[Sigh]

Some Saturdays are made for relaxing during the evening, with nothing more exciting than good food and perhaps a movie. Last night was that kind.

We had planned to have homemade pizza, and would have accomplished this, if it had not been for a lack of yeast. In a moment of panic, I suggested McDonald’s which in the past has served us well as a backup-provider of food on days where fun and relaxation is key.

McDonald’s is – as most people know – a global corporation with thousands of franchises worldwide. They aim at serving a few different products in large quantities, with very few variations and definitely not with any kind of experimentation. They do it –and they claim that they do this well. Yet, our meal was the poster-scenario on what not to do. To summarize: the cheddar cheese dip was alright. Not great, but alright.
Things went wrong before we even got to the food, because the young lad serving our food mixed up the Coke and the Coke Zero. Those of you, who prefer Coke, can imagine the horror as I tasted the horrible artificial sweetener. Yes, I had the Coke Zero.
We quickly notice that fries were cooked in old oil and were soggy. But the burgers were (if possible) the worst. Mine suffered from having been fried for too long and then left to linger for even longer. By the time I got to it, all pretence of taste had evaporated. My wife’s burger had however been the victim of wrong sauces, and possibly something not at all intended for burgers. The bitterness made it all but inedible and we were ready to give up. The hot chilli sauce had started to part into oily water and additives respectively. As I said, the cheddar cheese dip was alright. Not great, but alright. Everything else was a failure.

On our way home, we bought a soda each, to clear away the taste of misery. Alas, mine was dead. That cannot be said for the mould growing on the sausages that had been meant for the pizza, but was now going in as part of a simple pasta dish. So finally, after giving up on pizza, a soda and part of the ingredients from our second backup meal, we could sit down and enjoy pasta with tomato sauce.

To top of my day, the cold that has been lingering for a while decided that now was a good time to break out, and the rest of the weekend has been spent on recuperating so I can go to work tomorrow. And yet, right now, my biggest regret is not all the time lost on being ill or the terrible food. But I wish that my Coke had been alright.