REVIEW: McDonald’s BBQ Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese

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After this McDonald’s Angel Reese Special Meal, I hope there will be a Caitlin Clark McCrispy Cheesy Special topped with a feverish chipo-trey sauce, three bacon strips, and three cheese slices on a half courtato bun. (Yeah, I shoehorned that into the word “potato.”)

The headliner of the Angel Reese Special is the BBQ Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese, or as McDonald’s also calls the meaty burger, the QPC, which is an acronym that has never crossed my lips. I don’t say it because I fear things could get confusing when I want to point out a particular Japanese mayonnaise on a burger, “It’s Kewpie, see?”

Speaking of condiments and toppings, Applewood smoked bacon, American cheese, pickles, onions, and a tangy, sweet barbecue sauce top the cheeseburger with a 1/4 lb beef patty and sesame seed bun. The meal also comes with a medium fries and drink. Because the Orange Hi-C is being promoted with the celebrity special (you can get any soft drink you like), and it’s been a while since I’ve had one, I ended up with the basketball-colored drink.

Peeling back the bun reveals a hodgepodge that, at first glance, could be mistaken for a skeleton driving a car with a pickle steering wheel and secured in the automobile with a bacon strip seat belt. (You don’t see it? Well, the HFCS in the Hi-C could be making me imagine things.) Despite the number of loose toppings, the steering wheel and skeleton, the BBQ sauce and cheese act as glues to prevent the vegetation from falling out. Also, with the onions, pickles, and BBQ sauce, I can’t but help think of the McBeloved/McDespised McRib.

Of course, this burger’s flavor doesn’t remind me of the McRib because the sauce is noticeably different. It tastes like something I’ve had from Sweet Baby Ray’s — sweet, tangy, and with a mild spicy kick. But its overall flavor is reminiscent of many other “bacon western BBQ” cheeseburgers I’ve had, which all have a flavor dominated by the sauce followed by the beef, bacon, and cheese. As for the plant-based toppings, the pickles make their sour sides known with bites that end up with them, and the onion slices are a bit muted when up against the sauce.

I wish the BBQ Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese was a permanent menu item. However, I’m not saying that because it’s a mind-blowing burger. It’s just good. But I really want to have the option of having a tasty bacon barbecue cheeseburger whenever I go to McDonald’s, which is something the menu will lack when this goes away.

Purchased Price: $12.99* (Angel Reese Special Meal)
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 630 calories, 35 grams of fat, 16 grams of saturated fat, 1.5 grams of trans fat, 115 milligrams of cholesterol, 1460 milligrams of sodium, 44 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 36 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

REVIEW: Taco Bell Steak Garlic Nacho Fries

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If you hope to keep vampires away with Taco Bell’s new Steak Garlic Nacho Fries, you better have the sun’s power in your pocket because the garlic isn’t robust. You won’t find the pungent ingredient minced on this menu item. Instead, it’s in a garlic ranch sauce that’s combined with seasoned fries, nacho cheese sauce, steak, pico de gallo, and cheddar cheese.

Also, what you’re not going to find at the top of this review is a photo of the chain’s Steak Garlic Nacho Fries. That is a photo of the Steak Loaded TRUFF Nacho Fries. Below is a picture of the newest loaded fries.

Look, I know, water is wet, Disneyland is expensive, streaming services will continue to raise their prices, and new Taco Bell menu items are usually slight tweaks of something that’s already been on the menu. I also know the photo above this paragraph isn’t of Taco Bell’s Steak Garlic Nacho Fries. It’s actually a photo of its Steak White Hot Ranch Fries.

I’m 99.5% sure the photo above this paragraph is the Steak Garlic Nacho Fries with its lacking garlic ranch sauce. I taste more ranch flavor than garlic, but it needs to be the other way around. It’s a good sauce, but it’s not garlicky enough for my taste buds or to create a pungent aura around me to prevent vampires from entering my personal space.

Other than the heat-less white sauce, everything else was what I’ve experienced with all the other loaded Nacho Fries. It’s a satisfying and tasty pile of potatoes, tender meat, and savory toppings. Although, I have to ask. Does nacho cheese sauce have to be on EVERY ONE of these loaded fries? Look, I know I can customize it to not have the gloopy orange sauce, but does it have to be a default? It adds flavor, but I imagine it also subtracts some of the flavor from the other ingredients, like the garlic ranch sauce, by overwhelming it.

With all that said, my enjoyment of Taco Bell’s Steak Garlic Nacho Fries was on par with the other loaded Nacho Fries varieties that look like it.

Purchased Price: $7.19*
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 490 calories, 31 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 1200 milligrams of sodium, 39 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, (including less than 1 gram of added sugar), and 14 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

REVIEW: KFC Nashville Hot Loaded Fries Bowl

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I enjoyed KFC’s Nashville Hot Loaded Fries Bowl…without the chicken.

All right. All right. Let me back up a little bit. The chain’s newest thing with stuff dumped into a bowl features Secret Recipe Fries topped with coleslaw, pickles, cheese, Original Recipe Nuggets, and Nashville Hot Sauce, a Nashville Hot Mess, if you will.

However, I enjoyed the bowl more when my sporkfuls didn’t contain any of the C in KFC. I’ll get to that in a moment.

