The Musings of Brian Groce

I was recently over at a friends house and we decided that we wanted to make some nachos, but all of the ingredients were not on hand. So we hopped in his car and he headed to a certain foreign based discount supermarket chain. While not my first choice (or any choice at all) for purchasing meat, I did find the signage interesting.

Above the ground beef it said:

80% Fresh Ground Beef

At this point I’m pleading with him to at least get the 97% Fresh Ground Beef, as it would be easier to stomach 3% of whatever the non-fresh ground beef consisted of. I’m standing there thinking, out loud of course, what in the world could that 3 or 20 % consist of. In a “regular” grocery store that would often refer to the amount of fat in the beef (97% lean for example), but was that the case here. Of course, I wasn’t going to take the time to actually read the label and my mind began on a journey of its own.

Was the other part rancid ground beef? I’d heard of such practices before with meat and dairy. Maybe it was ground turkey or pork? Maybe it was soy? Or maybe it was something else entirely? I don’t know, but I wondered and I was praying for it to be fat. Juicy, greasy, slimy cow fat.

So we got back and made the nachos and they tasted okay and I don’t believe that any of us got sick from it. But maybe we were the lucky ones and someone else walked away with our portion of “other”. Again, I don’t know and didn’t care to read the label.

Other than that, I will say to stay away from the generic Swiss Cake Rolls/Ho Hos and to spend an extra quarter or two for the real thing. You’ll thank me for it later, trust me.