When it comes to fast food, I am a petty, spiteful man. One time in 6th grade I ate at Arby's, threw up shortly afterwards, and didn't go back for 18 years.
When Sonic got rid of the chili cheese wraps, I walked out on them and haven't looked back. Despite never going longer than two weeks without eating Sonic for the first couple years I lived in Lawrence, it's now been almost three years since I've been back.
And now, in 2014, the KFC here in Lawrence got rid of the Double Down. Unlike the Sonic incident, when I was too devastated to do anything but put my car in reverse and do the driving equivalent of the Sad Charlie Brown Walk back home, I stuck it out this time and actually ordered some other stuff off the menu.
And while the Famous Bowl is no effing joke (and clocking in at 700 calories per helping, it appeals to my fat kid sensibilities)....it's just not the same without the Double Down. I highly doubt I will be showing up at KFC any time soon, unless it is to sit in the parking lot in the rain, listening to Bryan Adams and weeping softly.
However, in positive news: Teens, Gangel and I gave Burrito King a shot last weekend. When I first moved down here, I was told that this joint had the greatest late-night drunk food in town. With visions dancing in my mind of a potential plug for the still-fresh, gaping wound that the loss of Red Pepper had left in me, Lane and I first tried it after a day of tailgating at a KU football game. Let's just say it didn't go well. Fueled by copious amounts of booze and an anger that the "best drunk food in town" was nothing more than shitty Mexican food hastily slopped into flimsy styrofoam boxes, we reacted as any red-blooded 24-year-old Americans would've reacted...we punted our tacos into a large crowd of innocent bystanders and swore off the place forever. (Side note: If you've never punted a taco before, it almost goes without saying that I highly, highly recommend it.)
That was in 2007. Last Friday night, for whatever reason-- maybe because Gangel and I eat Taco Bell every single night we booze together and we wanted to change it up a bit-- I decided I needed to try Burrito King again. And it wasn't terrible! Three tacos, spanish rice and refried beans for under seven dollars, and it didn't taste like wet newspaper? Plus some seriously spicy hot sauce that delighted Gangel and I, and almost put Teens in tears? I can get on board with that. (Although we did go back to Taco Bell the next night and absolutely demolished it. Rome wasn't built in a day.)
So I lost a fast-food restaurant out of my rotation, and I gained one right back. It's the circle of life. World keeps on spinnin'.
