Wendy's Natural Cut Fries - Revisited

The last time I went to Wendy’s to try their new Natural Cut Fries I was not pleased. The new fries were awful. Per the request of a friend and Jason from BevNerd I decided to give the new fries another chance. Against my better judgment, I went back to the first place I went to. It's way closer to Brian's work than the other Wendy's in town, and he was on his lunch break. On this visit, the fries were delish! I guess I really did just get a bad batch last time. These were more like the old fries. They were soft and squishy, perfectly salted, and even had some skin on them. The fries seemed less greasy as well, but that might have just been the particular batch I had. Brian likes them alright but prefers the old ones. All I could get him to say about them is that they taste “different.” I agree, but I think they taste good different. I now give Wendy’s new fries two thumbs up. If you haven't checked them out yet, I suggest you do. A value size is only $.99.

Reserve Your Chick-fil-A Spicy Chicken Biscuit

If you're like me, and love spicy chicken sandwiches, you were excited when Wendy's came out with their 99 cent spicy chicken nuggets. You were also excited when Chick-fil-A came out with their own spicy chicken sandwich. Well my friends, if you are looking for spicy chicken for breakfast look no further than Chick-fil-A's spicy chicken biscuit! Follow this link to reserve yours today!

Push Pop

Brian’s family was nice enough to give me a stocking this year. It had all kinds of goodies in it, including candy. One type of candy was a push pop. I loved these things when I was younger. However, I remembered my finger getting sweaty from being in the plastic tube for so long. Does/did anyone else get sweaty push pop fingers?

Sierra Mist Cranberry

I do not like Sierra Mist. Like I mentioned in my post about Pomegranate 7UP Antioxidant, Sprite is my favorite mass produced lemon-lime drink. But while I was at my dad’s house for Christmas we ran out of cola and the only soda we had left was Sierra Mist Cranberry. Normally, I probably would have passed it up. Given that now I'm constantly on the look out for new things to try and the tasty success of my adventures in 7UP land I decided to give this soda a go. To my surprise and delight, it was really good! Pomegranate 7UP tasted more like a pomegranate soda instead of a pomegranate flavored lemon-lime drink. Sierra Mist Cranberry, however, was crisp and refreshing – like a cranberry flavored lemon-lime drink should be. I actually welcomed the chance to drink this again while I was at Brian’s mom’s house, so I give this 5/5 stars. Great success.

Royal Crown Bottling Co.

The other day I noticed the above Royal Crown Bottling Co. in Columbia. I don't know how I've missed it for so many years. Since I've started this blog I felt that it was only appropriate to go take a picture of it and post it. Most of you probably know Royal Crown for its RC Cola. I couldn't find a lot of history about this particular defunct bottling plant (see the for sale sign in the window), but according to this site I found it looks like this might have originally been a bottling plant for Chero-Cola. Perhaps it was build to only bottle RC Cola, I don't know. If any Columbians want to see it, it's on Assembly Street. If you're going towards the highway, away from the stadium, it's on the left side of the street shortly after passing Gervais St. Happy hunting!

DiPrato's Pimento Cheese Spread

I love pimento cheese. I hate mayonnaise and “sandwich spread.” This hate makes it hard to love pimento cheese because the main ingredient is usually mayonnaise or sandwich spread. I’ve tried many different pimento cheeses, looking for the one that strikes my palate perfectly. My favorite is from a restaurant in Columbia called DiPrato’s. Their pimento cheese spread is served with garlic pita chips and is the best appetizer ever. They also put it on a lot of sandwiches, giving you more than one way to enjoy it. I think that their pimento cheese does have mayonnaise in it, but if so it’s not a ton. It’s just enough to keep everything together. You can see the real, grated cheese in the picture to the right that I’ve posted. No weird, icky cheese paste here! Their pimento cheese spread isn’t the only good thing on the menu, though. I’ve been there for brunch and lunch and have yet to have something I didn’t like. Today I got the rosemary ham sandwich with pesto mayonnaise and Brian got the chicken saltimbocca – both delish, and pictured below (mine on the left, Brian's on the right). The prices are sometimes a little on the high side but the portions are generous. Brian and I both took ½ of our sandwiches home. If you’re in Columbia I HIGHLY recommend it.

