They said it couldn’t be done…

kk_box.jpgSometime back BBB did his breakfast piece but the post itself meant nothing to me. What it sparked though was my desire to try out a Krispy Kreme cheesburger. So Imprint, a blog goer, emailed me to say he was bringing in a box of Krispy Kreme Donuts. I met him last night at the Mango to eat a few fresh ones and prepare for the morning.

kk_box2.jpgFor those of you who have never had a Krispy Kreme - all I can say is I am sorry. If you have had one and don’t really see what the big deal is - then read no further. To me, a Krispy Kreme is a piece of edible art. The best donuts in the world. End of Story. I have not had one in over 2 years, so seeing a semi-fresh box of them almost moved me to tears.

Plain donuts aside though the goal was to make a Mango McMUFF using the KK as an english muffin substitute and to make a Mango Chessburger also using the KK instead of a bun. Mission accomplished.

KK Mango McMUFF:

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I have to admit. It tasted okay. The semi-sweetness contrasted nicely with the sausage, egg and cheese.

kk_burg1.jpg

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kk_burg3.jpg

The burger was better though. Something with the beef and cheese just worked with the grilled KK donut.

I shared some with Bubba.

I feel like I have lived now.

Related Posts from the past:

62 Responses to “They said it couldn’t be done…”


  1. 1 Mr Right Oct 11th, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    No better example of gross American excess then a cheese burger on a donut. Sick dude.
    View all comments by Mr Right

  2. 2 DomW Oct 11th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    SSB.. dude.. This is an abomination in the eyes of the lord. Clearly I need to feed you up with some vegemite and tomato on toast to get you back on the right track….This whole subject of doughnuts with eggs, let along cheese and sausage is wrong, wrong wrong…
    View all comments by DomW

  3. 3 Pattaya Ghost Oct 11th, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    As an American, a fan of KK and a fan of Mango burgers, I gotta say the combination looks disgusting.
    View all comments by Pattaya Ghost

  4. 4 sideshowBOB Oct 11th, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    mr right - no cause for putting down my nationality just because u don’t like the product. deal

    domw - vegemite? tomato? are u sick?

    it was tasty folks. tasty.
    View all comments by sideshowBOB

  5. 5 sideshowBOB Oct 11th, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    pg - it was anything but
    View all comments by sideshowBOB

  6. 6 Bubba Oct 11th, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    I was more than a bit apprehensive about having a donut surrounding a nicely grilled beef patty and melted cheese. Knowing how much glazed sugar is on a Krispy Kreme, I figured the combination of these ingredients would initiate a delayed, if not immediate urge to hurl myself silly.

    However, I was quite surprised that the sugar taste was subdued and the donut didn’t deteriorate from the toasting on the grill. So you get your sugar fix with a healthy dose of the dairy and meat food groups.

    All you naysayers; don’t hate until you participate.
    View all comments by Bubba

  7. 7 Bangkok Bad Boy Oct 11th, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    Needs more baked beans.
    View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy

  8. 8 Pattaya Ghost Oct 11th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    well, in thinking about how much sugar thais put into their food, i guess KK Burgers make perfect sense.
    View all comments by Pattaya Ghost

  9. 9 cruiserPimp Oct 11th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

    An unholy union for sure. Just add baked beans, liver slurry, and fried bread and you’ve got a start on a 3000 calorie Great British Breakfast.
    View all comments by cruiserPimp

  10. 10 DomW Oct 11th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

    SSB, I guess I’ll need to bring some KK back next time from Aus (Along with the Vegemite), i’ll try anything once. its the third time that gets me into trouble…
    View all comments by DomW

  11. 11 Rene Descartes Oct 11th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

    They said it SHOULDN’T be done…

    So how do you stuff a genie back in after he is out of the bottle?

    ssB’s own little Manhattan Project will surely end in Mutually Assured Destruction!
    View all comments by Rene Descartes

  12. 12 Bubba Oct 11th, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    BBB: The donut hole resting in top of the beef patty would serve as a fine reservoir for black beans, black pudding or both.
    View all comments by Bubba

  13. 13 gavinmac Oct 12th, 2008 at 12:36 am

    Where did Imprint bring the donuts in from? I hope not all the way from the US.

