Naked Chicken Chalupa

I was reading Grub Street earlier today and they were talking about a new Taco Bell experiment - a taco shell made out of a fried egg debuting this month in Michigan. I can't say that I'm very excited about the idea of holding an oily, squishy egg in taco form, but it reminded me of the last unconventional taco shell that Taco Bell had, the one made out of fried chicken that they sold across the country as the naked chicken chalupa and which was gone within a month.

The naked chicken chalupa came out at the end of January, and within the first week, I picked one up at Taco Bell for lunch and absolutely loved it. I wanted to get more, but there isn't a Taco Bell super close to us at home and our February weekends were pretty packed, making it difficult. Sometime near the end of February, less than a month after releasing it, they announced that the naked chicken chalupa would be gone before March. I had missed the news for a few days (was pretty busy with work and stuff), so by the time I finally learned about it, it was too late. The naked chicken chalupa was gone. I always knew it was going to be a limited edition item, but I didn't think it would be that limited.

There was a lot of buzz around this chalupa when it first came out because it was replacing the regular fried chalupa shell with a shell made of fried chicken. Inside the fried chicken shell were the usual chalupa toppings - lettuce, tomato, cheese, and avocado ranch sauce. Eating it, it was just like eating a regular chalupa. The taste was so similar, except better since the fried chicken shell not only had the flavor of the regular fried chalupa shell but also fried chicken. It was so good. Unfortunately, now it's gone. Was it that expensive to make? Did they run out of fried chicken shells? It got pretty good reviews as far as I could see, and there was a lot of hype about it, so why was it gone so soon? Hopefully this will be like some of the other menu items that Taco Bell brings back from time to time. If so, I will definitely be trying to get as many as I can.

Double Stacked Habanero

I went to Taco Bell over Christmas weekend and noticed that they had something new, double stacked tacos. Now that I've tried them, I'm also seeing the commercials all over TV advertising them for $1 each. At the one I went to, they were almost double the price at $1.99, but I guess that's the NY upcharge for you. There are three types - nacho crunch, spicy sweet, and cool habanero - and I went with the cool habanero, since the flavor profile of that one was both most appealing and the easiest to guess from the name since I had never heard of these before.

I thought the reason they were called double stacked tacos was just because they had a crunchy shell inside a soft tortilla, but I guess they're also supposed to bring together contrasting ingredients (they describe it as yin-yang on the website). Anyway, this was one of their standard tacos with beef, lettuce, and cheese, but it also had sour cream and habanero sauce. (I guess they consider those the opposing ingredients - sour cream and habanero - but that seemed pretty standard to me to cool the spice of hot sauce with sour cream.) Usually I find fast food places advertising things to be spicy (coughWendyscough) to not really be that spicy but the habanero sauce here packed some nice heat. Texturally the double shells worked, and the flavor of the taco was good, as it was your standard taco plus a creamy hot sauce. After trying it and reading the descriptions of the other two versions of the double stacked taco, I think I made the right flavor choice for me. Overall, it was a pretty good taco and I'd get it again. I just wish it were really only $1.

Goddess and Grains

When we go to Panera, we usually get the You Pick Two combo, and we both usually get the Thai chicken salad. Although we've tried other salads from time to time, that's been our go-to for a long time. On a recent lunch visit, we both decided to try something new. We don't think these salads are brand new to Panera, but they were new to us.

M's review of the Green Goddess Cobb with Chicken:
I like traditional Cobb salads a lot, except for one component - blue cheese - so whenever I see some variation of a Cobb salad that doesn't include blue cheese, I jump at the chance to try it. The Panera version of the Cobb salad has no cheese at all, and instead mixes chicken with a bunch of different greens (arugula, romaine, kale, radicchio), tomatoes, pickled red onions, avocado, bacon, a hard boiled egg, and a green goddess dressing. The dressing was packed with herbs and really tasty (Panera's website tells me it's mostly tarragon, chives, parsley, and watercress), although I personally prefer some of the green dressings at places like Chop't a little more. I liked the salad, and there was a decent amount of both avocado and bacon, which was nice to see. My only constructive criticism would be more onions and more dressing, but otherwise, it was really good. I might mix things up on future visits and get this sometimes instead of the Thai chicken if it lasts through the fall.

