McDonald's Southwest McDouble, Bacon Buffalo McChicken, and Dijon Swiss McDouble

The ever-loveble, scrappy up-and-comer in the food industry, underground craft burger favorite, McDonald’s, has rolled out some new burgers as a part of the ‘Dollar Menu and More’ line, which I aptly noticed while huffing and puffing away at the gym, the treadmill still spinning as I leapt off and headed for the golden arches. Take that, cholesterol!

The new line splits the section into two parts – ‘Dollar Menu’ featuring items for a dollar or less, and ‘More,’ with selections for slightly over a dollar. Don’t tell me you didn’t see that coming. McDonald’s is burger heavy this quarter, not only releasing three new Quarter Pounders (tantalizingly hidden behind a ‘new product coming soon!’ graphic on the menu) but adding three riffs off the McDouble and McChicken to the ‘More’ section. Pricing-wise, the premium McDoubles will cost you $1.79, while the originals are still only a buck. The Southwest McDouble, Swiss and Dijon McDouble, and Bacon Buffalo McChicken were the ones we tried last night, at midnight, along with an unspecified number of McDoubles as palate cleansers. I told The Bedfellow I wouldn’t divulge this information, but we ate no less than five burgers after we’d eaten dinner. No shame.

We started with the Bacon Buffalo McChicken, which was immediately decreed as “so dangerous,” as it offers the flavor and heat of a buffalo chicken wrap for only a dollar, if you forego the bacon. It’s your standard McChicken patty, but is downright lubricated with ranch and buffalo sauce. And…no bacon. Originally, I thought this was supposed to be a cost-cutting measure and that the ‘bacon’ would be in the ranch sauce as a flavoring, but it seems it was omitted. I can vouch that the flavor of the buffalo sauce is no different than that of the sauce for the premium Chicken Selects or McNuggets, but is tasty on a sandwich, too. That being said, it’s extremely messy and the chicken loses its crisp quickly. Would it be improved with bacon? Doubtedly, as the McChicken is pretty rich on its own.

The Swiss and Dijon McDouble was arguably the best of the new releases, but still needs improvement. It has a decent balance of acidic elements to counter the richness of the cheeseburger, but only contained a single pickle. A pity, as the bites with pickle were the tastiest. The mustard, while strong for an American palate, does put shame to the fine Dijon mustard of France, and is not up to snuff. Spicy brown mustard has more of a kick than this does. However, as a mustard sauce, it’s recognizable and simplistic in flavor, unmuddled by the other elements of the sandwich. Onions would be a good addition here.

The final burger was a trainwreck and tasted like something I’d have come with in the sixth grade before either of my parents got home from work. McDonald’s has taken a page from last year’s Taco Bell crib notes and has incorporated Doritos shards into their burger. These taste nearly identical to those found in the Beefy Crunch Burrito, perhaps a little spicier, and are combined with white cheddar cheese and a Southwestern sauce atop two burger patties. The flavor is pretty awful. Monolithic, greasy, and devoid of any heat or spice. While I applaud the idea of a Southwestern burger- McDonald’s has always been a little late to the game as far as spiciness is concerned, these elements would be better off in a larger burger with lettuce and tomato, or even salsa. Here, they felt haphazard and cheap.

The new Dollar Menu is novel and expands the variety a simple buck can buy you, but when all else fails, there’s nothing like a classic. As much as we enjoyed working our way through the burgers in the middle of the night, the McDouble still reigned supreme in our souls and arteries.

Wendy's Moonlight Meal Deal

Heads up, it's been 39 minutes tonight that the new Moonlight Meal Deal from Wendy's is available!

Your Abraham Lincoln gets you an awesome combo, starting at 10PM. So far, the option is limited to a Double Stack and a small chili cheese fries, made with their delicious sea salted French fries, but will hopefully expand as the year goes on. Personally, for my $5, I'd love to see a Jr. Spicy Chicken sandwich or a new, smaller version of Wendy's larger burgers- bring back the dipped chicken!

We tried the combo, minus the soft drink, at the Wendy's blogger experience back in March. Nothing to complain about here, except that it was just too much food!

Betty Crocker Cotton Candy Cookies

I'm back! I have approximately 200 words and 2 billion citations (CMS, natch) in between me and a shiny, special undergraduate degree, and I can guarantee you those 200 words will literally be the death of me. I am going to die with my hands frozen in the position of typing the word 'gendered' as a result of this paper. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing more that I love in God's beautiful world than writing about feminism, food, gender ambiguity, and psychology, but a girl needs to eat and see the light of day every so often.

