The Great American Fast Food Odyssey – part 2

Yesterday I posted about our efforts to satisfy American fast food cravings while on “home leave” after a 2-year absence.  And about how the menus change gradually, but how after two years the all-familiar fast food menus suddenly appear loaded with strange and unfamiliar menu items.

The major shifts among the big contenders are pretty well-known – faced with a growing public perception that they are at fault for America’s obesity epidemic and spurred on by a couple of particularly damning movies, restaurants like McDonald’s have made great strides to make their menus healthier and greener (adding fruits and veggies) and in some cases more “gourmet.”  McDonald’s has cashed in on the Starbucks craze in many of its stores, offering espresso drinks and scrumptious baked goods.  And no more funny looks when asking for a “veggie burger” – which now gets you some sort of burger-like patty, rather than a lettuce-and-tomato-on-a-bun sandwich.  And weird salads with things like cranberries and walnuts and raspberry dressings.

Today, our road trip led us to Burger King, which I haven’t seen for two years.  What struck me first was that like Taco Bell, BK has also struck a deal with Cinnabon.  Seems like a genius move on the part of Cinnabon if you ask me.

But the other thing that struck me was that it appears Burger King has added an ingredient here and there to some of their most popular sandwiches, which has allowed them to rebrand the entire sandwich using a geographic theme.  So now we have a “Carolina BBQ Whopper” and a “Carolina BBQ Tendercrisp” (in addition to the completely new “Memphis BBQ” pulled pork sandwich).  And the boring old BK Big Fish has suddenly become a “Premium Alaskan Fish Sandwich” (I wanted to ask what kind of fish, and what distinguishes this from the BK Big Fish, but decided this would cause confusion).

And then there is the entirely new “smoothies and frappes” category.  I couldn’t decide between a milkshake (because I was craving one) and a coffee (because I needed caffeine for driving).  So I thought a mocha frappe might be a good way to combine the milkshake and the coffee, but when I asked how much coffee comes in the frappe, I was told probably very little, because “the frappe comes pre-mixed.”  I didn’t really want to know much more than that and went for the coffee.  And two ordinary cheeseburgers.  I’m afraid to ask what the strawberries and bananas went through on their way to becoming part of a smoothie.

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