Top Ten lists

[AustinBoston]

On another board, there is a link to MSN's top ten campgrounds.  The list is clearly stupid.  Since stupid is something I can do, I thought i'd start a thread where we can post our own under-researched and over-opinionated top ten lists.  Make up and post your own!

Top ten food establishments I avoid eating at.

[List=1]

• McDonalds and all of it's greasy copy-cats.
• The Red Ox in Ham Lake, Minnesota.  If it doesn't come from a can...
• The Denny's (or was it Hardeees?) in Chickopee, Mass (the one you can see from I-90).  Fortunately for the world, I don't think this restaurant exists any more.
• The Papa Gino's Pizza in Stoughton, Mass.  In ten visits, didn't get our order right once...except one time when they forgot to ever serve our food.
• Anyplace that specializes in Chop Suey.  My mother used to make me eat that stuff.
• The Four Seasons restaurant in Easton, Mass...oh, that burned down in the 1970's...must have been a reason they never rebuilt.
• Old Teel's Cabin in Whitman (or was it Weymouth?) Mass...oh, that's right, they're closed too...they got caught re-serving food.
• Anyplace that advertizes "home cooked meals".  It usually means it came from a can.  Besides, if it isn't better than home cooked, why would you want to eat out?
• Anyplace that serves lutefiske.
• There is lots and lots of food at the Minnesota State Fair.  You can get anything -and I mean anything- on a stick.  But why are some of the booths next to the pig barn?  :yikes:

Austin

[massatari]

The Denny's (or was it Hardeees?) in Chickopee, Mass (the one you can see from I-90). Fortunately for the world, I don't think this restaurant exists any more.

unfortunately the mass pike is where bad restaurant chains go to die.  I think it works on the principle that if you put hungry people on a road with hardly any exits they will eat whatever you can serve them.  I'm not sure what's out in chicopee but the Popeye's closer to the middle of the state is probably the most vile place I've ever eaten.  If what you're thinking of isn't there anymore. there may be 3 or 4 places just as bad that are in that area.

[dthurk]

Anyplace that serves lutefiske.
 
Austin

What is lutefiske?  Must be the restaurants around here are pretty good.  Not a one of them serves this item.

[AustinBoston]

What is lutefiske?  Must be the restaurants around here are pretty good.  Not a one of them serves this item.

Lutefiske is an old Norwegan food that used to be eaten generations ago in Norway.  They stopped eating it in Norway as soon as there was something better to eat.

Unfortunately, Norwegans who moved to Minnesota failed to get that message.  So every year, around Christmastime, you can find restaurants that offer Lutefiske.  You can find churches that have lutefiske suppers and so forth.  Sitting at the next desk is a woman who serves it to her family.  It's tradition.  Except, those back in Norway who started the "tradition" long ago also dropped it long ago when it was no longer necessary.

What is lutefiske?  It's dried codfish that has been soaked in lye until the bones disolve in order to preserve it.  Imagine very old codfish (the stuff the cat might not eat) softened into a jelly-like substance with lye.  It smells terrible, tastes terrible, and feels terrible in your mouth.

Sorry, but if you don't have sufficient tastebuds to know that lutefiske was invented for a time when there was absolutely no other choice, then you don't have the taste buds to make food worth selling to me.

Hey folks that eat lutefiske, ever notice that even you don't want to eat it the rest of the year?  Isn't that a clue?

--

I once had occasion to speak with a local couple originally from South Africa.  I said to them, "Whenever Americans travel abroad, they often find foods where they say 'You actually eat that?'  When you first came here, were there any foods that you saw that made you think 'Do they really eat that?'"

Without a moment's hesitation, the wife blurted out, "LUTEFISKE!"

My opinion exactly.

Austin

[dthurk]

Good explanation, AB.  Your post made me laugh.  I hope I never run into lutefiske.  Glad I'm not Norwegian.  

We ate dinner at the Norway pavilion at EPCOT a couple winters ago.  I don't remember them ever mentioning it there.

[AustinBoston]

Good explanation, AB.  Your post made me laugh.  I hope I never run into lutefiske.  Glad I'm not Norwegian.  

We ate dinner at the Norway pavilion at EPCOT a couple winters ago.  I don't remember them ever mentioning it there.

I really was hoping some other people would come up with their own top ten lists.  If MSN can call their poorly researched list a "top ten" list, then anyone can make one up!

Austin