Tragic Sandwich

Tag: cheeseburger

  • Cheeseburger Challenge: Round 1

    Let the cheeseburger-eating commence! Actually, it already has, because I ate a lot of cheeseburgers on our Thanksgiving trip to visit family. Here are the contenders so far:

    In-n-Out
    Automatically excluded. It’s just not fair to the other cheeseburgers.

    In-n-Out cheeseburger with grilled onions
    See what I mean?

    Carl’s Jr.
    Do they even have small burgers? The best I could do based on the displayed menu was the Famous Star, which is nearly twice as big as what I’m looking for. Turns out–if you go to their website–that they do have a “Kid’s Cheeseburger,” but I didn’t even see kids’ options available when I was in the restaurant. So I guess I need to go back to Carl’s, which frankly is annoying.

    Jack in the Box
    I had to go to the kids’ menu here, too, but at least I could find it while I was standing at the counter. Unlike McDonald’s, the onions on this were sliced instead of chopped. This seems to come only as a combo, with french fries or apple slices* and a choice of milk, water, or fountain drink. The cheeseburger was okay, but I felt sneaky ordering a kids’ meal for myself. Is there a rule, or something? It feels like there is.

    Wienerschnitzel
    I’m not sure I would have put this into the mix, but there was one right next door to our hotel, so what the heck? They have a cheeseburger that seems about the right size. It was fine, but I felt like it had the worst presentation–it seemed kind of mashed. Oh, this one had chopped onions.

    So far, we haven’t tried Wendy’s or Burger King or anything else that comes to mind, so there will have to be a Round 2.

    But I may have to wait a bit. To be honest, I’m a little sick of cheeseburgers right now.

    *McDonald’s offers apple slices as a fry alternative, but they don’t come with caramel sauce, which I think more than undoes the good here. Point to McDonald’s in the kids’ meal arena.

  • Kicking Off the Cheeseburger Challenge

    Cheeseburger Potholder Set

    On Saturdays, Baguette and Bestie have swim class at a local Y. Afterward, we all go to McDonald’s for lunch.

    I kind of hate McDonald’s.

    It’s not that there’s nothing there I like–it’s more that they keep getting rid of the things I like best.

    For a while, Baguette would only eat the McBites. Then they got rid of McBites. It turned out she also was fine with Chicken Selects. So what happened a few weeks ago? That’s right. They got rid of Chicken Selects. And on top of that, whoever handles McDonald’s Twitter account has never responded to my questions about this. (This is actually a pretty basic thing about social media–they should be answering direct questions.)

    Don’t get me wrong. I ate plenty of McNuggets as a kid. But they really creep me out now, because that’s not what chicken looks like.

    And McDonald’s has some new sandwiches that I kind of like, particularly the CBO. But it’s enormous, and I’m not usually looking for enormous.

    Over the past couple of years, I’ve realized that I cannot eat those big fast-food burgers. I just feel like a giant mess afterward. So I started trying the various chicken sandwiches, but the truth is, I just don’t like chicken that much. And the fish sandwiches are few and far between.

    What I really want is a cheeseburger. You know, the size of the regular cheeseburgers that I grew up with, and that McDonald’s still sells. It’s enough food, but it’s not overwhelming. And it’s not a diet food, but the calorie count isn’t completely out of control.

    The problem? McDonald’s has lousy cheeseburgers.

    Actually, they don’t. McDonald’s has lousy cheeseburger buns. I’m okay with the meat and cheese and toppings, but there is just something off about those buns. (In comparison, the Big Mac buns are just fine–but I don’t want a Big Mac, I want a normal-sized cheeseburger with a decent bun.)

    It occurs to me that it’s good to have things I can eat at fast food chains. It’s not that I want to eat there all the time–I really burned out on fast food when I was nursing, and drive-through was the only way I was able to get any lunch at all, many days. But sometimes you’re in a hurry or on a road trip, and fast food is a viable option.

    It’s very easy to stare blankly at the menus, which I can find as overwhelming as the sandwiches. But since I know that what I really want is a regular cheeseburger, I want to know how the various regular cheeseburgers compare.

    So I therefore announce the Cheeseburger Challenge. I’ll keep you posted.

    Heh. Posted. Because it’s a blog, get it?

    Photo by Wednesday Elf – Mountainside Crochet, via Flickr.