Fast Food Review: Wendy's Flavor-Dipped Chicken Sandwich

After the abomination that was the Wendy's Spicy Chicken Go Wrap, I did not have very high expectations for Wendy's new sandwiches. But they offer them dipped in buffalo or barbecue sauce, and I am always a sucker for any kind boneless chicken with buffalo sauce. So, on an errand to pick up some cat food, I figured I might as well swing by Wendy's and try one.

It was fantastic. The chicken was crispy outside and tender inside, and it was swimming in the buffalo sauce. It is the only sandwich I have had that comes close to the pinnacle of buffalo chicken sandwiches: the Atomic Chicken Sandwich at the Dark Horse Bar in Boulder, Colorado (which was awesome even when it wasn't accompanied with an appetizer of bull testicles.)

It's a "limited time only" menu item, so I will probably go back and try the barbecue sauce version, although I can't imagine it is as good as this.

Hot Dogs

During Game 7 of the Red Sox-Rays series, I wanted something very simple for dinner. I really didn't even want to eat; I was extremely nervous that yet another team was going to roll over for the Red Sox, like the Angels did this year, the Indians did last year, and the Yankees did back in '04. But I figured if I at least made something fun for dinner it would distract me for a few minutes.

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I was watching the game with a friend of mine from New York who is partial to Nathan's hot dogs. I also like them, although my favorite are Farmer John, of course, since that's what I grew up eating. (During Dodgers games when Vin Scully would do the commercials and say that Farmer John hot dogs are "fresh dressed locally," my dad would always be sure to point out to me that just means they slaughter the pigs in California. Eventually I will make him reimburse me for my therapy bills.) I've never been to the original Nathan's in Coney Island; I only ate at the Nathan's at the "Vince Lombardi Service Area" on the New Jersey turnpike, which is a little like saying I love Australian cuisine because the "Aussie Cheese Fries" are so good at Outback Steakhouse. But, whatever, I bought a package of Nathan's hot dogs.

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My friend went with some cole slaw and chopped pickles on her hot dog, but mine, pictured above, are a little more loaded. To one I added a slice of American cheese, chili (a can of Albertson's chili that I bought because it was on sale for 99 cents; perhaps the worst chili I have ever tasted, by the way,) chopped pickles, and mustard.

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On the other dog I added A.1. Thick & Hearty steak sauce, cole slaw, and cheddar jalapeno Fritos. The second dog was much better, although I'm not sure if that's just because the chili was so bad. Neither of them could compete with the best hot dog I ever made, however, which was topped with A.1., Trader Joe's fried onion pieces, and Zankou garlic sauce.

Crab Cakes

I'm not a fan of the show "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" on Food Network. The show is emblematic of what has happened to the network in general. Years ago you used to be able to watch it and actually learn things from chefs like Ming Tsai, Mario Batali, and even (sometimes) Emeril. My whole interest in cooking, believe it or not, started 9 years ago when I saw Emeril make some beer battered onion rings and I thought 'hell, even I can do that...'

Then, somewhere along the way, things changed. Rachel Ray started showing how to eat in certain locations for $40 per day (apparently it involves stiffing servers on the tip, which is especially funny in episodes in the Hamptons or Telluride where she goes shopping for hundreds - if not thousands - of dollars worth of stuff.) Several shows sprouted up demonstrating how to do things cheaply, even if it meant using sub-par ingredients. Now it seems like almost every show is either a travel show, reality show, or a show that, instead of trying to expand the home cook's skills, strives to limit them.

"Throwdown" is a classic example. You do not learn anything from the show, which is a shame, because in every episode Bobby challenges someone who has mastered a particular food or drink. Presumably there is a lot that we could learn. But we don't. So I never watch the show. But I was turning around the other night after a baseball game and saw that they were making crab cakes.

My friend, with whom I was watching tv, remarked that she loves crab cakes, as do I. So I decided to cook some for dinner the next night. I bought some "Chinese coleslaw" (I'm not quite sure why it's called that) from Bristol Farms and cooked some tater tots that were in the freezer (I was watching the baseball game and that seemed easier than making homemade fries.) The crab cakes can't compare to ones I have had on the East Coast, but they were pretty good. The white wine we had with dinner was not so good, though. I guess crab cakes and tater tots should have been served with beer. (Not that that is an expert opinion; I often think my morning Flintstones vitamins should be served with beer.) Still, it was an absolutely gorgeous evening and it's always fun to cook something different.

Murray's Cheese Shop (New York City)

I love cheese. There is no occasion that isn't made a little bit better by a plate of cheese and some bread. Whether it's a pre-UCLA football game picnic in the Arroyo Seco, or wine tasting on the central coast, or even a relaxing evening in front of the television watching baseball, cheese is always good.

