"burritos" news and stories

It doesn't matter if you've been naughty or nice. Fast-food restaurants (large and small) are celebrating the holidays with a blitz of promotions, deals and new menu items to entice both old and new customers.

Burger King is forgoing the warm and fuzzy holiday spirit for a snarky promotional campaign. Customers can send 20 different holiday greeting cards to close and not-so-close friends, each containing a crisp (or crumpled) dollar bill. Gift recipients are advised to take that dollar and spend it at Burger King for a 1/4-pound double cheeseburger. The cheap gift is being touted by the company with the slogan, "because casual friends don't deserve second-rate gifts."

Out of all the fast food restaurants, Carl's Jr. probably changes -- or at least augments -- its menu the most often. There's always some newish, vaguely titillating, really-bad-for-you item advertised with a giant banner outside.

On this go round through the drive-in, the wind-fluttered photos were pushing the Mint Oreo Shake, Farmer John's Jumbo Chili Dog, Carl's Catch Fish Sandwich, Crisp Burritos and the Kentucky Bourbon Burger.

While we could have made this a multipart series entitled "Lissa Becomes Quite Hefty Indeed," I decided to restrict myself to the latter two choices, the burritos and the bourbon burger.

The marketing world is a-changing -- at least as far as fast food is concerned. These days, we've got Facebook apps suggesting that we drop friends for burgers, and now -- Carl's Jr. is curing common crabs.

There's one thing I think of when I read "common crabs," and it is not the cuties we pound with a mallet and eat. It's the itchies that reside in the lower hemisphere of some very unlucky people. While I'd be both shocked and (slightly) impressed with a company claiming crab curing as a marketing tool, looks can be deceiving.

From the press release: "When men don't eat between meals, they get hungry, irritable and crabby. Today, Carl's Jr. is pleased to announce that it has found the cure for these common crabs, the new Green Burrito Crisp Burritos." You know that crabbiness isn't the first thing anyone will think of with this campaign. Anyway, what will cure these crabby men? A burrito that "features a flour tortilla, filled with a mixture of ground beef, cheddar cheese and jalapeños, then deep fried to a golden brown for quick, satisfying consumption."

You can read the press release, which even jumps on the bandwagon of Christian Bale teasing, after the jump.

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• Imagine -- golden colored fat dripping off a pasture-raised chicken allowed to graze on alfalfa with the help of, get this, a mobile roof that travels through the pastures.
• Forget Coronation Street and try Coronation grapes.
• The perks of urban farming.
• The LCBO gets a push of 100+ new global wines.
• Recipes: Banana Cream Pie with Whole Grain Chocolate Crust, Salmon Cakes with Lemon Yogurt Sauce, Parmesan Zucchini Sticks with Romesco Sauce, Mediterranean Chicken, and Pasta with Spinach Cream Sauce.

• Is this the ultimate comfort food?
• How Boston chef Ken Oringer beat Cat Cora on Iron Chef America.
• A look at the SideSwipe spatula mixer blade.
• The right way to hard boil eggs.
• Are doughnuts really Canadian?
• What the heck is a mash cone?
• Restaurant reviews: Persephone and Rizelli Cafe.
• This week's recipes: Bean and Cheese Burrito, Beets with Yogurt, Yellow Rice, Cauliflower and Cilantro Soup with Brown Butter, and Chicken Salad.