We all know fast food isn't really good food. It's more like fried something on top of fried something else with a touch of oil, butter, and salt for taste.
But what we don't see is the behind the scenes stuff. We don't see where those patties come from, or how those chicken nuggets are cooked. We don't get to see what the employees see. But they are trying to warn us about the perils of eating their products. We best listen.
u/sniffler420 asked:
Fast food workers of Reddit, what should we NOT order at your restaurant? And why?
Here were some of those cautionary answers.
We're Sorry, Your Order Is Extinct
GiphyCurrent Wendy's employee here.
Don't be the *ss that orders a T-Rex Burger (a 9, 4 oz patty burger). First of all, they are basically a one way ticket to the emergency room. Second, we can barely wrap that thing without it falling over since it's so tall. Lastly, go spend the $20 that the sandwich costs on food that's actually worth a damn.
Still amazes me when people order that sh*t.
Fresh As Fast Food Can Be
I work at Zaxbys and you shouldn't order anything with a fried filet instead of the fried fingers. The filets are way less popular so they sit in the pan for a long time. The fingers are much more popular and are getting made constantly so they are always more fresh.
This Ain't In-N-Out, Kids
Former starbucks worker here. Please don't order anything off the "Secret Menu". It doesn't exist.
If you want a snickerdoodle, nuttella, or captain crunch frappuchino (or whatever other overly sugery thing someone has since come out with), know the base drink and the modifications, and order that. If you just say the name, it's up to the barista to come up with what's in the drink, and it may not be what the last barista you ordered from put in there.
Clean Restaurant Or Clean Food?
I worked the night shift at McDonald's.
During the day, the restaurant is busy and the food is fine. At night, the poor guy left alone on the line is not only tasked with making all the food, but also cleaning up the huge mess from day shift. We're talking grease splatters on the sides of garbage cans, scraping semi-dried mayonnaise out of the dispensers, etc.
It's really annoying to be cleaning and have a random customer show up at the drive-up window and have to stop everything, wash your hands, change your gloves, make their food, then go back to cleaning. I've seen so many nasty-*ss people make your sandwich with literal trash grease or mop-wringer water on their gloves because they got annoyed that you interrupted them. I NEVER eat at a McD between 11pm and 5am.
Just Turn On The Faucet
Bdubs (Buffalo Wild Wings)- everything is frozen. Stay away from the burgers especially. I've seen so much raw chicken go out, so disgusting. If you come in at a non-peak hour your wings have probably been sitting in the warmer for an hour.
It's unbelievable to me that so many food workers don't wash their hands!!!
I've been a bartender for half a decade and I'm CONSTANTLY washing my hands- mostly for my own benefit. I don't want nasty customer germs on my hands anymore than they want my germs!!
Not Fresh But Yet Not Frozen
Panera- pasta; it's all microwaved, this includes Mac and cheese. Smoothies/frozen drinks- nasty base crap that smells and it's sticky. Cupcakes/coffee cakes- all come frozen. Best items are the real sandwhich/ salads. Real ingredients and usually fresh.
Read The Room
Used to work at Dairy Queen Grill and Chill aka ice cream and food. Not sure if it's all locations, but I followed the book in terms of throwing older food out and making it fresh as we go. So if it's a slow day I'm not going to give you a patty that's been sitting in the warmer for an hour. I'm throwing a frozen patty on the grill and you'll get it fresh. If you ask for fries with no salt because of dietary restrictions or if it's slow. I won't have a problem doing so. If it's busy and you do it AND then ask for salt on the side. You can wait for your fries.
The chili comes in a big can, nothing special.
The fruits for the ice cream aren't fresh. We did chop all our vegetables fresh though. Ice cream comes in big ol' (not old) boxes that are stored in the cooler and run through pipes to the machines out front.
The only thing that's really fresh and not frozen are the buns, veggies, and cheeses. It's also been over 5 years since I've worked there so things might have changed.
Beware The Teriyaki
Panda Express cook here Depending on the management, the kitchen and back are very well kept and clean. We prep veggies and meats everyday, but most of the sauces are prepackaged. Some stores will burn the sh*t out of the teriyaki chicken, because they don't scrape the grill after making a batch. But working there hasn't killed my love of panda Express so take that as you will.
Only The Coffee, Nothing Else
This isn't a fast food restaurant, but i work at 7-Eleven.
Do's: 1.drink our coffee. we change it every 4 hours so it's pretty much always fresh.
Dont's:
- Drink our tea. Some stores are okay because they have a liner in the tea pot to make sure it stays clean, but old run down 7-Elevens don't. When i go to a store and remake the tea without a liner it smells like sewer water.
