Cow Appreciation Day 2013

Chick-fil-A has had some bad times in the last couple years. As I have said before, just because the owner is a twisted misguided man, doesn't mean that everyone in the company agrees with his opinions. There are some very cool Chick-fil-A franchises locally that fully support gay marriage and are in fact owned by gay families with gay employees. So, don't believe the hype.

Anyway, tomorrow, July 12, 2013 is the annual Cow Appreciation Day. Go into your local Chick-fil-A dressed as a cow and you get free food. And whatever you do, don't forget those great Waffle Potato Fries!

And as long as we're talking free, don't forget that today is Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven…

French Fry Diary 360: 7-Eleven Bacon & Cheese Potato Stix

The last time I was at a 7-Eleven getting a Coke Slurpee I noticed a sign on the door advertising something called Bacon & Cheese Potato Stix, and for only a dollar. I thought, hey, I like bacon, and cheese, and I love potato products - so I decided I'd try one of them the next time I hit 7-Eleven. This was a very very very bad decision.

I now know the origin of all the horror stories about convenience store food. First, considering all of the other deep fried breaded tube items on those rollers, including various hot dog like tubes, I really hoped what I took home was actually a Bacon & Cheese Potato Stix thing.

The thing was hot when I left the 7-Eleven but five minutes later at home, it was vaguely warm and hard as a rock. I had to saw with a knife to break it in half as you see in the pics. I admit I only took a couple bites but that was enough to make me sick. I saw no bacon, and tasted neither bacon nor cheese. The potato was like old cold McDonald's hash brown bits... and I don't know what the green bits were. It was terrible.

Let's file this under I did it so you won't have to, and I did it to save your lives. 7-Eleven Bacon & Cheese Potato Stix - highly NOT recommended.

French Fry Diary 191: 7-Select Onion Rings

This is a review of 7-Eleven's Onion Rings, honest, it's just going to take a long time to get there. Due to traffic. Bear with me.

Okay, it was Free Slurpee Day 2010, or 7-Eleven's birthday, your choice, and I want to get my free Slurpee, specifically the Coke Slurpee, the granddaddy of Slurpees in my opinion. As opposed to recent years where Free Slurpee Day was all day, the folks at 7-Eleven restricted the celebration to certain hours so my friends and I were on a timetable to get there.

Yes, there's a 7-Eleven right in town, but it's not as easy to get there as one might think. You see, I live in Marlton, and the state of new Jersey has decided that circles, a traffic phenomenon, which has been simplicity for NJ drivers for almost a century, are now too hard to navigate. Why we have to bow to the idiot minds of out of state drivers too dumb to drive in a circle is beyond me, but now, no more circles. So they are eradicating the Marlton Circle for an overpass.

This construction has been going on for years, and quite honestly I see no end in sight. It has effectively divided my town into two towns. I am now, thanks to the construction, which seems busiest and loudest at three in the morning by the way when folks are trying to sleep, cut off from the Main Street of my town - where the 7-Eleven is.

I could walk there, if I wanted to jump multiple barriers and brave crazed and enraged traffic patterns, but that's just nuts. Walking has become a preferred travel option of late with the construction. For instance, it takes me two minutes to walk to the local Shop-Rite, however, if I wanted to go by car, it would take almost twenty-two minutes. Please, tell me how this is easier. The circle was terrific, and easy. And it got me to 7-Eleven quickly. Thank you, state of New Jersey, for ruining yet another good thing.

So after a couple hours, we finally got to 7-Eleven. Lo and behold we were greeted by a sign on the door that said "out of cups, no more free Slurpees." Actually the grammar and spelling were much worse, but that's beside the point. We highly suspected that the clerk was tired of giving out free Slurpees honestly.

Determined to get my Coke Slurpee fix, I bought one, because, really, with the construction, who knew when I would be able to get to 7-Eleven again? Something else caught my eye though, the 7-Select Onion Rings, regular flavor. See? I told you this was a relatively on-topic review.

At first I thought, at seventy-nine cents, that these were simply a cheap store brand of Funyuns. I mean, come on, how can you beat seventy-nine cents, right? These are onion-flavored rings of course, no real onion involved, but that's okay because the portion size is excellent (especially for the price, and there is 0 transfat.

The flavor comes from onion powder but really gives them their kick, and their addictive charm, is the sugar, and the brown sugar. The brown sugar just jumps right out at you in every bite. These are really good, I love 'em. I just wish there was a 7-Eleven closer than the other side of the construction so I could get them more often. Word is they also come in Louisiana Hot flavor as well.

Next time, more favorite fried food, and less bitching about traffic and construction. I promise.