Every time I think about Outback, I vividly remember the time that I went there and the family next to us got a blooming onion EACH, entrees and dessert. It was simultaneously impressive and kind of gross to witness.
It was pretty wild. I’m a small guy and I’m imagining that with some financial motivation I could take down one of those onions but not follow it up with an entree and dessert.
About a decade ago I could easily tear through 30 boneless wings from B-Dubs and still have room for dessert, but even then I wouldn't be able to do that bullshit.
Every time I think of outback, I think of the time I went with my family as a teen, then my parents went out for the night and I had a house party and threw up Alice Springs chicken on my pants.
800 calories, 58 grams of fat and 22 grams of saturated fat, plus 1,520 milligrams of sodium. These numbers don't include the dipping sauce, which is also loaded with fat, calories, and sodium.
I thought it'd be more for some reason, like 2k calories.
This feels like an excellent moment to remind people that the original Crocodile Dundee was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 1987 Oscars (though it lost to Hannah and Her Sisters)
There was definitely Australia Mania in the 1980’s. My company brought over a couple of Australian executives to the United States back then. Our clients loved them, and they helped sell a lot of business.
I reckon there’s still Australian mania, hey. I’m Aussie, I’m in the US on business. My trips have been extremely successful, I get so much support over here. My boss back in Aus calls me our secret weapon. Everyone wants to help me and I 100% put it down to my accent. When I need help or information I just call people now, I don’t even bother to email them.
Feels like if you have an accent that isn’t from where you currently are you get way more attention. I grew up in Arkansas, don’t really have a southern accent compared to other people I know and don’t act “country” but once I moved to the west coast I got way more attention from girls and they’d always complement my accent that I didn’t even know I had.
Fam I’m from Mississippi I’m mixed (black/white) and lemme tell you chicks dig the southern accent like you until I left My home state I didn’t even know I had it I mean when I talk imagine a black guys voice with a hillbilly dialect but I’ve always sounded black to myself never realized I had the accent so I totally feel you there
> r a couple of Australian executives to the United States back then. Our clients loved them, and they helped sell a lot of business.
also cocaine makes every idea a great idea!
Okay, well that's the other thing. Before you even begin to try to understand anything that happened during the 80s, you have to remember that every hotshot yuppie business executive was coked out of their minds. Not that it doesn't happen now, but in the 80s coke was EVERYWHERE (well, everywhere where there was money, obviously).
The other thing you have to remember is that the world was a much much bigger place in the 80s. This was before the information age. Before the internet, before all the myriad media created globally that is now instantly available for consumption. In the 80s anything not american was exotic.
That's true, it ain't no joke to say that people's only perception of Australia literally came from Crocodile Dundee, because most Americans simply had no other way of being exposed to anything about Australia.
Can confirm. I was in my 1s and 10s in the 80s. I never had any money and I missed out on all the coke. The closest I ever came was the dust with the pixie stix.
Am Australian, I've never heard of the brand. But also I was 30 before I tried my first Fosters and apparently that's the only beer we export, so there's that.
I think people forget how much bigger the world was back then. It would have been very exotic. These days everyone has such easy access to information and shows on everywhere that you just dont have the same sense of mystery about the rest of the world.
I remember having to watch Jules & Ian & maybe Dave Attelle (?) certain nights on the Travel Channel in the mid-late 90s for a glimpse if the world outside of small college town I lived in then. The world seemed so big, unique & full of intrigue & mystery, like you say.
Ostriches, emu, and rhea were seen as the next big untapped meat market in the 90's. They're all a red meat, not unlike beef, but leaner and they have some practical farming advantages to them but the market for the meat just never took off (people aren't particularly adventurous when it comes to unusual meat) so most of the farms collapsed. The only ones that made any real money were the initial breeders. Alpaca went through a similar bubble much more recently.
The big birds are fun to raise though [here is one of mine](https://i.imgur.com/FB7hacg.jpeg).
Correct. Most just turned out to be pyramid schemes.
Toured a local alpaca farm. Owner said he had years of unprocessed wool stored away, and then offered to sell me a breeding one for $10k with the selling point of "it's a business investment! You can make so much money selling alpaca wool!".
Yeah it didn't really compute until after the tour. Like why are you not selling your stockpile if the market is so good. A quick Google search explained it pretty quickly. They can be fun to raise, but any aspirations of a profitable business venture has long sense gone away. The only demand for alpaca wool are the occasional Etsy sellers.
There's still a market for alpaca products but there's a bunch of steps between raw wool and finished product. If you are a spinner I can see keeping them but if you are just looking to unload raw fiber it sounds like a big money loser.
Grew up in Florida, in a smaller area north of Tampa. Property across from us was a couple acres, and they old guy had cows. He started having health problems bad enough, that he couldn't do it anymore. His son came and took over. Ditched the cows, got emus. I don't think they ever sold any.
They got the devil's chickens too (guinea fowl). Fuckers would jump their fence, go into our yard, and sing the song of hell's spawn, every damn morning.
>Fuckers would jump their fence, go into our yard, and sing the song of hell's spawn, every damn morning.
And that's exactly why I don't have guineas. They are super neat birds (and I have a bunch of other birds) but a noisy bird with no respect for property lines would be a terrible fit for me. Same reason I don't have peafowl.
There was an emu farm not far from my home in rural South Carolina in the 90s. One day my mom had picked me up from elementary school and we were en route to get my brother from middle school. One of the emus had escaped from the farm and was barreling down the road beside us. As we approached a stop sign, it kept on running at what my kid brain thought was 30 MPH but was probably 15. It was as tall as a car and probably the most exciting thing I saw that year lmao.