- Eat our "Tornados or Roller Dogs." We only clean the "grill" once a night. they have caked on grease and old food from way way back.
- Eat our "Bakery" anything. This includes our muffins, sausage rolls, or donuts. Workers come at night to restock the bakery items so they're only fresh at around 11:30pm. They will sit there until the next night. I've also seen a worker completely drop several trays of donuts and then just put them right into the display case. Customers also never use gloves or the papers to grab them. disgusting when they can't even use the bathrooms correctly.
Meatballs? Nah.
GiphyUsed to work in like 4 different Subways. Not a single one heated, stored, or reheated meatballs correctly or safely. They are only good for like 6 hours once heated. No one follows that. If you come in before lunch and order meatballs, those meatballs have been heated in the microwave twice (once the day before and again in the morning).
Seriously, you are better off buying your own bag of frozen meatballs, a can of spaghetti sauce, and a bag of hoagie buns.
Also the cold cut combo? It is literally just bologna. It comes prepackaged and smells like farts when you open the bag.
Not The Drink You're Looking For
Former Starbucks Barista
A caramel macchiato is just an upside down vanilla latte with a caramel drizzle on top. I promise you you cannot taste the difference. Save the money and calories. There is no caramel flavor in that macchiato. That drizzle just clumps to your cup and adds nothing to the drink.
Eat...Fresh?
Used to work at a Sonic several years ago back in high school. Although it won't make you sick or taste noticeably different, the soft serve and milkshake machines are actually fairly gross. They're a major pain in the ass to clean, and it takes upwards of an hour even if you're good at it, so most stores don't do it as often as they should, and you end up with hoses, fittings, and milk buckets gunked up with chunky solids.
No Scrub, No Nugs
GiphyWorked at a Hardee's. You're probably better off not ordering chicken. Like at all. Health code states you're supposed to thoroughly wash your hands before and after handling any raw product, especially chicken. A lot of employees, especially during rushes or when they're by themselves, won't wash at all or will run their hands under some hot water for a few seconds. And yeah they usually wear gloves but not always and if you start touching things with chicken juice on your hands, you've basically contaminated the entire line. So probably just don't get anything.
Celiacs Beware
Wendy's is pretty good overall, but we say we're gluten free. We are in a sense that we will give you lettuce instead of a bun but, if you're a celiac you're going to have a reaction from our food. Bread crumbs fall into the sauces, fries are cooked with breaded nuggets, the utensils and gloves touch the bread all day and then your burger. There's so much cross contamination it will make your stomach turn just thinking about it. If you're a celiac I advise not going to Wendy's.
Pizza Hut Two Three Four
Worked at Pizza Hut. Don't order a large cheese or pepperoni pizza before 6/7 on a Friday or Saturday. Often the first duty of the 4-10 shift those nights was to premake 10-20 of each of those to save time during the dinner rush. Same thing for big lunch orders that are placed in advance, those pizzas were probably made around closing the night before.
They really aren't gross for any sanitation reasons or whatever, but they're just not as good.
What Rots And What Doesn't Rot
Former McDonald's employee here. It's all so gross. I get that it tastes good, but that thing about how the meat, bread and fries don't rot is 100% true. I've seen burgers and fries left in some corner somewhere for months. Real food would stink bad enough that you would have to find it and clean it up. Also know this from experience. The McFood just gets hard as a rock, but looks basically the same. This you can't avoid at any McDonald's.
On the other side of the spectrum the milk products do rot. The shake and ice cream machine never works because no one cleans it properly. Same deal with the McCafe machine.
They would train one or two people how to do a thorough cleaning on these machines when we first got them. That training knowledge left with them when they quit. This may have been the franchise owner I worked for, but this woman gave absolutely z e r o fucks about health code regulations... or labor laws for that matter.
The only things I will still get from there are the regular coffee bottled water and oatmeal. The rest I don't trust to be conforming with health standards.
We all have brands or companies that we might admire from afar (or at the very least via their website or catalog), but know we will likely never shop there ourselves.
For the simple reason that their products and merchandise are simply out of our price range.
As a result, we may find ourselves like Holly Golightly at Tiffany's while window shopping, but never actually making a purchase.
However, there are some brands that are so luxurious, that even catalog or window shopping is out of the question.
As they are not only luxurious but also exclusive, only a certain few even know of their existence.
Redditor Halyycon10 was curious to learn about any and all of the luxury brands that cater exclusively to the wealthiest people on earth, leading them to ask:
"What are the 'quiet' luxury brands that only the super rich know about?"
