Brand Eating

Review: Carl's Jr. - Super Bacon Cheeseburger

2013-05-23T23:30:00.000-07:00

Carl's Jr.'s new, limited-time Super Bacon Cheeseburger (and Hardee's Super Bacon Thickburger) is offered as a promotional tie-in with the upcoming Superman movie (Man of Steel). It's main feature is that it contains 6 strips of bacon. The rest of the burger is pretty standard: toasted sesame bun, American cheese, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and mayo.

These are $4.19 each for the single patty version at my local Carl's Jr. restaurant.

There's a circular Man of Steel sticker to seal the wrapper and to let me know this is a movie-themed burger:

As you might expect, the Super Bacon Cheeseburger isn't offering any novelty in the taste department. It tasted a lot like a Famous Star with Cheese, but without the ketchup.

That being said, the first thing I noticed as I unwrapped the burger was the fatty smell of bacon grease. There's a lot of bacon here. Enough for an even layer that had me tasting smoky bacon in every bite. It wasn't crispy and was the standard paper-thin variety. I'm not sure if it was super bacon, but there was ample coverage and plenty of bacony goodness!

The rest of the ingredients were well-balanced and well-executed. The bun was solid with a good toasting, mayo was used sparingly, the veggies were fresh, and the cheese was thoroughly melted.

While it doesn't stand out compared to other more outlandish limited-time burgers, Carl's Jr.'s Super Bacon Cheeseburger is well-made and offers plenty of glorious bacon without being too excessive.

Nutritional Info - Carl's Jr. Single Super Bacon Cheeseburger (293g)
Calories - 830 (from Fat - 460)
Fat - 52g (Saturated Fat - 20g)
Sodium - 1440mg
Carbs - 52g (Sugar - 9g)
Protein - 39g

Around the World: KFC Japan Offers the Handy Salad

2013-05-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

KFC Japan is currently offering an interesting take on the salad wrap called the Handy Salad, which doesn't contain any chicken or any meat or soy protein for that matter. It's simply various veggies wrapped in a flour tortilla with sauce. It's called a "Handy Salad" because you can conveniently eat it in one hand.

Inside the Handy Salad, you'll find grilled zucchini, red and yellow bell peppers, lettuce, and a tomato salsa. It's being offered at 220 yen (~$2.17 US) each.

KFC Japan is also currently offering 500 yen Kentucky Lunch Boxes, which sport a nice picnic graphic that look pretty neat:

The Lunch Box promo is only offered around lunch time (from 10am to 2pm) and includes the Handy Salad as a side in one of its configurations. Other side options you won't find at KFC locations here in the US include French fries and grilled onigiri (rice balls).

News: 7-Eleven's #Awesummer Kicks Off with 49-Cent Slurpees This Weekend

2013-05-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

7-Eleven is kicking off a slew of summer deals and exclusives starting tomorrow with 49-cent medium-size Slurpees through Memorial Day (Monday, May 27). They're collectively calling the promotion "#Awesummer" (and even explain the hashtag: "It's called a hashtag(#) and it's used in social media to categorize posts. For example, this answer would be posted with #informative.").

Along with the three-day Slurpee deal, 7-Eleven is also offering a number of exclusive versions of some popular branded snacks and drinks including:

A new chill-activated Coca-Cola can - You can tell it's cold when you see the blue ice cubes on the can (a la Coors). While it's a nice concept for marketing, I've always relied on the nerves in my hand to let me know when my can is just the right coldness. There's a deal where you can get two for $2.

- New Strawberry Lemonade Gatorade - There's a promo on these where you can buy two 32-ounce bottles for $3.

- New Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Latte ice cream - espresso ice cream with coffee grounds swirled with vanilla bean ice cream. There's a limited-time special where you can get two 14-ounce containers of any Haagen-Dazs ice cream for $6.99.

- New Ruffles Crispy Fries - a cross between chips and fries.

In addition to the exclusive items, 7-Eleven is/will be offering the following new, limited-time Slurpee flavors this summer:

- Lite Sugar Free Sprite and Fanta Oddball Orange (kumquat-flavored) through June 23.

- Starting June 24 through September 3 - Lite Sugar Free Fanta Mango Lemonade and Fanta Strawberry Lemonshade.

They're also offering a few summertime "Meal Deals:"

- Two Big Bite Hot Dogs and a 32-ounce Big Gulp for $2.99

- $1 off a sandwich when you buy a chill-activated Coca-Cola can

- Three Mini Donuts and Medium Coffee for $2

As with almost any promotion or deal, price and participation may vary.

News: Burger King Delivery Expands to Las Vegas and Sacramento

2013-05-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

It looks like Burger King's delivery service, BK Delivers, is doing quite well in the select markets it's operating in, because they're now expanding the program to Las Vegas and Sacramento.

Specifically, Burger King has four locations in North Las Vegas offering the service and plans to expand to eight locations within the new few months to cover South Las Vegas.

In Sacramento, BK Delivers is offered in Southwestern and Southeastern Sacramento, Elk Grove, Stockton, Valley Hi, North Laguna, Florin, and Arden-Arcade, with plans to expand to six restaurants to serve West Sacramento, Rosemont, Citrus Heights, and Roseville.

