Good Taste and Bad Taste
Wendy's | Various Locations | wendys.com |
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THIS WAS MEANT TO BE a fun and light visit to one of my favorite—if not flat-out favorite—fast food joints. Needing just this last visit to complete my soon-to-be-published list of my top ten favorite burgers in New York City, I made the trip uptown to 116th and 3rd Avenue to the corner Wendy's. Yes, Wendy's made the list, the only fast food restaurant to do so.
The closest Wendy's use to be on 57th and 3rd, and I don't believe I had been to a Wendy's since they closed over 3 years ago. I already had some business on 118th & Lexington, so this was a way to kill two birds, so to speak. And so I was looking forward to revisiting what I had remembered to be an experience of great joy and happiness eating a double cheeseburger at that downtown Wendy's. What I would eventually experience, however, would be something somewhat different.
First of all, the median income of the denizens of East Harlem might be one-fifth of that of the lower Upper East Side, if that. Within the two blocks I walked to Wendy's I was petitioned twice for money by homeless people—others walked right by—and was again asked for "a dollar or two" by a destitute woman as I stood in line getting ready to order. Maybe selfish, but I chose not to put myself in a position where I gave money to one person and not another, or maybe skeptical as to what any charity would eventually be used for, I ordered just a single cheeseburger and found a spot at a table by the window.
This was not the experience I remembered, even treasured, from year's ago. And it was the whole experience that was different. Scattered about the restaurant tables among low-key customers were other homeless folk, resting, sleeping, scratching!, with one still walking right up to my table with their hand out over my food asking me for money. Not only that, but I had to wipe down my own table before I sat down, with moist crumbs left obviously unattended to. The whole place smelled like a bus stop, with that near-nauseating of septic and anti-septic aromas. How was I going to enjoy this cheeseburger with all of these sensory distractions overwhelming me?
My burger looked like it was slapped together in someone's sleep (I had to play my own P.A. and reorganize the burger's layers to get to something remotely photogenic). And maybe it was because of my growing unease, or the recently gained knowledge of "ammoniated meat scrap paste" that made this burger taste not nearly as wonderful as I had remembered or hoped. It good, but I didn't overly enjoy it either, not nearly as I used to.
Making matters worse, I started to remember why I had come to Wendy's, to include it on a list with other burgers that most of the people sitting around me possibly couldn't afford or had to much sense to pay that much for. Yes, soon enough I'll spend 20 bucks for the Prima Label burger at Minetta Tavern, knowing full well that the people in this neighborhood wouldn't stand in line to pay even Shake Shack prices. This is one of many areas of New York that have bodegas that advertise that they accept EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer, i.e., food stamps), the kind of community I grew up, where eating at Wendy's or McDonald's or Burger King was a luxury for grown-ups as well, and whose coupons were the first you looked for in the Sunday paper.
Was it this reality check that was leaving a bad taste in my mouth, spoiling my appetite? Has the quality of meat in fast food chains decreased that much for the sake of profit that my palate has finally noticed the difference? Do I even have the right—growing up like I did and where I did—to judge burgers, when so many still in this city would be grateful to dig a half eaten one out of the trash. Am I allowed to become a burger snob, having grown up of :"ghetto burgesr" (pan-fried low quality ground beef served on Wonder bread—or its generic counterpart—with or without a slice of government cheese)?!
A later abate my guilt and and distract myself from my shame by making a ghetto burger at home. Wonder bread, Heinz ketchup, Kraft single, and I feel grounded again. For now....
Bun Apple Tea!
KACnyc
Wendy's | Various Locations | wendys.com |
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