Category: Fast Food News

The other day, Impulsive Buy reader Michelle from Alaska let me know about a new Subway sandwich she saw a commercial for — the Chipotle Beef Teriyaki & Cheese.

The combination of chipotle and teriyaki sounded really weird, so I thought she might be going crazy due to the extreme lack of daylight this time of year in Alaska, but she later emailed me with written and visual proof that this limited time only sandwich exists. So it’s Subway that might be crazy.

Here’s what Michelle thought of the sandwich:

So…just meat, cheese, sauces, and lettuce & tomato on flatbread. I think it looked pretty close to the sign sandwich. Since you get to watch the creative process (S.A. layering meat & cheese onto bread), I can tell you it went like this: bread, meat, teriyaki sauce, shredded cheese (yellow & white, so I’m assuming cheddar-jack), toaster oven, chipotle sauce, and finally, lettuce & tomato. That’s a wrap!

It tasted like what I thought: two very different sauces on a toasted steak & cheese (I’m from Philly and cannot in good conscience call this a true cheese steak). The sandwich is advertised with the phrase “sweet heat” and someone thought teriyaki & chipotle sauces were the answer here. The teriyaki does provide an underlying sweetness, and the chipotle yields the back-end kick, but the basic flavors of soy and cumin just do not make sense to me. You know, where there is soy sauce, cheese is not. Finally, it strikes me as the sandwich you’d create in college, on a dare, or while impaired…the “using every condiment in the fridge” sort of thing. Eh, maybe it was like two young lovers trying to make it work when they clearly come from two different worlds. Is there a “West Side Story” angle?

I haven’t seen the Chipotle Beef Teriyaki & Cheese being offered at Subway restaurants here on this rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so it might only be available in certain regions. However, the sandwich appears to made with ingredients that every Subway has, so it should be easy to reproduce. If you’ve seen it being offered at a Subway in your area, let us know in the comments.

Images provided by Michelle

I’m afraid to step on a scale or look at myself naked in the mirror after being a food whore for the past few weeks. During that time there have been holiday dinners, quarts of egg nog, dozens of cookies, pieces of cakes, slices of pies, and people giving me candy as if I’m a bank teller but the only currency I accept are chocolate Santas and Hershey’s Kisses.

After all that I probably need to lose weight and convince my friends and family to give $5 gift cards instead of enough candy to make my kitchen counter look like I’m preparing for Halloween. Well, Jamba Juice recently introduced their new line of Fit ‘n Fruitful Smoothies to help people lose weight.

The Fit ‘n Fruitful Smoothies are being promoted as a meal substitute and come in three flavors: Berry Blend, Strawberry Raspberry Banana, and Peach Mango. Each smoothie has 14 essential vitamins and minerals, are a great source of protein and fiber, contains two or more servings of fruit, and are made with a Weight Burner Boost.

According to the Jamba Juice website, the Weight Burner Boost is made with conjugated linoleic acid, or “CLA,” which is derived from safflower oil. CLA is a naturally occurring fatty acid that…ARRRGGGGHHH! TOO MUCH BORING SCIENCE TALK!

An Original size Berry Blend has 390 calories, 5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 95 milligrams of sodium, 74 grams of carbohydrates, 8 grams of fiber, 54 grams of sugar, 13 grams of protein. A Peach Mango in an Original size cup has 400 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 90 milligrams of sodium, 79 grams of carbohydrates, 7 grams of fiber, 61 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein. Finally, an Original size Strawberry Raspberry Banana has 390 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 85 milligrams of sodium, 75 grams of carbohydrates, 9 grams of fiber, 59 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

Whenever you go to Subway, you have a plethora of sauces you can add to your sandwich. I likey the honey mustard or good ol’ light mayonnaise and mustard. But in Minnesota, Subway is now offering a couple more sauces to choose from — gorgonzola and wasabi sauces.

Yup, wasabi, the spicy green paste that comes with your sushi.

The television advertisement below promotes the Subway sandwiches that use the sauces — the Wasabi Steak and Cheese and Gorgonzola Chicken and Bacon Melt.

No information about the two sauces are available on the Subway website. I’m not sure if they’re only available in Minnesota, but if you’ve seen them at your local Subway location, let us know in the comments below. Also, if you tried the Subway wasabi or gorgonzola sauce, let us know what you think of them.

Hash browns are my favorite part of breakfast because, as I’ve said before, potato + hot oil = delicious. As much as I love hash browns, I don’t make them at home because I’ve been told I’m dangerous with graters.

Whenever I have hash browns at a fine breakfast establishment, I squirt enough ketchup on it to get a full serving of vegetables and that’s all I need. I thought ketchup was the only thing one could put on top of hash browns, but IHOP’s Hash Brown Stacks have shown me that one can throw almost anything on top of them.

IHOP’s Hash Brown Stacks come in four varieties:

Spinach & Mushroom Hash Brown Stack РHash browns topped with saut̩ed spinach and mushrooms, Provolone cheese, sliced tomato, an over-medium egg, hollandaise sauce and green onions.

Bacon & Cheddar Hash Brown Stack – Hash browns topped with diced bacon, Cheddar cheese, sliced tomato, an over-medium egg, rich hollandaise sauce, green onions, and then more diced bacon.

Ham & Swiss Hash Brown Stack – Hash browns topped with grilled ham, Swiss cheese, sliced tomato, an over-medium egg, hollandaise sauce and green onions.

SIMPLE & FIT Spinach & Mushroom Hash Brown Stack РHash browns topped with saut̩ed spinach and mushrooms, Provolone cheese, sliced tomato, scrambled egg substitute and green onions. To keep things simple and fit, this Hash Brown Stack is served with fresh fruit.

IHOP’s Hash Brown Stacks are available at participating restaurants until February 19 and have a suggested retail price of $5.99. They are served with your choice of fresh fruit or two buttermilk pancakes.

Now go watch the IHOP Hash Brown Stack commercial, say WTF in your head, and then wonder about the quality of advertising nowadays.

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, Taco Bell has big plans for 2012.

I was hoping they would bring back the Yo Quiero Taco Bell Chihuahua, but instead they’re finally doing the national roll out of the Doritos Locos Taco, offering breakfast at locations in the West, and introducing a lineup of upgraded tacos and other menu items called Chef’s Signature.

To help develop the Chef’s Signature line, Taco Bell brought in Miami-based chef Lorena Garcia as a consultant, who doesn’t have a show on the Food Network, so I don’t know who she is. Garcia also helped the chain improve many of its ingredients, like marinades and seasonings. The Taco Bell Chef’s Signature lineup will debut sometime next year.

As for breakfast, Taco Bell plans to roll out its morning menu to 800 locations in the West early next year. The breakfast menu will be called…yup, you guessed it, the First Meal.

Source: NRN