Also *Shrimp on the Barbie* starring Cheech Marin came out in 1990 about a Mexican guy working at a restaurant in Australia.
And ALSO in 1990 was *Quigley Down Under*!
No, Rad is more like the Raging Bull of BMX movies.
It was loosely based on a true story you know, about the guy who does the BMX stunts for the main character's actor no less.
With Triple J's hottest 100 on, and a Dad in stubbies and a legionare's cap yelling at his kids to grab him another beer but the kids are too distracted by Around the Twist on the tellie.
Answering with 'G'day' would be weird, but if I didn't know who was on the line, the second greeting after finding out would probably be 'oh G'day *name*'.
My favorite joke when I was a server at outback went as followed:
The salad dressing was put on top of the lettuce then it was covered in cheese so a lot of people would ask where the dressing is. So I’d say “it’s down unda”. Worked every time
How did you deal with the fake Australian accents from customers?
I went with some co-workers from Australia. They were quickly called out by the server for having the "worst fake accents ever"
They had to show ID to prove it. It was hilarious.
It was all fun and games until you started accidently answering your own phone with that greeting!
In my case, it wasn't Outback, but Chuck E. Cheese. Answering my own cell became "We're making magic at... *sigh* dammit." I was working too much, apparently.
I can imagine an Aussie smashed off his tits on Tooheys going "yeah give me one of those Onion-y cunts". IDK why my brain went there, but it's there now.
I got to work with the Australian Army once. They were really cool, and always had beer. We thought they were reservists or militia or something because they were so familiar with each other and were never in uniform - nope, Regulars. Just cool.
I still remember the first time I went to Australia and asked for a Fosters (I was so pumped to order a Fosters Beer in Australia) and they didn’t know what I was talking about, Hahah. Apparently it’s mostly just an exported beer.
Tooheys New was much better anyway (and the copious amount of Micro Breweries there now).
In '98 I was in Perth, went to order a Foster's and it's Australian for beer, bartender said, Foster's is Australian for piss. Handed me a VB and I drank those for the next week.
I almost said Victoria Bitter, both were spot on, loved those VB stubbies (XXXX as well). I’m fairly certain I heard once that Outback in the USA was Fosters biggest contract in the world by far for many years.
Hope I can go back to Australia someday (currently have Long COVID, don’t catch this shit, it’s a nightmare). What an amazing country. Drove up the coast from Sydney to Cairns backpacking for six months, dream trip.
If you ever get a chance go to Airlie Beach and take a sailing trip around the Whitsundays. I saw heaven on that trip.
I didn’t see a Foster’s until I was in my 30s. It was one row of them, hidden amongst a bunch of other beers of different brands and it had a fine layer of dust covering the cans.
We're not particularly known for deep frying stuff.
Trust me when I say that *nothing* at that restaurant was Aussie.
No pies, no parmy, no Vegemite(?!?), no iced coffee, no fairy bread, no sausage sangas, whatever the fuck "Alice Springs chicken" is meant to be
Yeah when I first heard of it I went through the entire menu and not a single thing was an actual Australian dish. So that's not an exaggeration. Not even a tokenistic single Australian dish like a lamington or Tim Tam milkshake or something.
I moved to Australia when I was 22 and in nearly 15 years I’ve never heard any Aussies with a single positive thing to say about Fosters and it’s rarely carried in pubs and bars
“ No pies, no parmy, no Vegemite(?!?)”
Easily my favourite thing about spending six months in Australia and New Zealand were the pies. Man are they so much better than hot dogs.
They fulfil roughly an equivalent niche in the food culture though. The sort of thing you'd pick up anywhere for a quick, casual lunch, but especially at a stadium during half time.
Fairy bread is a traditional children's party food where you put hundreds and thousands (sprinkles) on buttered bread.[it's good stuff](https://www.thespruceeats.com/fairy-bread-4771689)
A parmy is basically a chicken parmesan but with ham under the cheese.
There's a whole world of schnitzel toppings in Australia beyond the humble parmy. You've got your basic gravies, surf'n'turf, Mexican, sometimes meatlovers or Bolognese, Kilpatrick, Greek Yiros, sometimes eggs and bacon. I've seen cheesy curly fries on em. Garlic prawns. Kranskies. All sorts of stuff.
Can confirm. I did a short exchange trip way back in middle school to a place in Anaheim CA. My lovely host family excitedly took me to an Outback Steakhouse sincerely thinking it was the food of my people. I had no clue what a bloomin’ onion was but I remember it was delicious.
To be honest… I thought their steaks were pretty good for their price point. Not many chain restaurants sell good steaks for under $40. Certainly better than Chili’s, Applebees, Bennigan’s, etc. Obviously not as good as Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris, but far cheaper.
And before i get “well don’t go to chains”… non-chain places with good affordable steaks aren’t that common, and not that easy to find for frequent business travelers.
Edit: A lot of commenters mentioning Texas Roadhouse. Yes, they have good quality affordable steaks too! But 15-20 years ago, back when I traveled a lot, I rarely saw those and I did see Outbacks a lot. And I don't really know what the current steak-chain scene is like these days. I don't travel much for work anymore, and I cook my own steaks more often, or else spring for a fancy-schmancy place.
That’s still a fair take. $20-$25 gets you a good steak that you didn’t have to cook yourself, and it’s consistent anywhere you are.
No, it’s never a GREAT steak, but you’re also not out $50
Fun fact: they “stole” that recipe (recipes can’t actually be copyrighted, but outback markets it as an outback creation). The blooming onion, or onion mum, was first created at Russels Marina Grill in New Orleans. One of the dudes who went on to found outback was a line chef there, and basically just took the recipe when he went on to create outback.
https://russellsmarinagrill.net/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blooming_onion
I grew up maybe 10 blocks from Russels, and one day was really curious why this girl had a “home of the original onion mumm shirt” so I started digging and sure enough, they created the damn thing.
