Salad Bar Surprise

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

[AlittleSalt]

Last year, a Dickey's opened locally. The food is so salty that we won't eat it. There are way better BBQ places to eat in Cleburne, Texas. There is one called, "Buffalo Creek" that is really good. It's a small place where we always get take-out BBQ. It is right beside Buffalo Creek. (A real creek)

[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.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

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.

If your not on line your dieing.
I remember a time when Radio Shack had electronic parts in it.
Now the shelves are full of throwaway garbage.
The last time I was in there I was trying to buy 2 120VAC to 24VAC transformers.
The guy asked me what I was looking for and he thought I was looking for the toy robot transformers.
No transformers.
Oh you want a power supply.
No I want transformers I'm building my own power supply, never mind I see them thanks.
Worth

[travis]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

I get all of the about-to-go-bankrupt companies mixed up ...

Me too! All the about to go out of business, or bundled and sold off, cast off, sent to corporate reformatory via a holding company, or parts and pieced out of existence, etc.

It's baffling for sure. And yes to that other commenter who said Olive Garden's salad now comes from a gas bag. True. Fortunately, the one I ate yesterday came from a fresh delivery, although I have tasted others that were disgustingly off-flavored.

I have old friends still working at Olive Garden who tell me their benefits have been greatly and adversely affected by corporate policy following ACA, and that scheduling and working conditions have deteriorated along with some of the product following Darden's dumping of Dead Lobster and Smoky Bones restaurants.

That's really sad, considering Darden's excellent employee training programs of yore greatly improved the quality of restaurant service in this town at one time. (Servers are notorious job jumpers, but often take some of the good service qualities they learned from one corporation to the next.)

[PA_Julia]

Originally Posted by tedln

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

Ted, that preservative is monosodium glutamate or MSG for short.

Olive Garden has been fighting back after a fully dysfunctional and isolated top managment group came close to destroying it by doing the very thing you just spoke about. It's going to take awhile because they really did some heavy damage. None of their top brass had any restaurant experience outside of crunching numbers for previous restaurant groups.
That was the biggest mistake. If you don't have top management that cut their teeth in the very restaurants they are managing there is a HUGE disconnect from the day by day operations that either make or break a chain of restaurants.

They seem to be on the right track now but only time will tell for sure.

[shelleybean]

Ted and Julia, years ago, I used to love to go to Olive Garden for lunch--the soup, salad, breadstick thing. When I had kids, I stopped going to malls and that's when online shopping began for me. I've been doing that ever since. Over Christmas, my kids got a lot of gift cards and wanted to go to the mall over the break to spend them, so we went and I was so excited to go back and have lunch at Olive Garden, mostly because of that salad. I was so disappointed! It was nothing like it was before. My kids were wondering what I thought was so great about this salad and now I wonder, too. Not what it used to be. Yuck.

I'm not thrilled with the lettuce at Ruby Tuesday, but I do like peas and sunflower seeds and boiled eggs. I just like sturdier lettuce, not flabby, floppy sort of lettuce.

My favorite salad bar is actually right in my regular grocery store. Once in a while I see something on there that looks past its prime, but usually very fresh and lots of choices. I just use my dressing from home and often add my own tomatoes from home too, but when you're in a hurry, it's a good option for lunch.

[travis]

Originally Posted by PA_Julia

Ted, that preservative is monosodium glutamate or MSG for short.

MSG is used to enhance flavor in cooked foods, traditionally in Asian cuisine, particularly "Chinese" restaurants. You might also see MSG added to pizza sauce spice mixes prepared for commercial pizza shops.

MSG is not used as a preservative on bagged lettuce. The most common preservative for bagged/gassed lettuce for a long time was chlorine (sodium hypochlorite, a liquid form, or the chlorine gas). It was sprayed on in a very mild solution, which the FDA determined was not much more harmful than the chlorinated water you drink from municipal water supplies.

Nowadays, the "organic" folks use organic acids like lactic acid or peracetic acid to spray on the lettuce and greens mixes that then are bagged and gassed.

[PA_Julia]

Originally Posted by travis

MSG is used to enhance flavor in cooked foods, traditionally in Asian cuisine, particularly "Chinese" restaurants. You might also see MSG added to pizza sauce spice mixes prepared for commercial pizza shops.

MSG is not used as a preservative on bagged lettuce. The most common preservative for bagged/gassed lettuce for a long time was chlorine (sodium hypochlorite, a liquid form, or the chlorine gas). It was sprayed on in a very mild solution, which the FDA determined was not much more harmful than the chlorinated water you drink from municipal water supplies.

Nowadays, the "organic" folks use organic acids like lactic acid or peracetic acid to spray on the lettuce and greens mixes that then are bagged and gassed.

When I was at a local diner about 6 months ago I had a salad which had a faint taste of ""something"" .

I asked the waitress if MSG was used on the lettuce. She went and asked the kitchen staff and it was confirmed that they used MSG on their salad.

I do not know if the lettuce was bagged or not but most likely it was freshly prepared from heads of lettuce as opposed to them purchasing it already pre cut in bags.

[Salsacharley]

A lot of produce is preserved with sulfiding agents. There are sometimes warnings on menus that sulfide is used because some people are allergic to it.

Produce from some places smells like a box of matches.

Well, this thread has strayed from Julia's tomato seeds, so in an effort to put it back on track I'll say that maybe these chemicals will enhance Julia's seeds viability.

[efisakov]

One of the reasons I grow my own tomatoes and some other veggies right in the middle of the city is allergy. Most apples (even pilled) give me throat irritation. If the apple has sticky skin I will not buy it. Washing with soap does not help. I can not eat fresh cherries as well. Nuts from the jars/bags give irritation as well. I buy raw in shell nuts and bake them in the oven for 30 minutes. That is the only way I can eat the nuts.
I grow my plants organically. At least part of the year we eat good food.
About restaurants experience. Me and my DH most of the times are disappointed in the dishes we order. We make at home better tasting and healthier food. We go out mostly because we have friends and want to spend time with them. Maybe we are too picky.

[travis]

I couldn't live like that. I suppose I'm very fortunate not to have to.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by efisakov

About restaurants experience. Me and my DH most of the times are disappointed in the dishes we order. We make at home better tasting and healthier food. We go out mostly because we have friends and want to spend time with them. Maybe we are too picky.

But that is the point of having friends.
In the good old days the women would be cooking and chattering in the kitchen.
The men would be in the living room smoking their pipes, chewing tobacco, sipping good whiskey and swapping lies.
The kids would set the table and get everything ready then get ran out to go chase chickens or get in trouble some other way.
After it was all over us kids had to go in, clean up and wash dishes.

Worth

[efisakov]

You are right.

[PA_Julia]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

A lot of produce is preserved with sulfiding agents. There are sometimes warnings on menus that sulfide is used because some people are allergic to it.

Produce from some places smells like a box of matches.

Well, this thread has strayed from Julia's tomato seeds, so in an effort to put it back on track I'll say that maybe these chemicals will enhance Julia's seeds viability.

We can only hope my friend!!!