Category: fast food

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breakfast fast food

Tio Wally Eats America: Dunkin’ Donuts’ French Crullers

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Junius, New York.

Greetings from Junius, New York
42.95898, -76.91819 Elev. 499 ft.

I had the rare experience of driving the entire New York Thruway. Every 496 miles of it. I call the experience rare because I do it as seldom as possible. It’s a long, boring drive in the winter, with few redeeming characteristics.

Thankfully there was decent coffee. There are the obligatory McDonald’s in many of the travel centers along the way. Better still, there are Tim Horton’s at a few. Tim’s coffee, and their donuts, are quite good. Good enough that an Air Canada plane once made an emergency landing and, once they’d landed safely, was asked by the control tower if they needed anything. The pilot paused, then responded thoughtfully, “Some Tim Horton’s would be nice.”

Best of all, though, is that a few of the Thruway travel centers have Dunkin’ Donuts, which has the best coffee of all. And their donuts are pretty good, too.

I mentioned before that Dunkin’ Donuts was doing surveys and giving away a free donut with the purchase of any medium or large beverage. I still had a few of the “coupons” so I marched in to the Iroquois Travel Center to get a free donut with my morning coffee.

As I was standing in line I was beckoned by the French Crullers. I felt a little like Odysseus hearing the song of the Sirens. Rather than have myself tied to a mast to resist their alluring call, I got one with my “coupon.” Knowing how good these puppies are, I had to stop here and get another coffee along and another cruller with another “coupon.”

If you’ve never had a cruller, you’re really missing out. They have nothing in common with a glazed donut although they’re made with essentially the same ingredients. The cruller is twisted and seems much lighter, full of giant air pockets. Years ago a guy at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Massachusetts told me that they taste so much different because there is a pound of butter in each one.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ French Crullers are incredibly good. And they’re definitely made with butter. They have a wonderfully clean taste and mouth-feel. It’s like the difference between a croissant made with butter and an industrial-grade croissant made with shortening, the ones that leave sort of a greasy film in your mouth.

The bad part of my French Cruller bender is that I’m now down to my last free donut “coupon.” Or maybe it’s just that they’re not doing the survey at the Dunkin’ Donuts at the travel centers along the New York Thruway. After all, they do have a captive clientele. Indeed, if you want anything to eat or drink at a travel center on the Thruway you pretty much have to bend over so they can ream you while you pay out of your nose.

And so we roll.

Dunkin’ Donuts, Junius Ponds Travel Plaza, New York State Thruway, Milepost 324 Westbound, Junius, New York

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

Categories
burger fast food

Tio Wally Eats America: McD’s

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Le Roy, Illinois.

Greetings from Le Roy, Illinois
N 40° 20.5266’ W 088° 45.6857’ Elev. 774 feet

It’s been an interesting week-plus since the SS Me So Hungry was finally paroled from purgatory.

We’ve been shut down by 60-plus mph winds in Nebraska and snow twice. The first was in Mishawaka, Indiana. Then again at the scenic Delaware Welcome Center Travel Plaza in Newark, Delaware. Eighteen hours and 11 inches of snow later, we learned that the Delaware Newark is pronounced “New Ark” to make damn sure it’s not confused with that quaint Joisey hamlet up the road.

The unusual thing that’s happened, though, is that we’ve eaten at McDonald’s what seems like every day since we left Salt Lake City. This is quite weird because I’m not particularly a fan of Micky Ds.

I’ve written about McDonald’s before, often derogatorily. But I’m not going to do it this time. After all, I liked the Sausage Burrito. I also like the occasional Sausage McMuffin when they’re only a buck.

It all started in Laramie, Wyoming when, having gone in for a $1 Side Salad and coffee — McD’s has pretty good coffee, especially when it’s “any size for $1” — I noticed a poster in the window announcing “Buy One Get One Free” breakfast sandwiches; according to the poster, the “Buy One Get One” special goes through February 6.

I kind of like the Egg McMuffin. How wrong can you go with an egg, a slice of Canadian bacon, and a slice of cheese between a toasted English muffin? Not very, I’d think (unless your name is Jason Lam, when you and your McMuffin fail the audition and they send you packin’). I never have them because, like most of McDonalds’ food, it’s overpriced. But when they’re two-for-one it’s a little more reasonable. So I ordered one (and got two!) the next morning and enjoyed them immensely.

