I was out Christmas shopping with my son tonight, and on an impulse stopped at McDonald’s and bought him his first Happy Meal.  Chicken nuggets and fries.  He loved it.  This kid has an incomprehensible distaste for potatoes, but tonight I found one kind he’ll eat.  And I have to admit, the fries were delish.

But the chicken nuggets?  The meat looked like a sponge.  How do you take meat, which is fibrous due to the rows and rows of actin and myelin proteins liked up to make a contracting machine, look porous and sponge-like?  And the breading, what is it made of?  It looks like plastic. 

Fast-food chicken nuggets do not have to be like this!  Chick-Fil-A has delicious chicken nuggets that are not greasy and look and taste like chicken.  But unfortunately that great chain of fast food restaurants is not in Chicago.  You have to go south for it.  Last Thanksgiving we drove to Tennessee to visit my brother and stopped at Chick-Fil-A for every meal.  The chicken nuggets are worth stopping for if you get the chance.

But the McDonald’s ones barely qualify as food.  Blech!