I meant they still make the Jack Taco, but yeah, sometimes Taco Bell can make a passable but not quite the same enchirito.
When I was a State security gd, Taco bell offered all food items for a nickel to any police types. The enchirito was my first choice.
The Meat Mountain at Arby’s.
I thought it would be a good low-carb pile of protein that could be eaten with a fork. It just looked so messy and gross that there was no way to attack it.
There’s been rumblings about McDs (and several other chains) getting back on board with the Vegan/Vegetarian burger concept. Veggie burgers were tried and mostly failed a decade or more ago, but now some meat substitute burgers are gaining in popularity.
So a question for you, which would you prefer to see on a fast food menu? What’s most appealing to a herbivore?
Must be local. Around here, KFC has had pot pies as a regular menu item for at least 25 years, and they’re pretty good. Better than you would expect from a fast food pot pie at least. And a baked bean, cole slaw and fried chicken burrito actually sounds great, but I can easily imagine poor execution ruining it.
My exhibit is that awful rainbow/unicorn slush/frap thing they had at Starbucks a couple years ago. It was vile. It tasted like liquefied cotton candy mixed with some sort of toxic sludge.
I’m not normally a big fan of Starbucks, but the occasional coffee flavored shake there isn’t out of the question, especially back when my brother worked there. Even if they’re overly sweet and underly coffee-flavored (I prefer the coffee latte things they have at Dairy Queen, to be honest, and they’re cheaper too). But my girlfriend at the time wanted to try the unicorn slushie thing and I tasted hers. It was probably the worst cold+sweet thing that ever passed my lips. I didn’t know it was possible to make shakes taste that bad.
Certainly the forced scarcity of the limited release adds a lot of buzz and McDs can market the shit out of things, but my personal theory is that tons of American kids grew up eating awful BBQ riblets in their school cafeterias which made the McRib somehow both nostalgic and an elevated version of that abomination.
I have a love-hate relationship with the Bell. First, their menu changes soooooo often. It doesn’t really change since you know, mexican food is the same 8 ingredients combined in infinite ways, but they trot out limited time items on what seems a weekly basis. Sometimes they’ll have a good thing that disappears too soon.
But most often they take an existing menu item and change it by adding some combination of goo on top of it. It’s gotten to the point that most of their menu is made up of various viscous substances (beans, sour cream, nacho cheese, guac, zesty something or other) rolled inside a tortillas. It’s like eating a tube of Mexican toothpaste.
The bacon and maple French-toasted donut from IHOP. Loving all things bacon, maple, French toast and donut, I thought it was a sure thing, but it was way, way too much of a good thing.
It’s funny that you say that, because when I was in school the cafeteria did occasionally serve a barbecue riblet sandwich that was pretty much the same as the McRib. That is exactly why I thought I was going to like the McRib; as I remember it it was generally one of the better things the cafeteria served, and I was always happy when it showed up on the menu. And like the McRib, they didn’t seem to serve them very often compared to the usual burgers, tacos, chicken nuggets, etc. in their rotation, so they felt like kind of a treat.
The flaw it that, of course, is that the the McRib and it’s clone that my school’s cafeteria served only seemed good when compared with other typical school cafeteria food. Compared with other restaurant offerings, even fast food ones, it is not. Especially since I live somewhere where In-N-Out burger is available to me.
We didn’t have HS riblets. I had no nostalgia when we were in the first 1980 test market for the McRib. Either it changed, or I’ve changed, but I remember it being pretty good way back then. Not any more, though.
Not the worst, but those Doritos tacos at Taco Bell were very very disappointing. The concept seems like it would be awesome.
The worst I can remember trying is the KFC Double Down, which is a sandwich where the “bread” is fried chicken filets.
I’m sure lots of the gimmicks were much worse but I knew better than to try them. How anybody ever tried the McRib is a mystery to me.
Speaking for myself, I have no interest in realistic meat substitute burgers; if I wanted to eat meat that much, I’d just eat meat. I’d much rather have a spicy bean burger or something.
I suspect their failure in the veggie/vegan market has more to do with their general reputation as the cliche global megacorp fast food, combined with the sort of people who go veggie.
I worked at a big UK coffee chain for a while, they kept bringing out gimmicky new drinks, including this yogurt drink thing which was vile. It was supposed to be a ‘healthy’ smoothie alternative and tasted weirdly metallic.
First week- staff can try one small drink of each flavour, but it doesn’t count as one of the normal drinks (which staff could have free in the small size), we’ve only got a limited quantity.
Second week- OK, it counts as a normal drink.
Third week- ehhh… help yourself. Want to take a bag of mix home? Maybe if you froze it or something it’d taste OK?
That’s kind of what I figured*, but the Beyond Burgers really seem to be the fad right now. Not sure if they appeal to vegan/vegetarians or if they appeal to “green” meat eaters. Seems like the latter is the target this time around.
** There’s a lesbian/penis-shaped dildo analogy here for the taking but damned if I can make it work!*
That’s probably always going to be a problem I suspect, but technology has changed so maybe the quality will go up and there’s more mainstream appeal I think these days. Even your most ardent Whole Foods aficionado can be convinced to cheat with an order of McDs Fries.
I’m pretty sure these have been a smashing success. Personally, I agree with you. I found them totally disappointing, they taste like a more rubbery, orange version of a normal hard shell than they do a Dorito. I expect cheese dust on my fingers damn it.
I actually liked this thing. It tasted pretty good if you like the flavor of KFC chicken. Of course, I felt like something had gone very wrong with my life choices after I ate it so I can’t say I ordered it again.
From 1997 (The Onion)
Taco Bell’s Five Ingredients Combined In Totally New Way
They sure as hell don’t live up to this.
I haven’t had very many of these kinds of items because I get the things I know I like over and over and over. But I did get a McRib once. As I recall it had a weird gelatinous texture and I didn’t like it much. I did like the McPizza ok though.
Yep, and now that KFC has let quality control slip, it’s one of the few safe things to eat. Half the time the chicken has been sitting out too long or they re used the cooking oil too many times.
Yeah, somebody ordered one and I tasted it. Vile. But then, I dont care for Starbux.
and their guac is beyond vile.
But still, their basic bean burrito (with extra cheese) is cheap, filling and pretty damn good for you too.
Subway and KFC have released vegan/vegetarian options recently - I’ve no idea if they’re any good though.
International spicy chicken chain Nando’s does an excellent Portobello and halloumi burger. They’ve only relatively recently entered the US market (mostly DC and Maryland, but growing) and also offer “sweet potato and butternut”, “super green (edamame, broccoli and kale)” and “beanie (cheddar, sweetcorn, chickpeas, lentils, pumpkin seeds)” burger options, but I haven’t tried any of those because I like chicken.
My wife is a vegetarian, and likes their veggie burger. They dropped it from the menu for a short time, but it was brought back pretty quickly. She’s never cared for portobello, though.
I second this. The nacho cheese really is good. I’ve had bad nacho fries when the fries weren’t fresh, but if the fries haven’t been sitting under a heat lamp for a while, they’re very tasty. They don’t have the weird aftertaste that some fast food fries do, but maybe it’s just covered up by the nacho cheese.