Salad Bar Surprise

[PA_Julia]

Yesterday I visited one of our local Ruby Tuesday locations .
Sadly the meal was absolute garbage to the exception of their decent salad bar offerings.

The tomatoes offered were smallish globes slightly larger than a silver dollar and red in color.
The taste was rather decent for a commercial tomato so I promptly emptied a Saltine cracker wrapper of it's contents and commenced removing the seeds from four slices.
Once safely in my coat pocket I went back to attempt to finish the culinary abortion posing as seafood.


Once back home I emptied the saltine wrapper of the seeds, cleaned them and spread them out on a paper towel to dry.

I'm going to plant a few and have a representative plant in my lineup this year.

The Ruby Tuesday Salad Bar Surprise should be interesting to grow and to see what it produces.

I'll keep you updated.

[Labradors2]

Lucky you to find edible tomatoes at the RTSB! We visited our local one recently and they had the typical horrid big supermarket ones which I shunned. I don't enjoy much from their salad bar, but I do enjoy the peas and sunflower seeds with my spinach and lettuce. BTW the small fillet wasn't too bad, with fried zuchini as a side - if only they would drain off the grease before serving......

Do let us know how the tomatoes turn out, but don't expect to get any giants from those seeds.

Linda

[Worth1]

I have never ate at one of the places and looked at the lunch menu.
Tilapia is a farm raised garbage/sewer fish the salmon is probably the nasty pink salmon or worse not Alaskan Red Sockeye salmon.
The crab meat has no parentage and shrimp is a dime a dozen.

The very name of the place is a ripoff from a Rolling Stones song with the same name to attract folks my age and the young hippie crowd.

I sound like a restaurants worst nightmare for a food critic.
As for the tomato seeds I will look forward to seeing what it turns out to be.

Worth

[Sun City Linda]

I've never been either but I live in a fairly small town type immediate area. I could drive if I wanted to go to some of these places but, I don't. I ate a really good, sweet, crunchy pink cherry tomato several months ago while I was working at a local food pantry, and I saved some of that seed. Very likely a hybrid though, I cant think of any OP that would taste like that.

[Salsacharley]

If Julia's tomato tasted good at the restaurant I betcha the tomatoes she grows from it in her own tomato patch will be even many levels better.

By the way, has anyone ever had a meal from a national chain restaurant that came close to resembling the food they present in their commercials?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

By the way, has anyone ever had a meal from a national chain restaurant that came close to resembling the food they present in their commercials?

Yes I have it was a Burger King in Austin on Oltorf Street.
The Kid (young man) that worked in there a few years ago would make the burgers look just like the picture.
Go figure, a burger king of all places.

Why is it that every restaurant has to have a blaring TV going all of the time?

Okay honey I'll take you out for a nice meal on our anniversary but they have to have the TV on the game I want to watch.
How about one of those sports bars with a hundred TV's?
Ive got it we will go to Hooters.
Please dont talk to me about your tomatoes during the game.

Worth

[LindyAdele]

I have to show this thread to my husband to prove I am not the ONLY one who scavanges for seeds despite the fact that I own more than I will ever be able to grow. We just returned from Cuba, and the tomatoes there were incredible! Might be because they have great soil, all organic farming methods, no hybrids or GMO seeds, and perfect tomato weather year round. I brought some seeds home with me (fermenting right now!) of a beautiful shaped red-yellow tomato. Sadly it probably won't do well for me... but anyone in hot weather or mountainous climates who wants to try it - give me a shout.

[ChristinaJo]

Originally Posted by LindyAdele

I have to show this thread to my husband to prove I am not the ONLY one who scavanges for seeds despite the fact that I own more than I will ever be able to grow. We just returned from Cuba, and the tomatoes there were incredible! Might be because they have great soil, all organic farming methods, no hybrids or GMO seeds, and perfect tomato weather year round. I brought some seeds home with me (fermenting right now!) of a beautiful shaped red-yellow tomato. Sadly it probably won't do well for me... but anyone in hot weather or mountainous climates who wants to try it - give me a shout.

