Sunday, June 29, 2008

Dan's Old Ride

Place: Del Taco
Lunch: Macho taco (no salsa), 2 chicken soft tacos, Del Beef burrito, original Mr. Pibb (put it in your head)

So I get my drink cup and it says "WIN DAN'S RIDE". It's a promotional contest to win a Dodge Charger. I was surprised to see this because "Dan", Del Taco's commercial spokesman, was let go like TWO YEARS AGO.

So why are they running a contest?

Turns out, they're not. The game rules clearly state the contest ended in 2006.

They're using up old drink cups.

What makes that even weirder is that this Del Taco just opened maybe a month ago.

THAT doesn't look terribly professional, does it.

What they DO have that's new is "Del Inferno" hot sauce. Del Inferno has regulated Del Scorcho hot sauce to the second hottest available condiment at Del Taco.

My experience is, the hotter the sauce, the less the flavor. But Del Inferno has a distinct flavor to it.

AND quite a kick, I must say.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

No Tomato

Place: Waffle House
Lunch: Two eggs over light with white toast (no grits), 3 strips of bacon, small bowl of chili, Coke

And the winner is...WHATABURGER

Congratulations. You've won the "Don't lecture me about the tomato crisis" award.

I ate at three burger joints this week, each where I asked for my burger to be made with "no tomato" as usual. As you are probably aware, there's a salmonella scare with tomatoes, and most restaurants have pulled the pesky things from menus.

This is the response I got:

Hardee's: Snippy Counter Girl says "We no have tomato. Read the sign." I HAD already read the sign, and it said they'd removed tomato from "most items". So my request was still valid, Maria, you stupid snippy Hardee's counter girl. I HATE YOU.

Spangles: Smiling Counter Guy says (while pointing at their sign, which they've posted like 50 copies of everywhere) "Actually, due to the (blah blah blah), we're not currently serving tomatoes." To which I replied "Well, since I asked for no tomato, I guess we'll get along just fine then." At which point, he realized that mentioning it at all was really kind of dumb in my case.

Whataburger: "That'll be $7.07. Please pull forward to the window."

(Yes, I ordered more than just a burger.)

I've also noticed this week that Mexican restaurants that claim to make their salsas, pico de gallo, and what not fresh daily are STILL making said items.

Must be using canned tomatoes for that stuff, huh.

Suddenly, that whole "fresh" perception takes on a different tone, doesn't it.