Skip to the the end part of this message to learn what typical American meals truly consisted of in the pre-vegetarian times. Hint: ...it wasn't fast food or hamburgers. :-) On Fri, 9 Nov 2001, Chad Fernandez wrote: The first fast-food chain that I recall having a salad bar, and that was back around the late 1970's, was White Coffee Pot Jr... not sure if they were just a Baltimore area phenomena or if they existed elsewhere. They were not the typical fast food chain, as, in addition to the salad bar, one could get fried shrimp, carrot cake, crab soup, and towards the end, cheese steak subs. The french fries were delicious as they were cooked in chicken fat (that was back in my pre-semi-vegetarian days); trying to remember if they sold fried chicken as well - I think they did, but can't swear to it. Next, Gino's hamburger chain had a salad bar - that was back in the late 1970's as well. It was an "all you can eat" salad bar, and, if one purchased a hamburger, one could use any toppings one wanted from the salad bar on it - the styrofoam packaging used back then made it very convenient to fit lots of salad toppings in with a hamburger to go. Ok, to help the rest of the world understand the truth about American food, here's what typical American meals really consisted of in the pre-vegeterian times: When I was growing up, we always had a wide variety of vegetables - and they were fresh, not frozen/canned, when in season (corn, peas, string beans, lima beans, peas, sweet potatoes, broccoli, brussel sprouts, lettuce, tomatoes, etc...) with meals; potatoes were often mashed and served with gravy - sometimes they were baked and topped with salt, pepper and butter or margarine. Meats consisted of roasts, steaks, pork chops, ham, chicken, lean ground beef, shrimp, and occasional Cornish game hens. In the summer we also had fried chicken, crab cakes, hamburgers outside on the grill, fried tomatoes, corn on the cob, fried eggplant, fresh salads (definitely not limited to lettuce, by the way), watermellon, etc. There was always fresh fruit to go along with lunches, such as apples, peackes, nectarines, pears, oranges, etc. ...then meals with a turkey to be sliced on Thanksgiving and Christmas. ...and for breakfast, one or more of: cereal with milk, toast, scrambled eggs, waffles, french toast, grapefruit, bacon or Taylor's pork roll, and orange juice to drink. -- Copyright (C) 2001 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & rdd(a)rddavis.net 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such http://www.rddavis.net beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.