The Original Recipe Nuggets were just what I expected — meaty with a slightly crispy exterior and the flavor of the Colonel’s secret recipe of herbs and spices. The Nashville Hot Sauce gave the chicken a pleasant, sweet heat with a strong pepperiness that amped up the chicken’s flavor. Although not as coated in sauce as when Nashville Hot Chicken debuted at KFC, the nuggets were tasty.

(NOTE: The photos in the KFC app show an order is topped with five nuggets, but mine came with a bonus nugget. Yes, it happened again. )

But as much as I liked the chicken, and it tastes great with the other ingredients, after eating a sporkful without the poultry, my mind decided to push to the side whatever chicken nuggets were left and enjoy just the fries, cole slaw, pickles, and cheese mixed together. My tongue thought it was a more enjoyable and unique combination of flavors that the chicken’s meatiness got in the way of. I did consume them after.

I’ve never had cole slaw on any fries, and it sounds weird to bring the two together, but that combination, along with the seasoning on the fries, the cheese, pickles, and Nashville Hot sauce, works well and tastes delightful. I’m surprised how well the slaw and the sauce complement each other despite being kind of opposing ingredients. If you think about it, it’s sort of a vegetable salad with Nashville Hot dressing.

I imagine if Colonel Sanders found out about how I had pushed aside his Secret Recipe seasoned chicken, he would be rolling in his grave like a rotisserie chicken. Then he’d want to pull out my bones to flatten me like a spatchcocked chicken and then shove a Coors Light container in one of my orifices like a beer can chicken. But his Secret Recipe does play an important role in how much I enjoyed KFC’s Nashville Hot Loaded Fries Bowl, although it was on the fries and not the chicken.

Purchased Price: $7.00*
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 910 calories, 60 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 80 milligrams of cholesterol, 2530 milligrams of sodium, 63 grams of carbohydrates, 8 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar (including 0 grams of added sugar), and 26 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

REVIEW: Taco Bell Mountain Dew Baja Dream Freeze

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A small chunk of my misspent youth was… well, spent in an area of the western US known for dirty soda. If you’re not familiar with it, a dirty soda is basically soda with cream of some sort mixed in, kind of like a less frozen version of a float or an ice cream soda. Similar vibes. We usually made ours with Dr Pepper and coffee creamer.

Anyway, as of late, it seems like variations on dirty soda have been spreading beyond the area they originated from, and the Baja Blast Dream Freeze feels in line with that trend.

If you haven’t had Baja Blast, it’s a lime-forward Mountain Dew flavor created for and available at Taco Bell in both standard soda and freeze/slushy versions. The new “Dream” versions incorporate “vanilla crème.”

I actually liked this freezy, cool concoction a lot! The vanilla crème brings out the lime flavor in a really pleasant way, reminiscent of lime sherbet. It mellows out the sharper notes and rounds out the overall citrusy edge of the Dew nicely, and finishes with a nice sweet aftertaste.

The vanilla crème doesn’t change the consistency at all, which I found surprising. I expected that adding the cream in would make it, well, creamier or at least somewhat richer the way adding coffee creamer to Dr Pepper does. However, it still has the same texture as any other Taco Bell Freeze but with a nice complementary flavor enhancement.

I hope this one sticks around for a while because I’ll definitely be ordering it along with my Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco Supremes for as long as it’s available.

Purchased Price: $3.69
Size: Large
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 230 calories, 1 gram of total fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 55 milligrams of sodium, 59 grams of total carbs, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 57 grams of total sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Jack in the Box Smoke Show Crispy Boneless Wings

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Jack in the Box’s newest Crispy Boneless Wings variety comes tossed in Jack’s Smoke Show Sauce, which pleases my tongue in two ways — its flavor and its alliteration. I surely savor saying Smoke Show sauce.

However, the Crispy Boneless Wings themselves are a little disappointing. While I loved the chain’s bone-in chicken wings because of their crispy exterior and surprisingly juicy interior, these look less satisfying, mainly because of their size. When I look at the photo above, I can’t help but think they look more like premium chicken nuggets than boneless wings, which I think should be more substantial. They look less like wings and more like eggs. Even though I did get a seventh piece (6-, 12-, and 18-piece orders are available), it wasn’t enough to overcome my size disappointment.

The 100% all-white meat pieces are tender and slightly still juicy, and their breading is crunchy and thick. Although some exterior sections without the sauce felt particularly dry-ish and a little crumbly.

But back to the Smoke Show sauce, which Jack describes as “a smoky sweet BBQ serenade for your tastebuds that you won’t soon forget.” Well, it’s been 30 minutes since I finished eating these “wings,” and I haven’t forgotten about the sauce because it’s very tasty. The best way I can describe it is to call it a smoky honey mustard BBQ sauce because there’s a notable mustard-y tang with a bit of sweetness. If I remember correctly, one of the Carolinas is known for a mustard-based barbecue sauce. I’m going to say, um, “South Carolina” because it starts with the letter S.

While I love the sauce, I wish my premium chicken nuggets were tossed with more because roughly a little more than 50 percent of the chicken didn’t get to experience the Smoke Show. I desperately tried to scrape as much of the brown sauce as I could from the sides of the container they came in, but that was futile. My order was supposed to come with a side of ranch, but I didn’t receive it. But if you do get the white tangy sauce, use it for a salad, pizza, or whatever the kids on social media are dipping into it nowadays because I surmise its taste would ruin the Smoke Show experience, which is a show I think is worth the price of admission.

Purchased Price: $7.99*
Size: 6 pieces
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 480 calories. No other nutritional information is available on Jack in the Box’s website.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

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