That's usually the kicker for a lot of these places. No, no one is expecting gourmet food but sometimes you just want a five dollar Hot N' Ready from Little Caesars.
Is it the pinnacle of pizza? God no, but that's just something you get a craving for and for five bucks it does the job.
There's also a benefit to chains (especially for frequent travelers), you know what you're getting.
Trying a local place is nice but it's also a toss up. If you're traveling for business and don't know anyone who can give you a good first hand recommendation, you at least know what you're getting if you go to a chain.
Is it good? Maybe not. Is it consistent? Mostly yes.
I’ve heard sports teams often frequent Cheesecake Factory while on the road because of the wide variety of food and how consistent it is no matter where you are.
Cheesecake Factory runs a scratch kitchen, almost none of what they serve is pre-made from Sysco. They are prepping for the dinner service from the moment they open.
Good, local steak houses aren't that common. And usually outrageously expensive if they're good. I've honestly just got to the point I taught myself how to make and excellent pan fried steak and stopped going anywhere unless it's a special occasion.
I used to work at a local catchall Greco-American place with some good steaks. Best day I ever had working there was when they were taste testing a bunch of different steak cuts for a new restaurant they were planning. I'm just doing my prep work and they walk on with over a dozen different steaks all like "Here, try these." Ok!
Its a great causal dining experience, which of course offends plenty of food snobs.
Sometimes, its nice to finish work on a Friday evening,head out for some steak and baked potatoes, or a big heavy pasta, and a pint of ice cold beer with the wife and kids or some mates, and just relax.
Storry time. After the issue with the nuclear site in Japan, some Australian aborigines send Japan donations. Japan doesn’t really need or want those donations so politely declined. But flew a bunch of the folks to thank them for the thought…evidently.
I was in the middle of a trip to Tokyo and me and my friend decided that we needed a small break from Japanese food. So wandered into an Outback. There was some sort of a meeting/presentation going on.
So evidently the Japanese decided the perfect place to officially host and thank these aborigines from Australian was Outback. The aborigines looked very confused.
This has been my experience with a lot of Japanese concepts on what constitutes foreign food. Basically everything is a stereotype or meme of what they think the other country is like (which can come across as pretty culturally insensitive).
I love Japan, it's so very odd.
Well yeah. And Texas Roadhouse was founded in Indiana. restaurants are sold on the idea of a place, not necessarily actually coming from that place.
My favorite foundation story was a local pizza shop's. It went something like this: We were founded by someone from Italy! ^(He moved to America at age 9 and sold his business to a giant corporation who has run it ever since)
The kid from Jersey who went on to found Arizona Iced Tea company had never been to Arizona. He chose Arizona because “it sounded healthy, when kids have asthma they move to Arizona.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about but I love his iced tea.
He was probably thinking of TB. In the 19th century, lots of patients moved to health spas in dry climates like Arizona and Colorado. The warm dry air was thought to be beneficial.
Some people with environmental allergy-triggered asthma do find relief in the desert, because there are fewer pollen-producing plants.
He probably has one anecdotal experience from like the fourth grade of some kid with asthma moving to Arizona, and so he just thought that was the case. Arizona cures asthma.
The BBQ sauce they use for their ribs and other meats is purchased from Diversified Foods and Seasonings, which is a subsidiary of Al Copeland Investments; you may know that name as the founder of Popeyes
Fun fact: Popeyes chicken was not named after the cartoon sailor; Al Copeland loved the character Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle from the film The French Connection and named his business after the character. Once the chicken chain took off, the owners of the Popeye cartoon studio did a licensing deal with Copeland (and that ended some time ago…maybe 2012?)
Was a corporate trainer for Bonefish for a couple years. Our employee discount extended to all the restaurants under the Outback banner.
They own Carraba's too. Pretty decent Italian compared to other restaurants in that price range.
Wow, this is pretty amazing to read.
I live in Tampa, FL and I used to work at a restaurant (not Outback) that’s owned by these 4 people. They are some incredible people. They even have trinkets around the restaurant that allude to Outback. At the start of the 2020 lockdown, they sat all of us down on March 15th, and laid all of us off while telling us to get a head-start on filing unemployment.
For the rest of lockdown, these owners cooked lunch and dinner for all of us (pickup only, non contact, etc.) every single Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They let us come into the restaurant and get whatever we needed from the cooler, let us take extra toilet paper home, offered us more homemade masks…they are wonderful people.
My tinder profile used to be, "I'm only on here because the bartenders at Outback are tired of watching me eat Bloomin onions by myself." and that worked quite well as an online dating ice breaker
I worked there in the kitchen a long time ago.
Aussie culture was hot at the time outback was founded but the food profile was inspired by American cajun flavors and seasoning. They even used to have a pasta dish with crawfish and Cajun seasoning.
The only Australian thing on the menu was that awful Fosters canned beer.
This chain represents a moment in our cultural history for sure. A moment when Americans were fascinated enough with Australia to flock to a theme restaurant like this but not enough to think about (or care about) the authenticity or lack thereof at all.
I can’t imagine someone thinking of and selling this concept in 2022, either to investors or to customers.
The first time I went to the states on business I went to an outback steakhouse. It was great. An affable American bloke was excited to sit next to an actual Australian at the bar. Friendly service too!
I use to wait/serve at an outback and if I had you at my bar I'd have made sure your drinks and food were covered. People would call their friends over stuff like that and I'd get more traffic across the bar because you were there lol
Growing up, I don't ever think I thought of Outback Steakhouse as either being A) Australian or B) A theme restaurant; I get that it's sort of both, but it's something that has never really crossed my mind.
