Years ago, I heard the chain Long John Silver's was a money laundering front for the mob, although now it's owned by Yum, same parent company as KFC, Taco Hell, and Pizza Hurt.

Yummie, KenTaco Hut

There are many outlets that are a combination of KFC with either TB or LJS. Trying to think if I've ever seen a KFC/PH.

I think Yum! spunoff LJS. In fact, the the dual-branded stores have pretty much disappeared here. Every three months or so, I get called in for a KFC taste test at Yum! HQ. They recently raised the pay to $35. It's fun.

I drove by a TB/PH today.

You're right, Yum spun it off to a group of franchisees and other investors calling themselves LJS Partners, headquartered in Louisville.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

There's a Chinese place close to me that I wish was good, but it just isn't. In fact, I don't even understand how it stays open. There's never any customers, and I've been by there many different times and days of the week. The building itself is kind of ramshackle, but they have an "A" grade and "100%" posting from the health dept. in their window. It's a very bizarre place; like it's a front for something.

There's a pretty good Chinese restaurant in Lewisville, Texas, that I visited about two months ago. My brother, who
lives in the area, said that their business is almost completely take-out and that there's seldom anyone eating there
in their dining room. Perhaps that's the situation with your Chinese restaurant.

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~Sue~

Well locally We have a New hybrid Gas station w/32 pumps spanning about 25,060sqft, that is going to have a Food Establishment, and a store, all in one it has a spire at the top, but I have no idea who is behind this or what the restaurant will be. All at Calico Rd in Yermo CA, they have a Big Water Tank out front, which is an odd place for such a tank, but both can be seen for a few miles.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

There's a Chinese place close to me that I wish was good, but it just isn't. In fact, I don't even understand how it stays open. There's never any customers, and I've been by there many different times and days of the week. The building itself is kind of ramshackle, but they have an "A" grade and "100%" posting from the health dept. in their window. It's a very bizarre place; like it's a front for something.

There's a pretty good Chinese restaurant in Lewisville, Texas, that I visited about two months ago. My brother, who
lives in the area, said that their business is almost completely take-out and that there's seldom anyone eating there
in their dining room. Perhaps that's the situation with your Chinese restaurant.

Never understood why Chinese food was so hit or miss. Living where I do there is a good number of spots that are run by Chinese and others that are not. What I have seen now is Chinese owned places where all the cooks are Hispanic. Won't go into why. I've also seen places run on a shoestring where the business in 99% delivery and others where it is formal white tablecloth dine in. If people actually went into many of the delivery places they would never have food from them again. The dine in places about 25% are filthy in the restroom and you know the kitchen is worse. I suspect the profit margin in Chinese food just isn't enough to take the time and labor to keep a place spotless, even if they can keep the food contact surfaces clean for the "A" in the window.

As for the taste, some places are 100% American ingredients and recipes for the American palette, and some places are very heavy into Chinese ingredients and traditional recipes. If you have only ever had one or the other, you won't like the opposite. The flavors are different between the veggies. One that would be obvious to anyone is mushroom. Button mushroom doesn't taste at all like a shiitake mushroom. Then there are the differences by locale. Sichuan, Hunan, Anhui, Fujian, Cantonese, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong. If your local spot is one kind you won't like the same dish from another and if it doesn't say one locale or indicate which dish is from where take that as 100% American. Then there are the Chinese dishes that are American and you would never find in China. It is a wonderful mashup. Find your places and the dishes from them you like. ;-)


<ed>@Vic it will be a Pilot or a Flying J truck stop if it is that big.

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Nah those are both over in Lenwood on the other side of Barstow.

And I doubt it's a Truck stop since all the pumps are under a covered canopy in front.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

In my experience, the food at higher-end Chinese restaurants tends to be better prepared (fresher, more flavorful, less greasy) than places that are considered to be a bargain. There are always, of course, exceptions to the rule.