Allow Me To Take You Upstairs...
"An Italian friend arranged a visit to a Murano glass gallery."
"After the general public cleared out of the public showroom, the gallery's people took us up some stairs to the 'real deal' gallery with shelves full of breathtaking art pieces."
"We admired one vase on a shelf, but were told that it would never be offered for sale -- it was too important as part of the island's legacy & heritage."
"I think that the way we zeroed in on it somehow convinced them that we were top art dealers "'in stealth mode'."
"For the rest of the afternoon, we were treated like VIPs."
"What a day that was...."-- funhousefrankenstein
Uncharted Territory
"I work in the Luxury Travel industry."
"I know quite a few."
"Exclusive Resorts is an invite-only membership club for very high-end travel."
"They don’t post their prices online, but I know people that work there."
"They have personal cell phone numbers for people like Jeff Bezos, Waltons, and people that live at that stratospheric titan of industry level."
"Their cheapest membership package is $100,000 to join, and can run up to $250,000."
"That’s just the price to join the club."
"You have to pay for any travel you want to book on top of that."
"They have a $600M portfolio of properties they own throughout the world, that only their members have access to."
"Want to guarantee availability for a finish-line view villa in Monaco during the Grand Prix?"
"Want to get a ski-in cabin next to the Walton’s cabin in Aspen over Christmas?"
"Want a luxury penthouse in Paris during fashion week?"
"These are your guys."
"They cap their membership at 3,000 people, so you may have to wait for a long time until you can get in."
"Another interesting one: White Desert is your tour operator of choice if you want a private expedition with your buddies to the South Pole."
"Their packages can run $100,000+ per person for a private jet to their base camp on the Antarctica plateau and then another custom-build ski-plane transfer to their camp on the South Pole."- El_mochilero
GiphyNothing More Valuable Than A Good Night's Sleep...
"Duxiana."
"For people who can buy a mattress that costs as much as a car."- Hot-Dress-3369
A Perfect Fit...
"Tailors on Saville Row."
"Wealthy people get their clothes custom made."- mecyh
Nothing To Give It Away...
"I had a rich friend once tell me that Gucci is what poor people think rich people wear."
"Since then I noticed that all of her clothes fit perfect, but she never has logos on anything."- hoptownky
gucci GIFGiphyThese Boots Might NOT Be Made For Walking...
"John Lobb bootmaker in St James."
"Make beautiful handmade shoes for royalty, celebrities and rich types."
"They are well known but not a household name."- queenirv
Free For All...
"I used to be of the opinion that really wealthy people wore stuff that you wouldn't really notice, but disappointingly (having spent some time around folks with extreme wealth recently), the true answer is just: whatever the hell they like."
"If someone really liked branded gear before they were wealthy, you'd better believe they're going to be dressed like Ali G once they make it big."- AvaRCordero
Pay Up To Dress Down...
"Jeff Goldblum was on the Conan podcast and talked about where he got his jeans."
"It was from this hard-to-find shop in New York that not many people had heard of.
Come to find out, not surprisingly, their jeans are insanely expensive, and only the very rich could afford them." - Reddit
Jeans Pants GIF by Post MaloneGiphyFor All Your Million Dollar Needs...
"Buy a copy of The Robb Report magazine at a bookstore and marvel at the insane ads in the back for private jets, yacht brokers, military level trained personal protection Belgian Malinois guardian dogs, personal protection security firms staffed by former US Secret Service and retired Tier 1 operators only in their early 40s and fit with 20 years experience, and even crazier stuff."
"Pfft buying a $400 pair of jeans is pedestrian when you have Taylor Swift money and roll in 2 fully armored Escalades and are escorted on errands by a phalanx of guys in black polo shirts and jeans who have been places and done things in sandy countries that are still classified."- scots
Cruisin...
"Amels."
"They are one of the best super yacht manufacturers in the world with over 100 years of experience."- theassassintherapist
Before You Show Off That Logo...
"Almost all of the well known luxury brands have several lines. "
"The ones with logos all over them are typically the cheapest (I’m looking at you LV, Gucci) etc. which is why they’re so common."
"The same companies will have more exclusive lines that are much more expensive, usually more classic in style, and they’re not covered in logos, so you’d never know what brand they are unless you’re really into that kind of thing."
"For example, my wife wanted to buy me a nice wallet, so we went to the LV shop."
"I liked one that had no logo on the exterior of it, just simple grey leather, and it cost twice as much as the ones with 'LV' stamped all over them."- ToothbrushGames
Black Friday Christmas GIF by FOX TVGiphyPeople Go Nuts For Interior Design
"Zuber & Co."