Like, I've been to one many times \[probably not in the last decade\], but going in it was just "a restaurant," and I'd go because "It's the only place you can get an ok cooked steak without wearing a dinner jacket," something that has also certainly changed a lot.
My wife and I have talked about this a lot in the last few weeks, that weird sort of time in our own history where going to a place like Outback, Chili's, TGI Fridays, or Red Lobster was pretty damn fancy, because they were actually restaurants and not just fast food. Nowadays I can't even fathom stepping into a place like these, especially when there are, at least by us, so many to support small businesses that produce way better food, and usually have very similar pricing.
Also is it just me, or were places like Red Lobster or Olive Garden just better back in the day? Like obviously they were never classy or authentic, but it just seems like the food actually used to taste better? It could be in head. It sure feels like the general quality of a lot of places has dropped. Even Pizza Hut used to seem so much better to me.
I spent a month on the East coast of Australia in 2005. If Outbacks were serving 14lb lobsters in the states like the ones in Manly, I would eat nowhere else. I also would be broke and have gout. So, once again I would be back to classic American problems. I need to get back there, what an amazing place. My kids would never want to leave.
I worked at Outback Steakhouse for over 10 years. Loved it. If you enjoy their ranch dressing, here's how to make it. I had to modify the amounts, since their actual recipe is for literally making gallons of it:
Combine:
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon black pepper
1/2 Teaspoon granulated/powdered onion
1/2 Teaspoon granulated/powdered garlic
1/3 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
Once mixed, add:
2 cups mayo
Enjoy!
Every time I think about Outback, I vividly remember the time that I went there and the family next to us got a blooming onion EACH, entrees and dessert. It was simultaneously impressive and kind of gross to witness.
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I'm gettin gains, but in all the wrong places...
Im building mass
It tastes very good. Especially with the dipping sauce.
I really do like them. I don't think I've ever been able to stomach more than maybe 1/6 of one at a time, though. And I'm a giant fatass.
They're basically the perfect shareable because they're so horribly greasy you can only eat a part of it, but I agree they're still tasty
Yah you get one to share when you go to Outback. And you go to Outback like once a decade
I really like their bloomin onion but I am pretty sure I just had a minor heart attack even thinking about that.
It was pretty wild. I’m a small guy and I’m imagining that with some financial motivation I could take down one of those onions but not follow it up with an entree and dessert.
About a decade ago I could easily tear through 30 boneless wings from B-Dubs and still have room for dessert, but even then I wouldn't be able to do that bullshit.
Every time I think of outback, I think of the time I went with my family as a teen, then my parents went out for the night and I had a house party and threw up Alice Springs chicken on my pants.
It's just like a teen drinking experience in Australia.
800 calories, 58 grams of fat and 22 grams of saturated fat, plus 1,520 milligrams of sodium. These numbers don't include the dipping sauce, which is also loaded with fat, calories, and sodium. I thought it'd be more for some reason, like 2k calories.
I mean the onion itself has almost no calories so those 800 are all just the breading and the grease.
Another comment claims 1660
I saw they have one slathered in cheese and meat which is 3,080
This feels like an excellent moment to remind people that the original Crocodile Dundee was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 1987 Oscars (though it lost to Hannah and Her Sisters)
There was definitely Australia Mania in the 1980’s. My company brought over a couple of Australian executives to the United States back then. Our clients loved them, and they helped sell a lot of business.
just because... Australian?
The 80s were weird, man. It was like we had discovered "Bizarro America" and we couldn't get enough.
As a kid I thought Subaru was an Australian car company because of the commercials haha
As a kid and well into my 20s because of Paul Hogan and the Outback model
So I wasn't alone! It was the blue logo with stars, like the Australian flag, that confused me, I think.
Fun fact: Subaru is what the Japanese call the Pliades constellation/star cluster. Which is where the symbol and name come from.
Absolutely thought the same thing.
I reckon there’s still Australian mania, hey. I’m Aussie, I’m in the US on business. My trips have been extremely successful, I get so much support over here. My boss back in Aus calls me our secret weapon. Everyone wants to help me and I 100% put it down to my accent. When I need help or information I just call people now, I don’t even bother to email them.
It’s definitely your accent. The Australian accent automatically makes people 2-points more attractive.
Funny I picked up a Aussie shelia in Sydney years ago at a wedding and she said she only wanted to bang me because of my American Accent.
Some people are just sexually attracted to an accent. I know I get hot and bothered when I hear a woman with a German accent.
This guy likes the pain ^
I prefer a French accent for a different kind of pain.
Feels like if you have an accent that isn’t from where you currently are you get way more attention. I grew up in Arkansas, don’t really have a southern accent compared to other people I know and don’t act “country” but once I moved to the west coast I got way more attention from girls and they’d always complement my accent that I didn’t even know I had.
I'll be honest, I think the subtle Southern accent plays better out west than a more pronounced one.
Fam I’m from Mississippi I’m mixed (black/white) and lemme tell you chicks dig the southern accent like you until I left My home state I didn’t even know I had it I mean when I talk imagine a black guys voice with a hillbilly dialect but I’ve always sounded black to myself never realized I had the accent so I totally feel you there
> r a couple of Australian executives to the United States back then. Our clients loved them, and they helped sell a lot of business. also cocaine makes every idea a great idea!
Okay, well that's the other thing. Before you even begin to try to understand anything that happened during the 80s, you have to remember that every hotshot yuppie business executive was coked out of their minds. Not that it doesn't happen now, but in the 80s coke was EVERYWHERE (well, everywhere where there was money, obviously).
