Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Fast Food N-Asian







Took Hudson out to the Mick for a treat yesterday (it’s sad, but at 2.5 years old he already knows how to DEMAND Mickey Ds).
As a result, I had my second McDonald’s Asian Salad, along with an order of Crispy Chicken Selects (with chipotle BBQ and ranch dressing!).

Now, I’d thought the Asian Salad was pretty good the first time, but it was actually better this time around, for whatever reason…Hudson even ate a big piece of the soy-ginger grilled chicken, rather than restricting himself to the deep-fry-licious Chicken Selects. And he scarfed all the mandarin orange wedges and carrot bits.


T
he Chicken Selects were pretty great too. I hadn’t had them before—it was a coupon for discount Chicken Selects that played enabler for this Daddy and Son happy meal—and I’ve gotta say, they’re an order of magnitude better than McD’s highly suspicious McNuggets, or BK’s disgusting Chicken Fries and arid, tasteless Tenders.


I actually found myself, uh, Lovin’ It.


Crap, I’ve been borged. Still, it’s interesting that McDonalds is really starting to move into the lo-hi food space, with their Premium Coffee and Chicken and Salads--they're turning into, like, the Target of qwik-serv chains. The pricing is a couple bucks more than their standard artery-choking crap, but the quality of the fare is honestly better than a lot of sit-down places I’ve been to. And presumably, the meals are consistent to some 0.00001% tolerance, so you’re guaranteed a reasonably similar experience each time you go.


If they can expand their menu of healthy options, I predict good things ahead for Ronald and his pals. They'll still get the people who want to mainline saturated fats, but they'll also lure parents looking for fast, healthy meal for themselves and their picky young Mini-Mes.

Well, maybe not that healthy: H. had a bunch of fries and a chocolate milk jug with his grilled chicken and mandarin oranges. Sigh. Pobody's nerfect.

8 comments:

daddy in a strange land said...

All I can think of when I see those McDonald's ads for the salad is Margaret Cho's old bit: "This is not the chicken salad of my people!" ;)

And hey y'all, check out InstantYang's column this week on the meaning of "Asian" (with a quote from yours truly--thanks Jeff!):

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2006/05/15/apop.DTL

Anonymous said...

The Mick addiction starts early, doesn't it? My daughter is 19 months old. Last week, I thought I'd give her a treat and feed her some McDonald's french fries. I thought it was the first time she ever visited the Golden Arches. So imagine my surprise when she started dipping her fries in ketchup and shoving them down her throat like an old vet.

Turns out the nanny has taken her to Mickey D's about 10 times already.

Fast Food Nation...indeed!

Unknown said...

Just a warning on the "healthy" Mick D salads.

According to Ronald himself, his Crispy Chicken Asian Salad has 150 fat calories, 45mg of cholesterol, 1050mg of sodium.

So choose grilled chicken, right?

Actually, the grilled chicken has 65mg of cholesterol.

I'd avoid the salads altogether since what you're eating is mostly water and fat.

Fast Food Nation...you should actually read the book. It'll make you think about what your baby eats.

InstantYang said...

Believe it or not, I *have* read the book. And I still eat McCrap. I can't help it, for all the reasons you see in SUPER SIZE ME...junk food is literally addictive. It's like all those smokers with one lung who puff Lucky Strikes through their tracheostomy holes, most people KNOW the food's evil...the best you can do is limit it, not eliminate it.

So, yeah, we do the MCD maybe once a month at most. And though the grilled chicken salad has 60 mg of cholesterol, that's if you eat the whole thing--baby ain't going to do that. one piece of grilled chicken, a handful of mandarin oranges, and four or five mouthfuls of greens and carrots...that he'll do. still better than six Nasty McNuggets.

Still, good info--I hadn't realized that the grilled chick had MORE cholesterol than the crispy (this for my own health, not necessarily Hudson's). Sheesh. Mickey Ds gets you coming and going...

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

I didn't expect the Hudster to eat the whole salad himself. Although, my Noodle could eat a whole bowl of rice and spicy curried chick peas.

But yeah...who'd figure the grilled was worse than the fried.

Damn the fast food addicts.

Right now, I'm addicted to Starbucks...which is probably just as bad as McDs.

And in fact, probably more expensive. So my drink from Starbucks has 330 calories, but no cholesterol (soy, baby).

But still...damn!

Anonymous said...

Fellas, where's the new material?

daddy in a strange land said...

Yo Peachboy, glad to see someone cares--more content soon, we promise! Can you get in touch with me off-blog? daddyinastrangeland@mac.com Thanks!