A recent adventure to Target yielded this gem of a product, the likes of which can be found in no other place on the internet, including the venerable Ms. Crocker's website. The package tells me these, along with their frosting, are a Target exclusive. They're easy to prepare- one stick of butter and an egg and they're set. Unfortunately, I now know the psychological implications of these additions as a result of reading way too much Freudian psychology comingled with Crocker history. The egg is supposed to satisfy my need to have many, many babies. Thanks, Ernst Dichter!
The mix is classic unicorn cocaine plus sprinkles. There is the option to add frosting, if you want to undergo death by dental assistant.

I like these, but I can't quite tell why. I think the sweet, vague resemblance to other sweet things- maple syrup, raspberry donut filling, and bubble gum, with the lemony undertones, make them enjoyable cookies, but they don't distinguish themselves in the same way other aggressively flavored, sweet confections, like Thin Mints or cotton candy itself do. Their texture is almost perfect- grainy, obviously sugar-heavy, and incorporates the unusual addition of corn cereal which gives the cookies a layered, flaky heft, but they crumble so easily in both cooked and uncooked form that they're difficult to eat.

They're fun cookies, but on my current fun scale of my life, with 'finals and uncomfortable family gatherings' at one end of the spectrum and 'spontaneous fauxhawks' at the other end, these rank somewhere in the middle, lumped alongside walking to school and talking to professors. Do I enjoy these activities? I suppose. Would I willingly do them? Rarely. These cookies are just good enough to give to my neighbors- the ones who didn't egg my front door.

Yancey's Fancy Tandoori Gouda Cheesesteaks

A few weeks ago, I retrieved a shipment of cheese from Yancey's Fancy (retrieved as UPS and their terrible shipping policies held my cheese random) and received a selection of delicious flavors, one of which was this amazing-looking tandoori gouda.

I knew I wanted to cook something special with it, but I wasn't sure what would do the flavor justice. Making normal Indian food didn't seem to fit the bill, and fusing too many flavors together would overwhelm the delicate gouda's flavor.

A beautifully serendipitous sale on brisket gave me a great idea, though- why not make tandoori brisket cheesesteaks? The cheese is the biggest player, and I'd realized I was overdue for a good sandwich. Realizing I lack the capacity to eat an entire loaf of bread is sobering, but the bliss found at being able to make an enormous sub with baguette and eat it for dinner outside, with Red, was incomparable.

I made the brisket in the slow cooker. I want to eventually do one in the oven, but the oven in this apartment is erratic and tends to dry meat out unless I check it religiously. As I started the brisket at 4AM, I figured I ought to prioritize sleep over meat-checking, so I just popped it in the cooker and took it out at 5PM the next day. The brisket had a dry rub and a wet rub, the former a mixture of tandoori spices, curry powder, salt, pepper, garlic, and chili powder, and the latter, whole-grain honey mustard, honey, and brown sugar. This was all accompanied by a few shakes of hot sauce to balance out the sweeter flavors.

When it was done, I shredded it. It was my original objective to slice it, but it was just too tender! I popped the pan in the oven to get a bit of a crispy crust on it before assembling the sandwiches. After sauteeing some peppers and onions with a little olive oil, I was ready. Tandoori mayo, meat, veggies, and cheese went atop the bread, and the whole thing went into the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 to melt the cheese. Once finished, I drizzled the sandwiches with some of the sauce leftover from cooking and we ate them.

And of course, nothing is better than a tandoori cheesesteak, except a tandoori cheesesteak omelet in the morning. It was a really fun way to get creative with my sandwiches! I have a few more cheeses from Yancey's to try -- strawberry chardonnay and maple bacon are two that I'm itching to cook with. What should I make?

Wendy's Flatbread Giveaway!

Wendy's is giving away $1,000 to a lucky customer who has tried their new flatbread sandwiches with their new #twEATfor1k campaign. I can't give away $1,000 right now, but I can give away a few gift cards to Wendy's!

Have you tried the new flatbread? I have reviewed it here. I'm curious to hear what you guys think, so comment here and you'll be entered to win one of three $5 giftcards to try it yourself, or buy one for a friend. I'll pick a winner next Monday, May 6th and announce them here.

To see how I liked my tour of the Wendy's corporate headquarters, click here!

-Foodette