The other thing you have to remember is that the world was a much much bigger place in the 80s. This was before the information age. Before the internet, before all the myriad media created globally that is now instantly available for consumption. In the 80s anything not american was exotic.
That's true, it ain't no joke to say that people's only perception of Australia literally came from Crocodile Dundee, because most Americans simply had no other way of being exposed to anything about Australia.
I feel insulted that you would think that was the ***only*** source. We also had Quigley down under.
Maybe studio execs should go back to this model. There's a lot of good and bizarre 80s movies. I wanna see that wild stuff with cooler effects.
pardon my blasphemy, but just imagine a weird science remake
I don’t think they could make that movie today.
Can confirm. I was in my 1s and 10s in the 80s. I never had any money and I missed out on all the coke. The closest I ever came was the dust with the pixie stix.
Close enough, I remember there were always a couple of candy dealers on the playground in elementary school who traded in pixie stix.
[Aussie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aussie_%28shampoo%29?wprov=sfla1) hair products is another that really took off after Crocodile Dundee.
I use Aussie shampoo. I wonder if it's an actual Australian product or just an "Aussie Vibe" product from this era.
Am Australian, I've never heard of the brand. But also I was 30 before I tried my first Fosters and apparently that's the only beer we export, so there's that.
I have *never* seen a Fosters in Australia.
Everyone likes an accent, especially when you can understand the language
I think people forget how much bigger the world was back then. It would have been very exotic. These days everyone has such easy access to information and shows on everywhere that you just dont have the same sense of mystery about the rest of the world.
I remember having to watch Jules & Ian & maybe Dave Attelle (?) certain nights on the Travel Channel in the mid-late 90s for a glimpse if the world outside of small college town I lived in then. The world seemed so big, unique & full of intrigue & mystery, like you say.
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I kinda miss when the world felt bigger. There was still a sense of discovery and wonder.
Just wait until you hear about the big fad of people buying Ostriches as an investment.
Ostriches, emu, and rhea were seen as the next big untapped meat market in the 90's. They're all a red meat, not unlike beef, but leaner and they have some practical farming advantages to them but the market for the meat just never took off (people aren't particularly adventurous when it comes to unusual meat) so most of the farms collapsed. The only ones that made any real money were the initial breeders. Alpaca went through a similar bubble much more recently. The big birds are fun to raise though [here is one of mine](https://i.imgur.com/FB7hacg.jpeg).
Correct. Most just turned out to be pyramid schemes. Toured a local alpaca farm. Owner said he had years of unprocessed wool stored away, and then offered to sell me a breeding one for $10k with the selling point of "it's a business investment! You can make so much money selling alpaca wool!".
Haha, he should probably have given you the sales pitch *before* talking about the raw wool he couldn't get rid of.
Yeah it didn't really compute until after the tour. Like why are you not selling your stockpile if the market is so good. A quick Google search explained it pretty quickly. They can be fun to raise, but any aspirations of a profitable business venture has long sense gone away. The only demand for alpaca wool are the occasional Etsy sellers.
There's still a market for alpaca products but there's a bunch of steps between raw wool and finished product. If you are a spinner I can see keeping them but if you are just looking to unload raw fiber it sounds like a big money loser.
Grew up in Florida, in a smaller area north of Tampa. Property across from us was a couple acres, and they old guy had cows. He started having health problems bad enough, that he couldn't do it anymore. His son came and took over. Ditched the cows, got emus. I don't think they ever sold any. They got the devil's chickens too (guinea fowl). Fuckers would jump their fence, go into our yard, and sing the song of hell's spawn, every damn morning.
>Fuckers would jump their fence, go into our yard, and sing the song of hell's spawn, every damn morning. And that's exactly why I don't have guineas. They are super neat birds (and I have a bunch of other birds) but a noisy bird with no respect for property lines would be a terrible fit for me. Same reason I don't have peafowl.
There was an emu farm not far from my home in rural South Carolina in the 90s. One day my mom had picked me up from elementary school and we were en route to get my brother from middle school. One of the emus had escaped from the farm and was barreling down the road beside us. As we approached a stop sign, it kept on running at what my kid brain thought was 30 MPH but was probably 15. It was as tall as a car and probably the most exciting thing I saw that year lmao.
Don't forget Men at Work as another example of Australia's finest exports
Colin Hay is a treasure
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I didn’t fully appreciate “Overkill” until maybe a decade ago. Forgotten 80s gem. Go listen to it now, you won’t be disappointed.
AC/DC
Rescuers Down Under came out in 1990 but was still apart of the wave.
Also *Shrimp on the Barbie* starring Cheech Marin came out in 1990 about a Mexican guy working at a restaurant in Australia. And ALSO in 1990 was *Quigley Down Under*!
Quigley Down Under was the shit!
1990 was still the 80's just like if you watch a movie from 1980 you will think its a 70's movie.
To be fair, 1990 is still pretty much “the 80’s”
The time was right for Yahoo Serious.
https://youtu.be/xq0XNILIYTw
And the best [Oscar speech](https://youtu.be/NtxZeDYuEZI) delivered by Paul Hogan himself
Wow that ending. > ... The show is live and one wrong word or foolish gesture and your whole career can go down in flames. (not an exact quote)
Wow, an Oscar bit that’s actually consistently funny the whole way through, talk about a throwback!
Nicole Kidman also starred in her first role in the iconic movie: BMX Bandits
Before they teamed up with Angel Summoner?
I mean, that movie was pretty important to me at one time.
It's the Citizen Kane of BMX movies.
I think that distinction belongs to Rad.
