Jr., perhaps one of the most well-loved fast-food chains in Southern California, passed away today.

Carl Karcher Enterprises was based in Orange County, and if you grew up in "The OC" as I did, no kid could ever escape the Happy Star. In junior high, the company awarded me with a free lunch for outstanding school attendance.

My favorite menu item was the California Roast Beef, much like a roast beef sandwich you'd get at an Arby's, except with a whole green chile, and monterey jack cheese. They don't make it anymore.

They also used to serve up the crinkle-cut french fries that were more like strips of mashed-potatoes than cut potatoes. I wish they'd bring those back too.

Carl actually started out selling hot dogs. I remember for Carl's Jr's 50th anniversary, they brought back the dogs.

My co-worker and I used to eat lunch at a corporate owned Carl's Jr in Anaheim, where Carl would often visit and meet with the patrons.

After succeeding with his hot-dog stand business in the early 1940s, he opened up his first restaurant in 1945 in Anaheim as "Carl's Drive-In Barbecue". Later on he opened up smaller versions of the restaurant and named them "Carl's Jr" for obvious reasons.

Carl Karcher Enterprises went on to open Carl's Jr. restaurants all throughout the western USA, and then purchased the Hardee's chain in the east. He also tried to get in on the fast-food mexican business with his "Taco De Carlos" in the 1970s, but floundered.

Carl himself was also well loved in Orange County, a man who gave back to his community through his charitable contributions. He was respected as a tireless worker, a believer in himself and in his employees. This was a guy who dropped out of school in the 8th grade, and made it to the top because of hard work and determination. He was devoutly patriotic, leading the Pledge of Allegiance before every board meeting.

The Happy Star logo will be his lasting legacy.

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Krispy Kreme Now Trans-Fat Free

Krispy Kreme announced today that it has completed its transition to becoming trans-fat free. 100% of their menu is now politically correct.

The company has been slowly introducing trans-fat free doughnuts over the past several months.

In reality, the doughnuts are not really trans-fat free, rather they are "trans-fat free per serving", which is different. Under FDA guidelines, if a product has less than 0.5 grams of trans-fat per serving, then it can be rounded down to 0.0 grams on the labeling. But nonetheless, I'm sure they're more sophisticated than previous doughnuts.

The company claimed that it made this move because of demand from their closest fans...

Through the Friends of Krispy Kreme program, an online group of Krispy Kreme fans who receive special Krispy Kreme promotional offers and provide feedback on new Krispy Kreme products, the company knew that reducing trans fat from daily diets had been on their customers' minds. The initiative to transition the entire menu to zero grams trans fat demonstrates Krispy Kreme's commitment to its customers.

Awww, ain't that special?

But me thinks that there was something more to it than that.

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Will McDonald's Add Dental Floss to its Happy Meals?

The National Flossing Council apparently fired off an appeal to Don Thompson, President of McDonald's USA, to include a packet of dental floss with each happy meal.

The trade industry wants to promote the Friday after Thanksgiving as "National Flossing Day", and is trying to piggy-back on Mickey D's powerful brand...

The request to Thompson notes that McDonald's has had great success with its Healthy Options menu and proposes that offering floss will expand their efforts to include the dental health of McDonald's customers.

It's a bad idea. Think of what this suggests. If you buy a happy meal, or a Healthy Options item, you'll need dental floss because this food is really bad for your teeth.

Read their press release...
http://www.flossing.org/pages/McDonald's%26Floss2007.html

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Domino's Delivers to Delayed Airplane

What's better than having Domino's pizza delivered to your door? How about having Domino's delivered to you on an airplane?

After a nearly three-hour flight delay on Monday, Nov. 5, at the Dubuque Regional Airport in Dubuque, Iowa, passengers aboard a Chicago-bound flight were pleasantly surprised when their flight attendant morphed into a Domino's delivery expert, carrying piping hot pizzas.

"Even though the airport was a bit beyond their normal delivery area, the local Domino's was able to have hot pizzas delivered to us in about 25 minutes," said Domino's Pizza area leader Jeff Cullers, a passenger on the plane. "Everyone aboard the plane was really happy with the special delivery."

Cullers, who arranged the delivery after his fellow passengers started grumbling about the delay, works with 60 franchise-owned Domino's Pizza stores in Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Nebraska.

