News: Sonic Brings Back Sweet Potato Tots and Introduces Spicy Popcorn Chicken

Sonic adds a new spicy version of their Jumbo Popcorn Chicken and returns Sweet Potato Tots for a limited time.

New Spicy Jumbo Popcorn Chicken features bite-sized piece of white meat chicken with a spicy fried batter shell. Along with the chicken, Sonic is introducing two new dipping sauces: Creamy Chipotle and Berry Spicy.

News: Arby's Testing Hash Brown Sandwich

Arby's is testing a Double Down-style sandwich using their potato cakes (i.e. hash browns) as buns. The new sandwich is part of a value menu test they're calling the "Snack 'n Save" menu. The test has been underway since, at least, January in Evansville, Indiana.

The hash brown sandwich is called the Bacon Cheddar Potato Cake Melt and is simply built with two halves of a slice of cheddar cheese and thick-cut pepper bacon between two Potato Cakes.

Custom Order: McDonald's Quarter Pounder Mac Style

Say you wanted a Big Mac from McDonald's, but preferred that it were meatier and easier to cram in your burger hole. Also, it'd be nice if the middle bun didn't threaten to escape every time you bit into it. With that in mind, I tried to order a Quarter Pounder Mac Style i.e. with Mac sauce and shredded lettuce instead of ketchup and mustard.

A Quarter Pounder goes for $3.29 at my local McDonald's and they charge 30 cents extra for shredded lettuce (bringing the total to $3.59), but here's the difficulty with custom ordering:

News: KFC Now Offers Original Recipes Bites with Gravy

KFC is offering a special, limited-time combo featuring their Original Recipe Bites (first introduced last year) and their signature gravy. The combo is priced at $3.99 and features 6 Bites, a side, and a drink, along with your choice of dipping sauce.

Sauce choices include gravy, Creamy Buffalo, Honey BBQ, Ranch, and Honey Mustard.

Apparently, the Original Recipe Bites have been doing quite well: KFC claims to have sold over 300 million of them.

News: McDonald's Introducing Egg White McMuffin in April

McDonald's is slated to introduce an egg-white version of their popular Egg McMuffin nationwide on April 22, according to The Daily Meal.

They're calling it the "Egg White Delight" and it features egg whites cooked on the grill similar to McDonald's scrambled eggs, rather than cooked in a ring like for the regular Egg McMuffin.

Review: McDonald's Hot 'n Spicy McChicken Sandwich

McDonald's Hot 'n Spicy McChicken is a recent add to their value-priced Dollar Menu. It features the same bun, shredded lettuce, and mayo as the standard McChicken, but comes with a spicier chicken patty.

I picked one up for $1 at my local McDonald's

News: Denny's Brings Back Baconalia

Denny's once again offers their annual Baconalia menu (stylized as "Baconalia!") for a limited-time with a full line-up of 12 bacon-ful menu items (and 2 non-bacon items). The name "Baconalia" is a portmanteau of bacon and Bacchanalia (a drunken revelry named after the Greco-Roman god of wine, Bacchus).

Highlights on this year's menu includes a maple bacon shake, as well as a maple bacon sundae.

Here's the full menu in all its bacon-y glory:

Local Review: Grill 'Em All - FTW Cheeseburger

Grill 'Em All's simply-named FTW (it stands for "For the win") burger is made for purists of the meat and cheese set as that's about all there is to this burger.

$6 gets you a half-pound beef patty and American cheese (or another cheese of your choice) on a bun.

News: Burger King - 2 for $5 Signature Sandwiches

Burger King's latest, limited-time promotion is an offer for 2 for $5 on Signature Sandwiches.

The chain's Signature Sandwiches include the Whopper, the Original Chicken Sandwich, and the Premium Alaskan Fish Sandwich (formerly the BK Big Fish Sandwich).

News: Caribou Coffee - New Biscotti Mocha and Milan Latte

Caribou Coffee ushers in the Spring with two new, limited-time coffee beverages: Biscotti Mocha and Cafe Milan Latte.

The coffee chain is marketing the new drinks as "the perfect complement to embracing life's simple moments" and has rolled out new cups, napkins, and other in-store decoration to reflect that theme.