A's review of the Ancient Grain and Arugula with Chicken:
M has a bit of an aversion to mixing fruit with her savory foods, but I don't have that much of an issue with it. This salad consisted of "chicken raised without antibiotics, arugula, ancient grain blend, red grapes, and fresh apple and cabbage slaw tossed with white sweet balsamic vinaigrette dressing and topped with roasted and salted pumpkin seeds." This was a really fresh and tasty salad. The grapes and apples weren't so sweet to overpower the rest of the salad, and the grain blend added a nice crunch to the mix. The chicken was a touch on the bland side, but it had enough seasoning to at least not be a complete bore. Overall the salad was tasty, but I don't know that I would consistently get it over the Thai chicken salad.

Rodeo Rings

I went to Burger King recently and had a ridiculously unhealthy lunch. I went with the intention of trying the new chicken rings they've been promoting all over the place (even if I hate that they are actually named "chicken fries rings" because I think that name sounds so wrong), and I can never resist the call of onion rings when I'm there. I figured I'd end up sharing some of the chicken rings with everyone else, so I also tacked on a rodeo chicken sandwich that I found on the value menu but had never heard of before.

The chicken rings (I really can't say chicken fries rings; I know they trademarked chicken fries and that's why they're named that way, but I still can't) are similar to the chicken nuggets and chicken fries at Burger King, lightly breaded, seasoned, and shaped white meat chicken. I wasn't entirely sure what the seasonings were, but according to the nutritional information sheet, the seasonings are paprika, garlic, onion, and "spices."

As far as size, they're quite a bit larger and thicker than the onion rings, which are probably the best point of comparison. The box had 6 rings for $2.89, but I think that price varies by branch. I liked the chicken rings a lot, and would consider getting them again. But I've always liked the fried chicken nuggets and fries at Burger King (and chicken nuggets in general), ever since I was a kid, so it's not surprising that I like these too, despite the horrible name.

The rodeo chicken sandwich combined everything that I usually get from Burger King into a single sandwich - fried chicken, onion rings, and BBQ sauce. I'm not sure if I just missed advertisements for this when it was a new menu item (since even if they're playing on TV, I often tend to mentally tune them out) or if it just appeared on the value menu with no fanfare, but I never noticed it before. It was kind of like deja vu, same type of experience we had when we went to McDonald's on a road trip last year and found the grilled onion and cheddar burger on the value menu that we'd never heard of.

Although the rodeo chicken sandwich was okay, I think I preferred the fried chicken (in the form of the rings) and the onion rings with my dipping packets of BBQ better than the sandwich put together. I think it's because the onion rings on their own were crisper than they were in the sandwich, and I could control the amount of BBQ sauce better. Also, the sesame seed bun had the same problem a lot of fast food buns do in that they get a little bit soft and soggy. The sandwich was fine, but I think I'll stick to the nuggets (or rings or fries) and onion rings separately.

I definitely overdid it with all the fried food that day at Burger King, and probably should have mixed it up with some other stuff instead of just fried chicken, fried chicken, fried onions, and more fried onions. I made all my choices pretty quickly, so now I'm wondering what else was on the value menu that I didn't know about but could have tried. I'll take a closer look next time.

Our Feast of the Seven Fishes

Happy Christmas to all who celebrate! Our holiday has been filled with lots of good food and some low-key family time, which has been nice. Last night for Christmas Eve, we went to my parents' favorite sushi place on Staten Island, Genki Sushi, for dinner. Sushi has been our tradition on Christmas Eve for years now, as a way to honor the Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes (there were a lot of Italians in my neighborhood growing up). Sushi is a pretty easy way to eat at least 7 different fish or seafood types, so we've been doing that for as long as I can remember.

We started our Christmas Eve dinner with this special appetizer that had eel and avocado wrapped in some cooked whitefish (not sure what type since it was off-menu). This was a really tasty way to start the meal and we were already up to 2 fish: eel and whatever that white fish was.

One of our favorite appetizers there is the dragon ball, which is spicy kani and shrimp wrapped with avocado and topped with a special sauce and some roe. We don't think it's real crab, but that sea legs imitation crab stuff (which I guess is mostly pollock usually). Either way, 2 appetizers in and we were already up to 4 different types of seafood: eel, whitefish, kani, and shrimp.