Regarding food allergies, I read the results of an interesting study a year or so ago. I don't recall the authors. I think I just read a synopsis in Scientific American or some other publication like that. Anyway, as I recall, peanut allergies are on the rise in the USA, but not in other parts of the world. Diets were compared. In Israel, toddlers are routinely given puffed peanut snacks. Puffed peanut snacks are, culturally, considered to be typical toddler snacks in Israel. Here in the USA, people are terrified of giving young children peanuts in any form. Anyway, turns out that peanut allergies are rare in Israel.

The $65,000 question is, by giving children younger than 2 years old puffed peanut snacks, do you consequently "train" their developing immune systems not to react to peanuts as allergens? Conversely, does withholding peanut products from children younger than 2 years old make their developing immune systems more prone to react adversely to peanuts when the children finally receive exposure? Third option, is there some shared trait common among people currently living in Israel that makes them genetically less likely to have peanut allergies? This last option is less likely, given the short history of Israel as a nation state.

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Having just returned from a week in China...
Restaurants over there vary even more dramatically than Chinese restaurants do in the West. Both in the quality of the food served and the flavours. Price was no guide to the quality - one of the most expensive places I ate was one of the lowest quality to such an extent that my Chinese host refused to pay the full bill! It really is down to the staff, particularly those in the kitchen. The best meal I had was in a cheap "hot pot" place (think fondeaux, but with a distinctly oriental slant to everything)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

As for the taste, some places are 100% American ingredients and recipes for the American palette, and some places are very heavy into Chinese ingredients and traditional recipes. If you have only ever had one or the other, you won't like the opposite. The flavors are different between the veggies. One that would be obvious to anyone is mushroom. Button mushroom doesn't taste at all like a shiitake mushroom. Then there are the differences by locale. Sichuan, Hunan, Anhui, Fujian, Cantonese, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong. If your local spot is one kind you won't like the same dish from another and if it doesn't say one locale or indicate which dish is from where take that as 100% American. Then there are the Chinese dishes that are American and you would never find in China. It is a wonderful mashup. Find your places and the dishes from them you like. ;-)

I tend to like Cantonese but not Sichuan. Hunan can be hit or miss. Can't say I've ever heard of the others. The odd thing is, even the dishes that are American inventions are done differently by those Chinese regions. Egg foo yung in a Cantonese place usually has all the ingredients mixed into the patty before cooking and is in a thickened gravy, while Sichuan (or Szechuan if you prefer) and Hunan have the ingredients (usually more veggies than Cantonese) external to the patties and sometimes a thinner gravy, or the patties and gravy packaged separately. Sichuan also tends to be spicier, which I don't like. Years ago, there was a Taiwanese (not Thai) place in town, which was close enough to Cantonese for my taste. They had good sesame chicken and beef broccoli.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

The $65,000 question is, by giving children younger than 2 years old puffed peanut snacks, do you consequently "train" their developing immune systems not to react to peanuts as allergens? Conversely, does withholding peanut products from children younger than 2 years old make their developing immune systems more prone to react adversely to peanuts when the children finally receive exposure? Third option, is there some shared trait common among people currently living in Israel that makes them genetically less likely to have peanut allergies? This last option is less likely, given the short history of Israel as a nation state.

I'll take small, unmarked bills please. :^)

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The $65,000 question is, by giving children younger than 2 years old puffed peanut snacks, do you consequently "train" their developing immune systems not to react to peanuts as allergens? Conversely, does withholding peanut products from children younger than 2 years old make their developing immune systems more prone to react adversely to peanuts when the children finally receive exposure? Third option, is there some shared trait common among people currently living in Israel that makes them genetically less likely to have peanut allergies? This last option is less likely, given the short history of Israel as a nation state.

I'll take small, unmarked bills please. :^)

LOL!!! Nice find. I couldn't remember where I had seen a synopsis of this study, but I remember finding it interesting and I appreciate you finding that link. Monopoly money is on its way....