News: Town Names Itself "Reubenville" for 5000 Free Sandwiches

The town of Coeymans (population: 7,418) takes up the name "Reubenville" for the month of March in answering Arby's "Reubenville Challenge" and they have the signage to prove it!

The spoils for answering the challenge? A cool 5000 coupons redeemable for a free Arby's Reuben sandwich each. Of course, that leaves 2,418 people out in the cold (and judging by the picture, it looks quite cold there!)

News: McDonald's - New Hot 'n Spicy McChicken on the Dollar Menu

McDonald's adds a spicier version of the McChicken to their value-priced Dollar Menu with the new Hot 'n Spicy McChicken. The sandwich offers the same shredded iceberg lettuce, mayo, and hamburger bun of the original, but with a spicier chicken patty with a redder hue to it.

The sandwich is available for $1 in most markets.

Review: Tostitos - Cantina Traditional Tortilla Chips

Tostitos Cantina tortilla chips are the latest addition to Frito Lay's Tostitos line. You might have seen the commercials, which position the chips as restaurant-style chips that you might find at your local Mexican eatery. I find that kinda weird, since Tostitos are already "restaurant-style" chips.

The Cantina Traditional tortilla chips are made of yellow corn and are slightly smaller than standard Tostitos.

A 12-ounce bag retails for $3.29 in my area.

News: Starbucks Launches Asian Dolce Latte Across Asia

Starbucks Asian Dolce Latte is their latest offering in the Asia Pacific region.

The drink was first introduced at the first Starbucks store to open in Vietnam last month and seems to be the Starbucks answer to cafe sua da (literally "coffee milk ice"), a popular coffee drink in Vietnam that consists of strong dark roast coffee and condensed milk.

Besides adding creaminess and sweetness, the condensed milk gives the cafe sua da (or Vietnamese iced coffee) a thicker, more substantial quality.

News: Subway Japan Offers Vegetable Pound Cake

In an attempt to offer a healthy take on afternoon dessert, Subway is offering new vegetable pound cakes in Japan.

The pound cakes come in three flavors: Carrot & Apple, Greens & Sesame, and Purple Sweet Potato & Brown Sugar.

Carrots & Apple features carrot powder and candied apples in the dough.

News: Starbucks - New Limited-Edition Sustainable Wood Card

For all of you Starbucks collectors out there, Starbucks is offering a new "Special Edition" loyalty/payment card made of sustainable birch wood for a limited time in their stores. You won't have to worry about getting splinters though, the cards are laminated to feel like any other Starbucks card.

The birch wood is harvested from sustainably managed forests.

Local Review: Grill 'Em All - Anvil Fries

Grill 'Em All is a metal-themed (the music not the material) burger joint that opened recently in my neighborhood. They're probably best known for winning the inaugural season of the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network.

Besides crazy gourmet burgers, they also make fry monstrosities like the Anvil, which is an order of fries topped with cheese curds, duck confit, duck gravy, and crackling for $7.

News: Frito Lay - New Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sun Chips

Barbecue flavor finally comes to Sun Chips with new Sweet & Spicy BBQ-flavored Sun Chips multi-grain chips. 

The new flavor is described as "sweet, with a little bit of a kick" and features the flavors of molasses, brown sugar, and honey blended with hints of spice including chipotle.

New Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sun Chips are available nationwide in 10.5-oz. packages for a suggested retail price of $3.99.

News: Frito Lay - New Cheetos Mix-Ups Snack Mix

For those of you who can't decide which type of Cheetos you like, Frito Lay is here to help you out with new Cheetos Mix-Ups Snack Mix. Each bag features a mix of four different Cheetos snack flavors in various shapes and colors.

There are two varieties to choose from: "Xtra Cheezy" and "Cheezy Salsa."

News: Fresh & Easy - Free Bag of Bagels on March 10 and 11

Good news if you live in Arizona, California, or Nevada: Fresh & Easy is giving out a bag of free bagels per customer via coupon redeemable on Sunday, March 10 and Monday, March 11. Why? In celebration of an hour of extra sun and an hour less of sleep (i.e. Daylight Saving Time).