Buckle in, Liz goes on some food rants

Remember way back when I first started this blog (you probably don't but I do!), I listed an awful visit to a Country Market where the cook messed up on an appetizer and both he and the server thought "well, let's remake them but offer them to her anyway.."

Well this isn't the exact same thing, but this is, in fact, what I'm talking about here:

Maybe you can't tell (curses, it looked better on my phone) but here is an empty shell with the insides cooked out and they just plopped it in with the rest of 'em anyway. These, I think, were broccoli and cheese bites I bought in New York and 7 out of 8 of them were pretty good! lol But yeah, this is what I'm talking about.

On to Denny's! I raved about them, I ranted about them. Today I rant about either lack of care, lack of attention or lack of educating the cooks. They had a new item on the menu that, since I'm trying to now watch what I eat, looked really delicious: Alaskan Salmon! Yummy! The picture in the menu showed this nice thick cut of juicy salmon that looked tempting and tantalizing. Unfortunately...

..my salmon looks a lot like tilapia. Nothing even remotely like the picture. At least the zucchini and squash were good, and the wild rice was...rice.

On to the next one. This isn't really a rant but more a dig at T/A's special burger and chicken sandwiches with Frank's Red Hot Seasoning. When one pictures a chicken sandwich with Red Hot Seasoning, one pictures a bright red chicken breast that just oozes heat and spice and as you may recall, that didn't happen. The only way I can defend T/A is "well, that's what happens when you use seasoning and not a sauce"

But...Hardee's knows how to do it right, and they knocked it out of the park with these bad boys!

This is what the chicken on that special sandwich at T/A *should* have looked like. It's bright orange. It's coated, nay, dripping in Frank's Red Hot and it looks incredible. Let me tell you, it tastes incredible too. I think it's like 4 or 5 chicken tenders with a side of ranch to dip into. Grab a fork because these are messy! They're hot, they're spicy, they're....freaking amazing! If you're in the mood for buffalo chicken tenders, GET TO HARDEE'S AND TRY THESE! (Unless they're closed then wait until tomorrow)

And lastly, IHOP. The breakfast (and 2am coming-home-drunk-from-clubbing-and-you're-hungry) place that if you're not in the mood for pancakes, you're pretty much screwed. I'm kidding...sort of. Actually I wasn't in the mood for pancakes when I walked in to the IHOP at the lovely and still decent Detroiter on I-75 just south of...you guessed it...Toledo. No wait, I meant Detroit. Side rant: you pay $10 for truck parking in advance and under certain criteria you get that money back but I wasn't planning on spending that much, nor was I buying fuel so...it was a $10 fee to park. But hey, not many places to park between Toledo and Canada (that aren't full at night) so I'll take what I can get.

Anyway, I thought their chicken and waffles at IHOP sounded good. I've heard about the phenomenon of chicken and waffles in California and people rave about it!

...I don't think the two are related. My goodness, this picture just looks sad. I think IHOP was trying to cash in on a craze with whatever they could work with and the result was....lackluster at best. Annoying side note: I had to ask for the honey mustard it was supposed to come with. On the other hand, the IHOP syrups made the otherwise bland and lackluster waffle a bit more enjoyable. Sad side note: I kind of expected more. It was like I was eating brunch without the mimosa...mimosas..plural. I mean who stops at just one mimosa, am I right ladies?