Gothamist: What's Not Fresh: Lettuce

nisey79

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:38:37 -0500

#12, I've heard them called scallions, green onions, and spring onions. I think the media prefers "green onion" because it is a more basic term that needs little explanation. Otherwise, the reporters would likely clarify with, "Scallions, or green onions...."

k

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 13:07:39 -0500

Question: why do newspapers/tv news shows call scallions "green onions"? I know they are the same thing, but i've never heard anyone call them green onions in my life, except in mass media... can anyone explain this? Is it a nyc thing to call them scallions? Do they call them green onions in other parts of the country? I've lived here my whole life so i wouldnt' know.

anonymass

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:47:38 -0500

mmmm...com, No, I haven't read that book but will look into it - thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'm not dismissing other reasons why Americans are so fat - surely a sedentary lifestyle doesn't help, nor does the pre-ponderance of fastfood and prepackaged food which I'm convinced eliminates most of the nutritional value of any food source - but I do blame a lot of it on high fructose corn syrup. I have very recently started going out of my way to buy products that don't have this junk in them. Since I substituted corn syrup-based sodas with sugar-based sodas a few months ago, my beltline has shrunk a full size. And that's without changing anything else in my diet.

rv

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:39:43 -0500

I got food poisoning at a Taco Johns in Denver in 1984. I was 16 and my boyfriend brought me home late that night (midnight!) and then I was up all night vomiting. My mother didn't believe me about the food poisoning - she decided I was drunk and pregnant, of course. Thanks to bacteria, my mother never believed another word that came out of my mouth. And then I dropped out of high school. I continued to eat at Taco Johns, however. I miss it on the EC.

bulk88

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:21:49 -0500

Taco Bell copied Taco John's potato burrito, Taco John had it first, and also the first place I ever tasted one. Sheer heaven. Also Taco Johns seems to be a bit more "American" food wise than Taco Bell.

stewart

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:08:54 -0500

In Fast Food Nation, the author says that e-coli is another way of saying there's poop in the meat. How did poop get on the lettuce? Did they use fresh manure as a fertilizer? Did a farm worker poop in the irrigation ditch? Did the lettuce picker have poop on his hands? I don't like to eat poop and I want to know how I can avoid eating poop without having to grow all of my own food.

mmmm. . . corn

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:05:30 -0500

high fructose corn syrup which is killing the American diet and is probably the biggest reason that people are so fat in this country. someone just read The Omnivore's Dilemma! Really, isn't it the calories, not the corn syrup?

Daveed

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:56:04 -0500

I used to eat at Taco Johns regularly. I don't remember it being that much different than any other fast food mexican place. Am I the only one guiltily thinking, "Oh hell I'm so going to Taco Bell, I'm sure they'll be forced to step up the quality from here on out...at least for a while."

brian

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:44:03 -0500

I also grew up in the midwest and have fond memories of Taco Johns. Besides the amazing food(I suggest the chicken and potato ole burrito) the advertising features a monkey in a cowboy outfit riding a dog like a horse. I don't think it gets much better than that.

nick

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:21:42 -0500

taco john's is pretty good... they have these thigns called potato ole's that are basically tater tots tossed in taco seasoning. and on the taco bell tip, not a ton of their stuff has lettuce. bean burritos, mexican pizza, grilled stuft. sadly, the beloved CRUNCHWRAP is packed full with lettuce, but worth the possible e. coli infection.

chrisss

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:21:26 -0500

I ate alot of Taco John's while at college in Kentucky. Not bad, actually, but not much different than Taco Bell either. Spicier, with a tremendous love for Tater Tots smothered in Nacho Cheese.

D

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:20 -0500

Since I grew up in Nebraska, I am very familiar with Taco John's, which is based, I believe, in Wyoming. For fast food, it's pretty tasty, and a few dozen notches above Taco Bell, whose "food" I find revolting. It's a chain, though, so no big surprise that the ill effects of industrial food have struck. It was only a matter of time...

anonymass

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:09:56 -0500

The soda might not have lettuce, but it does have that god-awful high fructose corn syrup which is killing the American diet and is probably the biggest reason that people are so fat in this country.