    They do have KK outlets in Hong Kong, Manila, and Jakarta. If you find a willing mule from one of those contries, you could start getting the donuts only 4-5 hours old.

    Personally, I prefer my glazed donuts the same way I did when I was 12 years old. In a box in the freezer, then microwaved for 15 seconds a scalding hot temperature, then burning my lips when I bite them. Got me every time.
    View all comments by gavinmac

  14. 14 bongo Oct 12th, 2008 at 1:38 am

    “Sometime back BBB did his breakfast piece but the post itself meant nothing to me.”

    Sorry dude but this sentence makes you sound like a real cunt. I’m sure I’m not the only one who read it that way.
    View all comments by bongo

  15. 15 gavinmac Oct 12th, 2008 at 2:28 am

    “Sorry dude but this sentence makes you sound like a real cunt. I’m sure I’m not the only one who read it that way.”

    Everyone who isn’t interested in fried bread, baked beans, and black pudding for breakfast is a cunt?

    I’m sure sideshowBOB wasn’t criticizing the WRITING of BBB’s breakfast piece. If that were the case, he would have said that although he enjoys BBB’s usual hilariously sordid tales, the breakfast piece was overrated, uninteresting, and lacking any humor. But that’s not what he said. So he’s definitely not a cunt.
    View all comments by gavinmac

  16. 16 jerb Oct 12th, 2008 at 2:35 am

    gavin mac…your second paragraph was spot on
    View all comments by jerb

  17. 17 bongo Oct 12th, 2008 at 2:36 am

    ait fair do’s.. just sounded a bit cocky and arrogant.. cunt was a bit harsh tho. i apologise.
    View all comments by bongo

  18. 18 Pants Elk Oct 12th, 2008 at 6:34 am

    See, what we have here is the inability of Americans to even SEE something that isn’t branded. This goes back to the days of the Old West, the iron in the steer’s flank turning it into branded product. Americans are culturally blind to any foodstuff which isn’t branded and/or franchised. This is why, when they look at the Great English Breakfast, they see only a mess of undifferentiated tissue. Where’s the *product*? All neatly and uniformly presented? Same with doughnuts. I love them, very occasionally, but don’t consider myself lacking in culinary experience because I haven’t had one that comes in a Krispy Kreme box. It’s a freaking lump of dough fried in sugar. Something to give body to a tasteless mug of US coffee.

    The combination of sickly sweet dough and cow meat and processed cheese - what can go wrong? Are you kidding?

    I make no apologies for the racist tone. The US has given the world many great things - the recession, shirt pocket protectors, rap music, (the list goes on) - but here even the *idea* that made the cheeseburger such a godlike creation has been twisted and defiled into something that could have crawled from the Foul Pit of HP Lovecraft’s worst nightmares.

    UNSEE!!!! UNSEE!!!! AYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
    View all comments by Pants Elk

  19. 19 Brandon Gerworthy Oct 12th, 2008 at 6:51 am

    Hmmm, donuts just fried dough indeed! Great English Breakfast applied to sausages and eggs and a few other utterly commonplace, dull foods! Hmff!

    And there my friends, in a nutshell, you have the English sensibility about food :) It is no accident the English have long been famous for complete disregard for taste, flavor, presentation, preparation, or anything else that makes food appealing to the rest of the worlds population. Well, at least it has made them a sturdy, stoic race!
    View all comments by Brandon Gerworthy

  20. 20 Bubba Oct 12th, 2008 at 7:31 am

    Members of any society which holds a cooked vat of pig blood, pig fat and oatmeal in high esteem have earned no credibility in the area of culinary critique.