The next day I stopped at Love’s in North Platte, Nebraska, which has a McDonald’s inside. I just wanted to get something in my stomach so I ordered a $1 McDouble. I often ask if they charge extra for Big Mac sauce when I get a McDouble. A few places don’t — the McDonald’s at Love’s in North Platte doesn’t — but many of them charge as much as 50¢. It’s as if the Big Mac sauce is gold-infused and blessed by Martha Stewart or something.

That night I slept at the McDonald’s in Williamsburg, Iowa. It’s a great place to park because not a lot of people know about it, it’s out of the wind and its located right next to the Tanger Outlets where I can pick up the Tanger WiFi from the yacht.

The next morning I went in to get a couple more Egg McMuffins and a $1 coffee. When I went in I asked the guy if they were doing the “Buy One Get One” deal there. He told me that they were only offering it on Egg McMuffins and the truly abominable Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddles. (McGriddles: Yccch! If you haven’t tried one yet: Don’t!) At the other places the offer was for any breakfast sandwich that wasn’t on the Dollar Menu. Whatever. They wanted nearly two bucks for coffee, so I passed on it and skedaddled across the street with my Egg McMuffins, getting coffee (84¢) and a sandwich from Casey’s General Store.

I’m telling you, those Egg McMuffins are pretty good. I’ll never get a handle on McDonalds’ coffee pricing though. I’ve purchased the $2 cups of coffee that cost a buck most everywhere else and I can tell you unequivocally: It’s the same coffee! It’s not that I’m cheap, it’s just the principle.

Next I ended up at McDonald’s in Vineland, New Jersey. I’d gone in for a couple of Side Salads and asked the guy — he turned out to be a manager — if they were offering the breakfast sandwich deal. He didn’t know what I was talking about but said he thought they’d passed out a coupon book recently that may’ve had them in it. He offered to go see if they had any left and, lo and behold, he found one. Nice guy, blue shirt with embroidered Golden Arches, smartly tied tie.

The coupon book included a couple of Buy One Get One Free coupons for Big Macs and Egg McMuffins as well as a host of things you could get free with the purchase of something else. I didn’t know McDonald’s did coupons. Maybe it’s an East Coast thing; on the front of the booklet is “follow us on twitter @McDPhilly”. (By the way, all McDonald’s restaurants will accept any competitor’s coupons, substituting a comparable product. McDonald’s desperately needs your money.)

It turned out there was something else I didn’t know about McDonald’s: The corporate behemoth has the ability to seemingly turn on a dime and create promotions at the drop of a hat, or, more accurately, a cold snap. That would be pretty impressive for a company 1/10th its size.

Along with the introduction of the term Polar Vortex to our lexicon has come a new McDonald’s promotion in Illinois (and possibly elsewhere). The deal is that you can get a second Egg McMuffin or Big Mac for the price of the temperature recorded at noon the day before.

So I went into the McDonald’s in Le Roy and a second Big Mac cost 19¢. Being a certifiable Jerk from Hell™ I took issue with this price. I thought 19¢ was a little steep. It didn’t factor in the wind chill. I know for fact that, had they done so, the second Big Mac would’ve been free.

Having been through Illinois too many times, I know that the wind is always blowing. Of course, if you ask any Illinoisan they will tell you the wind never blows, it’s just that Indiana sucks. While it’s true that Indiana does indeed suck big time, and every weathervane in Illinois is forever pointing a damning “finger’ in the direction of the Hoover, er, Hoosier State, I don’t think it’s possible, thermodynamically speaking. Then again, I’ve been to Indiana enough times that it’s hard to discount the possibility entirely.

The girl at the counter didn’t know if they factored in wind chill. She did helpfully point out that if I thought the price was too high I could come back tomorrow. “It was 9¢ yesterday,” she said. “It’s going to be even less tomorrow for sure.”

I bought the second Big Mac at the grossly inflated price of 19¢. Still, I felt like I was being ripped off. Hell, Big Macs are Two for $4 every day at McDonald’s in Kingman. And that’s in Arizona where it’s warmer!

I find it very baffling that the difference between a McDouble and a Big Mac are rather minor yet they taste completely different. I can get a McDouble with no ketchup or mustard and add Big Mac sauce but it just doesn’t taste like a Big Mac. Yet the only difference is that there is no lettuce and an extra piece of bread stuck in the middle on the McDouble. The only other difference, then, is the bun: the Big Mac is on a sesame seed bun while the McDouble isn’t. Can a quarter-teaspoon of sesame seeds make that much difference? I don’t know.