After the second hour of the delay, the pilot and airport staff gave clearance to have Domino's pizza delivered to the flight's passengers and crew. Never has an airplane meal tasted so good!

Source: Domino's Press Release

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Woman Successfully Sues After Drinking 5,000 Liters of Coke

Annanova reports that a Russian woman sued Coca-Cola for physical damages after drinking 5,000 liters of Coke.

Natalya Kashuba, 27, the owner of an up-market clothes shop, drank up to three litres of the soft drink every day for five years.

She took legal action against the soft drinks giant after claiming that she had suffered insomnia and heartburn, reports the Telegraph.

She blames Coca-Cola for the addiction because the company ran a promotion that allowed consumers to swap Coca Cola caps for prizes.

Two Russian courts agreed with her, and is forcing Coca-Cola to pay awards. She's now seeking further awards for "moral damages".

Sounds to me that Russians have fully grasped the concepts of capitalism.

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Yahoo Food Portal

Yahoo announced the official launch of its "Yahoo Food" portal today. I took a look around to what it had to offer in the area of Junk Food.

Check it out here: http://food.yahoo.com/

To sum it up, the portal doens't offer any kind of anchor page for snacks, candies, and other greasy offerings. But it does offer some news content, blog posts, and recipes covering some junk.

Probably the page I'll be checking most often is their "Bites" section. This takes you to a page containing news. I just like news.

I had hoped to see coverage of new products, in the same vein as what I do here on Junk Food Blog, but no such thing.

However, Adam Kuban has a cool blog within Yahoo Food called, "A Hamburger Today", where he writes everything about the burger...

http://food.yahoo.com/blog/ahamburgertoday

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Hooters New "Pay at Table" System

Hooters Restaurants is testing a new "Pay at Table" system allowing customers to pay their tabs without having to hand their credit card to a waitress.

The move is looked upon as a way ease the growing fear of identity theft associated with trusting someone else with your credit card.

The system involves a small credit-card slider device placed at each table. Just slide your card and complete the transaction much like you would do at the grocery store. Hooters has partnered with Ingenico Pay@Table to supply the devices.

Right now, the only restaurant testing this is the Hooters in Downtown Atlanta, GA. Testing started last week. Throughout 2007, Hooters plans to roll this out to all of its restaurants.

I can forsee hundreds of these slider devices getting gooeyed up with sticky buffalo wing sauce.

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Hershey's Kiss Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service today unveiled its new "With Love and Kisses" postage stamp. It won't be released until January 2007.

On hand at the unveiling was Michele Buck, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, U.S. Commercial Group, The Hershey Company.

The new stamp marks the first time that a piece of chocolate was featured on a U.S. postage stamp, and it comes timely, because 2007 marks the 100th Anniversary of the Hershey's Kisses.

Hershey's Kisses haven't changed since The Hershey Company introduced it in 1907. Wrapped by hand until the process was automated in 1921, Kisses chocolates have been available year round for 100 years with only one exception. Production ceased from 1942 to 1949, when silver foil was rationed as a result of the war effort. Kisses chocolates wrapped in red and silver foil were introduced in 1986 in honor of Valentine's Day.

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Chocolate That Doesn't Melt

Live Science reports that food scientists at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria have developed a type of chocolate that resists melting in temperatures up to 122°F.

But better yet, they claim that results from taste tests show that they're new product is actually favorable when compared to real milk chocolate.

S.O. Ogunwolu and C.O. Jayeola, food scientists at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, have mixed cornstarch with cocoa to produce a heat-resistant chocolate that they say compares "favorably with conventional milk chocolate in terms of color, taste, smoothness and overall acceptability."

The starch acts as a chocolate thickener and prevents the outflow of cocoa butter-the natural fat of the cocoa bean-when the heat is on. The researchers found that using 10 percent starch was ideal and produced a product that was comparable to milk chocolate in taste tests.

The report goes on to say that heat resistant chocolate has been developed before, including one that Hershey made that could hold up to 140° temperatures. But the problem was that it wouldn't melt in your mouth.

However, the Nigerian team isn't so much concerned about competiting against the joys of real milk chocolate. They only want to introduce chocolate to African consumers, which apparently doesn't have the luxury of air conditioning, and hence, doesn't eat chocolate.

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