Eating Across America. Daymon Patterson
and there is something about that portion of grease that drips from the patties after your first bite that makes you recall your youth. Happier than a child in a candy store when your parents would pull into a McDonalds and get that Happy Meal for you, all so you can tear through the French fries, gobble down a few nuggets and land somewhere at the toy as you sip away at your orange drink.
These are the feelings that come rushing in as you sit in your car on your lunch break, perhaps dreading the very thought of going back to work. But, time waits for no one and bills must be paid! After scarfing down the delights of your fast food, which promises guaranteed satisfaction to a point, you are back on the job!
Now some people bring their own lunch to work, but when that time is not in your favor, the one thing that you can count on is the fact that at nearly every block or so, you will find a fast food location that is more than willing to assist your hunger. Each menu has been divided into specialty groups to choose from with a price point that is respectable for most QSR locations. At times, you can even catch a deal where you can receive a two-for-one special, that is when your eyes widen to match the smile upon your face. Who does not like two chicken sandwiches for the price of one at their favorite fast food establishment?
Fast food in general has been the resting home for the working woman and man for years. They have reached a large number of households, helping families get through another grueling and challenging workday. For the most part, you will always find something on the menu from salads to burgers that will fit the moment, and most importantly, fit your budget and get you over the hump.
AN ODE TO FOOD, FAMILY, FRIENDS AND HOME COOKING
When it comes to food, I am the all-around guy that has mastered the arts of determination, dedication and disasters! When I say disasters, let us just say that I am not one who should ever be in the kitchen telling someone HOW to cook, let alone cooking myself. It wasn’t long ago when I tried my hand at making dough from scratch for some pepperoni bagel bites. I had everything necessary from the mixing bowl to the instant yeast to make my dough rise to the occasion.
Perhaps I did not mix the yeast in the water properly, but it looked close enough to the image that I had seen on YouTube and so I continued trying to make the dough. Things seemed to go smooth until it was time to remove the dough from the bowl and place it in my mixer, at which point my sticky bun dough did not settle the right way and I had the nastiest looking super dough balls that one could imagine.
After the time spent to remove all my sticky dough from the mixer and every single part that the dough had stuck to, I tried to ride that horse once again. The second time was a better attempt, but again, as with anything, practice makes perfect. I always like to say that food is the universal language, and over the years in my travels I have met and dined with a number of interesting minds.
My family is close knit and come Thanksgiving, you will find yourself surrounded by wisdom right on down to the young ones in the family. We will all be sharing what we are truly thankful for as the scent of the cinnamon escapes from the candied yams or the subtle calling of being down south graces the table with its presence within the greens, cornbread, ham, black eyed peas, baked macaroni and cheese and chicken.
You are in for quite a treat when the family is full of stories, but what is most important is the time spent and the time shared with those who you have not seen for a while. Have you noticed that good food is often part of the foundation within a good family? You can be at a family cookout and everyone knows to ask who made what. We all have our favorite foods prepared by various family members. So you look for that person at these functions and ask where their famous meal is located, for people simply love to be connected to good food at the end of the day.
What stands out about a home cooked meal is that you can actually taste the LOVE and preparation in these dishes. My Aunt Lisa is known for just about all of her dishes at our family gatherings, but I look for her Collard Greens. She makes them with a nice little kick, and when I speak of a kick I am talking about the spice level. Nothing too crazy, but among the pork fat saltiness broken down to a softer level for the chew and soaked within some tasty juices that help her collards maintain moisture, you are always in for a special treat with every bite.
My mother has held me down for YEARS when it comes to food from the heart. She is as hard a working woman as any. But, when I was young, after a long day on the job, my mother would come home tired as can be but still make time to stay up in a hot kitchen and whip up some of her BBQ Ribs. More times than not you would think they were smoked on a grill the way that meat would fall off the bone. It was often pointless to pick them up with your hands unless you wanted to sit there and suck on the bone. She did not stop there, her baked macaroni and cheese is what held it all together. At first sight, you would see the crusted top of bread crumbs. The moment you cracked a spoon into that pan and took a scoop, you were pulling on cheese for days with steam exploding from each scoop as if a volcano was about to erupt!
Her sweet potato pie is always a sweet bite of delight. Remove that slice and catch the aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg about to dance around upon your taste buds, as the sweet and rich bite reminded you of everything right with life. She always used just the right amount of sugar so as not to make her sweet potato pie too sweet. There is no taking just one slice. Once you finish the piece in your hand, you run back in hopes something is left from a family that has just experienced the same sensational taste.
This is a question we may often ask ourselves going through life. That journey to FIND who we are is a very important one; it dictates much of what our future holds. But first, we need to KNOW who we are to better understand our path.
I graduated from Platt Tech Regional Vocational Technical School in 1995. My goal to become a plumber was before me, it was my trade in high school and so my first day on the job fresh out of school was a complete FAIL. I recall working with my friend’s father on a job, who was and still is a licensed plumber. He was ready to show me what it means to understand not only the customers, but also both residential and commercial plumbing.
My first job was to help remove an old cast iron piping system from a customer’s basement. Cast Iron was decent many years ago and could be found in many homes abroad. But as the years passed, many quickly learned how cast iron would simply deteriorate and was expensive to repair due to how heavy the piping is and of course because cast iron is not cheap. Folks started moving over to plastic piping, which in my opinion is a world easier to work with, lighter and more cost effective.
I am following the plumber into a crawl space that is meant for short people, and just to catch you up to speed, fresh out of high school I stood at six foot four and weighed roughly 180 pounds. So here I am on my stomach, trying to worm my way through this crawl space and not bump my head every two seconds. As we are working at breaking away the cast iron I hear a crack and not long after the cast iron pipe drops rather close to my face. A few inches over and that would have been on my head. At that moment, I was sure this was probably NOT the life for me and so I started looking for an easier job.
Over the years I moved up the ladder in retail, for it seemed to be a great fit for me. I was able to talk to people all day and help them with their needs in Home Depot Plumbing (1996—2001) and working as an Assistant Manager for Lowe’s Home Improvement (2005—2010). It wasn’t until I started working as an Assistant Manager for Walmart that I decided to change from my regular posts on a website called YouTube, where I would post short skits and life vlogs, to reviewing food on my lunch breaks in 2009.
The reception on YouTube for these food reviews was more than I expected, with random people asking me to go to different fast food locations and review the latest and greatest thing on the menu. What attracts people to my channel is my honesty. If I do not like something, there is no changing, and I always say exactly what I feel with little regard to how any establishment feels about my thoughts. My reality is not what you see in a TV Commercial where everything is made to look amazing, and definitely not