You Better Count Your Chicken McNuggets!

I went to McDonald's on Chatham road near Wabash this afternoon around 2:00 and ordered a 10 piece Chicken McNuggets.

I never use the "drive-thru," because like Joe Pesci's character in Lethal Weapon II, "they f#@k you at the drive-thru."

I went up to the counter. besides the drive-thru traffic, there was only one person in front of me and nobody behind me. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary and it appeared that everything was running smoothly.

I only ordered the Chicken McNuggets. No sauce or anything else. When I got the bag I walked out. It felt a little light, so I looked inside.

There were eight pieces, not ten. So, what did I do? I walked out without saying a word, because I would rather write about it here.

When you go to McDonalds and get Chicken McNuggets, stay at the counter, open the box in front of the person who gave you your food and count it and say "I read on the Internet that someone got shorted on their food order."

If you happen to be at the McDonalds on Chatham near Wabash, say "I read on the Internet that someone got shorted on their food here."

Reuben Found!

Yes, there is Reuben sandwich, and it is found at Head West Sub Stop.

• 3311 Robbins Road
• 1124 W. Jefferson
• 530 E. Capitol

http://www.wqlz.com/headwest/index.html

Lemon Drops

We all love our snacks. I like Brach’s Lemon Drops. When I look closely at the package, the serving size is four pieces, and the calories for that serving are 70.

Not much to think about, right? Recently I started wearing a pedometer on my belt. It’s supposed to count the steps you take throughout the day, or more accurately, during short walks.

There’s a little swinging pendulum inside that strikes a switch that adds up your steps, but it records any sudden lateral movement, such as shifting your weight in your chair, or accidentally hitting it with your hand. There is a reset button that zeros out the counter, and a button that switches to different numbers: Steps, Calories, Kilometers, and Miles.

The Pedometer automatically calculates the calories you burn based on the steps you take.

One night I went on a very long walk. According to my pedometer I took 5402 steps or walked 2.4 miles, and burned 181 Calories. We’re supposed to walk ten thousand steps a day.

I had to load the numbers into Microsoft Excel and do some calculating. If this was correct, every time I ate a Brach’s Lemon Drop, I would have to get out and walk an extra 416 yards just to burn it off.

My calculations are based entirely on the pedometer’s programming. If you sit down and eat a bag of any hard candy where each piece is around 17 calories and there are 60 in a bag, you’re looking at a brisk 14 miles of walking if you want to work it off and keep the weight you have, or you must cut the same amount of calories out of your next regular meal.

Just imagine that for every calorie you consume, you will burn it off by walking about 24 yards (according to my little pedometer’s calculations), twenty four yards per calorie.

Subway

Today at Subway I had a six inch Italian "BMT" on white with Ham, salami, and Pepper Jack cheese. I had it toasted, then added lettuce, cucumber, tomato, bell peppers, onions, and jalapenos, and topped off with Ranch dressing. With a bag of chips it was less than $5.00

When I took my first bite I could smell the aroma of baked ham and felt the crispness of the toasted bread. The flavor of everything else was muted by a sudden memory of Reuben sandwiches.

The Reuben Sandwich is corned-beef on Rye with Sauerkraut, Swiss Cheese, and Thousand Island Dressing or Russian Dressing.

Rye bread doesn't appear to be on the menu and I didn't see any sauerkraut, but I'm pretty sure they have Swiss cheese.

Since the smell of ham and salami toasted together brought out the aroma that reminded me of corned beef, I figure the two would be a perfect ready substitute on any bread.

Next week during lunch I'll see if they have anything like the ingredients I mentioned, and if anyone knows of any other ingredients not openly on the menu, but still available, your comments are welcome.

Denny's on Wabash

It was a Tuesday morning during the summer when I arrived for breakfast. The sign said "Please wait to be seated." While I waited, some of the regulars took it upon themselves to walk passed me and seat themselves.

I still waited. Not very long. The only waitress available seated me at a booth before wiping it down, then left to tend to other patrons. I was left without a menu for quite some time, until the manager himself gave one to me. Eventually I ordered the Meat lover's Omelet and some coffee.

I had been eating mostly salads all week at home, so my palate wasn't used to the flavor of sausage, ham, and bacon all at once, but when I took a bite of the omelet, the amount of salt was overwhelming. It was good, but way too salty.

Whether it was the combination of the meat, or if there was salt added in the cooking, I don't recommend the meat lover's omelet or arriving at a time shortly after the end of the early morning shift when there's only one waitress working.