Half-Assed Gourmet: Fast Food Adventures

Let me present some observations based on recent excursions to various cheap eats joints, or fast food establishments, if you will.

*Burger King is always an odd experience--less crowded than any given McDonald's and somehow less vibrant and appealing no matter the location. It does have some advantages over the Golden Arches, though. I like its willingness to experiment with menu variety.

I tried the returning chicken parmesan sandwich on a recent visit, but my taste buds may have been affected my overall mood. See, I was grabbing lunch while waiting for repair work on my car. I'll say one thing about that situation: Spending hundreds of dollars on something else makes it easy to ignore how much more you pay for that BK menu variety.

In this case, the chicken parmesan sammich was hot and tasted fresh, but it was a little bland. You know what would have made it better? A little more "parmesan" to go with the "chicken" and "sandwich" portions of the entrée. A dollop of marinara sauce ain't enough. A king should be more generous to his faithful subjects...or even to the ones who just blog about him every now and then.

The best thing about BK right now is the newfangled drink machine that offers hundreds of choices and lets you mix stuff together if you want to be a weirdo about it. It's a particular pleasure for me to get not only multiple iced tea choices, but multiple low-calorie iced tea choices. There are also a host of other "diet" (I am not going to call them healthy) options, the likes of which most fast food chains don't bother to offer. I don't know if all BKs have switched to this, but I love it, and it's a big plus.

*I went to Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen for the first time in--well, the last time I went to one, I don't think it was called a "Louisiana Kitchen." The surf and turf combo of popcorn shrimp and chicken tenders was fried beyond belief, likely generic and loaded with sodium...and it was delicious.

Unfortunately, the front counter was disorganized and chaotic, and worst of all, this place exemplifies the odious trend of withholding essential supplies from the patrons and making them beg for them. I get 3 measly thin napkins for an entire greasy meal, and when I grab a table, I discover  there aren't napkins nor condiments anywhere.

No, I have to go back to the counter (did I mention it was disorganized) and ask for not only the "dipping sauces," but also ketchup. I can understand keeping the sauces away from the rubes, but A) not ketchup and B) I should have been offered them when I got my food.

*Chik-Fil A remains the gold standard. Yes, it could be cheaper, but it works both ways in some respects. I love that when I ask for no tomato on the spicy deluxe sammich, they deduct 10 cents or whatever. I recently discovered that you can exchange an unwanted kids meal toy for a dessert. Unfortunately, you can't get the sauces in the open dining area, but they always ask if you want any, and if you need something simple like ketchup, you CAN grab that yourself, and in those cool little Heinz peelable containers, too.

Besides, the employees are friendly and helpful. They actually act like they care if you have a good meal. They sometimes go around and offer you drink refills at your table. If it's all a façade, it's an effective one.

Most importantly, the food is always excellent. I think Chik-Fil-A could up its breakfast game and maybe offer some more salads, but, the basics are great here. I see only 3 reasons to avoid it: 1) You hold a grudge for the political stances the owners took years ago 2) You hate chicken 3) It's Sunday.