Next came the tuna pizza, a crispy tortilla (like a flatbread) topped with tuna, crab (the same stuff that's in the dragon balls), and avocado (spread). Pretty good, but we like the dragon balls better. The tuna pizza brought us up to 5 fishes.

Every so often my parents like to order the pineapple fried rice which comes served in a pineapple with a sauce that tastes a little like a pineapple mayo, kind of sweet, kind of tangy, kind of creamy. The fried rice mixes in shrimp, crab, chicken, and scallop, so that brought us up to 6 with the scallops before the sushi rolls even arrived.

We ordered a whole bunch of rolls, both "regular" and "special" rolls, and I'm pretty sure we covered at least 7 fishes with the rolls alone. 

The first roll on the plate was the dragon roll - eel, masago, avocado, wrapped with avocado and topped with roe. This is a classic roll that you can find at most sushi places, but this is a good version. We already counted eel so we were still at 6.

These 2 were the spicy scallop roll and the rainbow roll, a California roll wrapped with avocado, tuna, salmon, and white fish. The inside of a California roll is usually that same imitation crab stuff, and we've already counted scallops, tuna, and white fish, but salmon hit the magic number of 7 fishes. That said, I always thought the "white fish" here was yellowtail instead of white fish like the menu said, which if it were would take us to 8. Not a big deal though, because there would be more yellowtail to come later.

I didn't remember ever trying this roll before, but this one was the Halloween roll. I'm not entirely sure what's in it since it's one of the newer special rolls that's not listed on their takeout menu, but it seemed like spicy tuna and avocado on the inside, with white tuna and peppered tuna on the outside. The peppery flavor of the tuna made this one really stand out, and with the white tuna, our fish total came up at 8.

Three rolls in this picture - salmon/avocado, yellowtail/scallion, and spider roll (soft shell crab). The yellowtail took us to 9, and the soft shell crab (different from the kani stuff in the other dishes) took us to 10. These were all pretty standard rolls from the "regular" section.

One of the special rolls we really like at Genki is the Ichiban roll - spicy tuna and crunch on the inside, with lobster tempura, avocado, and special sauce on the outside. The lobster took us to 11!

The current seasonal special roll was called the new year's roll and consisted of tuna, salmon, and avocado on the inside, and a lobster salad on the outside. This one was really good, and while containing rich lobster, it was fresh and bright and light, exactly what one would think of for a good start to the new year. Since there weren't any new fishes here, we ended Christmas Eve night at 11. Success!

We actually went back again to Genki tonight for Christmas dinner, getting a couple of the same things like the fried rice, but mostly ordering all new things. Some of the biggest hits from tonight's dinner were the spicy girl roll (spicy salmon crunch and avocado inside, with tuna, white tuna, scallions, and spicy sauce on the outside), the volcano salad (spicy tuna, kani, shrimp, tako, and seaweed salad, wrapped in avocado and special sauce), and the yellowtail guacamole (crisps topped with avocado, tomato, and seared yellowtail).

We've never had a bad dish at Genki, even when they're experimenting with new dishes and combinations. It's definitely the sushi place we visit most often since my parents love to go there, the staff is friendly and attentive, and the food tastes good. Is it some sort of high end traditional omakase? No. But the sushi rolls and appetizers are tasty, the quality has always been good, and we love seeing what new specials they're going to come up with next!

Genki Sushi is located at 150 Greaves Lane in Staten Island.

Knockout Tacos

Now that almost all of the NYC Qdoba locations have closed up, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to their new items and promotions. But when we visited one of the only remaining NYC stores in Staten Island last weekend, I saw a flyer for new "knockout tacos" and my interest was immediately piqued. Tacos are one of my favorite things to eat, and I was really curious what they were doing now that was so different and such a "knockout."

Qdoba has always offered tacos that could be filled with any of the toppings on the line, but never with specific flavor combinations. The knockout tacos came in 6 varieties - 2 chicken, 2 steak, 1 pork, and 1 veggie, and from a cursory look around online, it seems they came out around Halloween. The pricing might vary around the country, but here you can get a single taco for $3.50 or an order of 3 for $9. I ditched my usual salad/burrito bowl and went for the 3 taco deal. (As a side note, I was supposed to write a post last year when Qdoba switched to the free guacamole model, praising them for that decision since I hate paying extra for guacamole, but never got around to it, so noting my appreciation for that here.)

