A few weeks ago I wrote about the new bacon at Wendy’s. The review was not positive.

My consumption of breakfast food in general is limited to times when I have to wake up and drive The Wife^® somewhere. Today it was the airport. And as Wendy’s is the only place that’s really between The 10 and my house, I swung by again.

It was a different story this time. That new bacon was good. Very good by fast food standards. Crispy, thick, and actually flavorful. And this time, instead of one piece ripped in half, I got enough to actually cover the whole biscuit.

I’m convinced that last time, despite the major promotional campaign that was going on, some moron manager tried to use up their supply of the old bacon before moving on to the new stuff. Because let me assure you, there is no confusing the new and old bacon.

So, I revise my review, fellow bacon lovers. Try the new stuff at Wendy’s. I won’t go so far to say you won’t be disappointed, but I will say that I wasn’t.

One of the worst days of my life was when I realized that Planters exited the Cheez Balls business. It was a tragedy on par with finding out there are no Chili Cheese Burritos in AZ.

So I was rather excited to see Kroger brand Cheez Balls at my local Fry’s Marketplace. Sure, they were in a bag instead of a can, but I’d forgive them that travesty for an attempt to consume some Cheez Balls.

The bottom line: meh. While they are powdered ball-shaped cheez snacks, they just aren’t the same. The texture is all off. They are more like a cheez puff in texture than a cheez ball. (Cheez puffs, as cheez snack connoisseurs are undoubtedly aware, are more squishy than their ball shaped counterparts)

These are really just ball shaped cheez puffs. I’ll eat them, don’t get me wrong, but I’ll still keep holding out hope that the people at Planters will recognize the error of their ways and bring back my beloved cheez balls.

In the meantime, only 27 days until I’m back in Chili Cheese Burrito land…

Update: I’m normally not one for online petitions, but this one must be signed!

The guy who started Taco Bell, Glen Bell, started the precursor to Taco Bell, Taco Tia, in the same town, San Bernadino, California, that the McDonald brothers started the first McDonald’s restaurant.

I wanted to see if I could get all of that in one sentence, and I think I did OK.

Bell was at McDonald’s admiring the assembly line process and decided to try to apply it to tacos.

Source: Food Network

Wendy’s has been pumping the new bacon pretty hard on the radio around here. Based on the training bulletin I saw behind the counter, I think Phoenix is a test market for a new bacon strategy. Applewood Smoked Bacon, no less.

Since we happened to be up early, you know, to take The Wife^® to Urgent Care for the cough that just won’t quit, we swung by Wendy’s.

I had a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit. Overall it was OK, but not great. On par with the McDonald’s biscuit, I suppose. But the new bacon… meh. I really couldn’t tell the difference. Plus, you only got one piece that was ripped in half. LAME.

So don’t go out of your way to try it. You probably won’t notice.

When Taco Bell introduced their new 89¢ Chicken Soft Taco I was a little skeptical. Especially since they were cutting the price in half (from $1.79). Either they were using it as a loss leader, or something else was up.

Turns out the skepticism was warranted.

Apparently the (normally) good folks at Taco Bell were channeling their Native American ancestors and have now embraced using ALL of the chicken for their tacos.

Because I’m certain that wasn’t all white meat chicken breast. I’m not certain, however, whether or not it was actually chicken.

Bottom line—skip the new Chicken Soft Taco. Unless you’re in the mood for a chicken-flavored-gristle soft taco. If that’s what you’re looking for then this is the taco for you!

According to a Wendy’s Spam e-mail that I get for some reason, Wendy’s is introducing two new Frosty flavors… Coffee Toffee Twisted and Frosty-cino. Both of these are coffee inspired and thus do absolutely nothing for me.

I also have a $1 off coupon for them, but can’t print it because it requites the installation of a “Wendy’s printer utility” which I think is fancy-talk for “spyware.”

Turns out Taco Bells in AZ close at 1AM.

Carl’s Jr., Wendy’s, and Del Taco are all viable alternatives. Waffle House is also an alternative, but probably better if you aren’t wearing your pajamas.

The Wife^® has now revised her Del Taco view to “better than dirt” — so we’re making progress.

The Wife^® (and I think Junior) hate Del Taco.

I—on the other hand—am not so sure.

Since The Wife^®and Junior were having an exclusive no-Jeff’s-allowed lunch today I decided to give it another try.

Just for shiggles, I decided to order a cheeseburger. A cheeseburger at a taco place? How could that go wrong?

I think I actually liked it. It was on the value menu, so I only paid a buck. And I’d put it up against any other place’s dollar cheeseburger. Certainly not great, but if you expect perfection for a dollar you will always be disappointed. (I didn’t have fries, so I can’t speculate as to how a whole burger-fries-Coke meal would be.)

I also had a chicken soft taco (not bad, not exactly good) and a crunchy taco. I know this may be seen as blasphemous, but I liked the crunchy taco better than Taco Bell. I was able to actually eat the whole thing without the shell breaking, which was a nice change. And it was only 59¢.

All in all, I think I’ll go back. Don’t get me wrong, Taco Bell will always be my first taco love, but I do want to see how Del Taco burritos stack up. And they had a quesadilla that looked intriguing.

One last note- the decor was atrocious. It looked like a clown threw up inside, which seems to be a pretty common decorative theme out here in the desert. (Basha’s—I’m looking in your direction…)

At least they didn’t as of June 2006.

According to this article, most of the ketchup for McDonald’s is made by a third party, called Golden State Foods.

Apparently, Heinz used to be the ketchup provider, but during a tomato shortage in the early 1970′s, Heinz dropped the ball by giving favor to the “glass bottle customers.” So McDonald’s went with Golden State, and they’ve been there ever since.

Now, I seem to remember getting Heinz ketchup packets at McDonald’s in MN. (The article mentions that some franchisees, including those in PA, use Heinz). But I wonder if that was Heinz or Golden State being applied to my burger in the back.

According to the article (and again, it’s old) Heinz did make some inroads with McDonald’s, and began supplying to restaurants in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Australia, Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine.

If I have any readers with ties to McDonald’s, I’d love to know if this has changed.

Bonus Trivia: Golden State developed the original special sauce for the Big Mac.

If you want a laugh, go to a Quiznos and ask to see a Torpedo. It’s a new sandwich, and they promise, as you can see to the left, over a foot of flavor.

Note that I didn’t recommend ordering one.

You see, while the Torpedo may provide over a foot of flavor, it is only about a half-inch of flavor wide.

More like a stuffed breadstick than a sub, really.

So I’m not sure what diminutive genus of biped is pictured in the ads, but it’s not a full sized human.