KFC

Holy heck, I haven't reviewed KFC yet? This is a shocker. KFC is a solid fast food chain in my book because apart from their desserts, they've always been nut free. One tragic point in my past is that the chocolate chip cookie that came with all their box meals used to be safe for me, per the website menu anyway, and I ate it every few months and it was a fresh warm cookie and one of my only joys in dessert-life. And then once I checked the menu and it was no longer safe. RIP cookie. But their chicken is still fine, and I like the biscuit and cole slaw a lot. Today I decided to go partially because I'm super stressed out but also because I was getting gas from the Wawa next door and I wanted a treat for doing the stressful gas-getting. (Long story I guess). Anyway, KFC is cool.

Spicy Famous Bowl: This was off-menu and cost 3.99 instead of 3$, but that's still a solid deal per calorie. This is mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, popcorn chicken, shredded cheese, and hot sauce drizzle. It was super hot and is giving me mad reflux. But it was good enough, warm and filling. I liked the potatoes and gravy a lot; the rest was just OK. I would say it was good but too spicy for my tastes! 7/10

Regular Famous Bowl: OK, this was weird. They made it nicely, lots of gravy and fresh and the cheese was nice and melty on top. But now that I could taste it, that was weird. I mixed it with a frozen bag of brocco and cauliflower lol. It was filling and warm but made me freak out about allergies, which is maybe dumb but IDK, I think my soy thing is actually legit now that I read about other people who can't eat canned soups and frozen chickens. The gravy might be sketch! But anyway, it tasted OK. Lol. The potatoes had that floral taste. I like the gravy but it was spooky. 6/10

Popcorn Chicken Combo: I got this with Mountain Dew and Cole Slaw, and also it comes with a biscuit. The chicken is a little box and I didn't get a dipping sauce because the server didn't have a mask and I was distracted. Anyway, Allergy Genius me didn't realise there's potentially soy protein in the popcorn chicken (per their good allergy menu), but I ate it before and lived so I ate it again even though I've been avoiding all soy protein. I lived, again, though it was scary I didn't really get any itchiness. Apart from that the chicken tastes good but I'd never repeat this, it is too scary. Slaw/'scuit/dew were are tops. 4/10 for fear, 7/10 taste. 

Finger Lickin' Good Sauce: I am aware this is not a meal, but you can get some for free with a meal (as I did with my #3 3 piece combo) so I was excited to try it out. But to be honest, it didn't live up to the hype for me. Allergen free but not especially tangy/spicy/savory, just kinda an oily version of thousand island dressing almost. Maybe it is better with fries than with chicken, but I think I'd rather have BBQ sauce than this! 5/10

 

Crispy Colonel Box: The Crispy Colonel is a chicken sandwich made to compete with Popeyes, I guess, cause it's got a pickle and a tiny bit of mayo-that-tastes-like-tartar-sauce on the bottom. The sandwich itself is pretty good, the chicken is fresh and moist and not too greasy, and they didn't overdo it on the mayo. The bun was a little old (and firm), but it tasted very neutral. The box comes with popcorn chicken, which is fine but soy-containing, and cole slaw which I love, and their new fries, which I don't really like -- they look fun but have basically no seasoning. However I also asked for 2 packs of BBQ sauce with this, so that made the fries (and the chicken) a lot tastier. This is also a ton of food, probably good for 2 meals. I didn't even drink the Pepsi that comes with it! 6/10 sandwich, 5/10 box (box is 10$, not very cheap!)

3 piece chicken combo: This is #3, and it comes with 2 wings and a drumstick. I like the wings, they are like smaller thighs. The drummie is OK. The biscuit I got was super hard, but I think the Lebanon KFC is just bad (sorry, dad). Cole slaw is bangin' as always. Pepsi was a lil watery. It is what it is. 6/10

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (Usually very cheap for a meal - 5$!)
Taste: 7/10

Q says "It's pretty bad. 3/10"

Public Service Restaurant

OK, I'm really of two minds about this place, which is in New Orleans where I was for LSA. I went here with two cool and fancy colleagues, who claimed that the star rating was about 4.5 even though when I googled it it was like 3.8 (I guess they were using OpenTable or something). But that duality is present in my reaction too. Firstly, this is attached to a fancy hotel, and as you can see, the room is very pretty as well. But it wasn't very crowded and it seemed ever less fancy the longer I was there. (Note: price was certainly very fancy though.) The waiter was polite, but also would not let anyone modify their dish, even for an upcharge, which is super frustrating. They accepted my allergy info though I guess. They also were out of the beer I ordered ( a sour ), so I got the one they said was most similar (a not great malty wheat beer?) and it was not at all similar.

