I ate Whataburger's Avocado Bacon Burger and all you get is this lousy review!

Avocado Bacon Burger (Whataburger)
Price: $5.29
Calories: 960
Fat: 63g

My first review for this blog was for Whataburger's 5-3-1 Burger, and while they've had quite a few limited-edition items since then, nothing has quite piqued my attention as this Avocado Bacon Burger. One of my favorite pairings in fast-food history has got to be guacamole and bacon. It started with Quiznos' glorious Turkey Bacon Guacamole sub and continued with Carl's Jr.'s Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger.

But while both of those sandwiches have guacamole, Whataburger is using just straight-up avocado, which ends up working better here than either one of those.

I ate the NEW Lay's 'Do Us a Flavor' finalists and all you get is this lousy review!

In the fall of last year, Lay's kicked off their "Do Us a Flavor" contest, with these three flavors selected as finalists and released throughout the country starting last week. Seems like an awesome, groundbreaking idea to not only get people excited about potato chips, but also a good gimmick to get them to buy three bags of chips at one time, right? But wait...

Much like The Office and drum-and-bass music, this ingenious contest/ad campaign was originally done by the British and then rehashed by American counterparts, where it was only about half as good. British crisps manufacturer Walkers (also owned by Lay's parent company, PepsiCo) ran the "Do Us a Flavour" contest in the summer of 2008, which asked the public to come up with a new flavor for the Walkers crisps line. Six flavors were selected by the company from the pool of entries, and released the following January to a vote, with the winner becoming a permanent flavor. In the end, Builder's Breakfast (a mix of fried eggs, tomato and assorted breakfast meats) beat out the other flavors (which included Chilli & Chocolate and Cajun Squirrel) and was named a permanent flavor, although it was discontinued the following year so that Walkers could run a similar contest featuring international flavors to coincide with the World Cup. (Oops.)

I drank Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Banana Ale and all you get is this lousy review!

Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Banana Ale 
Price: $13.00 (available at Rogue.com)  
ABV: 5.3%

Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut collaboration from last year, the Bacon Maple Ale, received mixed reviews, with those reviews, more often than not, being unfavorable. While I declined reviewing it on this blog, I did get a chance to try it (thanks, Sis) and was expecting it to be so bad from all of the reviews that I had read, that I actually ended up being (sort of) pleasantly surprised. While not fantastic, it was perfectly acceptable for what it was. Of course, I'd already had the (in)famous Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbiers several times up to that point, so this had a decidedly weaker smoke flavor than that, with a slight hint of maple thrown in to give it a sweeter mouthfeel.

That said, this, like the Bacon Maple Ale before it (though still available through the brewery), is a straight-up novelty beer and we will be reviewing it as such. At 750 mL, it's a wee bit larger than the standard bomber, which I'm including in vain as a justification for the price (although this was, like last year's Voodoo beer, a birthday present from my sister).

I made my debut in Asia last year and all you get is this lousy review!

I just came back from Hong Kong last month, and while it was one of the best trips I've taken yet, I decided that I wouldn't be writing a blog about it, simply because I've been putting off posting my Malaysia/Singapore one for over a year now and I don't need another bottleneck in the queue like with the Ireland column. So, without further ado, let's go ahead and (once again) tie up this loose end so I can be free to blog about the culinary awesomeness that is Puebla next spring.

On a side note, Hong Kong gets my seal of approval vacation destination. Along with gorgeous sights like Victoria Harbor, Victoria Peak, Chi Lin Nunnery, Nian Lan Garden and the numerous Taoist and Buddhist temples around the city, the food is some of the best in the world. I highly recommend the wonton noodles at Mak's Noodle (which receives a slight edge for the chili sauce available at the table) in Yau Ma Tei, the golden milk tea and french toast at Tai Fat in Yuen Long, the Swiss chicken wings at Tai Ping Koon, the chili fried prawns at American Restaurant in Wan Chai, prawn gorkhali at Nepal in Soho and many, many others.

Seasoned travelers will swear that some of the best food in the world is found in South Asia, and they aren't lying. Many meals were had, and as usual, I tried out a mix of fast-food and local specialties.

I went to Ireland and all you get is this lousy review!

As I returned from my first-ever vacation to Asia this past September, the procrastinator in me had been working on this, a summary of things that I ate (and drank) in Ireland last April, since the spring. The Malaysia/Singapore article is actually very close to being done as well, so that one will be coming soon, but let's go ahead and tie up this loose end first...

I ate McDonald's Jalapeño Cheddar McChicken AND Cheddar Onion McChicken and all you get is this lousy review!

Jalapeño Cheddar McChicken (McDonald's)
Price: $1.49
Calories: 360
Fat: 15g

Cheddar Onion McChicken (McDonald's)
Price: $1.49
Calories: 370
Fat: 16g

Here in the San Antonio market, McDonald's offers the Hot N' Spicy McChicken, which is awesome. As a "dollar menu" item in lieu of the regular McChicken sandwich offered at most of the other locations across the country, it has been my go-to cheap lunch for as long as I've lived here. Apparently, the regular McChicken is also available, as a sort of "secret" item that isn't shown on the menu, but I don't know for sure, because I have never ordered it, as I always prefer my food—much like my women—hot and spicy (and sometimes with mayo).

I ate El Pollo Loco's Fish Tacos and all you get is this lousy review!

Classic Baja Fish Taco (El Pollo Loco)
Price: $1.99
Calories: 213
Fat: 9g

Spicy Avocado Fish Taco (El Pollo Loco)
Price: $1.99
Calories: 214
Fat: 9g

Every year, as Lent approaches, our favorite fast-food establishments offer special seafood-centric items. McDonald's has the Double Filet O' Fish, White Castle has had clam strips, Burger King has done some adventurous things to their BK Big Fish (f.k.a. The Whaler), and Taco Bell has brought back those damn shrimp tacos. While they've changed the name from "Baja" Shrimp Tacos to "Premium" Shrimp Tacos, I'm not buying it, and I refuse to fall for the ruse this year, so I will not be featuring them here. (Perhaps my friend, Aaron "That Bootleg Guy" Cameron, would like to take another crack at them? *nudge, nudge*) Of course, I still love tacos, so I was intrigued to hear that El Pollo Loco was dipping its foot in the pond with these NEW fish tacos.