Is it just me, or were there a number of occasions in high school when the class would arrive for a lesson and no teacher would show up?
At the time, this created a very awkward situation, where there would be a stalemate between the nerdy kids who clearly thought the right thing to do was to notify someone of the issue, and the "cool" kids who were likely to beat anyone who dared to even suggest that the relevant authorities should be notified.
I seem to recall a large number of occasions where at least 20 minutes of a 40 minute lesson would be spent in this chaotic teacher-less state before a stressed looking principal or admin assistant would rush in and "take control".
So this got me thinking. How did it seem to happen so frequently that there would be no teacher for a lesson and no one seemed to know about it? Isn't having a teacher for each class a pretty fundamental requirement of running a school? And when a teacher wasn't coming in, were they not informing someone who could rectify the situation?
I'm not sure if this is still as prevalent today. Surely with the advent of more technology, there would be someone tasked with tracking schedules and making sure this doesn't happen. If so, I must say I'm a little sad that kids these days don't get to experience those character building situations for themselves.
There's nothing quite like the smell and taste of freshly baked bread.
Such a simple pleasure right?
There are basically 3 essential ingredients for baking bread: flour, yeast and water. Sure, more often than not a nice loaf might include salt, sugar, butter, milk or other additional ingredients, but the formula is still a simple one.
Bread has received a bit of a bum wrap these days as a high carb nasty to be avoided at all cost. But let's face it - it can sometimes be hard to have a meal without it, especially if you're on the run and choose one of the many "convenient" options.
Let's take a look at just what they pack in to the bunly goodness of some popular choices in Australia.
1. McDonald's
Let's take the classic Big Mac Bun. Yes, the "on a sesame seed bun" part of the rhyme that we all memorised years ago. (Am I right that at one stage you could go in to a McDonald's and recite that to score yourself a free Big Mac?)
Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast, Sugar, Vegetable Oil (Canola), Sesame Seed, Iodised Salt, Gluten, Soy Flour, Preservative (282), Emulsifiers (471, 472e, 481), Malt Flour, Mineral Salt (170), Antioxidant (300, 304, 307, 330), Enzyme (1100) Vitamin (Thiamin, Folate). 22 is the magic number of ingredients it takes to bake those famous buns. Okay, I'll give them sesame seeds as a freebie, but take a look past the standard "flour, water, yeast" and what are the next two ingredients? (Keep in mind that all ingredients lists in Australia must be in order of the amount of each ingredient included). Sugar and Oil, otherwise known as fat. We then delve in to salt and gluten - yay. Preservatives and a plethora of additives with funky numbers are next. But let's give credit where it's due and thank the Big M for throwing in some thiamin and folate at the end for good measure. Source: http://mcdonalds.com.au/sites/mcdonalds.com.au/files/images/Core-Menu-AUST-Menu-Info-24-April-2013.pdf 2. Subway Eat fresh! Right? Well, let's take a look. This time we'll throw them a bone and choose Subway's healthy sounding "wheat" bread. Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast, Wheat Bran, Sugar, Wheat Gluten, Iodised Salt, Canola Oil, Palm Oil, Soya Flour, Emulsifiers (481, 472e, 471), Malt Flour, Caramel (150c), Food Acid (300), Enzymes, Anti-caking Agent (535), Thiamine, Folic Acid. 20 ingredients this time. And look, plenty of our old friends are back. The good news seems to be less oil used. Oh - palm oil - awkward. I'll let you Google that one if you're not aware why that's not a good thing. Sugar, gluten and salt again rate highly. We have plenty of numbers to keep us busy. Oh, and I personally love a good anti-caking agent, and 535, or sodium ferrocyanide, just sounds so appealing! Getting less hungry.
Source: http://www.subway.com.au/assets/documents/ausingredientguide.pdf 3. Hungry Jack's The "Aussie Burger King" for our US friends, Hungry Jack's has been an Australian favourite for years. Many prefer their "flame grilled" deliciousness over other chains, but makes up the bun that holds together those famous Whoppers? Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Water, Baker's Yeast, Canola Oil, Sesame Seeds, Sugar, Wheat Gluten, Iodised Salt, Soy Flour, Emulsifiers (481, 472e), Preservative (282), Vitamins (Thiamin, Folate). 14 ingredients! We have a front-runner in the "keeping in real" stakes. Some digging was required to find these ingredients however, as Hungry Jacks makes you navigate through pretty pictures of their burgers and click each individual one to find out the ingredients, instead of the handy PDF guides produced by others. Whilst our friends oil, sugar, gluten and salt are right up there again, we see a reduction in additives such as colours and preservatives in the Hungry Jack's offering. And the oil used (like McDonald's) is canola oil - no habitats destroyed! Source: http://www.hungryjacks.com.au/menu/beef-range/whopper 4. KFC
What would a round up of the top fast food options be without the Colonel?Well, try as I might, KFC simply does not make their ingredients publicly available. So while I wait for a response from Yum Brands' customer service experts, here's a little bit of information I was able to find. KFC do make their allergen information available, and if I had to summarise the situation: everything contains traces of everything. Peanut allergy? Best stay away. Fish a problem? Yeah, may contain traces of the little swimmers. Okay, so most of these are the classic "produced at premises which also produce.." so the actual likelihood in low, but still a very disturbing read. I look forward to updating this section if and when I find out the top secret ingredients. (I knew the 11 herbs and spices are highly guarded, but this is a little extreme!) Source: http://www.kfc.com.au/nutrition/documents/A6677_Prj_So_Brochures_ALLERGEN_FA.pdf 5. Red Rooster Would KFC's closest chicken-based rival also be concealing their secret bun recipe? Thankfully, no! Let's look at the bun used in Red Rooster's "Classic" buger. Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Water, Baker's Yeast, Sugar, Canola Oil, Wheat Gluten, Iodised Salt, Sesame Seeds, Soy Flour, Emulsifiers (481, 472e, 471), Preservative (282), Vitamins (Thiamin, Folate).
15 ingredients! I thought we had a contest on our hands, but that extra emulsifier cost them. Still, a fair effort, though once again we see high levels of sugar, oil, gluten and salt. Oh, and that Emulsifier 471? That would be a synthetic fat. Let's hope this is the vegetable oil based version and not the one derived from animal fats.
Based on a comparison of ingredients, it looks like Hungry Jack's come out on top as having the most "natural" bread, following closely by Red Rooster.
KFC are guarding their ingredients so secretly that we don't even know how to feel about their bread. It might be finger lickin' good, but we're not actually sure what we're lickin'?
And McDonald's and Subway seem to be battling it out to see who can pack the highest volume of additivies in to a single bit of bread.
Finally, it might also pay to take a look at the ingredients on the bread you're buying from your local supermarket. Most of the major brands clock in at 12 or 13 ingredients and contain many of the same ingredients we're talking about here, albeit lighter on the sugar and oil in most cases.