I do know this though: I’ve been eating way too much McDonald’s. So much, in fact, that I’ve begun calling myself Morgan. Not as in Captain Morgan but, rather, as in Morgan Spurlock. For those who haven’t seen it, Spurlock made the truly nausea-inducing documentary Super Size Me wherein he only ate McDonald’s food for 30 days. I won’t spoil it for you but the result of the diet was less than “pretty.”

And so we roll.

McDonald’s, 300 Sunset Dr., Le Roy, Illinois and over 1 trillion served other locations

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

Categories
burger fast food

Tio Wally Eats America: In-N-Out Burger

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in West Valley City, Utah.

Greetings from West Valley City, Utah
N 40° 41.4874’ W 111° 57.4429’ Elev. 4262 feet

In the 1970s and ‘80s the Southern California-based hamburger chain In-N-Out Burger gave away approximately 2.6 gazillion bumper stickers. But the freebie bumper art giveaway came to a screeching halt when, to the shock and horror of In-N-Out Burger’s fundamentalist Christian owners, the burger chain finally figured out why every rapscallion with a razor took such great delight in modifying them, albeit ever so slightly.

The bumper stickers featured the chain’s iconic yellow arrow logo on one side with its “Quality You Can Taste” slogan superimposed over it. Next to it was “IN•N•OUT” stacked above “BURGER”. Rascally SoCal kids wasted no time cutting off the first “B” and last “R” in “BURGER,” altering the message to read: “In•N•Out URGE”.

Presumedly the company — and at least one breathtakingly clueless columnist for a Pasadena-area newspaper — originally interpreted the modest alteration to be quite innocuous, that it meant little more than an “urge to have an In-N-Out Burger.” When the company discovered that the universally accepted meaning was slightly different, however, the hijinks was viewed as nothing short of blasphemy and the bumper sticker giveaway ended in short order. Not a big surprise given the religiosity of In-N-Out’s owners; to this day they discreetly embed references to Bible verses on its packaging.

I seldom eat at In-N-Out Burger. Every time I do I remember why I don’t: They’re not really that special. Don’t get me wrong. They’re good, high-quality burgers but not that good. Indeed, I still think the best burger I’ve ever had on the road came from Mr. Fuel. It was a double cheeseburger, offered as one of its monthly $2.99 (sandwich, chips and 32. oz drink) specials. Then again, maybe I was just extremely hungry. Nevertheless it was memorable burger, which is saying a lot considering I’m not really a burger guy.

In-N-Out Burger has had the same menu since it was founded in Baldwin Park, California in 1948. They offer burgers, French fries, and beverages (sodas, shakes, lemonade, iced tea, milk, and coffee). That’s it. Period. My brother claims that the extremely limited menu is what helps them keep the quality so high. Of course, they also use fresh, quality ingredients and attract quality staff by paying well-over minimum wage.

The chain enjoys an almost cult-like following of rabid, vocal devotees who claim it makes the “Best Burger” and has the “Best Fries”, etc. One recent survey of “Best Burgers in America” listed In-N-Out at #2; Five Guys Burgers and Fries came in at #1. One place where In-N-Out is indisputably #1 is that it was the first drive-thru to use a two-way speaker system. “Welcome to In-N-Out Burger. May I take your order?”

The most popular item at In-N-Out is probably the #1: Double-Double®, Fries and Medium Drink ($6.40 + tax). The cost of this combo always intrigued me. You see, if you ordered all of the items separately it would add up to exactly the same amount. I always order the #1 but substitute a $2.05 shake for the $1.50 soda.

The Double-Double® consists of two meat patties, two slices of American cheese, leaves of iceberg lettuce, and slices of tomato and onion (grilled, if you want), served on a toasted bun dressed with In-N-Out Spread (essentially Thousand Island dressing). It adds up to quite a substantial stack.

The fries are hand-cut, using only fresh Kennebec potatoes. In-N-Out used to make great hay of the fact they used only Kennebec taters. Now they only flog the fact that they use fresh potatoes. I suspect the reason for this subtle change is that it raised too many questions from unnecessarily quizzical customers, you know, Jerks-from-Hell™ like me: “What’s a Kennebec? What makes it different? What kind of potato does McDonalds use? Would these be considered ‘health food’ fries? Can I substitute onion rings?” Such unwanted questions definitely slow down the line. I know this firsthand because I’ve done it, a few times. And In-N-Outs are extremely busy, high-volume places.