BevNerd

Video podcasts and free episodes of TV shows have become my new favorite past time. One of my favorite podcasts is BevNerd. The host, Jason, is from Alabama and reviews a beverage + a snack each video. He sometimes does more than one beverage or snack, and usually tells you about a promotion as well. I think he restocks vending machines (he sort of makes an allusion to that in an early episode) which is part of the reason why he has access to so many snacks and beverages. If you enjoy this blog (or don't and want to see someone do a better job) check out his website/Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/iTunes podcasts. Do you all think I should make videos? I've considered carrying around my camera so that I can film myself at restaurants. Perhaps I'll give it a try. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Pomegranate 7UP Antioxidant

Generally, I prefer Sprite over 7Up. But when I saw Pomegranate 7UP antioxidant at Bi-Lo I decided that I had to give it a try. I found some pics online of pomegranate 7UP cans but they only had it in 2L form at Bi-Lo so I grabbed a bottle. It has antioxidants, which is pretty cool. Again with the healthy soda, I suppose. I’ve had pomegranate before, but didn’t know what to expect from this. I guess I thought it would sort of taste like cherry soda. Really, I expected it to taste like pomegranate soda, but heck if I knew what that would taste like. Let’s be honest, most of the time when you have something that’s flavored like fruit it doesn’t actually taste like that fruit. I love grapes but hate anything grape flavored. It’s just not the same. This soda didn’t disappoint. When you first drink it, it doesn’t really taste like pomegranate. It just tastes like a fruity 7UP. But the first little aftertaste hint that you get tastes EXACTLY like pomegranates! It's not really "crisp and clean" like you'd expect from Sprite or 7UP. It does taste more like a fruit soda. Still, it's really great. I like this soda a lot. Brian and his roommate tried it and they both liked it as well. I don’t know if I’ll buy it again, but I’m certainly going to enjoy finishing the rest of the bottle. I give this 4.5/5 stars.

Tommy's Naked Soda

I went to the Gourmet Shop a few weeks back to visit a friend who had just started working there. While I was perusing their wares I found some New England ‘naked’ sodas; Tommy’s Naked Soda to be exact. These sodas don’t have any caffeine, unnatural flavors or colors, and are clear. I’m sort of curious how they get sodas such as blueberry, raspberry, and orange to be clear, but whatever. I think that in general I have decided that I am not a fan of ‘healthy’ sodas. If I want healthy, I’ll drink vitamin water. If I’m drinking soda I don’t want healthy. I ended up purchasing the lemon & lime, raspberry & lime, and orange. For more information on these drinks, visit tommysnakedsoda.com

1. Lemon & Lime
When I think about how a lemon/lime soda should taste I imagine a light, crisp, refreshing taste. This soda was lacking in the light and refreshing departments. The lemon & lime part was fine, but something about it seemed heavy. Perhaps it didn’t have enough carbonation in it? Brian thought it tasted alright but I thought something about it just tasted a bit off. It was okay, so I’ll give it 3.25/5 stars.

2. Raspberry & Lime
I was a little worried about how this would taste, since I tried the black cherry & lime Vitamin Water flavor and didn’t like it, but I decided to give it a go. I like this one more. You mostly taste the raspberry, with just a hint of lime at the end. This one was a bold mix of flavors and was pretty good, so it gets 3.8/5 stars from me.

3. Orange
I feel like I’ve had this before. I think it’s taking me back to the ‘natural’ orange soda I got from World Market. Good to know that they all taste the same. And how could they not? The ingredients are the same: carbonated water, cane sugar, natural orange and other natural flavors, citric acid, and ascorbic acid. This particular natural soda has 100% of the U.S.R.D.A. of Vitamin C, which is great for me because I currently have the winter sickness. I uploaded a picture of this soda's bottle (please excuse my free phone's lack of mega pixels.) In the effort of fairness I give this one the same rating I gave the last natural orange soda I tried: 3/5 stars.

Recreating Wild Wing's Poppy Seed Honey Mustard

Recently I have welcomed all mustards that are not "yellow mustard" into my life. My favorite non-yellow mustard is Wild Wing Cafe's honey mustard. What makes theirs unique? It has poppy seeds in it. I swear that I once saw a poppy seed honey mustard at Bi-Lo but have been unable to find it again. I have since found myself wondering if I could recreate the dressing by merely adding some poppy seed dressing to some honey mustard. Sounds simple, but this theory doesn't always work out. Example: adding curry to ketchup does not make curry ketchup. I finally caved and purchased some Publix poppy seed dressing (it was the first one I found that was a plain poppy seed dressing). Today I mixed the dressing with some French's honey mustard and to my delight it tasted EXACTLY like Wild Wing's! I didn't exactly measure it out, but if you're looking to recreate the taste yourself this is what I did:

-1 medium squirt of honey mustard
-3 splashes of poppy seed dressing

I like this dressing on just about everything. Grilled chicken, fried chicken tenders, wings, fries, and even chips (I'm currently dipping some Lay's classic chips into my dressing). I encourage you to give this a go if you're a honey mustard fan. If you do try this out, post your findings in a comment. I'd love to know how you think the mix of the two stacks up to the original.

