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Pastimes : Where the GIT's are going -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PatiBob who wrote (63605)	7/22/2003 11:22:19 AM
From: sandintoes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 225578

Here is the entire list... I found it while discussing gourmet recipes... But seeing as how the French have ruled out the use of "e-mail" (it's too American) I should call it delicious eating that is a pain in the butt to cook. topsecretrecipes.com Urban Legends in Food Land by The Sleuth Far-out urban food legends have have a special significance to this site, since it was the legendary $250 chocolate-chip cookie chain letter that started What's-his-face on a quest to create all these clone recipes. You can get that story here. These fairy tales have been around for years now, and they are spreading even faster and in greater numbers with the popularity of the Internet, and with the convenience of e-mail. It's just too easy to fire off one of these tall tales to hundreds of others with a couple of quick keystrokes. As is typical of most urban legends, many of these stories have some basis in fact. For example, there certainly have been instances of customers filing complaints against fast food chains for finding undesirable objects in their food, but a fried rat wasn't one of them. And, as with most urban legends, small facts make the stories believable. It's true that Kentucky Fried Chicken shortened its name to KFC, but not for the preposterous reason we've heard lately. And yes, there are unusual objects found in playground ball pits, but so far poisonous critters aren't among them. Some may find it convincing that large corporations could take any number of frightening steps to make more money, like using worms in hamburger meat or creating chickens with no beaks, feet or feathers. But the reality of such an icky plot is undermined by those pesky facts. And many of the stories end in huge lawsuits against the company, which, you would think, would create just as huge a publicity barrage. But isn't it strange that we never hear about these incidents in the news? Hopefully, by sharing these zingers with you I can help contribute to their extinction. A lofty goal indeed, since another characteristic of an urban legend is the likelihood that it comes back around in an updated version with a few twisted details to give it new life. Such is the case with the story that prefaces the Mrs. Fields Cookie Recipe that has been making the rounds for over 50 years now as an incident first occurring at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Today it's pegged on Neiman-Marcus. Same story, different time, different place. This is what urban legends are made of. Here's a list of the most popular food-related urban legends making the rounds today. I present you with the stories as they appear on the Internet, leaving out none of the gory details, followed by the facts as I've found them. If you are faint-of-heart, or currently eating as you read, you should avoid these like a fried rat: Snakes in the Burger King Ball Pit Bubble Yum Contains Spider Eggs Mikey Dies from Mixing Pop Rocks and Soda KFC is Serving Genetically Engineered "Chicken" Customer Bites into a Fried Rat at KFC McDonald's Hamburgers Contain Worm Meat McDonald's Buys Cow Eyeballs Taco Bell Bell Taco Filled with Cockroach Eggs White Stuff Oozing from a Chicken Sandwich is not Mayonnaise Spam Tastes Like People Free M&Ms Delivered Pizza Hut Pizza is Moist and Tastes Funny