But are the fries good? Yeah, they’re okay, especially if you get a couple of packages of In-N-Out Burger Spread to dip them in. But I’m not really a french fry guy.

The shakes on the other hand are, I think, pretty damn special. Although the strawberry ones are delicious, I usually get a chocolate; they also have vanilla. The big boast In-N-Out makes about its shakes is that they use 100% Real Ice Cream. But there’s something different about the chocolate ones. They taste sort of malty. And they’re thick and wicked good. I always blow it when I do the substitution, though. You can get a larger size shake; I suspect they will just charge you the 55¢ difference. But I always forget, resulting in another “D’oh!” moment every time.

I learned something new about In-N-Out Burger while writing this, something that I was aware of but didn’t know all the ins-and-outs of until now. I’ve known for years that In-N-Out has a Not-So-Secret Menu: they’ll chop and/or grill onions; make an Atkins Diet-friendly Protein® Style burger where they wrap the burger in a leaf of lettuce instead of a bun; make a 3×3 or 4×4 (three and four hamburger patties, respectively), etc. My big discovery — made too late, of course — is that In-N-Out makes Animal® Style burgers and fries.

The Animal® Style burger is described on the In-N-Out website as a “burger of your choice with hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, a mustard cooked beef patty; add pickle, extra spread with grilled onions.” Lest you missed it, it’s a MUSTARD COOKED BEEF PATTY! That sounds great!! But why am I just learning about this now? Where have I been?

Perhaps I just don’t speak to enough In-N-Out Dweebs (I think that’s what In-N-Out Burger zealots are known as) who know all the ins-and-outs of In-N-Out. Maybe I just need to get out more. I guess I’ll now have to put Animal® Style Double-Double® on my list of things to remember to order — along with a larger shake — next time I visit an In-N-Out Burger.

And so we roll.

In-N-Out Burger, 3715 South Constitution Blvd., West Valley City, Utah
and 289 other locations in Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas and Utah.

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

Categories
fast food sandwich

Wendy’s Pretzel Pub Chicken Sandwich

You’ve seen the commercials for the Wendy’s Pretzel Pub Chicken Sandwich, right? It looks good. Or at least interesting. I saw it one late night when I was drunk and immediately emailed the publicist that had just wrote me about it. I said I want it and she said okay. It was that easy. I’ve never asked before. I didn’t know you could do that.

So I got $5 gift card in the mail. Headed over to the Wendy’s on 5th Ave near the Empire State building, but it was so packed. The line was insane. The next day, I went to the one on 14th St near Union Square. No line. I walked right up to the cashier.

Unfortunately, the sandwich alone was about $6 after tax. I guess that’s Manhattan pricing. So I owed a dollar. But it was weird, because I got a bunch of change back from the coin dispenser.

I sat in Union Square and opened it up. Looked good. The pretzel bread was soft and had a crusty bottom. Tasted almost like Chinese bakery bun bread. Not so much like how I imagined a pretzel bun would taste like. But it was a really good sandwich. I like it a lot. Seemed like quality ingredients. Sauce was tasty. A really good chicken sandwich.

I’m already a big of Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Had it very often in college. I should try the Pretzel Pub with Spicy Chicken next time.

Categories
fast food

McDonald’s Mighty Wings Are Maybe The Best Wings In NYC!

I had a hankering for some hot wings. I noticed that there was a BBQ joint near my work that had big signs that said they won the Best Wings in NYC in a contest. I figured I’d try it. It wasn’t that amazing though. Nothing to write home about. But they did have a decent beer special.

Then when I walked back to work, I passed by McDonald’s. I like their sign for the new limited time Mighty Wings. Looks pretty good. I ordered a three piece. At this Manhattan location, they were $3.49 plus tax. More than a dollar a wing. Um, that sounds expensive for a chicken wing. Well, I guess you gotta kill a whole chicken for two of them.

Dang, they were pretty dang good wings. Not like buffalo hot wings, but dried and fried. Like a cross between Chinese take-out chicken wings and something that Popeye’s and KFC might make. Really darn good wings, even if they weren’t wet. You can pick a sauce though, but it’s the same stuff that comes with McNuggets and it didn’t help the wing any.

These wings were a lot better than the wings that won Best Wings in NYC. So may I be so bold to say that the best wings in NYC are at McDonald’s?

Categories
fast food mexican tio wally travel

Tio Wally Eats America: Pancho’s Mexican Food

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Junction City, Kansas.