    It would be reasonable to expect this same group would consider afterbirth on toast a supreme pizza.
    View all comments by Bubba

  21. 21 Pants Elk Oct 12th, 2008 at 7:36 am

    Dear Brandon

    Not long ago, historically speaking, England was the world capital of cooking. Around Dickens’s time. The sheer amount, diversity, and quality of domestically available foodstuffs, coupled with kitchen skills honed by generations, led to an era of gastronomic wonderment never equalled. Escoffier, the father of French cuisine, had to come to London to learn his craft. Even before the Great War, English restaurants were the finest in the world. The two World Wars took their toll, and the nation’s diet suffered as man (and woman-)power was diverted to the war effort. Not helped by having to pay back the US loan under the Marshall plan (the Germans were never made to repay the US loan, the Brits were, with interest), the nation became impoverished, and the lavish variety of food simply vanished from the table. Ration books were issued as basic foodstuffs like meat and eggs and bread were in very short supply. There had never been a culture of “eating out” in the UK, and it took generations before the economy allowed the development of restaurants.

    If you were to take a tour of the UK today (especially England) you would be astonished by the quality and diversity of the cooking available in small restaurants and pubs, much of it from fresh local ingredients. It’s still not cheap, and regular eating out is the preserve of the middle classes, but the standard is extremely high. TV food shows that demonstrate cookery skills are amazingly popular, and the lessons well learned. England is a nation of Foodies - it’s an obsession. I haven’t lived in the UK for, oooh, manymany years, but anyone who bangs on the old “UK = crap food” drum is marching way out of step with what’s actually happening there. By contrast, the US (well, anywhere left of New York, with the exception of SF) is an appalling desert, as indeed is much of France, where trying to get a decent meal between Paris and Marseille is a real challenge.
    View all comments by Pants Elk

  22. 22 Savoy Brown Oct 12th, 2008 at 7:58 am

    Ahh, there is nothing finer than fresh, hot Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts as they come off the cooking rack… Like gooey-sticky-sugary sex… I grew up with a KK near my home… I now live in a part of HELL that doesn’t have a KK and miss them dearly…
    View all comments by Savoy Brown

  23. 23 sideshowBOB Oct 12th, 2008 at 8:59 am

    cp - sick

    dom - bring it

    rd - not sure what to say other than I ate another donut this morning. without the burger. I think things will be okay

    gmac- they were brought in from sydney. 2 secs i the wave and they are good to go.

    thanks for the backup

    bongo - asshole. apology accepted.

    pants elk - it is u that does not understand that branding is not the brand for the sake of the brand but a brand on top of something that if that item is better than the rest - warrants the brand. The two are inextricably linked.

    Sure a donut may just be a donut - but only a Krispy Kreme is a KK donut.

    sorry an English Breakfast really is just an English Breakfast. Not really deserving of a brand.

    BG - amen

    PE - good explanation but does not really mean UK food is good. It means there are places in the UK, with chefs probably not of UK descent cooking meals in the UK with ingredients they are forced to use but applying them to distinctly NON UK recipes. So yeah. UK food is great.

    SB - yeah. I would park the motorbike anytime the fresh and hot sign was on. 2 in a bag and a jug of milk. Then remount the bike and continue on my way hoping to repeat.
    View all comments by sideshowBOB

  24. 24 fender Oct 12th, 2008 at 9:05 am

    How is the KK MMcM dramatically different from a McGriddle breakfast sandwich that McDonalds has been selling with great success for a decade or more?

    From Wikipedia: “The ’standard’ variant of the McGriddles sandwiches consists of bacon, egg and American cheese served on a small pancake injected with maple flavoring deep inside its griddle folds.”

    Wow. That sounds more like something Ronald McDonald gets to do to Mrs. McDonald on a good night. Maybe they should call it the “missionary” variant. Does a Greek McGriddle come with chocolate sauce?

    Anyway, people seem to eat them up by the bagful, so the tastiness of the KK MMcM shouldn’t surprise.
    View all comments by fender

  25. 25 sideshowBOB Oct 12th, 2008 at 9:12 am

    f - u thought about this more than I did.

    I just figured hey. KK are good. MM are good. The burgers are good.

    combo. might be good too.

    and it was.
    View all comments by sideshowBOB

  26. 26 Werewolf Oct 12th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    If you find a willing mule from one of those contries, you could start getting the donuts only 4-5 hours old.

