Really dumb pre made foods ...

[Mr. DS]

I've always thought these were the dumbest/laziest pre-made food item I've ever seen:

My wife tried these on my son who gave it the big thumbs down.  I don't blame him. 

[AndyC]

There was a steakhouse in Texas that used to bring the entire restaurant staff out and they surrounded you while singing some fairly insulting song whenever someone used ketchup on a steak. Kinda like the birthday treatment some restaurants give you, except insulting. I heard they used to take your steak away and replace it with a burnt hamburger patty, but I'd never seen THAT. 

Gotta love the restaurants that have that kind of integrity. They take great care to prepare the food, and they don't put up with people messing it up. You wanna dump ketchup all over an expensive, dry aged and perfectly cooked cut of beef, they don't really need your business. Kudos to them.

I personally get annoyed with people who put barbecue sauce on steaks (fine on pork, chicken, beef roasts, burgers or sausage, but not steak), or shower it with premixed "steak spice" from a bottle. People love this stuff, and I just don't see why. When I cook a steak, I choose a good cut to begin with, drizzle a little olive oil on it, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, then slap it onto a really hot grill to get it nicely seared, flip it once and serve it medium rare. Tons of flavour there that would just be killed by heavy saucing and seasoning. The most I like to put on steak is a dab of homemade compound butter. It tastes like a steak, not ketchup.

White Castle's, much like Krystal's is only good at 3AM after you've been drinking all night. (Which you're not old enough to yet, legally.)

We don't have White Castle, but I know exactly what you mean. Years ago, there was a 24-hour coffee shop we used to meet at after a night of drinking. I absolutely loved the assorted subs there. Not fresh subs, mind you. I'm talking about the ones sealed in plastic wrap and put on display under the counter. Assorted cheap cold cuts, processed cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and sauces, put on a bun and wrapped up so it can get slightly soggy, then left in the store for who knows how long. You couldn't get me to sniff one of those while sober, but pour 14 or 15 drinks into me and deprive me of sleep for a few hours, and they really hit the spot.

[CheezeFlixz]

We don't have White Castle, but I know exactly what you mean. Years ago, there was a 24-hour coffee shop we used to meet at after a night of drinking. I absolutely loved the assorted subs there. Not fresh subs, mind you. I'm talking about the ones sealed in plastic wrap and put on display under the counter. Assorted cheap cold cuts, processed cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and sauces, put on a bun and wrapped up so it can get slightly soggy, then left in the store for who knows how long. You couldn't get me to sniff one of those while sober, but pour 14 or 15 drinks into me and deprive me of sleep for a few hours, and they really hit the spot.

Around here that would be Ferrell Burger's at Ferrell's Snappy Service, a little local drive where I lived in during some of my partying days that was open 24/7. I wouldn't eat one of the those burger sober if you you paid me. A few drinks and little sleep and we'd stop there and order 5 of them, they were a 98 cents each then.

[Pilgermann]

Since hotdogs are certainly an inconvenient food:

[asimpson2006]

I use canned sausage gravy from time to time, mainly because I don't have the patience to make real gravy. It's really not that bad, , of course it's GRAVY, so it's not very good for you. Also, believe it or not, canned gravy seems to have less salt than the gravy I'VE made, , A can't eat anything with lots of salt.

We sometimes use canned gravy but it's rare that we do so.  We usually have a can at the house as more or less of a backup if we can't make enough gravy or need to have extra gravy but that's about it.  It really doesn't matter if we use extra gravy since it's only my mom and dad who eat it.  I avoid it since I don't like it.

As for fish sticks,, you have no idea. . Many of those are made right on the ships that catch them, and I've seen the inside of more than a few of those ships. It seems like the Russian ships are the worst, I've gone onto the factory deck of them and seen 1/2 of the paint on the ceiling and walls missing so it was rusting, like layers of laminated rust, and about 1/2 of the paint that was missing from the walls was in huge flakes all over everything, including the processing machinery.

Believe it or not though, some of the fish sticks you buy aren't nearly as bad as they look, it's just kinda a weird way of making food, but made on some really clean ships or land-based factories. They lay many layers of fillets of fish out in a big pan and freeze it solid. Then they cut that solid chunk into fish-stick sized chunks and bread, cook them while frozen. Sounds weird, but you end up with honest fish fillet meat inside. MUCH better than the was hot-dogs and bologna is made. Now, , that's for GOOD fish-sticks, , for crappy ones, , who knows. .