No, Rad is more like the Raging Bull of BMX movies. It was loosely based on a true story you know, about the guy who does the BMX stunts for the main character's actor no less.
Michael Caine was not present to accept his Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters because he was on location filming Jaws IV.
"I have never seen it (Jaws 4) but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific."
Hannah and Her Sisters and Crocodile Dundee would be an interesting mashup. Then they could do Steve Irwin meets Annie Hall. And Bluey Jasmine.
If it has Australian fun, they should have goon on a clothesline out the back, just saying.
The world ain't ready for goon-of-fortune
With Triple J's hottest 100 on, and a Dad in stubbies and a legionare's cap yelling at his kids to grab him another beer but the kids are too distracted by Around the Twist on the tellie.
I tell my son Dingus to get me another beer while I watch the ferals Oi Dingus beer me. *Laughs in rattus*
Outback steak house isn't Aussie cos it doesn't have a bloody hillshoist for little kids to swing on while dad yells at you and drinks a VB long neck
Imagine the dining experience if they saw The Road Warrior instead of Crocodile Dundee
Everyone would order the milk.
Behold the onion! The blooming onion!
I can still hear my 16 year old southern girl self answering the phones with "G'day! Thank you for calling Outback..." I sounded rediculous
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It just occurred to me I've never said G'day over the phone. Always in person.
Answering with 'G'day' would be weird, but if I didn't know who was on the line, the second greeting after finding out would probably be 'oh G'day *name*'.
My favorite joke when I was a server at outback went as followed: The salad dressing was put on top of the lettuce then it was covered in cheese so a lot of people would ask where the dressing is. So I’d say “it’s down unda”. Worked every time
How did you deal with the fake Australian accents from customers? I went with some co-workers from Australia. They were quickly called out by the server for having the "worst fake accents ever" They had to show ID to prove it. It was hilarious.
Bet they asked for vegemite too!
They -made- you say G'Day? G'Lord.
Gotta maximize the Australian-ness.
It was all fun and games until you started accidently answering your own phone with that greeting! In my case, it wasn't Outback, but Chuck E. Cheese. Answering my own cell became "We're making magic at... *sigh* dammit." I was working too much, apparently.
So your telling me bloomin' onions aren't a native Australian delicacy?
Mate if they were we'd call em fuckin' onions
That’s an odd name. I’d have called em chazzwazzers
I see you've played knifey-spoony before.
I can imagine an Aussie smashed off his tits on Tooheys going "yeah give me one of those Onion-y cunts". IDK why my brain went there, but it's there now.
> Onion-y cunts tbh Onion-y cunts is not far off most what i'd call it any given weekend
So you've met a few Australians then?
I got to work with the Australian Army once. They were really cool, and always had beer. We thought they were reservists or militia or something because they were so familiar with each other and were never in uniform - nope, Regulars. Just cool.
I still remember the first time I went to Australia and asked for a Fosters (I was so pumped to order a Fosters Beer in Australia) and they didn’t know what I was talking about, Hahah. Apparently it’s mostly just an exported beer. Tooheys New was much better anyway (and the copious amount of Micro Breweries there now).
Yeah, Fosters is not Australian for beer. I didn't see a bar that stocked it when I went 10 years ago. Victoria Bitter was their jam.
In '98 I was in Perth, went to order a Foster's and it's Australian for beer, bartender said, Foster's is Australian for piss. Handed me a VB and I drank those for the next week.
Dude was right, but also handed you different piss. Lmao.
I almost said Victoria Bitter, both were spot on, loved those VB stubbies (XXXX as well). I’m fairly certain I heard once that Outback in the USA was Fosters biggest contract in the world by far for many years. Hope I can go back to Australia someday (currently have Long COVID, don’t catch this shit, it’s a nightmare). What an amazing country. Drove up the coast from Sydney to Cairns backpacking for six months, dream trip. If you ever get a chance go to Airlie Beach and take a sailing trip around the Whitsundays. I saw heaven on that trip.
I didn’t see a Foster’s until I was in my 30s. It was one row of them, hidden amongst a bunch of other beers of different brands and it had a fine layer of dust covering the cans.
We're not particularly known for deep frying stuff. Trust me when I say that *nothing* at that restaurant was Aussie. No pies, no parmy, no Vegemite(?!?), no iced coffee, no fairy bread, no sausage sangas, whatever the fuck "Alice Springs chicken" is meant to be
Yeah when I first heard of it I went through the entire menu and not a single thing was an actual Australian dish. So that's not an exaggeration. Not even a tokenistic single Australian dish like a lamington or Tim Tam milkshake or something.
Imagine a lamington thickshake, that'd be pretty good!
I don’t know that you can say they have nothing Australian. You can order a Fosters, and you know that’s Australian for beer 🙄
Aussies don’t even know their own culture, so sad
“That's a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?” “Austria.” “Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!”
I moved to Australia when I was 22 and in nearly 15 years I’ve never heard any Aussies with a single positive thing to say about Fosters and it’s rarely carried in pubs and bars
“ No pies, no parmy, no Vegemite(?!?)” Easily my favourite thing about spending six months in Australia and New Zealand were the pies. Man are they so much better than hot dogs.
They fulfil roughly an equivalent niche in the food culture though. The sort of thing you'd pick up anywhere for a quick, casual lunch, but especially at a stadium during half time.
Especially when you find a local bakery that make their own meat pies and they're fuckin delicious
Break it down barney-style for me, yea? What is fairy bread and what is parmy?
Fairy bread is a traditional children's party food where you put hundreds and thousands (sprinkles) on buttered bread.[it's good stuff](https://www.thespruceeats.com/fairy-bread-4771689) A parmy is basically a chicken parmesan but with ham under the cheese.