    I have visions of concerned and confused customs agents at Suvarnapumi Airport writing hurried memos to superiors about an unexplained and sudden increase in foreigners carrying large boxes of doughnuts and murmuring something about mangoes and breakfast.
    View all comments by Werewolf

  27. 27 sideshowBOB Oct 12th, 2008 at 11:03 am

    ww - we would probably work on some shirt the mules could wear to stand out a bit and then when confronted they could offer the custom folks a semi-fresh KK just to let them know how good it is. Then some explanation card showing the the burger and discussing how we combine a bread product, sugar, , meat product and cheese into a tasty concoction.

    Given that Thais eat things like chicken embryos, ice cream in bread and so on - I am sure they will get it.
    View all comments by sideshowBOB

  28. 28 Bangkok Bad Boy Oct 12th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

    Here is another picture of some American food.

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2899038973_effb27765b_o.jpg

    Those of you who consider gravy to be a beverage may be interested to learn that The Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire, England was named best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2005, and second-best in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
    View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy

  29. 29 sideshowBOB Oct 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    bbb - using that as a photo to represent american food is as bad as people saying there is no good food in the UK.
    View all comments by sideshowBOB

  30. 30 Bangkok Bad Boy Oct 12th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Fighting fire with fire baby :)
    View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy

  31. 31 Pants Elk Oct 12th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    “PE - good explanation but does not really mean UK food is good. It means there are places in the UK, with chefs probably not of UK descent cooking meals in the UK with ingredients they are forced to use but applying them to distinctly NON UK recipes.”

    This is absolute bollocks. You clearly haven’t been there, because everything you say is wrong.
    View all comments by Pants Elk

  32. 32 RRR Oct 12th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

    PE said: as indeed is much of France, where trying to get a decent meal between Paris and Marseille is a real challenge.

    Ahahah I must be in the wrong France then… 15 days of “holiday” in France right now and it’s a food orgy. Seriously can you say that England as a better food than france again with a straight face? this is ridiculous!

    Between Paris and Marseille, in a straight line otherwise there is too much to say:

    -First stop Bourgogne:
    Boeuf bourguignon ( with Chablis wine OMG…. )
    Fondue Bourgignonne
    Oeufs en meurette
    Jambon persillé
    Cassolette d’escargots ( but i’m sure you don’t like snails)
    l’Aligot
    A simple “Pave de Charolais” one of the best beef you’ll ever have.

    -Second one Rhone-Alpes: just stop in Lyon that’s simply the official “World’s capital of gastronomy” obviously so hard to have a decent meal….
    Useless to list them all just try a “tarte aux pralines roses” and tell me you ever had a better cake.

    -third stop provence alpes cote d’azur: another province full of place full of crap food : Nice,gap,avignon,aix en provence,toulon… All those tourists simply don’t know the arroiness of english food i’m sure.

    Is not even worth it, if you have an hard time finding a decent meal in France it’s simply that you have shit taste.

    Je ne vous salue pas
    View all comments by RRR

  33. 33 On Nutter Oct 12th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    Yes, France has very fine food but many gastronomes argue that London is now the food capital of the world. British cooking has had an amazing renaissance over the last 20 years. Food has become a national obsession.
    To those who argue that British food is just fry-ups and fish and chips (good as they are), I give you Beef Wellington, Steak and Guinness Pie, Devilled Beef, Lancashire Hot Pot, Arbroath Smokies, Roast Pork with Apples, Chicken in White Wine, Cumberland Stuffed Herrings, Tripe and Onions, Apple Crumble, glorious steamed puddings and more great cheeses than you could shake a stick at (assuming you want to shake a stick at a piece of Blue Stilton). Not to mention Cumberland Sausage, the world’s greatest banger.
    Having ruled the world, we Brits were able to select the best of what we found elsewhere (Indian spices and foreign herbs) while rejecting anything deemed unsuitable for the delicate British palate (Mexican refried beans and KK doughnuts).
    Pants Elk was right - you colonials just don’t understand.
    View all comments by On Nutter

  34. 34 fender Oct 12th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

    Venezuelan beaver cheese, anyone? Or perhaps some spotted dick?

