Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Squid Eats: Subway

Image result for subway wiki
via Wikimedia Commons
We need to talk about fast food.  Rest assured, I require no convincing that it is emblematic of all that is horrible in our modern consumer culture.  It's bad for the environment.  It's bad for our health.  It's bad for our society.  Indeed, I realize it's not even good food.  But sometimes it is damned convenient and ruthlessly reliable.  As with other aspects of our dietary life, it is highly ritualistic in the sense, at least for me, that I always get it in particular circumstances.  I'm not talking weekly or even monthly.  But within a broader time frame, I will confess to eating it regularly.

In particular, let's talk about Subway.  There is a franchise in the town where I teach and there are a couple nights every year when I have about an hour between the end of one meeting and the beginning of an evening commitment.  No time to run home.  Going to the grocery store seems like too much hassle and doesn't really provide preferable quick options.  Bringing something from home requires too much advance planning.  And, I will admit, it does have the seductive appeal of a mild indulgence.  Besides, it's Subway.  That is the healthier, more responsible alternative to the Scottish Bistro, right?

Right?

I love a good submarine (not subway!!!) sandwich as I love few things.  (In Vermont, they're called grinders.)  I have devoted considerable time and thought to the elements of the perfect sandwich (read here).  Given access to a full kitchen and prepped ingredients, I am fully confident that I could prepare a superior sandwich on my own.  If I lived in New York City rather than northwest Vermont, I could easily acquire a more satisfying meal at a corner deli.  But again, given the circumstances, I have neither.  Subway it is. 

I didn't grow up with Subway.  Maryland and Virginia are still well-served by a robust local chain: Jerry's Subs & Pizza.  I didn't encounter the global operation until college.  Subway does require a little more patience than its competitors but the relatively fresh ingredients (are they really?) will generally win out for me if I have a few extra minutes to spare.

If you check the nutritional stats between Subway and McDonald's, Subway does offer a broader range of healthier, less fatty options.  But, and this is a huge condition, one must choose carefully.  Including cheese on that sandwich?  How about mayonnaise or one of those other tantalizing squeeze-bottled condiments?  Advantage negated.  Even if you stick to the healthier choices, you're still getting a lot more sodium than you need, especially if you're adding a bag of chips to your meal.

And no, the ingredients, even the vegetables, are not as fresh as they seem.  Fresh is an illusion for all chain restaurants, even the sit-down places like Red Lobster or Olive Garden.  I know this.  Under the right circumstances, I guess I've decided I can live with it.

I suppose that's what it comes down to in the end.  Fast food is an inexorable part of the devil's bargain I and billions of others have made in navigating life in the 21st century.  I know the choices I make are often, in ways both large and small, damaging to the greater good and even my own.  But they make my life incrementally easier.  I'm not proud of this.  But it is the truth. 

For the record, my order: foot-long turkey on white, no cheese, not toasted, all the veggies, mayo (my guilty pleasure), no chips, tap water.  Met the factory specs very nicely.  Done in plenty of time to make my call at 5.

17 comments:

  1. We have Subways here but I cannot cope with all that bread! Can however regularly eat a Cornish pasty - locally made, lucky me :-)

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    1. Sounds wonderful! I wish meat pies were more popular here in the States.

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  2. When my kids were small, there was a Subway across the street from where we lived. I'll admit we went there way more often than we should have. But fast food hasn't had a real place in my life in over a decade.

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  3. As much as I would like to claim I avoid places like Subway, circumstances tend to push my wife and I to those places when we're doing chores. I'm not just picking on fast food places, even the sit-down establishments like you mention just aren't very good to us.

    There are a few local restaurants that make an effort to be original with their menus and preparation of food but the national franchises like Texas Road House or Olive Garden are just so damn convenient.

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  4. My son is an entomologist and has inspected my fast food industries, incl. Subway. Not good. What to do? Have no idea. Avoid McD. How their products are produced will make one gag.

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    1. Oh, I have no illusions! I've read all of the cautionary tale books: Fast Food Nation, Omnivore's Dilemma, etc. And yet, the seduction persists.

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  5. I think it's been more than ten years since I went to a Subway. I don't remember Jerry's from Maryland. My favorite was Sub Shop #36 in Lynnwood, Washington. Of course they went out of business because we liked it too much.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Jerry's is headquartered in Gaithersburg and I think most of the locations are still in Montgomery County, my old stomping grounds.

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  6. I haven't had a Subway for a very long time.
    When I drove several times a year to Laguna Beach for business and friends, I always had a breakfast sandwich from McDonalds I always left by 6 am to get through San Diego traffic. It was a treat but as I don't drive there anymore.
    parsnip

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    1. I have a standard McD's drive thru order: four hamburgers, strawberry shake. It's not much but it gets the job done.

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  7. The thing I hate about Subway is having to choose the ingredients. It's great to have choice, sure, but then why go to a restaurant at all? I've never been one of those picky customers who have a list of things that can't be in something. There are plenty of options on a menu. I have no dietary restrictions, I'm in reasonable shape. There's just no reason. And what's worse, Subway was just the beginning of this trend. There's Qdoba/Chipotle (they're virtually indistinguishable), Five Guys, and I don't even want to think of how many others. (Five Guys at least gave me the chance to discover the perfect hotdog: with pickles, and barbecue sauce.) I think we get too obsessed about what we eat. We compare what's on our plate with what's on someone else's. We look at someone else's weight, and compare it to our own. We have this giant disconnect, in the modern world, from producing the food to consuming it. What was perfectly natural a century ago (y'know, roughly speaking) seems unnatural today, and the funny thing is, what was natural a century ago was natural for hundreds of thousands of years...Why the big rush to repudiate it now? Part of it, I suspect, is the old worry about expanding populations and what it means to live in a society where you don't have to have a part in food production. And the easier it gets to mass-produce, the more it becomes natural to shirk away. But we lose the ability to do it ourselves. So we become...vegans. Herbivores. And obviously, all-natural. Whatever that means. Unless you have your own garden, it's nonsense. And then if you want meat...

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    1. A couple of books you should read if you haven't already: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and The Third Plate by Dan Barber.

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    2. Also: Did not mean to go on a crazy rant. Thanks for overlooking.

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    3. Omnivore's Dilemma was one of those books that was published while I was working at Borders, so I was always aware of it, but apparently didn't know what was actually in it. I just read a Wikipedia summary. I don't know if I'll get around to reading the book itself, but it's nice to know it's out there. Though since I write Goodreads.com reviews for everything I read, it would almost be worth reading it just to be able to post a review explaining its apparently elusive thought process.

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    4. Haha! No problem re: crazy rant.

      It's good to think about where our food comes from. Whether one agrees with Pollan's points is less important than the exploration itself, I think. Barber's approach is similar but different in important ways.

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