Happy Gobble Gobble Day

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and speaking of gobble gobble, I don't know how many of you have ever had fried turkey but if you haven't YOU ARE MISSING OUT. To quote my uncle it's, "the best damn turkey you ever ate." So when I learned that my uncle was not going to be coming to thanksgiving this year and thus was not frying a turkey I was really disappointed. I was so disappointed that I asked my step mom if my sister and I could fry a turkey ourselves if we bought the ingredients (mainly peanut oil and seasoning). She and my grammy reluctantly agreed. $30 & about 4 gallons of LouAnn's peanut oil + 2 partial cans of Tony Chachere's seasoning later we were ready to go! To the right is a picture of our turkey, post Tony's rub. My uncle usually uses a whole can. We didn't quite have that much, but I think it turned out alright in the end.

Now, there are about 6 steps to frying a turkey. 1) Make sure the turkey is FULLY thawed. This means you should start defrosting it the night before. 2) Do not over fill the pot with oil. To make sure of this we put the turkey in the pot, filled the pot with water so that it just covered the turkey, removed the turkey (making sure all of the water drained out), then marked the waterline by scratching the pot with a pocket knife. 3) Bring the oil to 375-400 degrees then keep the temperature steady at 350 degrees. 4) Slowly lower the turkey into the pot to avoid splashing. The picture to the right is my sister, and boyfriend putting the turkey into the pot. If you do not follow rules 1, 2 and 4 that's when things get dangerous and you run the risk of injury and/or house fire. 5) Cook the turkey for about 3-4 minutes per pound, or until an internal temperature of 160 degrees is reached. We had a 13lb turkey and cooked it for 39 minutes, at which point its internal temperature was around 175. 6) Let the turkey sit for about 5 minutes before you remove the turkey from the base and skewer, or begin carving. After 5 minutes carve, serve, and enjoy!

Above is a picture of the finished turkey pre- and post-carving. Look at that crisp brown skin! mmm, mmm good!

Wendy's Natural Cut Fries

I don't know about you all, but I love Wendy's. One of my favorite things about them (beside their spicy chicken sandwiches and nuggets) is their fries. Well, that's no longer the case. They've unveiled their new, natural cut fries. These ones are cut and fried with the skin on them and are flavored with sea salt. Despite my love for their old fries these sounded delicious and I couldn't wait to try them. I'd even received a coupon in my e-mail (yes, I like Wendy's so much that I'm on their mailing list) for a free 'value sized' fries. Boy, was I disappointed.

For starters, my fries didn't even have any skin on them. Disappointment. I'd heard (haven't done my research, so I don't know for a fact) that the new fries have more salt on them but mine certainly didn't taste like it. You know when you go to McDonald's and you get those hard, somewhat over cooked fries in your fry container? Well, Wendy's new fries were like that. But all of them were like that. Gone were the moist, squishy fries that I had loved.

Comments on their Facebook post about their new fries features mostly negative comments about the new fries. Hopefully they'll change them back soon. R.I.P. Wendy's delicious fries.

Welcome to yummmpop!

I bought some sodas from World Market a while ago and wanted to share my findings. So, I made a note on Facebook so that I could share my thoughts with the world! Or at least my Facebook friends. Since then I have entertained the thought of making a blog where I could review sodas, post recipes I have found/altered/created, and generally share my opinions on food and beverage. This is that blog. I will do my best to update it at least once a week. I don't know how well that will work out, but I'll give it a shot. Enjoy!

Strawberry French Toast

In my last post I said that I had just eaten some strawberry French toast. I've been asked by a few people for the recipe sooo here it is!

Ingredients:
Bread
1 generous Tablespoon of strawberry yogurt per slice

Steps:
Apply a light coating of yogurt to each side of the bread
Cook in a skillet/pan until warm and desired consistency is reached

What this is, is French toast made with yogurt instead of egg, milk and vanilla. Strawberry yogurt, specifically. I first used vanilla yogurt, so it would taste as much like regular French toast as possible but I've since expanded to other types of yogurt. I've tried peach and strawberry, both with great success. If you try this, I recommend a very light coating of yogurt because the toast gets soggy very easily. When you use egg, the egg cooks and the French toast doesn't get super soggy. But when you use yogurt nothing really cooks and thus the bread just gets soggy.

World Market Sodas

I bought 9 different sodas from World Market recently and have decided to document my tasty findings.