    Gastronomes can argue all they want (and lord help the poor soul who tries to stop a gastronome from arguing!), but where can I get a good pizza in London?
    View all comments by fender

  35. 35 Pants Elk Oct 12th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    RRR, j’ai vecu en France pendant quinze ans, plutot a Paris, ou j’ai bien appris la bouffe francaise, et c’etait la ou j’etais un peu “gate pourri”, par ce-que j’ai eu du mal a trouver l’equivalent ailleurs. Pour toi, les vacances en France sont hors norme, et tu n’as pas le moyen ni l’experience ni le gout de savoir les nuances entre une bonne assiette et les crottes de chien.

    “Chablis,” … eh ben. Ca dit tout. Toujours le choix des connards. Et avec du bouef? Tu rigoles ou quoi?

    (s’il te plaît excuser mes erreurs de grammaire - ils seront plus pardonnable que vos erreurs de jugement, quand meme.)

    Je t’encule, cordialement,

    Pantalon d’elk
    View all comments by Pants Elk

  36. 36 fender Oct 12th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    shouldn’t that be “elk d’pantalon”?
    View all comments by fender

  37. 37 On Nutter Oct 12th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    Fender: Your Monty Python reference (Venezuelan Beaver Cheese) shows you are a man of good taste, but pizza? The owner of a top-class Italian restaurant in England once told me how depressed he was that most of his customers ordered pizza. “In Italy pizza is peasant food - it is just bread with tomato paste,” he complained.
    Pizza is perfectly acceptable as street food or a takeaway, but nobody should be ordering it in a restaurant when they could be having fried offal.
    View all comments by On Nutter

  38. 38 fender Oct 12th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

    @ON: It may be peasant food, but I’m a big fan of peasant food! The ubiquitous noodle soup sold on the streets of Thailand is something I look forward to every time I’m heading in country. A Thai friend once told me he was going to take me to his favorite restaurant: turned out it was a push-cart vendor, but damned if it wasn’t delicious! Shouldn’t peasant food be included in the calculus of whether a city is foodie-friendly?

    Plus, all pizza isn’t low-brow. I imagine that if the English had colonized the Trastevere district of Rome, London might have the best pizza in the world, and pies would cost 20 quid!
    View all comments by fender

  39. 39 Werewolf Oct 12th, 2008 at 8:48 pm

    “Chablis,” … eh ben. Ca dit tout. Toujours le choix des connards. Et avec du bouef? Tu rigoles ou quoi?

    (s’il te plaît excuser mes erreurs de grammaire - ils seront plus pardonnable que vos erreurs de jugement, quand meme.)

    C’est humoreaux!
    View all comments by Werewolf

  40. 40 doctorbond Oct 12th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    das ist threaden ridiculousein
    saurkraut ist stumbenfurher of food
    BBB vill now read dis on his new gay phone
    View all comments by doctorbond

  41. 41 Mr Right Oct 12th, 2008 at 9:19 pm

    My comment was in good nature. I’m sure I would eat a cheese burger on a donut, but I dont think I would respect myself in the morning.
    View all comments by Mr Right

  42. 42 RRR Oct 13th, 2008 at 12:42 am

    Pants elk if u want to insult me go ahead in English:

    Holidaying in France is a luxury for me that’s for sure, it kinda kills me to go on vacation in my home country.

    Clearly I have no idea about good food since the mother’s half of my family are in the restauration business since the french revolution.

    Chablis: the choice of assholes? of course you really seem to know your french food my lord, boeuf bourguignon with Chablis wine means cooked with chablis wine in the sauce… That the real “facon bourguignonne” Poor little pant elk don’t even know that and tries to attack me on suggesting white wine with beef…

    Advocating experience and being ultra insulting in the same post is the way of great men, i applaude your anglo-saxon flegmatism.

    Poor little pants elk who thinks he knows people and things should learn to shut up.

    Je ne t’encule pas, tu as le cul pourri. ( I, won’t shag your rotten ass )

    Having an idiot calling you an imbecile is the pleasure of men of great taste, I really appreciate your attention.