If you're thinking, "Man, I wish BK delivered in my area," Burger King is taking a "squeaky-wheel-gets-the-grease" approach and encouraging customers to leave input to that effect on the BK Delivers website.

Review: Wendy's - Frosty Waffle Cones

2013-05-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

Wendy's Frosty Waffle Cones are a new option on their trademark Frosty frozen dairy dessert where its served in a waffle cones rather than a cup.

They cost $1.49 each in my area and are available in Chocolate and Vanilla. I received these courtesy of Wendy's.

I've already reviewed both Chocolate and Vanilla Frosties, so I'll go straight to the waffle cone and how they pair with it.

The waffle cone was really crunchy and fairly hard. It's hard enough that you might want to watch out that you don't cut yourself as you try to quickly eat it. The benefit of the crunchiness is that the cone held up really well against the shake-like Frosty.

If you've eaten a Frosty before, you know that it's more like a milkshake than soft serve and melts fairly quickly, which makes the decision to serve it in a cone a peculiar one. Flavor-wise, I liked the vanilla flavor a little better than the chocolate with the cone. I think I'm just used to having vanilla soft serve in a cone rather than chocolate.

The moment I got it, the Frosty was already threatening to drip down the waffle cone. Even seated inside Wendy's air-conditioned dining room, eating the Frosty was a race to keep it inside the cone. I would not recommend eating a Frosty Waffle Cone on the go.

As I reached the bottom of the cone, I found it to be soggy, but somehow still crispy. I also found this:

As I lifted the cone out of its wrapper to polish it off, I found a nice little pool of Frosty in the wrapper fed by a steady drip from the point of the cone. It made for quite a mess as I wrapped it all up to put in the trash.

Overall, Wendy's Frosty Waffle Cone is just a weird idea to me. The Frosty just melts too fast, but I'm surprised at how well the cone maintains its crunch against it. I think a better idea would have been to serve waffle cone chips for dipping into a cup of Frosty.

Nutritional Info - Wendy's Chocolate Frosty Waffle Cone
Calories - 300 (from Fat - 50)
Fat - 6g (Saturated Fat - 3.5g)
Sodium - 160mg
Carbs - 54g (Sugar - 35g)
Protein - 7g

Nutritional Info - Wendy's Vanilla Frosty Waffle Cone
Calories - 290 (from Fat - 50)
Fat - 6g (Saturated Fat - 3.5g)
Sodium - 160mg
Carbs - 53g (Sugar - 34g)
Protein - 7g

News: Caribou Coffee - New Lite Sparkling Teas and Juices

2013-05-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Caribou Coffee is offering four new Lite Sparkling Teas and Juices with half the calories of the regular versions.

The new drinks are made with real fruit and tea and come in four fairly self-explanatory flavors: Green Tea Lemonade, Peach Black Tea, Lemon Ginger Pomegranate Juice, and limited-time Apple Raspberry Juice.

The new drinks are meant to appeal to customers looking for a lower-calorie drinks to cool off this summer and are also available as non-fizzy drinks.

Nutritional Info - Caribou Coffee Lite Green Tea Sparkling Lemonade - medium (16 fl oz)
Calories - 105 (from Fat - 0)
Fat - 0g (Saturated Fat - 0g)
Sodium - 0mg
Carbs - 27g (Sugar - 26g)
Protein - 0g

Caffeine - 25mg

Nutritional Info - Caribou Coffee Lite Peach Black Sparkling Tea - medium (16 fl oz)
Calories - 70 (from Fat - 0)
Fat - 0g (Saturated Fat - 0g)
Sodium - 0mg
Carbs - 17g (Sugar - 17g)
Protein - 0g

Caffeine - 20mg

Nutritional Info - Caribou Coffee Lite Lemon Ginger Pomegranate Sparkling Juice - medium (16 fl oz)
Calories - 115 (from Fat - 0)
Fat - 0g (Saturated Fat - 0g)
Sodium - 10mg
Carbs - 29g (Sugar - 26g)
Protein - 0g

Caffeine - 0mg

Nutritional Info - Caribou Coffee Apple Raspberry Sparkling Juice - medium (16 fl oz)
Calories - 100 (from Fat - 0)
Fat - 0g (Saturated Fat - 0g)
Sodium - 10mg
Carbs - 26g (Sugar - 25g)
Protein - 0g

Caffeine - 0mg

News: Yoshinoya Testing New Asian Chicken Salad

2013-05-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

Japanese beef bowl chain Yoshinoya is testing a new Asian Chicken Salad at 10 select locations here in Southern California.

The salad features grilled chicken breast slices, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, cilantro, daikon, and fried wonton strips over a baby spinach and lettuce blend with a cilantro-ginger vinaigrette for dressing.

The Asian Chicken Salad is offered at $5.99, which is comparable to most fast food salads. Fast food salads tend to fall within the $5 to $7 range for the most part.

The locations in Southern California where the new salad is being offered are:

Glendale – 100 W. Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles – 700 N. Vermont Ave.
Canoga Park – 7300 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Lakewood – 5615 Woodruff Ave.
Santa Fe Springs – 11536 Telegraph Rd.
Orange – 1273 N. Tustin Ave.
Alhambra – 1701 W. Valley Blvd.
Los Angeles – 2897 Olympic Blvd.
Northridge – 18441 Nordoff Blvd.
UCLA – 308 Westwood Plaza.