There are some great places in the Pasadena area to buy cheese, like the Whole Foods on Arroyo Pkwy, Bristol Farms, or Nicole's Gourmet Foods in South Pas... but nothing that compares to Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village. They have hundreds of varieties of cheese, from American cheddar to semi-soft cheeses from the Beira region in the middle of Portugal.

I visited Murray's for the first time on my most recent trip to New York. After lunch at John's of Bleecker Street (I was told it was the best pizza in New York; it was not, but it was better than any I have had in California) I walked down the street to Murray's with the idea of picking up some cheese to eat with dinner. Within two minutes of being inside and looking at the long counter, I decided that cheese would not be an accompaniment to dinner, it would be the main course.

I picked up some Le Châtelain (a Camembert from Normandy,) a Danish blue cheese, some Humboldt Fog (a California goat cheese and my favorite cheese made in America,) and another soft cheese, the name of which I cannot remember.

I made a salad and ate the cheese with a sliced baguette. I purchased a bottle of Justin Cabernet; something about drinking a California Cab in New York seemed fun.

Fast Food Tasting

A day after wine tasting in Temecula, three friends and I decided to do a fast food tasting, either new promotions or items we had not tried before. My friend Zach asked me what time I thought Dairy Queen started serving lunch. "I don't know," I said jokingly, "why don't you call them?" So he did. I didn't even know Dairy Queens have phones. Do they get to-go orders? Do they take reservations?

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"You know how, when you go wine tasting, you see some of the same people at different wineries throughout the day?" my friend Tyler asked. "I'm going to feel very pathetic if we see the same people at different fast food restaurants." (I saw his point, but I suddenly wanted very badly for this to happen.)

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We drove down the the DQ in Oceanside, right by the beach, and ordered their new chicken strips basket and the Flamethrower burger. The chicken strips were actually pretty good: big pieces of crispy chicken. The gravy they came with, however, sucked. The flamethrower burger was one of the worst burgers I have ever tried. It tasted of freezer burn and hot sauce. Not a single one of us thought it had any redeeming qualities.

We had wanted to get a fish taco at a Mexican joint next door, but we waited in a line that did not move for several minutes and decided to leave. Besides, their fish taco was grilled, not fried, and that seemed too healthy for our adventure. The bucket of Tecate was tempting, but not strictly necessary at 11 in the morning.

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Next up we went to Arby's and tried their "Mac & Cheezers" and popcorn chicken shaker. The mac & cheese was decent, although I have never liked this trend of breading and frying mac & cheese. I ate one and that was enough. The popcorn chicken was quite good, shaken in their buffalo sauce. We got a free order of mozzarella sticks with the mac & cheese, but they were pretty bad and I only ate half of one. (Zach also got an Arby-Q sandwich, because apparently we weren't eating enough. And somehow we ended up with two orders of curly fries, which none of us could explain.)

Next we stopped at Jack in the Box to try their pita sandwiches. I was pretty excited about this. When I was in high school I loved Jack and would frequently stop there after basketball practice and get a Jack's Spicy Chicken (back then it was called a "Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich," which apparently was too time-consuming for some people to say) and toasted raviolis. They got rid of the raviolis a long time ago, which I never understood, as they were one of the best fast food items ever. I love pita sandwiches, so I had high hopes. We got the steak, crispy chicken, and fish, as well as an order of their fried mac & cheese, to compare it to Arby's.

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All three of the pitas were horrible. Just disgusting. My friend Tyler took one bite of the fish and made a gruesome face (and this is a guy who, at Arby's, found something fried on the tray that looked like a clump of hair and ate it anyway.) I followed and immediately spit it out in the trash. It tasted like a stale fish stick. (Zach and Elizabeth refused to try it, as they are much smarter than we are.) The steak was tough and flavorless and the chicken was thin and strange tasting. And their mac & cheese was over-fried on the outside and chewy and stale on the inside. Overall, it was just a bad decision to go to Jack in the Box.

But I knew we could count on Popeyes to come through. I love Popeyes. Years ago some friends and I were at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, in the "Popeyes Blues Tent," waiting for Chris Smither to come onstage. It just so happened we ended up sitting next a huge man, probably 400 pounds. He was a friendly guy, although a bit deranged, and when we told him we were from Southern California he launched into a hour-long diatribe about KFC vs. Popeyes, running down every item on both menus - with which he was intimately familiar - and explaining why Popeyes items were superior to their KFC counterparts. My friend Kevin kept going out of the tent to get beer for us, and laughing when he returned to find our friend still discoursing about fried chicken. It was one of the top ten moments of my life.

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We ordered a "Delta mini," a "chicken biscuit," and "Louisiana nuggets." It was all delicious. The mini sandwich and the nuggets came with their "Delta sauce," a spicy sauce that may well be the best fast food condiment I have tasted. These Louisiana nuggets are the best thing I have ever tasted at Popeyes.

After Popeyes we debated whether we should squeeze in one more place, but ultimately decided against it. Perhaps next time.