If you don't have a strong stomach, you may have stumbled into the wrong corner
of the world wide web. That's because we're breaking down all the food you
should absolutely never order from a diner, and we're pulling no punches!
"You see that sign, sir?
Yes, y'all have to leave. I'm not taking any more of your smartness and sarcasm."
"See this sign?"
"Blarg!"
Check it out… or just say, "Check, please."
Here's a tasty little morsel worth sharing with your loved ones: It turns out that diners often
use powdered eggs when making their breakfast dishes. That's because they tend to be a
whole lot cheaper than whole eggs, and most customers really can't tell the difference.
This holds true at pretty much every diner … from the fanciest of joints to
the greasiest of greasy spoons. One waiter told Reader's Digest:
"Even at the best breakfast buffet in the world,
99 times out of 100, the big pan of scrambled eggs is made from a powder."
If you have no problem with powdered eggs, go ahead and eat your heart out.
"Give me all the bacon and eggs you have. Do you understand?"
Of course, folks with food allergies may want to proceed with caution.
According to the website Australian Egg,
"Dried eggs [...] contain additives and other artificial ingredients.
Among those ingredients are often fillers such as gluten,
which can be a problem if you are gluten intolerant or trying to lose weight."
If you happen to be dieting, eating turkey is one way to keep enjoying the food you love
while remaining at least somewhat health-conscious. But if you happen
to be chowing down on a turkey burger, you should stop mid-chew and listen to this:
That turkey burger might be worse for you than even the fattiest beef patty.
Sure, a turkey burger has fewer calories than a beef burger…
but it may also contain traces of harmful bacteria. In 2013, Consumer Reports found
that 90 percent of packaged ground turkey contained E. coli bacteria,
which can potentially lead to two weeks of stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea.
"The other side of this, though, the turkey
industry calling it 'misleading'... they haven't explained why though."
The same report found that half of those packages contained fecal bacteria. Of course, cooking a
turkey burger kills some of this bacteria… but boiling is the only way to completely kill E. coli.
That makes your turkey burger safe to eat… but it doesn't make it particularly appetizing.
"Ice and a slice" is a classic way to serve a cold drink at any cafe or diner, but those lemon wedges
can be some of the most bacteria-ridden things to be found in a restaurant.
Rarely washed, usually left out on the side and handled by many people with different levels of
hand hygiene, it's no wonder that a recent study found 70 percent of lemon wedges sampled from
21 restaurants were contaminated with microbes. Does this fact leave a sour taste in your mouth?
"I just want to eat."
Have you ever ordered a decaf coffee while eating at a diner? Don't answer too quickly.
This is actually something of a trick question.
If reports can be believed, you may be getting served decaf coffee whether you like it or not,
depending on how busy your diner or server happens to be. To state the screamingly obvious,
regular coffee and decaf both look identical and it's easy to get them mixed up.
The beat on the street is that you tend to get sold decaf coffee after 8 p.m.,
even if you decidedly ordered a cup of the stronger stuff. Speaking to Reader's Digest,
one big blabbermouth of a waitress confessed that
“In most restaurants, after 8 p.m. or so, all the coffee is decaf because no one wants to
clean two different coffeepots. I’ll bring out a tray with 12 coffees on it and give some to
the customers who ordered regular, others to the ones who ordered decaf. But they’re all decaf.”
Another equally brazen waitresses seemed to corroborate this report,
offered this rather discouraging piece of advice to ABC News:
"The thing about coffee is that, it might be decaf,
but it might not be decaf. You know, if you really can't have caffeine, just don't get coffee."
For a lot of people out there, a weekend simply isn't a weekend without a long, decadent brunch...
"I think breakfast is more like eating to live, and brunch is more like, living to eat."
But not so fast: It seems that this whimsical weekend ritual is nothing but a chore for chefs,
and cooks wind up having to make the same dishes for hours on end.
As Anthony Bourdain wrote in his classic foodie tell-all Kitchen Confidential,
"Cooks hate brunch. Brunch is punishment block for the B-Team cooks, or where the farm team of
recent dishwashers learn their chops. [...] [It's] an open invitation to the cost-conscious chef,
a dumping ground for the odd bits left over from Friday and Saturday nights."
In particular, he strongly advises that you avoid ordering Eggs Benedict, that
classic combination of English muffins, bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. He writes,
"How about hollandaise sauce? Not for me. Bacteria love hollandaise. And nobody I know has ever made
hollandaise to order. And how long has that Canadian bacon been festering in the walk-in?"
"Glurp, I think I'm gonna puke."
"Just go.”
Sure, it's an American classic…
but you might be a bit turned off when you learn what goes into a diner meatloaf. The truth is,
you likely won't get any ground beef in your meatloaf at all, because restaurants reportedly
bulk up the dish with cheaper ingredients. According to a website called The Healthy,
"There's often more filler than meat, but restaurants think if
they drown the dish in enough sauce and seasoning, you won't notice."
The more you know, right?
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Mashed videos about your favorite diner foods are coming soon.
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