The first taco I tried was the Mad Rancher, which had grilled chicken, bacon, guacamole, picante ranch, lettuce, pico de gallo, and cotija cheese. The bacon wasn't strips or large pieces, but those little bacon bits you throw on top of salads or things like that. This taco was my least favorite of the 3, but it was still a pretty good choice. My thought after trying it was that it was a good version of a basic American-style grilled chicken taco. There was creamy guacamole and ranch dressing, pico de gallo, cheese, things that I don't usually find on tacos at Mexican places, but still enjoy.

The second one I tried was the Drunken Yardbird, filled with tequila lime chicken, guacamole, salsa verde, cilantro, minced onion, and cotija cheese. The tequila lime chicken was really good, much more flavor than the usual grilled chicken. This was my favorite of the 3 tacos. In direct contrast to the one before it, this one reminded me the most of the tacos that I get at Mexican spots. Marinated chicken in a corn tortilla topped with onion, cilantro, salsa verde, one of my favorite types of tacos.

The final one in the trio was the Two Timer, with pulled pork, salsa roja, shredded cheese, lettuce, cotija cheese, and pico de gallo inside of a crispy taco shell, which was itself wrapped inside a flour tortilla that was spread with 3 cheese queso. Back when I used to order a lot of delivery at work, I remember ordering from a place that made a lot of tacos like this - a crispy taco inside of a soft taco. I always found that textural contrast kind of fun, and that was the same with this one. This one was certainly the most decadent of the 3 tacos, mostly because of the rich queso, but the queso also helped neutralize the heat of the salsa roja, which I think is the spiciest of the salsas. The pork itself tasted good, and I would get this one again.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the tacos. I didn't think they would be that different from the "build your own" style of tacos Qdoba had before, but whoever put together the flavor combinations did a good job. Matching the particular toppings to the flavorings of the proteins, as opposed to using the same toppings on every tacos, worked well here. When I used to build my own, I would just throw on as many toppings (especially salsas/vegetables) as I could, but these were better tailored and edited. Getting a set of 3 tacos is a little more expensive than getting a burrito bowl (which arguably could be more food), but they're a solid choice.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2014

I can't believe it's the end of the year and time for another top 10 food memories list already. We didn't travel that much this year, which is probably why half the list is from New York, but we still had a lot of great food memories to choose from. So here's my top 10 (in no particular order).

1. Cevapi from Cevabdzinica Sarajevo (Astoria, NY)

The cevapi we got for our Bosnia visit during the World Cup challenge was probably my favorite meal of the challenge. It was the first time I'd had Bosnian food and I was hooked. I was ready to ditch the rest of the day's food crawl plans and just eat more cevapi. The grilled sausages, raw onion and ajvar together were such a delicious combination. Add in the soft and fluffy lepinja and it was an excellent lunch that I can't wait to have again.

2. Spicy herbs spring roll from Chada Thai (Las Vegas, NV)

This spring roll got penciled in on the top 10 list back in January when we tried it at Chada. The spring roll consisted of a soft rice paper wrapper lined with lettuce leaves and stuffed with ground pork, ginger, onion, lemongrass, wild cilantro, mint, kaffir lime leaf, and basil vinaigrette. Tons of herbs but all complementary and not clashing one bit. Somehow they combined to form a roll that was both delicate and full of intense herbal flavors. It tasted like something I had before and liked, but I couldn't quite place it, maybe something from Jitlada. All I knew was that I could eat this every day, given the opportunity. It was so light and fresh, exactly the type of thing I want on vacation.

3. Garlic grilled chicken from Charlie Brown's Fresh Grill (Staten Island, NY)

I'm probably as surprised as anyone reading this to find a dish from a chain restaurant on this list, but I can't stop thinking about this garlic chicken. The chicken breast was cooked perfectly, and was juicy and full of garlic flavor. It was accompanied by some roasted potatoes that were completely covered in garlic, as well as brussels sprouts, which I had expected to be roasted but were instead lightly fried and drizzled with balsamic. This dish just screamed rustic to me and it's the type of thing that I wish I could recreate at home. (How do they get it so garlicky?!) We had just disembarked from the Quantum a couple of days before and this dish was better than almost everything I'd had on the cruise. It was also my first "real" flavorful meal after recovering from the food poisoning/stomach virus/bug thing I picked up on the ship, so it was especially good.