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Someone with some imagination, and some thyme on their hands.
http://pinterest.com/pin/365143482258136510/

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Due to ACA, restaurant chains will have to sign post "calorie counts" for every item. So Domino's will have to list every pizza combination you can order, all 34 million of them.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/446348/obamacare-food-labeling-regulations

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I suspect it might be easier to just figure out what the calories are per ingredient on a few sample pizzas, 34 million, that's a heck of a lot of work.

They'll figure out something.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I suspect it might be easier to just figure out what the calories are per ingredient on a few sample pizzas, 34 million, that's a heck of a lot of work.

They'll figure out something.

That's what I'd do: Just post the calorie count for every possible ingredient,
and let the customer add them. But of course you'll get some whiners who
will bitch about having to add. On the website you could have some sort of
app that will add them up as you select them.

Also, post the calorie count for the "standard," menu-item pizzas in all three
sizes, like "combination," "cheesburger pizza," and whatever (else) they offer.

---

~Sue~

I suspect it might be easier to just figure out what the calories are per ingredient on a few sample pizzas, 34 million, that's a heck of a lot of work.

They'll figure out something.

That's what I'd do: Just post the calorie count for every possible ingredient,
and let the customer add them. But of course you'll get some whiners who
will bitch about having to add. On the website you could have some sort of
app that will add them up as you select them.

Also, post the calorie count for the "standard," menu-item pizzas in all three
sizes, like "combination," "cheesburger pizza," and whatever (else) they offer.

Makes sense to Me, one of these days I need to order a pizza, car repairs took $281.10 today,
so I'm broke for a bit, look in the raccoon thread for more details.
And Dominos has Cheddar for their pizzas, yum.

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I suspect it might be easier to just figure out what the calories are per ingredient on a few sample pizzas, 34 million, that's a heck of a lot of work.

They'll figure out something.

That's what I'd do: Just post the calorie count for every possible ingredient,
and let the customer add them. But of course you'll get some whiners who
will bitch about having to add. On the website you could have some sort of
app that will add them up as you select them.

Also, post the calorie count for the "standard," menu-item pizzas in all three
sizes, like "combination," "cheesburger pizza," and whatever (else) they offer.

Makes sense to Me, one of these days I need to order a pizza, car repairs took $281.10 today,
so I'm broke for a bit, look in the raccoon thread for more details.
And Dominos has Cheddar for their pizzas, yum.

I've mostly quit ordering for delivery. They charge a delivery fee and expect you to tip
the drivers, too. By the time I get finished with a $15 order it costs nearly $30. Most
of my pizzas these days come from the Walmart "deli" section. They're cheap and they
don't taste bad. (They're not great, but they'll do.)

---

~Sue~

I suspect it might be easier to just figure out what the calories are per ingredient on a few sample pizzas, 34 million, that's a heck of a lot of work.

They'll figure out something.

That's what I'd do: Just post the calorie count for every possible ingredient,
and let the customer add them. But of course you'll get some whiners who
will bitch about having to add. On the website you could have some sort of
app that will add them up as you select them.

Also, post the calorie count for the "standard," menu-item pizzas in all three
sizes, like "combination," "cheesburger pizza," and whatever (else) they offer.

Makes sense to Me, one of these days I need to order a pizza, car repairs took $281.10 today,
so I'm broke for a bit, look in the raccoon thread for more details.
And Dominos has Cheddar for their pizzas, yum.

I've mostly quit ordering for delivery. They charge a delivery fee and expect you to tip
the drivers, too. By the time I get finished with a $15 order it costs nearly $30. Most
of my pizzas these days come from the Walmart "deli" section. They're cheap and they
don't taste bad. (They're not great, but they'll do.)

Well here delivery is the same as buying from Food4Less, since I can order the pizza, but since I live 12 miles from Barstow, I have to go get the pizza, My car gets about 33mpg, so it's less than the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Delivery would be great, but I'd have to live in Barstow.