Cuban tomatoes...... O.k. I'm getting off this thread because I have more seeds than I can ever grow.....my garden is not that big.....I can't squeeze any more plants in my plan. If someone grows them out, just post some pics.

[AlittleSalt]

There is a Church's Chicken in a nearby town that the chicken looks like it does in the commercials and it tastes really good. We have tried Church's in other Cities, and they were all awful. So, about once a month, we get a box of chicken. Sure beats standing at the stove forever frying chicken.

Good luck with the tomato seeds.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

There is a Church's Chicken in a nearby town that the chicken looks like it does in the commercials and it tastes really good. We have tried Church's in other Cities, and they were all awful. So, about once a month, we get a box of chicken. Sure beats standing at the stove forever frying chicken.

Good luck with the tomato seeds.

Thanks to you I now have three very large chicken thighs frying in a cast iron skillet.
I put the stove on a little below medium, put the timer on 20 minutes and walk away.

Worth

[Cole_Robbie]

The Ruby Tuesday's in my town went out of business. Their company, which also owns Red Lobster, is not doing so hot financially.

[travis]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

The Ruby Tuesday's in my town went out of business. Their company, which also owns Red Lobster, is not doing so hot financially.

Ruby Tuesdays is owned and operated by Ruby Tuesdays, Inc. who has never owned Red Lobster.

Darden Restaurants, who owned Red Lobster since 1995, sold it off in 2014 to an investment firm called Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion because of poor sales. Darden claimed publicly the reason for the sale was to concentrate on marketing another of their restaurants called Olive Garden.

Previous to 1995, General Mills owned Red Lobster for over 20 years. (General Mill never owned Ruby Tuesdays either.)

Last evening, I had a pretty good salad at Olive Garden. The tomatoes were a sliced Roma type, high crimson saladette. The better part of the snack was a fantastic order of spicy calamari which included fried cherry pepper rings.

[bower]

It must've been tasty, Julia, for you to save seeds of a rinkydink tomato! And it sure shows, you're in the mood for tomato growing! Hope it's a great season.

I've never been a big fan of pasta dishes but my wife and I used to have dinner at Olive Garden very often. We liked their bread sticks and their giant salad bowl with croutons. They used to prepare their salads from fresh vegetables processed in the kitchen of the restaurants. One day they brought the salad bowl to our table and it looked and smelled different. I ate a few bites and thought it tasted horrible. I asked the waiter what had changed. He said they had started buying the salad in large, sealed plastic bags ready to pour into the serving bowls. I don't remember the chemical they washed the salad in before bagging it. It was a preservative intended to delay spoilage and it tasted horrible. I haven't eaten at Olive Garden in the last ten years. I often wonder if they still use that pre-packaged salad. I also wonder how many restaurants have financial problems because they failed to ask their customers if some changes are acceptable. Small things can make a big difference.

I used to eat at Churches fried chicken a lot. Their chicken was always freshly cooked and they sold pickled Jalapeno peppers from a big jar on the counter. The peppers were always very crisp in texture. I would usually eat three or four of the peppers. Today, the chicken seems to sit under the heat lamps for a long time becoming very greasy and dry in texture. The pickled peppers are served in small plastic cups and seem mushy in texture. I no longer eat at Churches.

Sometimes the difference in two restaurants of the same chain are because of the
franchise owner. We have always enjoyed barbecue at the Dickey's chain. We were happy to see a new franchise opening about five miles from our house. We ate at their grand opening and it was horrible and the service was horrible. We thought it may get better after the opening day jitters are gone. The food got worse over the next couple of months and the service quality got worse. We now drive past that Dickey's to eat at a Dickey's twenty miles farther away.

Ted

[Cole_Robbie]

Originally Posted by travis

Ruby Tuesdays is owned and operated by Ruby Tuesdays, Inc. who has never owned Red Lobster.

I get all of the about-to-go-bankrupt companies mixed up. I can barely differentiate Radio Shack from JC Penny. They're all lumbering dinosaurs that will soon be extinct.