4. Uni tostada from Cosme (New York, NY)

We planned to eat at Cosme from the minute we heard it was in the works and obsessively followed it until its opening. Once we finally got there, it absolutely surpassed our already high expectations. The dish that was the best for me and completely transporting was the uni tostada. A tostada made in-house from their usual purple (or blue?) corn and fried up, topped with bone marrow salsa, avocado, jalapeño, and a very generous amount of uni... It was so good. I took one bite and I could taste the salty air and almost feel the sea breeze, as if we were indulging in the tostada while sitting on the beach. It was a perfect bite and just zapped all of winter's cold right out of my mind.

5. Flying fish sandwiches from Cuz's Fish Shack and Harbour Lights (Bridgetown, Barbados)

The one thing we knew we wanted to eat in Barbados was flying fish and our first stop was Cuz's Fish Shack for a flying fish sandwich. It was really good, as was the fried flying fish sandwich we got later in the day at Harbour Lights, but that's not really why they're on this list. This is one of my favorite food memories because it was the perfect beach day that I had daydreamed about the entire time leading up to vacation and the perfect summer day that I didn't really get to enjoy all year because of my various ailments. Flying fish sandwiches on the beach, rum punch in hand as we basked in the sun, perfect turquoise water and soft white sands. This was everything I wanted our vacation in the Caribbean to be. This was a day that I was extremely thankful for every minute we were there and one that I will never forget.

6. Camarones al ajillo con trifongo from El Jibarito (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

A picked this one out when we were at El Jibarito (we were sharing and I ordered the alcapurrias and bacalaitos) and I can't stop thinking about the trifongo. I can't put my finger on what I liked so much about it, but it's a mixed mofongo with sweet plantain, green plantain, and yucca. Somehow that combination, mashed together and fried up, just won't get out of my head. It was better than I ever imagined it would be. It was paired up with some super garlicky shrimp, peppers, and onions in butter sauce, and together, they were great.

7. Garlic prawns from Lotus of Siam (Las Vegas, NV)

One day we'll get around to recapping our visits to Lotus of Siam. This time, we got something new - the garlic prawns. Everyone talked about the garlic prawns and I was expecting some good, crispy fried salt and pepper shrimp, but what we got was so much more. In addition to frying the shrimp, Lotus also fries the shells. The result is a thin crispy shell that tastes just like you're eating a shrimp chip. I love shrimp chips and I was so surprised by how great those turned out to be. I'm not sure how we're going to handle subsequent visits to Lotus because our "must order next time" list keeps getting longer and longer. This is definitely on mine.

8. Gorgon taco from Otto's Tacos (New York, NY)

We've already posted about the amazing "secret" Gorgon taco that you can get at Otto's Tacos, so you know how much we love it. It's completely unhealthy but I love these puffy tacos.

9. Super onion chips from Superdawg (Chicago, IL)

I love onion rings so there was no way we were leaving Superdawg, the famous drive-in hot dog joint in Chicago, without getting their super onion chips. They're like onion rings but in smaller pieces, so you don't have that problem where you bite into a ring and the onion separates from the breading. These were perfectly breaded and fried. I could have eaten an entire meal of these super onion chips and was so sad when they were gone.

10. 52 week cooking challenge

Home cooking has really become a part of my life and this year I took part in my first 52 week cooking challenge (even if I did it unofficially). I'm pretty proud of sticking with it and finishing it, and I learned so much along the way. Over the past 52 weeks, some of our favorite meals have come out of dishes that I made for the challenges. Among our favorites were Southern night (Hoppin' John and collard greens), Belgian night (carbonnade and stoemp), Hawaiian night (garlic shrimp and mac salad), and the incredible esquites that we've gone on to make several times because we love them so much. I am so glad I decided to do this challenge, and it definitely deserves a spot on this list.