That all being said...my food was great. My eating partners got tragically bad salads, but I got the Braised Beef Short Ribs, which came with veg (my only veg of the entire trip!!!) and mac and cheese (yom). The beef was tender and great, spicy and warm and filling. I didn't eat it all only out of social decorum (it was very big compared to salads), but if I were with my parents or something I sure would have. Anyway, to sum up: public service = bad service, but good food if you don't get salad.

Overall
Cost: 3/10 (like 150$ for three people, who had one drink each and no dessert!!!)
Taste: 7/10

Pepperidge Farm Toy Soldier Cookies

I expected these to be not great, because the shape and concept of "toy soldier" is no "chessmen", and also because I don't usually like shortbread or brown sugar types of cookies (so plain and crunchy). But I actually enjoyed these quite a bit. They were still a bit boring as cookies so, but the overwhelming flavor was "buttery", which is wonderful. Not too sweet, not too crunchy, just a nice pleasant butter cookie. Not bad, Pep Farm. (And my parents, who bought these for the hols.)

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

DiGiorno Cheese Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza

Oh, readers, what a day today is. I have a massively important talk to prepare ASAP, and I woke up with an excruciating headache. Water, coffee, and yoga did nothing to heal it, so I thought "maybe I need to eat more". More pizza! Spoiler: I still have the headache and will have to do the talk tomorrow. Now that the preamble is over:

I wisely ate just 1/3 of this pizza, as it is 1500 calories. I am plenty full though. The real meat of this dish is not the roni, it's the crust! And it's a nice lovely crust, just like Pizza Hut or my high school did theirs. Normally I don't like DiGiorno but either I am getting used to them or the stuffed crust version is more legit. The non-crust part is honestly just "eh", it's pepperoni pizza that's fine but not great. But the crust is noice. Also, there's no soy here, which is great.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Pepperidge Farm Mint Brussels

These taste a lot like Mint Milanos (which are, of course, tasty), but with a somewhat firmer texture, which I like. The mint is really the overwhelming flavor note; I can't sense the coconut which I know is in here. A little dark chocolate flavor too, and some nice crispy cookie. These are pretty unhealthy but that's a delicious cookie for ya!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 8/10

2018 Gateway Vinho Verde Rosé

Whew, I haven't had wine in so long I wasn't sure what was happening with this! I got into a rabbit hole of looking up the wine shipping laws; I stopped getting wine last summer which is when the state senate stopped passing bills, so maybe once the bill is re-introduced this year things might improve and I will get mail wine again. Here's hoping, because my stash is almost depleted, and being weekend wine-drunk is pretty tops.

This was a bubbly rosé, which I wasn't expecting. A little bit like a funny soda pop. It was sweet, but not crazy sweet, and very...pollen-y? It made me sneeze a lot. I like the pretty bottle and screw top, but for a fizzy rosé I feel like this should have been better somehow. It was just OK for its genre. This young grape is meant to be drunk soon after bottling, so maybe I just waited too long.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Signature Select Vodka Sauce

So many "signature" store brands, I can't tell the difference between them! I guess "select" is the pasta sauce line. It's pretty solid. I wouldn't say that this is very different from other vodka sauces I've had, which is great as it's the cheapest one. I used about 1/3 with my pot of noodles (and veg), and that seemed just right. It's creamy and fatty (750 cals per jar!) and has little tomato chunks in which are tasty and evoke the flavor of the Signature Select plain pasta sauce. It isn't too sweet or salty and didn't make me ill (yet). Overall, I'm a fan, although I try not to go too hard on vodka sauce (or vodka).




Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 7/10

Mrs. T's Mini 4 Cheese Medley Pierogies

My first new review of the year and it isn't even very new -- I've had many a pierogy, but not a mini pierogy! It turns out I'm a fan of the smaller size. You get to eat more of them (11!) and more of something is always more fun. It's the opposite of a mini oreo because here, you get more of the GOOD stuff (noodle) and less of the "eh" stuff (the filling)! Nice! Also softer and cook faster. The taste is still a bit boring, but it's easier to pretend these are just old timey raviolis.



Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10