Greetings from Junction City, Kansas
N 39° 1.6925’ W 096° 50.1447’ Elev. 1,102 ft.

It was a dark and stormy night when … actually it wasn’t stormy at all, it was just dark. And late. Early, early, early in the morning, to be precise.

I had been driving around the deserted streets of this gleaming metropolis looking for any not-a-chain eatery that might be open and, with any luck, served decent food. All the places Carmen in the Garmin could find either didn’t exist or were closed. All hope, along with the fundamental will to live, was fading rapidly aboard the SS Me So Hungry.

Then it happened: We decided to do the next best thing and see if we could find a 24-hour grocery store that wasn’t a Merchant of Death based in Bentonville, Arkansas; I won’t name the store. Up popped Kroger.

We love Kroger here on the Street Scow MSH. They have vital viddles that we try to keep stocked whenever possible: Fruit-at-the-bottom yogurt (40¢); orange-pineapple juice ($1.99); and Kroger-brand plain cake donuts ($1.50-$1.79/dozen, depending on location).

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find plain cake donuts that don’t cost an arm and a leg? Did you know that many pirates have peg legs because they had to give up a limb to pay for a plain cake donut?

Long story short, we ambled off to find the Kroger. Along the way we stumbled upon Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant, which is open 24/7.

I’m always suspicious of independent restaurants in small towns that are open 24 hours-a-day. It always seems like a cry of desperation that they’re open. Of course, I’ve been very, very, very wrong about this desperation thing before, however, and I’ve been handsomely rewarded for “taking a chance.”

So I decided to take a chance on Pancho’s. Hell, I thought, even if it sucked blue whale — they pack the largest penises on the planet, you know — it’d still be hot food. That there was nothing else open helped in the decision-making process, too.

On my first visit to Pancho’s I got Bistec Ranchero, which came with the obligatory rice and beans, along with a drink, for $7.99. For the drink I got a Jamaica (pronounced huh-My-cuh), a semi-sweet, tangy cold tea brewed from dried hibiscus flowers.

Although I thought it could’ve been meatier, the Bistec Ranchero (skirt or flank steak with onions, jalapeño peppers and tomatoes) was the best I’d ever had. I simply couldn’t believe how flavorful and spicy it was. It brought sweat to my brow and a couple of bites brought tears to my eyes. The refried beans and rice were equally good.

The next visit I got the Steak Ranchero ($8.69). Although the picture showed the meat cubed instead of sliced, I figured it’d be basically the same thing … and I’d get two fried eggs, to boot. Well, not so much.

While it was very good and the meat was remarkably tender, it didn’t pack the same punch as the Bistec Ranchero. I found this quite baffling. After all, Bistec is Spanish for “steak” and Steak is English for “steak” and they were both prepared Ranchero (“Rancher” in English) style, they ought to be kind of the same thing, right? Well, no. And I don’t know why.

Pancho’s has a condiment bar reminiscent of ones I’ve seen often in California, with four or five different salsas, including that weird, runny green stuff many burrito places call guacamole sauce (it has nothing remotely in common with guacamole). It also contains a half dozen veggies, like those awesome carrots marinated with jalapeños and onions, and sliced radishes and sliced cucumbers. At least, that’s what I bagged. Unlike chintzier places Pancho’s provides zip-lock baggies for your condimental booty, instead of relegating you to those little plastic cups that nothing fits in.

Had I known that the Steak Ranchero would be so meek I would’ve grabbed some salsa to beef it up. Unfortunately, I discovered this too late.

I will eventually solve the Spiciness of the Ranchero mystery; the same guy was cooking both times. I will develop a friendly relationship with him. I will seek definitive answers.

Ultimately I will tell the cook that J-Lam may be coming in the near future and will probably want a two-buck Mexican Cock, er, Coke®. I hope he won’t be too disappointed when, instead of a visit from an internationally recognized Puerto Rican-American bombshell, he gets a diminutive Gator fan.

And so we roll.

Pancho;s Mexican Food, 419 W. 6th Ave., Junction City, Kansas
with locations in Olathe, Topeka, Salina, Lenexa and Blue Springs, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

Categories
fast food sandwich

Tio Wally Eats America: Quiznos’ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Hesperia, California.

Greetings from Hesperia, California
N 34° 25.657’ W 117° 22.561’ Elev. 3,489 ft.