    Have a nice day
    View all comments by RRR

  43. 43 anon Oct 13th, 2008 at 5:44 am

    On Nutter: “The owner of a top-class Italian restaurant in England once told me how depressed he was that most of his customers ordered pizza. “In Italy pizza is peasant food - it is just bread with tomato paste,” he complained.”

    How ironic…in most restaurants in Italy, the Italians are the ones mostly ordering pizza.

    I asked a few Italians why this was and they replied “we can make pasta at home but we don’t have a pizza oven.”

    I just figured Italians were cheapos. With pizzas running at 5 euros vs pasta at 20 euro.
    View all comments by anon

  44. 44 Pants Elk Oct 13th, 2008 at 6:36 am
  45. 45 Pants Elk Oct 13th, 2008 at 7:25 am

    Double dip: RRR, I’d always thought that that dish was made with red wine. Traditionally, normally, it is. But I just Googled, et voila, there it is, with Chablis. So my apologies.

    If I want to insult “u”, I’ll do it any way I want, thank “u” very much. You came in very strong, and deserve what you get.

    Couple things: yes, you can get truly excellent food in the UK. I’m talking specifically about the London and the south of England. London is the best eating-out city in the world, and its certainly where young chefs are making their mark. And yes, I’d say you are more likely to get good food there than the vast desert between Paris and Marseille. I don’t include Lyon in this area (and nor does the map), nor any of the other places you mention, all of which I’ve spent time in. I prefer eating in Lyon to Paris - it’s cheaper, and I love “abats” (like, uh, black pudding). But France has long coasted on its gastronomic reputation, and this reputation simply isn’t deserved in 90% of the country. Similarly, their vineyards have become tired and the over-priced, over-mystified wines are struggling against superior product from the so-called “new world”. Just about any country that can support a vine now produces a better drink than the state-protected and often adulterated French plonk.

    There’s also a lot of faith and prestige attached to the French language - describing your menu in English robs it of a lot of its mystique. And I’ve had good paves Charolais and indifferent ones. It’s just a piece of cow. In fact, I’ve had magnificent steaks their here in Thailand (from Sakhon Nakhon), but you don’t see pretentious gastronomes twirling their moustachioes over them, which is a plus.

    If you’re the expert foodlover you say you are - you should get over to the UK and find out what’s happening there. England has a cooking tradition that goes back hundreds of years, and embraces just about every cooking process and ingredient. We were cooking “world food” ever since Sir Francis Drake invented the potato, and the Empire opened up a whole world of new tastes. Just as the English language is a rich storehouse of plundered vocabulary, so its unfairly-maligned and unknown “cuisine”. You can sum up Italian food in maybe the single word “pasta”, the French in “sauce”, but English food is more complex. We know how to cook vegetables, for example, and a lot of them. For the French they’re a drab bit of colour at the side of the meat. Salsify, parsnips, saleriac, sprouts, “old” potatoes … the list of vegetables they know nothing of is endless. And yet we’re supposed to like snails? Snails, the best of them, are very nearly tasteless. This is why they smother them in sauce. English puddings alone are a vast subject, but you wouldn’t know about that unless you had an English grandmother, or knew the right restaurants. All you’d have are your ignorant prejudices which do nobody any favours, least of all you.

    I’m done ranting. I should also say that it’s good to hear of an American who appreciates {French) food, and if we got off on the wrong foot it doesn’t mean we have to continue marching against each other.

    Good appetite!
    View all comments by Pants Elk

  46. 46 Bubba Oct 13th, 2008 at 8:12 am

    “All you’d have are your ignorant prejudices which do nobody any favours, least of all you.”

    Pot, meet Kettle.
    View all comments by Bubba

  47. 47 Combover Oct 13th, 2008 at 9:43 am

    This thread is going way off track. The central premise - that Krispy Kreme “donuts” are somehow edible - is utterly incorrect. Just more homogenised, dumbed down, subtle as a brick fast food served in overly large quantities. Don’t get me wrong, doughnuts are good. American donuts can even be good. KK donuts aren’t, I’m afraid.
    View all comments by Combover

