Food
currents
THEY’RE BAAACK! GIRL SCOUT COOKIES
The 2010 Girl Scout Cookie Program begins Sunday,
with more than 15,000 local Scouts pulling “cookie
mobiles” through neighborhoods, allowing customers to buy treats on the spot rather than pre-order
as in years past. New to this year’s cookie roster is
Berry Munch, a cruncher studded with dried cranberries and white fudge chips. All varieties, including the classic Thin Mint, are $4
a box. For information on all the
cookie varieties and Girl Scouts,
visit sdgirlscouts.org.
Wednesday
January 27, 2010
E
The San Diego
Union-Tribune
INSIDE
COMICS E6, 7
cook it light E3
TELEVISION E8
nutrition • recipes
Here’s our take on the good,
the bad and the ugly in fast-food deals
By Peter Rowe,
Staff writer
Starved for business in a weak economy, America’s fastfood restaurants are wooing customers with bargain burgers, tacos, fries, pies and other goodies. For consumers, this
“value menu” showdown can be confusing — which is best,
say, Burger King’s Double Cheeseburger, Wendy’s Double
Stack or McDonald’s McDouble?
Seeking enlightenment and a cheap lunch, we visited eight
fast-food chains and ordered every item priced at $1 or less.
Soon we had a full notebook, an overfull stomach and …
THE OK-OR-BETTER
CORRAL: TOP TASTES
HEALTH:
HEROES AND VILLAINS
SHOT FROM THE HIP:
RANDOM NOTES
Burger King
Believe the hype – on Planet Dollar
Menu, BK double cheeseburger rules.
Quarter pound burgers have
fresh-from-grill flavor.
Spicy Chick ’n Crisp Sandwich
tastes like cardboard fried
in Tabasco — and packs
more sodium than two
packets of fries (810
mg to 680).
Del Taco
Classic Taco is mediocre,
but better than oily glop sold
by BK and Jack in the Box, while
slightly ahead of Taco Bell’s version.
Nachos feature stale chips,
bland cheese sauce and more fat
than two half-pound burritos
(21 grams to 20 grams).
Macho Value Menu
is lean,
in a good way: bean and
cheese cup has 4 fat grams,
taco 7, the half-pound bean
and cheese burrito 10.
Kentucky Fried
Chicken
No surprise: KFC Snackers are
tastiest fast-food chicken sandwiches.
Tangy surprise: delightful
Honey BBQ Snacker.
Biscuits and mini-brownies make
lackluster sides. Hey, value menu,
where’s the corn-on-the-cob?
Ready to splurge?
Some of KFC’s best value menu
items sell for $1.49 or $1.99.
Junior Bacon Cheeseburger
lacks lettuce or tomato, but the
bacon imparts a nice smoky flavor.
Mini-churros, stuffed with sugar-andcinammon paste, have twice the fat
of Del Taco’s regular churro
(18 grams to 9 grams).
Fries are fast-food gold standard;
coffee ($1 at breakfast, more later)
rivals Starbucks.
Yogurt parfait with strawberries and blueberries is a
sweet winner. Ditch the granola packet for a skinny
130-calorie treat with scant
2 grams of fat.
Jack in the Box
McDonald’s
Fries start at $1.49. Why?
Wendy’s, McDonald’s,
Burger King and Sonic all sell
$1 fries.
Value of a dollar: side salad
with herb vinaigrette, 85 calories, 0 grams
of fat. Or McDouble burger,
390 calories, 19 grams of fat.
Order a fresh banana in its own peel,
sweet proof that nature rocks.
Vanilla ice cream cone also relatively
healthy (60 calories, 6 fat grams)
but lacks flavor.
Only chain to charge
for cup of ice water. But 30¢ bought
a large cup with plenty of ice,
a straw and a mint.
Taco Bell
Beefy Five-Layer Burrito (89¢):
tortilla, cheese, sour cream, beef
and bean in one filling wad. For
maximum flavor, soak in hot sauce.
Dessert? Skip the gooey caramel
apple empanada (89¢) — cinnamon
twists have more flavor, 140 fewer
calories and less than half the fat
(7 grams, compared to 16).
New Fresco menu has nine items,
each with under 9 grams of fat. Fresco crunchy taco (7 grams) was fine,
with 30 percent fewer calories than
regular crunchy taco.
Wendy’s
Five piece Spicy Chicken Nuggets
are triangular, zesty and (unlike
too many nuggets) clearly
related to the avian family.
Sweet and tart, Mandarin oranges
contain no fat or cholesterol.
In contrast, almost half the
calories in the Junior Bacon
Cheeseburger come from fat.
We liked the spicy chicken nuggets,
but what happened to the crispy
chicken sandwich? Yet another
processed meat disappointment.
Sonic
Junior Fritos Chili
Cheese Wrap.
Tortilla filled
with so-so chili is
snapped awake by
crunchy corn chips.
Bang-for-buck, BK double
cheeseburger is a bargain:
770 calories for $1. But it’s
larded with 51 grams of
fat and 1,480 mg of
sodium.
Peter Rowe: (619) 293-1227; [email protected]
Anita L. Arambula / Union-Tribune
USDA Choice Natural New York, Rib Eye, Top Sirloin,
T-Bone and Porterhouse Steaks all on sale!
For a complete ad go to www.bristolfarms.com
Prices valid 1-27-10 through 2-2-10
8510 Genesee Ave. San Diego, CA. 92122 858-558-4180