1. Coco Fizz Chocolate Soda, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, zuberfizz.com
This is the first one I tried. I got impatient after I got home and was craving something sweet so I popped this one open before it was ice cold. But hey, I like warm soda anyways. This definitely tasted chocolaty. Much more than, say, chocolate beer. However, it didn't taste exactly like chocolate but like chocolate flavor. It sorta tasted like a carbonated Yoo-Hoo. A better explanation might be that it tasted like a liquid, carbonated chocolate lollipop. It was pretty good, but by the end of it I was kind of tired of it. I give it 3/5 stars.

2. Bubble Up, produced by Dad's Root Beer Company and bottled by OrcaBeverage Soda Works, dadsrootbeer.com & orcabeverage.com
A lot of the sodas I bought are sweet and sugary, and since I had just eaten some strawberry yogurt French toast I opted for this "Crisp and Refreshing Lemon Lime Soda" instead. Lemon and lime, indeed. It tastes pretty similar to Sprite and 7up. Despite its name, the drink is significantly less bubbly than Sprite. In fact, I think I prefer it over Sprite for just that reason. I would definitely drink this one again but don't plan on driving back to World Market and buying them out so I give it 4/5 stars.

3. NuGrape, Orca Beverage Soda Works, orcabeverage.com
I was really hesitant to buy this one because I hate all things that are supposed to taste like grape. Don't get me wrong, I love grapes, I just hate grape flavor. This soda tasted exactly like what I suspected grape soda would taste like. My roommate said it tasted like Fanta. I think it smelled like Dimetapp. I didn't hate this one; it was better than a lot of other grape tasting things I've had. I personally give this 3/5 starts but if you're into grape-flavored things this is probably right up your alley.

4. Creme, Boylan Bottling Co., boylanbottling.com
This soda was SO SWEET. Goodness, it was like drinking candy. It wasn't a bad tasting candy, just a super sweet candy. I don't think I've had any other creme soda before, so maybe that's just what it tastes like? I don't know. You all will have to enlighten me. I give it 2.5/5 stars, just because if someone offered it to me I would probably pass.

5. Orange, Boylan Bottling Co., boylanbottling.com
Per recent (and vintage) trends in soda, this one is sweeted with cane sugar instead of refined sugar. But the 'healthiness' doesn't stop there. The list of ingredients is pretty short and it has mandarin and tangerine oils. Are fruit oils healthy? Maybe not. I'm not really an expert. I just know that since they're something semi natural from an actual fruit it makes me feel better about it. I wish I could say that I prefer this one over the next orange soda, but I don't. As much as I wanted to like it, there was something sort of off about the taste. Maybe it's the healthiness. The odd taste isn't bad so I give it 3/5 stars.

6. Nesbitt's of California Orange, Orca Beverage Soda Works, orcabeverage.com
This one has cane sugar as well but also has more ingredients that I can't pronouce, less natural flavor, and more artificial color. And boy, does it taste pretty close to mass produced, commercial, bad for you orange soda (read: Sunkist, Fanta Orange, etc). Because of that, I prefer this orange soda over the above. If this were cheaper than or the same price as a 2 L of any other orange soda I would be tempted to pick this one. Accordingly, I give it 4/5 stars.

7. Americana Delicious Vintage Black Cherry, Orca Beverage Soda Works, orcabeverage.com
When I was reading the descriptions and ingredients of both of my black cherry sodas I wanted to like this one. It’s made with real cane sugar and is “healthier.” However, I just didn’t like it. Something about the taste just seemed off to me. I’m starting to think that I just don’t like cane sugar flavored sodas. Brian and I both tried this, and he preferred this one over the other one. So, if you like black cherry soda there’s a chance you’ll like this one. I’ll give it 3/5 stars, just like the cane sugar soda 2 reviews up.

8. Black Cherry, Boylan Bottling Co., boylanbottling.com
Like I said in the above review, I preferred this black cherry soda. The flavor was just more on the ball with what I thought a black cherry soda should taste like. Brian didn’t like it, but I’m going to give it 3.5/5 stars. It wasn’t the greatest soda, but it was definitely better than the one above it.

9. Pig Iron Cola, Orca Beverage Soda Works, pigironbbq.com
I love Cola. It’s my favorite soda hands down. I was really looking forward to trying this one and, let me tell you, it did not disappoint. In fact, it’s probably one of the best colas I’ve ever had. If it were cheaper, I would probably buy it over Coke/Pepsi. Given the price, it’s right up there with my love of RC Cola. As Brian says it “finishes really well,” and doesn’t leave you with the syrupy heaviness of most colas. Just great taste. I give it 5/5 stats.