So much good food in 2014. Bring on 2015!

Rolled Chicken Tacos

Before we left for our trip, we stopped by Taco Bell to try their new rolled chicken tacos. They looked so good on TV and we needed something to improve our lunch after a potato debacle (perhaps more on that another time). Since we just wanted a light snack, we got an order of 2 rolled tacos which also came with 2 sides. I picked salsa and guacamole, figuring those would be good for dipping.

The salsa was fine, but not very flavorful. Definitely not spicy if that concerns you. The guacamole was kind of flavorless as well, just some processed/mashed up avocado with very little mixed in. The rolled chicken tacos themselves were also a bit of a disappointment.

Source

They looked like taquitos, which we pretty much expected, but they had nowhere near as much stuff inside them as the ads would lead you to believe. They were supposed to be filled with shredded chicken, but I'm not sure I would have known that in a blind taste test at all. Of course food always looks better styled for an ad, but this was just a sad looking cousin to those tacos. Look at the difference!

On top of that, they were also kind of flavorless. This wasn't some situation where we had eaten something really spicy or with heavy flavors and our taste buds had been dulled. Not at all. These just didn't taste like much of anything, sadly.

On a brighter note, I did make a nice story out of sauce packets.

Back to the food though, I think we're going to stick with a taquitos specialist, someplace like Taquitoria, if we want real "rolled chicken tacos." If we want Taco Bell, we'll get the stuff they're better at, like Doritos Locos Tacos. Glad we tried them, but not getting more of these.

Taste and Share

When we went to TGI Friday's with my parents recently, I was expecting to see lots of promotion for that ridiculous "endless appetizers" deal. We weren't planning to partake, since even if we all got it and had 4 different appetizers on the table, it wasn't really what we were looking for for dinner. Also, all I could think of was how I was turned off by that stupid experiment someone did for one of the websites (can't remember which one) where they ate mozzarella sticks all day and felt sick, but really didn't even eat that many in the end. (Really, why would you pick mozzarella sticks when there was bruschetta or boneless wings or even green bean fries?)

Anyway, we got there and there wasn't even a card in the menu about endless appetizers. Guess they weren't participating in that. Not a problem for us. I didn't care one way or another about appetizers, but my parents wanted to get some, so we ordered a few off this "taste and share" portion of the menu that I had never seen before (but could have been there for some time, we don't go often enough to know). From that section, you pick 3 appetizers and it costs $16 (or you pick 5 for $23). 

One real problem is that the quantity of each appetizer is different. Some plates had 2 things, some had 3, some had 4, which kind of makes it a little challenging to truly share, don't you think? I suspect that one of the big reasons why this irks me is that the menu tagline was, "Big flavor, smaller plates, perfectly shareable." I see no way in which these are "perfectly shareable" until you get to 12 people, and by then, you're not really sharing much of anything. Stupid incorrect marketing line.

We started with the hibachi chicken skewers, which had chicken skewers "marinated in garlic-black pepper soy sauce with a miso glaze" that were served on pieces of grilled pita with a ginger-lime slaw. Fancy description, but really not very exciting. They just tasted like grilled chicken in soy sauce (with one charred pepper per piece) on an ordinary piece of pita with an Asian-inspired cole slaw. I could make this at home if I had a grill pan, and probably make it more interesting. It was also not that fun to eat for 4 people, since we had to split it up before we could eat.

The one appetizer we got that came with 4 pieces (there were only 2 things on the menu that even had 4 pieces) was the garlic and basil bruschetta, which consisted of "Roma tomato, roasted garlic and fresh basil on freshly baked Parmesan baguette crostinis with a balsamic glaze." That description was pretty accurate. It was basically a cheesier version (and therefore, a richer version) of bruschetta. It was good, and the roasted garlic pieces on the side were especially welcome, but in the end, the regular bruschetta they have is just as good. Another thing I could probably also make at home, although with the prep work, I don't mind ordering it outside. (We prefer to order things we wouldn't or couldn't make at home if we're out at restaurants.)