"Crazy expensive wallpaper and room dividers/panels."
"I love old rococo and baroque things so happed to walk by their store in NYC."
"Stopped in due to the patterns and quickly realized I do in-fact NOT have thousands of dollars per ft for wallpaper."
"For example $5,000 - $30,000 per panel."- Reddit
It's About Time
"When I met my wife she worked selling high end watches."
"Talking about it on our first date I said ‘oh like Rolex and stuff?’"
"She said ‘Rolex customers are just new money, drug dealers and old men'."
"'If people contact us wanting one we just direct them to a watch shop'."
"Then rattled off a list of about 10 makers I’d never heard of which her international clients would fly here just to try on."
"I was wearing a Luminox at the time which I thought was pretty badass but all of a sudden I felt like a kid running around with that gadget from Ben 10."- StrangledByTheAux
As the saying goes, "if you have to ask, you can't afford it!"
Though it must be said, there is also absolutely NOTHING wrong with shopping for watches at a watch shop.
The human body is an amazing thing.
It is capable of far more than we ever thought possible.
When studying anatomy we really should start doing a deeper dive into all the parts of the body.
Each organ and limb has a story and function that we never really learn about.
Redditor NorthPengyyy wanted to discuss... the penis, so they asked:
"What are some fun facts about the penis?"
Don't Die
"Fun fact - the erection happens when blood enters the penis, the main "structure" of the penis hardens and expands (obviously), but by doing so it presses the Veins and blocks them. Meaning - the blood comes but doesn't go out of the organ, thus keeping it erect for too long. This is why erections over 6 hours are dangerous because the blood blockage is for too long of a time and the penis can die due to lack of oxygen. I hope it was interesting."
SoapBubble3
Outaries
"The seam on your testicle sack is where your proto vagina sealed up while you were in the womb."
melonsquared
"So testicles are just ovaries that are outaries?"
datazulu
"Literally yes. They all start as gonads in your abdomen. Girls’ gonads stay and turn into ovaries. Boy’s gonads descend and become testes. It’s why, when you take a hit to the balls, it hurts all the way back up in your stomach and can make you nauseated. Boys still have innervated back up to where the gonads first developed."
SpartySoup
SNAP!
Schitts Creek Pain GIF by CBCGiphy"It can break like a glow stick if it slips out while a girl is on top and slams back down on it."
Artistic_Marzipan221
De-boned
"Most animals have a 'penis bone' which allows for instant erections, however, humans do not have this bone. The cause is thought to be because without the bone, courtship, arousal, and mating is a longer affair therefore leading to increased intimacy and pair bonding. The penis is literally made for love."
nailbunny2000
Prehensile
Nat Geo Adventure GIF by National Geographic ChannelGiphy"An elephant's penis is prehensile, like its trunk. It can be used to pick up objects."
Sea-Woodpecker-610
How come only elephants were granted this gift?
Frozen
Polar Bears GIF by Nature on PBSGiphy"Being stressed out, exhausted, and cold makes it smaller. So the smallest penis in the world should belong to a man being chased by a polar bear in the Arctic."
Electrical_Age_336
Wait, what?
"I remember watching a weird YouTube documentary about a spider (in Australia of course) whose bite gives you a forever erection."
JMthought
It Just happens
"Just because it's erect DOES NOT mean the person is horny/aroused."
Spartan0536
"I recently learned that clenching other muscles is a good way to get rid of an erection. The bigger the muscle, the better, so clenching your butt is a good way to go. Apparently, it’s because it causes more blood to go to the clenched muscle. More blood to the muscle = less blood to the penis."
phatcat9000
"I'm quite anxious all the time. When I'm just chilling with nothing else to do, I reach a point of relaxation and I get erections, I'm not aroused or anything, I'm just chilling and it seems that my body approves of my time off I guess."
chifrijoconbirra
Be Smart
"There is a ligament at the base of the penis that causes the penis to rise when it becomes erect. This is what causes a bulge etc."
"Some people have stupidly made the decision to have this ligament cut. This is because it adds a few inches of length to the erect penis. However, it will just hang down. Do. Not. Do. This. It is a stupid thing to do."
phatcat9000
Data Entry
information GIFGiphy"A single sperm contains 37.5 MB of DNA information. One ejaculation represents roughly a data transfer of 15,875 GB equivalent to the combined capacity of 62 MacBook Pro laptops."
Nijinsky_84
Well, the penis is far more interesting than we thought.
Isn't it?
Do you have any interesting tidbits to add? Let us know in the comments.