  48. 48 Pants Elk Oct 13th, 2008 at 10:10 am

    bubba, I’m talking about my personal experience here, that’s all. I am prejudiced, sure, but not about this subject. I don’t live in the UK, got no nationalist flag to wave, but the food isn’t the dealbreaker. I do get tired of people who haven’t eaten in the UK bashing the food, because it can (easily) be really excellent, and if the English breakfast was written in French it would take up half the menu and be taken seriously. I’ve had great food in most of the countries I’ve visited or lived in, and I’ve had bad. I’ve had spectacularly awful food, and deeply cynical service, in France, where generation after generation of self-promotion has built the gastronomy myth to the point where they believe they’re the only country in the world that can produce wine, bread, and cheese, and whip up a heavy sauce to disguise mediocre ingredients. Right now I’d pass up (and maybe throw up) any Western cooking in favour of Real Thai.

    Combover - I think the central premise of the post was to render KK donuts edible by adding meat and cheese, no?
    View all comments by Pants Elk

  49. 49 Werewolf Oct 13th, 2008 at 10:17 am

    I’m done ranting.

    Didn’t take long to break that promise…
    View all comments by Werewolf

  50. 50 sideshowBOB Oct 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    The premise was this.

    1. KK donuts rock. Statement of fact.

    2. Mango MCMUFFins and Mango Burgers are also amazing.

    3. BBB wrote a post about a proper English Breakfast in Thailand. I don’t care. I am not English. So one of my comments to his post was a pic of KK burgers. After commenting on this a blog goer said he would bring some in for me to use to concoct some burgers. So I did. They were good.

    4. BBB and this post prove that anytime we discuss food it tends to fall across the fault lines of countries and brings a higher than above average amount of comments.

    5. I am a stats whore. I appreciate all of you helping out.
    View all comments by sideshowBOB

  51. 51 Pants Elk Oct 13th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    Werey - my last comment wasn’t intended as a rant, and if it came across that way, please mentally add a “non-rant” emoticon. But yeah, food seems to whip up the passions more than most subjects. It has everything going for it; intense subjectivity (never was “personal taste” more appropriate), nationalism, snobbism. And we didn’t even touch on the subject of why men make the best cooks …
    View all comments by Pants Elk

  52. 52 generous sponsor Oct 13th, 2008 at 11:16 am

    ” Not helped by having to pay back the US loan under the Marshall plan (the Germans were never made to repay the US loan, the Brits were, with interest), the nation became impoverished”

    Surely, all tongue in cheek? The Germans were the one group expected to repay the counterpart fund money received under the marshall plan. Yes, the germans received a lot of debt forgiveness, but they did make payments through the early 1970’s. The UK, on the other hand, took over 60 years to repay $5 billion (for a total of only $7.5 billion). Do the math - the “with interest” is less than 7/10 of a percent per annum.

    Then of course there was the whole “lend-lease” debacle of which the UK never returned a single pound of the $30 billion in “lending”, not to mention the WWI debts they defaulted on during the depression. And the idea of European Schadenfreude in the current financial crisis? Some nerve. The beauty of an obama presidency is that it should get the US out of the world stage. Let the EU handle Georgia, Iran and other foreign policy hot spots - their ability to coordinate is outstanding. In any event, any student of history would tell you most of these problems were their creations to begin with - take the UK’s hasty retreat from Palestine in the 1940’s and shortsighted carve-up of the Ottoman Empire after WWI as just two examples.
    View all comments by generous sponsor

  53. 53 Gordon Ramsey Oct 13th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    I’ll be over next week to check on the KK Burger and the kitchen in which it is cooked. I hope the Big Mango has their fucking kitchen is in cuntishly clean order.
    View all comments by Gordon Ramsey

  54. 54 KV Oct 13th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    And I thought the pmmp having tiny freelancer clean his dishes was perverted. NO, how wrong can man be. That was the most natural thing to do compared to this horrible act!!!

    Into penalty box ssB!
    View all comments by KV

  55. 55 Bubba Oct 13th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    PE: I think we could agree that we’re all prone to prejudices to a certain extent. Like you, I don’t like the stereotypes or blanket statements made that raises a certain object/subject to mythical levels.