I’ve always liked Quiznos. They make a lot of really great sandwiches, my favorite being the Turkey Bacon Guacamole. It was also the first sub shop where toasting the sandwiches was de rigueur, part of its cachet, its claim to fame. Moreover, they are always pretty consistently high quality.

I always chuckle when I think of the fact that Quiznos has cost Subway, the sub shop that still hasn’t figured out how to make a decent sandwich, a fortune by forcing the low-budget, sub-par sub shop to buy a bunch of toaster ovens. It hasn’t helped them improve the sandwiches, of course, but it sure as hell slowed things down in a hurry.

Being unquestionably objective and unduly unbiased, I have to make an uncharacteristically astute observation here: Subway has become as ubiquitous as McDouche’s. And since its founding in 1965 it has yet to produce a single decent sandwich. Not one. That’s quite a remarkable accomplishment. I guess this somehow helps explain why I have a Pavlovian response every time I see Subway’s “Subway Subway Subway” logo on those blue exit information signs I mutter aloud “Sucks Sucks Sucks.” Moving on ….

Lately the “Mmmmm .. TOASTY®” sub shop has been running a “for a limited time” promotion introducing its new Pulled Pork sandwiches, selling a small sandwich for $2.99. In another effort to fulfill my life-goal of an All Pork Diet I figured I’d give them a try.

Quiznos is offering two different versions of the sandwiches: A Southern Pulled Pork and a Spicy Pulled Pork. The Southern BBQ Pulled Pork just comes with cole slaw and their “Signature” BBQ sauce. The Spicy BBQ Pulled Pork however comes with bacon, cheddar cheese, cilantro-jalapeño cole slaw, and BBQ sauce. They usually serve the Spicy on jalapeño cheddar bread but I got it on wheat. Had I known at the time that it’s normally made with jalapeño cheddar bread I would have gotten it.

Right out of the gate there are a couple of problems with the sandwiches. First off the pork is kind of a mix of pulled and chopped. Secondly it’s too skimpy on the meat. I don’t know how many eighth-ounces of meat is on the sandwich but it isn’t enough. Everybody knows that if you’re eating a pulled pork sandwich and you’re not dropping meat everywhere there isn’t enough meat on it. C’mon, Quiznos, don’t use a gram scale to weigh meat for a pulled pork sandwich.

The Southern version was just strange. The cole slaw on it had a weird vinegary taste. I thought it would’ve been sweet slaw like they use everywhere else. But no. I ate about half of it and had to toss it. Although the meat and sauce is passable, the slaw just made it too weird. Then again, maybe it was just bad slaw; I bought the sandwiches at different locations.

The Spicy one on the other hand was actually quite good. I was kind of suspicious at first because it seemed like it was going to be a real collision of flavors. I was surprised that the combination works pretty well together. It’s not really spicy though. I guess I expected it to have sort of a kick. And while the cole slaw was delightfully crunchy it didn’t really taste of either cilantro or jalapeño. Still, if it had a little more meat on it it would be a pretty good $3 sandwich.

As part of the promotion Quiznos gives you a scratch-off card with every sandwich. The valuable prizes you can “win” with a sandwich purchase are: a dollar off a regular or large sub; a regular fountain drink; chips and a regular fountain drink; or a cookie! Evidently I hit the jackpot as both of my tickets were for a dollar off. Woo hoo!! Now I can get a discount on a Turkey Bacon Guacamole.

And so we roll.

Quiznos Subs, nationwide

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

Categories
burger fast food

Fatburger in NYC

Well I never heard of Fatburger before. I’m all East Coast. They just opened one of these West Coast burger joints this week in Murray Hill …the first of several to open in New York.  They’re even opening up some in India with lamb burgers. I kind of wished they had lamb burgers here.

My beef burger was pretty good though. I like how you can add a fried egg. Mine wasn’t runny though, unfortunately. Also unfortunate was the wait. I assumed it to be quicker for fast food, but they are cooked to order and there was a line of customers. But they have a bar serving beer and wine while you wait.

They have several sizes of burgers. Medium, Large, XXL …and XXXL, which if you can finish, you get your name on the wall. I got the smallest one and was satisfied with just eating half. I put the rest in a bag along with some Fat Fries (steak fries) and was going to eat it later. But I went out to buy some underwear and socks and realized I was smelling up the stores. So I gave it to a homeless guy. He looked so psyched. I think he knew about Fatburger.

Fatburger - 507 3rd Ave (btwn 35th & 34th St) New York, NY 10016