Wicked Attitude

This weekend we decided to make our food choices based around some new products that came out. I can honestly say I should get paid for this given some of the things I had to eat or at minimum reimbursed.

KFC’s Smoky Chipotle 2 pc meal. We were both really looking forward to this because it harkened us back to the days of Sisters Chicken and Biscuits Spicy Chicken from our childhood. We should’ve known KFC would screw it up. First off just the name alone is annoying because there’s a big “chipotle” craze sweeping this nation and KFC thought it would be lucrative to cash in on that craze. The texture of the chicken breading looked promising, as it was a darker red color in comparison to its Crispy and Original Recipe counterparts. It took quite a few bites before we even tasted any flavor much less a hint of smoky anything. For anyone who likes spicy food, you’ll laugh heartily at this weak attempt at adding “smoky chipotle” to expand their menu. I won’t even go into their generous 3 tablespoon portion of macaroni and cheese being congealed yet again. I’d love their schedule as to when they make fresh mac and cheese but that is obviously rare these days. Overall, stick to the tried and true chicken if you’re a KFC fan because this new addition is a definite miss.

Arby’s Texas Toast Sandwich Meal. Should I be worried when I don’t even find the item that’s been hyped on TV all week on their online menu? The answer is yes. This is a Texas Toast roast beef sandwich and I got the double cheese. First off, the cheese sauce is just gross. Tastes as artificial as it is. Second, when the words Texas Toast are in the title, I expect to get both pieces toasted not one pathetically toasted on one side and the other piece plain. If I wanted roast beef on square Wonder bread, I can make that at home thanks. I’m not a fan of the curly fries either and them being ice cold at 11:30am when your lunch rush starts doesn’t make me anymore of a fan. I took two bites of each and threw it all away. The best thing I got from them was the drink. So there’s $4 down the drain.

Baja-Sol Grill Cheese Enchiladas. We wanted to try this place and with the miserable failure that was Arby’s Texas Toast Sandwiches, I was hungry a few hours later. I am a big believer if you can’t do cheese enchiladas, you should pack up your cantina and go home. I was looking forward to them. For $6, I was expecting a little larger sized enchiladas but it was fine. The smell wafting out of it was overwhelmingly smoky. I think we found the chipotle that was missing from KFC. I took a bite of the baja rice. It tasted like something an overworked mom would throw together. It tasted like regular rice and one of those taco seasoning packets loaded with salt was dumped in for flavor. That was the only bite of that I had. The black beans were fine. No seasoning, thank God, just tasted like plain beans. Then came the enchiladas. I’ve always seen cheese enchiladas with cheddar cheese and the reason for that is yellow cheese with the exception of some pungent white cheeses has more flavor. They used mozzarella so the flavor of the enchilada on its own was rather weak. Then came the sauce. Hubby and I differed on what we felt was the main flavor. He thought it tasted like spaghetti sauce. I thought it tasted like a really thick, overly smoky mole sauce. I ate them but it wasn’t something I’d order again. Then they have a chip and salsa bar and he got 2 for us to try. One is milder and more soupy which is what I like, I’m not a chunky salsa kind of girl. It was followed with a chipotle kick that he didn’t like but I didn’t mind. Then there was this other stuff. The best way I can describe it is it looks like if you scraped sludge out of your garbage disposal. Is salsa supposed to be gray? More so, is it supposed to taste like imitation bacon bits? Yes, it tasted like IMITATION bacon bits so I don’t even know nor do I want to know how that happens.

O’Charleys Cuban Sandwich. We had a coupon to try O’Charley’s new Southwestern Twisted Chips for free if we bought 2 entrees from their new summer menu so we both got the Cuban sandwich. We’d never had them before so the description sounded wonderful. Stacked pork loin, ham, swiss , “special sauce” and pickles on ciabatta bread with seasoned fries. I always get my sandwiches without sauce because it makes me feel like they’re trying to cover something up more often than enhance it. When they say stacked pork loin, they mean it and it was true pork loin, not pressed or thin sliced pork. I’ve gotta say with as high as the pork loin was sliced along with the airiness of the ciabatta bread, it was too much to try and stuff in your pie hole. I ended up eating only one piece of pork and took off the other two because they were just too dry. I know, I know, maybe the sauce would’ve saved it…well the sauce wouldn’t have made it smaller. I suppose if I sat on it or something it would’ve been compact enough. So I had a darn good ham and cheese once the pork was off there! Nice smoky ham and thick sliced swiss. The fries were your typical limp seasoned fries. But the Southwestern Twisted Chips were really good, a nice potato crunch with con queso cheese. A winner!

I swear we’re not picky but this reaffirms why when we find something good we tend to stick to it.