The last part of our appetizer trio was the 3 piece ahi tuna crisps, marked as a favorite on the menu. This was, of course, the hardest to split among 4 people, and my parents ended up just splitting one chip. This had blackened Ahi tuna slices, lightly seared, on top of tortilla chips with jalapeño pepper slices and a dollop of guacamole. The dish was drizzled on top with sriracha and an avocado vinaigrette, and the crisps were served on top of a (relatively flavorless) slaw. The crisps weren't bad, and they remembered me of tasty hors d'oeuvres you could get at a party, but it would have been nice if there had been 4 to an order.

In the end, our favorite was probably the bruschetta or the tuna crisps, but none of them were really that original or amazing. If you divide out the price by the number of pieces, it's kind of on par with the expensive hors d'oeuvres at a catering hall. By size, they're probably a bit larger than some of those, but not by much, and those hors d'oeuvres are already hugely marked up. All that to say that I don't think it's that great of a deal to get these appetizers at TGIF, where you would expect to get more moderately-priced food than a fancy catered reception (and some of those reception snacks are much tastier ... mmm, tuna tartare crisps). Probably should have just gone to get the half price apps at the bar.

Turkey Chili

We were at Panera recently for lunch and in addition to my usual Thai chicken salad (without wontons), I decided to try their new turkey chili as part of my pick two order. I love chili, especially in the winter.

Panera's turkey chili is made with antibiotic-free roasted turkey, garbanzos and kidney beans, slow cooked with tomatillos, corn, pasilla negro and ancho chili powders, cumin, edamame, diced onions, carrots, garlic and green chilies. (That's all in the product description. There's no way I'd be able to detect all that just from tasting it.)

The chili was really interesting, especially the inclusion of ingredients like edamame and garbanzos, which I haven't found in most chili recipes (at least not the ones I've seen). That gave the chili a really hearty and healthy feel, although it wasn't especially flavorful. I thought with all the different seasonings and chili powders that it would have a strong spicy flavor, but I didn't really get that until a few spoonfuls of spices accumulated on my tongue. It just didn't taste like it was packed with all those complex ingredients. I wouldn't call this my favorite chili and I've had better ones, but I would consider getting this again at Panera. It was pretty good and heartier than some of their other soups, and chili really is so perfect for these cold days.

Rainbow Cookie Cake

Does Costco have this rainbow cookie bar cake nationwide or is this just an NYC/East Coast thing?

First time trying rainbow cookies in cake form

I'm never quite sure what things are local to our area for the holidays. Today at Costco they were sampling this rainbow cookie bar cake, which is pretty much the classic rainbow cookie in a larger cake form. Layers of sponge cake with raspberry and almond paste filling, in the usual rainbow colors, and topped with chocolate ganache. It was rich and creamy, but also light at the same time because of the airy sponge cake. The soft chocolate icing was an interesting contrast to the usual firm chocolate layer in the cookie. In my opinion as a rainbow cookie lover, both work well.

Rainbow cookies from last year's Christmas dessert, in case you're unfamiliar with their greatness

Rainbow cookies are everywhere around here, especially at the holidays. The ones from the local Italian bakeries are still better, but the Costco ones are pretty good. I know this is an Italian-American creation, so I'm not sure how much the rest of the country gets to experience this delicious treat. If anyone is having a big party for Christmas, this cake (or the cookies) should really be a contender for the dessert table.

Southwest Chicken

I'm not sure if Greenleaf's Grill is a chain in a lot of food courts or only a few, but I found myself there for lunch with my mom recently and decided to try one of their "specialty sandwiches."

The Southwest Chicken sandwich had pieces of chicken, cheddar cheese, and fresh salsa (tomato-onion pico de gallo) grilled fresh inside ciabatta bread. It reminded me of a thicker version of a panini (sorry, pressata) that I used to get at Europa way too often during work.

The sandwich was pretty good. I liked that it was grilled fresh after we ordered it. The lady behind the counter tried to warn me that it was really spicy, but I didn't think it was that spicy. After all, there weren't really any hot peppers in the salsa, just a little bit of spice. The chicken seemed like maybe it had some mesquite flavoring on it (since it's supposed to be "southwestern"), but that wasn't super spicy either.

If I had to choose three words to describe the sandwich, I would probably pick zesty, filling and balanced. I liked that there was lots of salsa to balance out the bread and the chicken, and the sandwich was definitely enough for me for lunch. I would get this again.