So We have Dominos, Little Caesars, and Pizza Hut in Barstow, nearby in Yermo there is the local diner(run by the motel), and Peggy Sues 50's Diner sell Pizza, the new Gas Station(32 pumps, not really for semis) will have a Convenience Store, and a Food Establishment, so even they might sell pizza, they might also put a strain on Upton's Market that houses the Post Office too, and Upton's Market is a small store, they've always been rather expensive. Got to get a pic of that Gas station, it has a pinnacle on its roof, if that means anything to anyone here.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I've mostly quit ordering for delivery. They charge a delivery fee and expect you to tip
the drivers, too. By the time I get finished with a $15 order it costs nearly $30. Most
of my pizzas these days come from the Walmart "deli" section. They're cheap and they
don't taste bad. (They're not great, but they'll do.)

I remember when the pizza places started instituting the "delivery fee" when gas prices were going sky high, but hoped they would go back to free delivery eventually. If I was a marketing rep for a pizza place, I'd just build that fee into the price, and start promoting "free delivery" again. People like to see "Free". It's a psychological thing.

And I agree about Walmart pizzas from the deli. They're not bad. Even their deli sandwiches are fair. I just rarely go in Walmart because my favorite grocery's prices are generally just as good for what I regularly buy, and it's a much smaller store, which I prefer.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I've mostly quit ordering for delivery. They charge a delivery fee and expect you to tip
the drivers, too. By the time I get finished with a $15 order it costs nearly $30. Most
of my pizzas these days come from the Walmart "deli" section. They're cheap and they
don't taste bad. (They're not great, but they'll do.)

I remember when the pizza places started instituting the "delivery fee" when gas prices were going sky high, but hoped they would go back to free delivery eventually. If I was a marketing rep for a pizza place, I'd just build that fee into the price, and start promoting "free delivery" again. People like to see "Free". It's a psychological thing.

And I agree about Walmart pizzas from the deli. They're not bad. Even their deli sandwiches are fair. I just rarely go in Walmart because my favorite grocery's prices are generally just as good for what I regularly buy, and it's a much smaller store, which I prefer.

Ever since the local Stater Bros Market underwent some reconstruction, I've had to use an in store ECV, since the stores now are just too large for Me to walk, between My size and breathing ability, I need the ECV(Electric Conveyance Vehicle) to get any shopping done, a smaller place would be nice, but around here that's a convenience store, and their prices are worse than Vons, so Food4Less it is, Vons still sells Graces corn based and septic safe cat litter that I can't get anywhere else, besides Amazon, otherwise I just go to Food4Less, which gives Me a discount on gasoline of $0.10 a gallon when I get above 100 reward points.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Kentucky Fried Chicken needs to get their act together. I'm having some friends over, and went out to get a 12 piece chicken bucket. I asked for 4 breasts, and the rest thighs. After paying, while waiting for my bucket, I see on my receipt I was up-charged 99 cents for an extra breast. I inquired about this, and was told they only allow 3 breasts per 12 piece bucket, otherwise they charge extra. Well, that's fine, but tell the customer this before you ring it up! Once I got back in my car, I looked inside and it was Original Recipe. I ordered Extra Crispy. No problem - I go back in and they apologized and assembled the Extra Crispy for me. Now that I'm home, I took the pieces out and there are only 10! Ridiculous comedy of errors.

Just got off the phone with the restaurant, and they asked for my name. They said they've added me to "the Book", and said I'm in there now for a replacement meal the next time I come in. The fact that they even have such a "book" is kind of weird. They must be making mistakes all over the place, lol.

Funny followup to this. So, this afternoon I decided to go back in and cash in my entry in "the book". It took a few minutes for the counter person to find the manager, and while he was looking for her, another customer came in, and she said she was in "the book", too! That place has got issues. When the manager finally was found, she got this huge book out with tabs, and found my name, and then said they were out of white meat, and it would be 20 minutes. Good grief. I took dark and came home.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place