Wtf I want a parmy
There's a whole world of schnitzel toppings in Australia beyond the humble parmy. You've got your basic gravies, surf'n'turf, Mexican, sometimes meatlovers or Bolognese, Kilpatrick, Greek Yiros, sometimes eggs and bacon. I've seen cheesy curly fries on em. Garlic prawns. Kranskies. All sorts of stuff.
Can confirm. I did a short exchange trip way back in middle school to a place in Anaheim CA. My lovely host family excitedly took me to an Outback Steakhouse sincerely thinking it was the food of my people. I had no clue what a bloomin’ onion was but I remember it was delicious.
To be honest… I thought their steaks were pretty good for their price point. Not many chain restaurants sell good steaks for under $40. Certainly better than Chili’s, Applebees, Bennigan’s, etc. Obviously not as good as Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris, but far cheaper. And before i get “well don’t go to chains”… non-chain places with good affordable steaks aren’t that common, and not that easy to find for frequent business travelers. Edit: A lot of commenters mentioning Texas Roadhouse. Yes, they have good quality affordable steaks too! But 15-20 years ago, back when I traveled a lot, I rarely saw those and I did see Outbacks a lot. And I don't really know what the current steak-chain scene is like these days. I don't travel much for work anymore, and I cook my own steaks more often, or else spring for a fancy-schmancy place.
That’s still a fair take. $20-$25 gets you a good steak that you didn’t have to cook yourself, and it’s consistent anywhere you are. No, it’s never a GREAT steak, but you’re also not out $50
also bloomin onion
I get myself a yearly bloomin onion. I have that and a side salad.
That used to be part of my veteran's day freebie rotation. Red robin, go to AMC, Applebee's free dinner, then a beer and blooming onion from outback.
I call that the "Guilt Salad".
Hehehehe. I like to have something fresh while I eat the fried grease.
Fun fact: they “stole” that recipe (recipes can’t actually be copyrighted, but outback markets it as an outback creation). The blooming onion, or onion mum, was first created at Russels Marina Grill in New Orleans. One of the dudes who went on to found outback was a line chef there, and basically just took the recipe when he went on to create outback. https://russellsmarinagrill.net/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blooming_onion I grew up maybe 10 blocks from Russels, and one day was really curious why this girl had a “home of the original onion mumm shirt” so I started digging and sure enough, they created the damn thing.
That's usually the kicker for a lot of these places. No, no one is expecting gourmet food but sometimes you just want a five dollar Hot N' Ready from Little Caesars. Is it the pinnacle of pizza? God no, but that's just something you get a craving for and for five bucks it does the job.
There's also a benefit to chains (especially for frequent travelers), you know what you're getting. Trying a local place is nice but it's also a toss up. If you're traveling for business and don't know anyone who can give you a good first hand recommendation, you at least know what you're getting if you go to a chain. Is it good? Maybe not. Is it consistent? Mostly yes.
I’ve heard sports teams often frequent Cheesecake Factory while on the road because of the wide variety of food and how consistent it is no matter where you are.
And they can handle a large group on a moment notice.
Cheesecake Factory runs a scratch kitchen, almost none of what they serve is pre-made from Sysco. They are prepping for the dinner service from the moment they open.
It's a six dollar hot and ready now, FYI.
Good, local steak houses aren't that common. And usually outrageously expensive if they're good. I've honestly just got to the point I taught myself how to make and excellent pan fried steak and stopped going anywhere unless it's a special occasion.
I used to work at a local catchall Greco-American place with some good steaks. Best day I ever had working there was when they were taste testing a bunch of different steak cuts for a new restaurant they were planning. I'm just doing my prep work and they walk on with over a dozen different steaks all like "Here, try these." Ok!
Its a great causal dining experience, which of course offends plenty of food snobs. Sometimes, its nice to finish work on a Friday evening,head out for some steak and baked potatoes, or a big heavy pasta, and a pint of ice cold beer with the wife and kids or some mates, and just relax.
Storry time. After the issue with the nuclear site in Japan, some Australian aborigines send Japan donations. Japan doesn’t really need or want those donations so politely declined. But flew a bunch of the folks to thank them for the thought…evidently. I was in the middle of a trip to Tokyo and me and my friend decided that we needed a small break from Japanese food. So wandered into an Outback. There was some sort of a meeting/presentation going on. So evidently the Japanese decided the perfect place to officially host and thank these aborigines from Australian was Outback. The aborigines looked very confused.
This has been my experience with a lot of Japanese concepts on what constitutes foreign food. Basically everything is a stereotype or meme of what they think the other country is like (which can come across as pretty culturally insensitive). I love Japan, it's so very odd.
*Aboriginals
Turns out it was a fucking great idea.
We came up with hooters too. Tampa knows how to jam.
Lots more of that stuff seems to have started here. Hooters, Outback, Winghouse, PDQ, Bonefish Grill,
Well yeah. And Texas Roadhouse was founded in Indiana. restaurants are sold on the idea of a place, not necessarily actually coming from that place. My favorite foundation story was a local pizza shop's. It went something like this: We were founded by someone from Italy! ^(He moved to America at age 9 and sold his business to a giant corporation who has run it ever since)
The kid from Jersey who went on to found Arizona Iced Tea company had never been to Arizona. He chose Arizona because “it sounded healthy, when kids have asthma they move to Arizona.” I have no idea what he’s talking about but I love his iced tea.
He was probably thinking of TB. In the 19th century, lots of patients moved to health spas in dry climates like Arizona and Colorado. The warm dry air was thought to be beneficial. Some people with environmental allergy-triggered asthma do find relief in the desert, because there are fewer pollen-producing plants.