I hate fish sticks.  My dad used to make it a bunch and I would usually not eat it since I call it "Kids food".  If I want fish I want real fish not fish sticks.

[Psycho Circus]

English breakfast in a can = gross

[ghouck]

I hate fish sticks.  My dad used to make it a bunch and I would usually not eat it since I call it "Kids food".  If I want fish I want real fish not fish sticks.

The bad ones are HORRIBLE. I've seen them where they grind up a bunch of fish scraps for the meat, and mix it with, and get this, THE LIQUID THAT COMES OUT OF ALL THE HEADS, GUTS, CRAP AFTER BEING SQUEEZED. Nasty. . .

[Patient7]

I use canned sausage gravy from time to time, mainly because I don't have the patience to make real gravy. It's really not that bad, , of course it's GRAVY, so it's not very good for you. Also, believe it or not, canned gravy seems to have less salt than the gravy I'VE made, , A can't eat anything with lots of salt.

We sometimes use canned gravy but it's rare that we do so.  We usually have a can at the house as more or less of a backup if we can't make enough gravy or need to have extra gravy but that's about it.  It really doesn't matter if we use extra gravy since it's only my mom and dad who eat it.  I avoid it since I don't like it.

We just get ours at KFC.

[AndyC]

The bad ones are HORRIBLE. I've seen them where they grind up a bunch of fish scraps for the meat, and mix it with, and get this, THE LIQUID THAT COMES OUT OF ALL THE HEADS, GUTS, CRAP AFTER BEING SQUEEZED. Nasty. . .

Mmmmm, mechanically separated fish. 

"Mechanically separated" is a term that seems about as misleading as you can get. I see something like mechanically separated chicken on a label, and for me, the words suggest something along the lines of little metal fingers working away to separate good meat from the rest. What it really means is taking the chicken carcass, the stripped skeleton after any identifiable chicken parts have been removed, and putting it into what is basically an industrial-sized garlic press. Soft stuff squirts out through the holes, bones stay inside. Almost enough to put a person off hot dogs. Almost.

I was not aware that the same thing was done with fish, but I'm not at all surprised.

[Saucerman]

I'm a college kid.  I'm poor.  But I still refuse to eat some of the garbage I see my peers wolf down.  I've never once touched ramen.  I make Macaroni and Cheese from scratch.  Most of my meals come from a sub shop just off campus that's pretty reasonably priced (I make $6 last me two meals).  Roughly once a month a bunch of friends and I get together and each cook a dish, and have a huge potluck.  I cook a real, decent meal at least once a week, usually for two people (my girlfriend and I).  Meat, potatoes, veggies, dessert, the works. 

Probably 60% of what I earn working in the dining hall goes in my belly, and I have no regrets about that. 

And it's nice that I save a huge amount of money on entertainment by watching B-movies.  Huzzah for the 50-movie DVD packs. 

[asimpson2006]

I'm a college kid.  I'm poor.  But I still refuse to eat some of the garbage I see my peers wolf down.  I've never once touched ramen.  I make Macaroni and Cheese from scratch.  Most of my meals come from a sub shop just off campus that's pretty reasonably priced (I make $6 last me two meals).  Roughly once a month a bunch of friends and I get together and each cook a dish, and have a huge potluck.  I cook a real, decent meal at least once a week, usually for two people (my girlfriend and I).  Meat, potatoes, veggies, dessert, the works. 

Probably 60% of what I earn working in the dining hall goes in my belly, and I have no regrets about that. 

And it's nice that I save a huge amount of money on entertainment by watching B-movies.  Huzzah for the 50-movie DVD packs. 

What's wrong with Ramen?  I used to eat it a bunch when I was in college and for a while in High School but I hardly eat it now since I can get some real food now and then.

[Saucerman]

The sodium level is horrific, and heart disease runs in my family.

And I don't like the taste.

[ghouck]

What's wrong with Ramen?  I used to eat it a bunch when I was in college and for a while in High School but I hardly eat it now since I can get some real food now and then.

Ramen is only good with boiled chicken hearts. .

[Hammock Rider]

[Raffine]

I hate when that happens . . .