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That's pretty much exactly what I said!

I had my first fluffernutter (with crunchy pb and the official fluff) 5 min ago; you can fight over the bread, but I just had it with sourdough bread, weird and tasty.

I try not to eat busses.

I realize that I'm going to upset a lot of people, but I ate here last week, after reading the slew of favorable reviews and truly believe that this place is a triumph of hype over content. I'm from out of town, out of state, in fact out of country, but I've been coming to your fair city for almost thirty years now and I used to rate the burgers at the late lamented McHale's as the best in town, so was interested to try this company's much-lauded offerings. I ordered a cheeseburger, medium, with fries, a root-beer and retired to wait for the pager to buzz. (Side note to the owners: when there's a long line, it doesn't sit well with the other customers when a friend of the serving staff wanders in off the street, goes up to the counter, engages three of the staff in conversation and gets his burger almost immediately while people waiting on line are ignored.) By the time I got my order, I was pretty hungry and found a place to sit and eat. What I encountered was a mouthful of heavily salted greasy sludge in a cheap bun, with the cheese as a fatty and tasteless covering. The fries were also smothered in salt, but otherwise tasteless and if I hadn't already guessed that they were frozen, the guy wheeling the piled-high cartons labeled "Frozen Potato Products" or something similar around the kitchen would have given me a big clue.

The root-beer, despite far too much ice, was actually rather good, but the rest of the meal made me feel decidedly queasy. If this is really what you consider to be a great burger, then I fear for your nation's health. A better name for this place might well be Heart-Attack Shack.

(I should mention that I also find the burgers in Le Parker Meridien's Burger Joint to be overrated, but they don't seem to suffer from the same sort of mania that this place generates and they're far, far less greasy.)

I thought that was you with a backpack being dropped off in front of and walked into Blackbird on Sun, Aug 30th. We were just came out of Avec. How was Honey1 bbq or Chicagoan BBQ in general? Any comparison to Kansas/ Carolinas/ Texas ?

Still being made doesn't mean "NOT FAD".

For example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chia_Pet

Raw dough flavored ice cream is a fad.

I went to Spain and actually lost weight. It's a very jamon based culture, and I don't like meat. Tortilla con patatas gets really old after the first week or so. I totally fell in love with boquerones though.

Whenever I travel, most of my diet restrictions go out the window. Being vegan, not being able to cook, and affected by my travel itinerary, I certainly don't eat as well. Ed, I'm glad you carry around the scale. Way to face your weight rather than ignoring it (which I tend to do). Don't get discouraged! Live in the moment, not in the past! Also, what helps me is deciding to do juice cleanses or raw foods cleanses!

I totally get excited about all the unique food options when I go out of town, and I try to partake when I can. I definitely make a concerted effort to maximize my exercise time when I'm out though, which can range from lots of walking to going to the hotel gym to running around to take in the city.

I'm happy to break even when in a new city. Sure, we tend to eat a lot because we love food and want to try new things, but we tend to walk around a lot exploring too, so hopefully it balances out.

It's good that you take Thinner with you when you travel. I should do that, but it's not like weighing-in is going to really change my behavior while traveling much. Chicago's a tough city to lose weight in. I put on about 50 pounds within a year after moving here, and it took me six months of struggle to take off that much.

You're doing good, Ed. Don't let one bad traveling weekend get you down.

have you ever been to italy??? if so, you would get that this is hilarious - and as a fellow italian, it makes perfect sense. way to go hot dougs, the only place i can think of that would make a great reference like this.

Seems pretty ridiculous - why Italy? We, too, have a mandatory seatbelt law. I agree that this must be an inside joke...