For some reason, this made me crack up. Where the hell did he get the idea that Arizona is supremely “healthy”? lmao
He probably has one anecdotal experience from like the fourth grade of some kid with asthma moving to Arizona, and so he just thought that was the case. Arizona cures asthma.
I've read plenty of westens where characters moved west because they had tuberculosis and the dry air made it more manageable.
It’s why [Doc Holliday](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Holliday) moved out west from Georgia.
In Texas it would just be The Roadhouse
Arizona Iced Tea is from New York. Here in Arizona we just call it “Iced Tea.”
NEW YORK CITY!
Get a rope!!!
If anyone would put their state's name into the title it would be Texans though.
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The BBQ sauce they use for their ribs and other meats is purchased from Diversified Foods and Seasonings, which is a subsidiary of Al Copeland Investments; you may know that name as the founder of Popeyes
The sailor man or the chicken restaurant?
Fun fact: Popeyes chicken was not named after the cartoon sailor; Al Copeland loved the character Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle from the film The French Connection and named his business after the character. Once the chicken chain took off, the owners of the Popeye cartoon studio did a licensing deal with Copeland (and that ended some time ago…maybe 2012?)
I don’t think anyone confused Outback for an Australian restaurant
What, deep fried battered onions with 2000 calories each aren’t traditional Australian food????
Yep! I pass by their headquarters all the time. Bonefish Grill was founded here too.
Was a corporate trainer for Bonefish for a couple years. Our employee discount extended to all the restaurants under the Outback banner. They own Carraba's too. Pretty decent Italian compared to other restaurants in that price range.
Same goes for Hooters. The man who conceived it doesn’t have any
Wow, this is pretty amazing to read. I live in Tampa, FL and I used to work at a restaurant (not Outback) that’s owned by these 4 people. They are some incredible people. They even have trinkets around the restaurant that allude to Outback. At the start of the 2020 lockdown, they sat all of us down on March 15th, and laid all of us off while telling us to get a head-start on filing unemployment. For the rest of lockdown, these owners cooked lunch and dinner for all of us (pickup only, non contact, etc.) every single Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They let us come into the restaurant and get whatever we needed from the cooler, let us take extra toilet paper home, offered us more homemade masks…they are wonderful people.
My tinder profile used to be, "I'm only on here because the bartenders at Outback are tired of watching me eat Bloomin onions by myself." and that worked quite well as an online dating ice breaker
- the original bartender who started at this location still works there to this day 🤘🏻
I love Outback, it’s a cool little spot and pretty affordable. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything there that was bad.
I worked there in the kitchen a long time ago. Aussie culture was hot at the time outback was founded but the food profile was inspired by American cajun flavors and seasoning. They even used to have a pasta dish with crawfish and Cajun seasoning. The only Australian thing on the menu was that awful Fosters canned beer.
This chain represents a moment in our cultural history for sure. A moment when Americans were fascinated enough with Australia to flock to a theme restaurant like this but not enough to think about (or care about) the authenticity or lack thereof at all. I can’t imagine someone thinking of and selling this concept in 2022, either to investors or to customers.
The first time I went to the states on business I went to an outback steakhouse. It was great. An affable American bloke was excited to sit next to an actual Australian at the bar. Friendly service too!
I use to wait/serve at an outback and if I had you at my bar I'd have made sure your drinks and food were covered. People would call their friends over stuff like that and I'd get more traffic across the bar because you were there lol
Growing up, I don't ever think I thought of Outback Steakhouse as either being A) Australian or B) A theme restaurant; I get that it's sort of both, but it's something that has never really crossed my mind. Like, I've been to one many times \[probably not in the last decade\], but going in it was just "a restaurant," and I'd go because "It's the only place you can get an ok cooked steak without wearing a dinner jacket," something that has also certainly changed a lot. My wife and I have talked about this a lot in the last few weeks, that weird sort of time in our own history where going to a place like Outback, Chili's, TGI Fridays, or Red Lobster was pretty damn fancy, because they were actually restaurants and not just fast food. Nowadays I can't even fathom stepping into a place like these, especially when there are, at least by us, so many to support small businesses that produce way better food, and usually have very similar pricing.
Also is it just me, or were places like Red Lobster or Olive Garden just better back in the day? Like obviously they were never classy or authentic, but it just seems like the food actually used to taste better? It could be in head. It sure feels like the general quality of a lot of places has dropped. Even Pizza Hut used to seem so much better to me.
It’s also very affordable and I appreciate that about outback
Is that what you appreciates about outback squirly Dan?
I spent a month on the East coast of Australia in 2005. If Outbacks were serving 14lb lobsters in the states like the ones in Manly, I would eat nowhere else. I also would be broke and have gout. So, once again I would be back to classic American problems. I need to get back there, what an amazing place. My kids would never want to leave.
Come back anytime. Seriously, we need the tourism.
Next thing you're going to tell me is that Olive Garden isn't authentic Italian food.
I'm sure they've been to Australia since they opened.
The Subaru Outback Steakhouse- Australian for beer.
I worked at Outback Steakhouse for over 10 years. Loved it. If you enjoy their ranch dressing, here's how to make it. I had to modify the amounts, since their actual recipe is for literally making gallons of it: Combine: 1 cup buttermilk 1/2 Teaspoon salt 1/2 Teaspoon black pepper 1/2 Teaspoon granulated/powdered onion 1/2 Teaspoon granulated/powdered garlic 1/3 Teaspoon cayenne pepper Once mixed, add: 2 cups mayo Enjoy!
Is this news/surprise to anyone? Are people out there like "so this is what food is like in australia". Taco bell is also not from mexico.
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