Bucket Bowl 2009!

Its the Wednesday before the Superbowl. Where will you be Sunday if not in Tampa Bay? Will you be at your favorite sports bar with your friends and 1000 other strangers, downing wings and pitchers and holding that piss because the line for the bathroom is too long. Or more likely, in this day of HiDef TVs, you will be at home with a few friends and beers, and saving a ton of money in this horrible economy. But that leaves one question, what food will you be eating. Its the Superbowl, which means FRIED CHICKEN! But will it be KFC(no longer Kentucky Fried Chicken) or Popeyes, the dirty spinach swilling chicken of the south. 

Being on a limited budget myself and not wanting to clog my arteries too fast, the challenge is simple, which fried chicken and biscuit is better? To work up my appetite and kill some calories, I ventured down to the Fillmore section of San Fran where Popeyes and KFC live within 2 blocks of each other. You ask how does a 2 block walk kill calories. If you knew the neighborhood, you would know that you have to RUN from the restaurant to avoid the junkies hounding you for change. So really, after stopping in to Popeyes for a To Go order, I sprinted to KFC, not just to keep my change, but so noone would jump me for my food. But I digress, on to the food.

As I said, simple is the challenge, 2 pc Leg and Thigh with a Biscuit from both places. And we all know that even though white meat costs more, dark meat is better! Silly breasts.

On to the chicken. After digging into a leg of Popeyes, I find a nice crunch, with a bit of that Cajun flavor they claim to have. A nice few bites of fried goodness. So with that, I delved into the leg of KFC. First thing I get is salt, more than the Popeyes chicken. Then the pepper kicks in, not a bad finish, but maybe a bit heavy-handed. But the kicker here was the grease. I mean holy Marty Bernstein forehead! I felt like I had just bathed in grease, exponentially more so than Popeyes.  You can only hope the thighs would compare closer, but obviously wishes don't come true, and the flavor was in Popeyes favor, and KFC still has buckets more grease. All pieces had about the same amount of meat. I would also say that the lack of grease made the crunch of the fried skin on Popeyes that much better. In the end, hands down, Popeyes wins the chicken portion of the program. 

On to the Biscuits! I switched it up here and went KFC first. The first impression and most important, this is a dry biscuit. From there, I realize that there isn't much flavor either, much less the salt I got from the chicken. Now Popeyes biscuit on the otherhand was moist, and full of buttery flavor, with a nice salt finish. Now KFC did try to save themselves, in that they provided me a buttery spread packet for my biscuit. Now while this did add a bit of butter flavor, dry was still the order of the day. Popeyes hands down is the better biscuit. 

Conclusion, I think that is obvious at this point. But one more point in favor of Popeyes, the 2 pc and a biscuit cost $1.99 vs $3.65 for the same meal(with buttery spread) at KFC. So skip the wait at KFC this sunday if you are staying home, and go for Popeyes. 

Look for the next post within the week. And thanks for participating in this artery clogging fun!

~FastFoodDude

The Not-So-Angry Whopper

Funny how it happens that again it is a rainy day in San Francisco and I am eating fast food. Today's battle, the original Whopper vs. the Angry Whopper. Now, it has probably been a solid 6 years at least since my last whopper, so lets rehash shall we since I'm sure many of you haven't had one in a while either. What makes the whopper special? flame broiling? maybe. I definitely caught the smell and flavor of the flame process, though in watching them prepare my burger, I saw no actual flames, just a steamed patty. Ah the power of chemicals. The addition of a pound of not so real mayo with a pinch of ketchup sounds out the flavor here, with the addition of crunch lettuce, which may be the best part of the whopper. So as you can tell, the original may not be faring so well in the first place, which means the Big Mac may be safe.
Moving on to the Angry whopper, all the things that aren't great about the regular whopper are drowned out here by the overwhelming taste of the not-so-angry, quite tangy and tomatoey spicy sauce. Yes, there is a hint of kick at the end, but nothing "angry", even when I got a big bite full of jalapenos. So the burger is mostly drowned out. And then there is the 2 slices of bacon, that serve absolutely no purpose but to charge you more money, because they too are drowned out, as is the cheese, so lonely and melted. Again, this sandwich has crunch, both in the lettuce and in the "angry" onion rings, which being fried is good for crunch, useless for taste. Basically, in the end, you are left with the overwhelming taste of the tangy, not spicy sauce.
The verdict: both sandwiches are losers, don't waste your money on either. The only thing angry in the end will be your wallet and your stomach(2 whoppers and a hangover is a bad idea)

Cheesey Gordita Crunch Challenge

It was a rainy day in San Francisco, the perfect day to take a short bus ride to the nearest taco bell for the cheesey crunchie challenge, pitting the original cheesey crunchy we all know and love against the new kid on the block, the bacon cheddar cheesey crunchy. we all know the original, so I will go into discussion on the bacon cheddar. the first thing you notice is the overwhelming taste of smoky bacon flavor. it wasnt enough obviously to stick some bacon pieces in with the cheese, they had to go all out and make a smokey bacon cheddar sauce to go with it. at first, i would say it was a bit much, but goin bite for bite with the original, I found that the bacon flavor after a few bites sinks in with all the accompanying flavors and textures that we know and love about the cheesey crunchie. so the question arises, does bacon truly make everything better? after some serious contemplation I decided that in this case, though the bacon flavor was in the end a nice addition, the original cheesey crunchy sticks to that tried and true taco bell flavor profile of faux mexican goodness, and the original is still the best. so for those who have not gone out and taken the challenge, please do so, and the conversation/debate can rage on.
Cheesey for life!