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How economical is your local Taco Bell?

taconomical.com

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Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#191

Post by cortesoft »

ranger_danger wrote: post #40
cortesoft wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an autistic kid who went through a phase where she would only eat McDonalds chicken nuggets... I live in a city and have 3 McDonald's pretty close to me, and the price for the same order of nuggets would vary by up to 50 cents between the 3... the cheapest place is only a half mile away from the most expensive one. It really is strange.

I don't mean to be rude but I'm just curious... did you try simply not giving them junk food? I have done some research on this and have not found any good evidence that most autistic children will actually starve themselves for any meaningful amount of time if their picky foods are not provided.

We tried many things.

Our final diet for her was based on recommendations from her pediatrician, dietitian, and therapist.

While she might not have starved if we withheld chicken nuggets, she became extremely distressed and disregulated, which lead to other problems.

She has moved on from chicken nuggets, but her eating pattern is still the same. She will have only one food at a time that she will eat for proper meals, and that food will rotate every few months. After a few months of only eating one type of food, she will suddenly declare she does not like it anymore and move on to something else.

Her current food is actually Chicken Tikka Masala from one particular restaurant. Hopefully somewhat healthier than nuggets, although it gets expensive.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#193

Post by cortesoft »

astura wrote: post #84
crooked-v wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Framing it as "being picky" is really not helpful. As somebody on the spectrum, my (fortunately very few) food sensitivities aren't a mere matter of preference... they're the result of me experiencing visceral, nauseating revulsion at specific tastes/textures/smells. If it's the only option, I will absolutely skip a meal entirely rather than deal with it. I would probably have to be at the point of literally (not fig…

>experiencing visceral, nauseating revulsion at specific tastes/textures/smells. It's definitely hard but this can be overcome with work. In my much younger days I had this reaction with a lot of foods that I now eat. I knew I was going to have to overcome a lot of my hangups about food in order to be at least semi-healthy, so I did in my late teens/early 20s. Before that the only thing I ate was pasta.

Everyone is different, and what an adult can overcome is different than what a child can overcome.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#194

Post by cortesoft »

wrboyce wrote: post #113
ljf wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine (with an autistic child) explained it as: If you give your kid a strawberry - even within the punnet the tastes and textures will vary - even mid summer some will be unpleasantly tart. If I make a sandwich it will be mildly different one day to the next, depending on the freshness of the items I put in, the brand of the ham, the spread, the bread. But junk food will ALWAYS BE THE SAME. If surprise an…

The difference between fresh McDonald’s nuggets and ones that have sat in the UHC/production bin for half an hour is night and day though, and that’s just the variance officially allowed by McDonald’s - don’t get me started on double-fried nuggets!

Trust me, I know. Some batches of nuggets were rejected based on being too crispy or too chewy.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#195

Post by ghaff »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #83
komali2 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where in the USA do you live? For my parent's house in Texas City there wasn't really a grocery store for ten miles and I'm not even sure delivery apps were available there. It's like trying to call an Uber in league city... MAYBE you'll get one in 30 minutes or something. I'm curious if you think it's because Americans are too lazy or undisciplined or stupid or something to find and cook food? Is it hard to believe…

Per Google maps, there is an HEB, Kroger, Aldi, and Walmart Supercenter within 5 miles of what looks like all the populous parts of Texas City, TX. I am not making value judgments. I just know that the availability of ingredients and knowledge of how to use those ingredients is there for the taking for most Americans. Maybe people don’t have time, maybe people don’t find it worthwhile to cook for households of 1 adul…

In fairness, I live in an "urban area" with 2 neighbors on the surrounding 100+ acres of land. A lot of people hear the census "urban area" and they imagine a dense downtown. That said there is no shortage of grocery stores and restaurants (if not especially high-end restaurants) around where I live.

I do suspect that most of the people who say they have no choice but to eat at McDonalds or wherever just don't want to make a meal at home.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#196

Post by standardUser »

bee_rider wrote: post #17
foobarian wrote: post #8

Taco Bell had felt pretty expensive for many years now. But there is just no alternative so I’m not too surprised they were able to pull it off.

There are a ton of alternatives to Taco Bell, “good, inexpensive tacos” are a whole thing, taco trucks, etc. Unless you are specifically looking for drain-o for your digestive system.

Taco trucks/taquerias are an entirely different cuisine than Taco Bell.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#197

Post by cortesoft »

ljf wrote: post #87
forgotusername6 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to battle the psychological aspect which says that they are different even if they smell, taste, feel the same. It really isn't that easy, if it was, parents of autistic kids would be doing it. There is also a reason why McDonald's nuggets are the go to for autistic kids the world over. They have been engineered over many decades to be the most acceptable taste and texture for children.

A friend of mine (with an autistic child) explained it as: If you give your kid a strawberry - even within the punnet the tastes and textures will vary - even mid summer some will be unpleasantly tart. If I make a sandwich it will be mildly different one day to the next, depending on the freshness of the items I put in, the brand of the ham, the spread, the bread. But junk food will ALWAYS BE THE SAME. If surprise an…

Absolutely true. My daughter will often like strawberries, but if they are too sour or mushy she will spit them out like she is literally eating poop.

Going through the fruit to find ones that will be acceptable is a big part of our routine.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#200

Post by SilasX »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #118
Loughla wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Taco Bell have an app? What is its purpose?

Theoretically you can order from it and you order is ready when you arrive. The last time I tried this, I had my passenger try and place our order. At the end of the process the app let us know we can't order online from that store. So my conclusion it is just a data harvesting scheme.

>Theoretically you can order from it and you order is ready when you arrive. The last time I tried this... the app let us know we can't order online from that store.

FWIW, as one data point, this is what I've used it for a few times, and it worked without issue. (A co-working space has it next door and that made it a lot more time-efficient, avoiding the line and having to wait in store.)

Though I have run into the problem you've described with other services, where it rejects your request much later than it should. Like with AWS letting you configure a server for launch before informing you that you don't have permission to launch servers:

http://blog.tyrannyofthemouse.com/2016/02/some-of-my-geeky-t...

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