    So when you make a comment like “By contrast, the US (well, anywhere left of New York, with the exception of SF) is an appalling desert, as indeed is much of France, where trying to get a decent meal between Paris and Marseille is a real challenge.” I see a blanket one-size-fits-all bias that I can only guess was similar to the way RRR saw your comment.

    For example, Las Vegas restaurants frequently appears on “Best Of” lists. However, this couldn’t be said as recently as six years years ago, but there they are today. The fact is many chefs and restaurateurs from New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco have opened restaurants that often out rate their flagship operations.

    http://www.foodandwine.com/golist/2008/list.cfm?label=us-canada

    http://www.gayot.com/restaurants/restaurantissue/top40/main.html

    http://mobiltravelguide.howstuffworks.com/five-star-restaurants-2008.htm

    Sure, New York still takes top honors on nearly all lists, but Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago also rank highly… and don’t forget those unique Cajun and Creole tastes of New Orleans restaurants. Most people don’t even know about Las Vegas and for the very reason you allude to in your post; things do change. BTW, the highest grossing restaurant in the USA is no longer in New York, it’s in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel (Tao).

    I’ve tried all the staples mentioned as part of an English Breakfast and I like everything bar black pudding and baked beans. Yea, that’s right, a good ol’ boy and I don’t like baked beans.

    Does that mean anything other than I have distinct personal preferences? Nope.

    Will some people be offended or think somethings wrong with me when I tell them I think both are shyte? Yep.

    So RRR’s tone was off, but no harm, right? He’s in France now; he’s digging the food; he’s voicing his opinion. I didn’t come away with him being part of the “All Things French Are The Best” camp, but I also wonder why he doesn’t think well of English cuisine; maybe he can explain that one?

    Your talent and ability with the pen in combination with your humor and imagination is something that I’ll never accomplish; great reading. But maybe when the humor element is missing people take things a bit too seriously and miss your message? (BTW, loved the old west-BRANDING comment… UNSEEEEEE! LOL)

    ssB: Only stats?
    View all comments by Bubba

  56. 56 sideshowBOB Oct 13th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    gr - the kk burger was a one off. there are no KK’s in thailand

    have a mango chutney burger instead…

    kv - penalty box for what?
    View all comments by sideshowBOB

  57. 57 GoodLife Oct 14th, 2008 at 2:52 am

    Wow… food passion.

    ooh by the way The Fat Duck began as a bourgeois French restaurant, and many of the dishes are variations on traditional French dishes so much for english tradition.. :(

    ssB… i agree anyone who eats KK’s with anything is a glutton for artherosclerosis… keep eating them we’ll get back to you in 10 yrs.

    I think people either like KK’s or hate them… I am on the hate side.. just like starbucks … SUCKS as well, where is Juan Valdez when u need him.

    Well ssB if you are hell bent on KK’s it will only cost 30MM to set up a franchise… http://www.krispykreme.com/asia.html
    View all comments by GoodLife

  58. 58 But Different Oct 14th, 2008 at 6:35 am

    That puts the “gas” in gastronomic!

    I think this should have been titled “They said it shouldn’t be done…”

    I’m going long on Krispy Kreme stock!
    View all comments by But Different

  59. 59 Combover Oct 14th, 2008 at 10:14 am

    So, when are we going to see the Elvis Sandwich, or its close relative, the Fool’s Gold Loaf?

    “The sandwich consists of a single loaf of hollowed out, warmed bread filled with one jar of creamy peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon.” (Wikipedia)
    View all comments by Combover

  60. 60 Cabby Oct 16th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    London a good place for eating out? I wish I had your budget. I can afford to eat in the best restaurants in Bangkok. I can afford a cheap curry in London.

    Thank god pizza evolved on from that god awful cardboard and tomato sauce they make in Italy. Pity you can only get ‘reasonable’ standard pizza (by my taste) in Bangkok - too many places trying for Italian or New York style.
    View all comments by Cabby

  61. 61 Bangkok Bad Boy Oct 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    London in “More Expensive Than Bangkok” shock! :)
    View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy

  62. 62 WalterE Ego Oct 17th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    wow…fucking GROSS!!!

    /all i have to say
    View all comments by WalterE Ego

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