Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Hardees vs. Carl's Jr.

So, I live on the Eastern Seaboard. Atlanta, GA, specifically. And although I have traveled in the Northeast and the Texas-side of the Southwest, I have never yet encountered a Carl's Jr. Instead, at least here in the South, we have Hardees. And trust me, as a kid, I dug Hardees a lot. I would actually choose it over McD's and BK any day. I think that it might be due to one of my favorite fast food meals of all time. Basically it looked like this:


Yes. The Ultimate Omelet Biscuit. Hey, give me some slack--it used to be much smaller. I remember that this was one of the highlights of traveling to see my grandparents. We didn't each much fast food in my house--my mom is a great cook and loves doing it, so we only ate take-out when we were on the way somewhere. Anyway, this is always how I saw Hardees. And, back in the 80s and 90s, they also served fried chicken. Yeah, like KFC stylie. And it wasn't bad. Then they undertook a gigantic makeover. And this was when I finally understood the pull of Hardees' West Coast sister-company, Carl's Jr..

In addition to several problems that I have with Carl's Jr.--mostly dealing with their insane commercials--I also take issue with their choice of foodstuffs. The most recent example? ThAT would be their attempt at marrying two extremely crazy foods:

I present the Philly Cheese-steak burger:

That's right. It's what this franchise likes to call a "Thickburger" and a Philly cheese steak. And, like many ferocious fast food concoctions, it actually looks like this:


Yeah, it hurts my brain too.

You may ask, "Crazy-hippie-food-blogger, what does this mammoth creation entail?"

Well, true believers, here goes:

Calories: 750
Fat (g): 45
Cholesterol: 105 (mg)(that's nearly half of one's daily allowance)

So, while it isn't the worst possible choice--especially when compared to The Six-Dollar Burger that Carl's Jr. and Hardees both advertised several years ago. But it is still effing insane.