AOL Money & Finance has a feature on the origin of some famous brands named after people. Here are some of the ones that I found particularly interesting:
Arby's stands for R.B., the initials of the Raffel Brothers. Many people think it stands for roast beef.
Taco Bell was founded by Glen Bell. I thought they just liked the bell logo. Who knew?
Baskin-Robbins was a combination of two ice cream stores, one started by Irvine Robbins and the other by Burton Baskin. This one shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.
Wendy's was named after Dave Thomas' (the founder) daughter's nick name. He had 5 kids. You have to wonder what the other ones thought of his choice.
Thinking about the coming recession? Wondering where on your already tight budget you can make some cuts?
Don't worry. Fast food is here to save the wallet!
Apparently, fast-food chains have already felt the pinch of recessions fears with slacking sales, and in anticipation of what might become a full-blown hit, have begun offering value items on their menus. Wendy's introduced the double cheeseburger "Stack Attack" on its 99-cent value menu, Burger King's usually $2 Double Cheeseburger is half price for $1 now, and even non-burger fast food restaurants like Tao Bell are in the discount game with 99 cent gorditas.
I'm just waiting for In N Out to offer a $1 Double Double. Animal-style, of course.
Of course, a lot of people would say "just avoid fast food altogether!" But sometimes you just need a Wendy's double cheeseburger and fries.
The folks over at A Calorie Counter have looked at the nutritional info for all of the fast food outlets (McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, A&W, Arby's, Hardee's, In-N-Out Burger, Jack in the Box, Little Caesars, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Sonic, Subway, Taco Bell, Wendy's, White Castle, Popeyes, Del Taco, Carl's Jr., and Dairy Queen) and have compiled a list of the 88 worst foods you can buy, in terms of the amount of trans fats. After the jump, the 10 worst. The link above gives you the whole list.
According to the official website of Major League Baseball and Taco Bell, between the hours of 2 and 5 pm today (October 30th), Taco Bell will be giving away free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Tacos. This is part of their Steal a Base, Steal a Taco promotion in which they promised to give away one free taco per customer to everyone who came into the store if there was a base stolen in the World Series. Well, a base was stolen and so they are giving away tacos. Tacos that cost less than a dollar to buy. Oh well, Americans, we love our free stuff.
This is thinking a little too much outside the bun.
A Nebraska family is suing the owners of the Mid Plains Food and Lodging KFC/Taco Bell franchise after an employee allegedly spit and urinated in their food.
Not only does the suit claim that employees did that nastiness, but it also says that there was actually a separate pan in the kitchen set aside for police officers (the father of the family is a cop) that employees would use for, ahem, "special servings" of food. The family says one of the children got very ill and had to go to the ER and that another child got sick too. Yikes.
The suit also says that management was aware of what happened before and after the incident and that they let the employee keep his job anyway. That employee has already plead guilty in an earlier lawsuit.
The playful antics of the rats at a Taco Bell-KFC restaurant in New York City's Greenwich Village have probably seen more ink than Taco Bell's recent E. coli outbreak. Their performance has certainly garnered tons of local TV news coverage and as of this writing has more than 800 hits on YouTube.
The good folks over at The Scoop over on the NRN Foodservice Blog reported on the story behind the story the other day via an exclusive interview with the leader of the Taco Bell rats. And quite a scoop it was. They managed to catch the leader before his appearance on Conan later that night. Among the revelations from the interview is the fact that the rats' celebrity like that of most stars was no easy task. They'd been practicing their dance moves for more than two months starting with when they were discovered by the city's Health Department in December.
Asone might imagine, the leader describes living in the restaurant as a paradise chock-full of tacos and fried chicken. And he offers up a theory as to why the Health Department allowed the fast-food joint to continue to operate even though a troupe of performing rats had set up shop. They're just too busy with important matters like protecting the public from the trans-fat menace. Never let it be said that New York City doesn't support the arts.
Yum Brands, the company that owns the KFC/Taco Bell that was in the news recently because it was overrun by rats, has decided to close several more NYC restaurants owned by the company.
There's no word on exactly how many of the restaurants in the area are going to close, but the company said in a statement that they "will not compromise on our food and restaurant quality." The eateries are going to remain closed until they get the OK to reopen from city health inspectors.
Check out the rat slide show if you've forgotten what the whole nasty scene looked like.
After green onions were identified as the source of contamination for an E. coli outbreak at several East Coast Taco Bells, the company not only recalled all the scallions at its 5,800 locations nationwide, but sent out samples of the rest of their food products for testing to ensure that no other foods were at risk. The tests have come back negative, leaving the green onions as the sole source for the bacteria.
Taco Bell has switched produce suppliers, but with 61 cases identified, including 48 hospitalizations and 7 cases of kidney failure, the company is not out of the woods yet. Lawsuits are already being filed on behalf of some of those who were victims of the contamination, and because most chain restaurants have indemnity agreements with their suppliers, the company will be the one held accountable in these cases.
The company is working to sanitize and reopen stores that closed as a result of the outbreak.
Taco Bell has decided to recall all the green onions from all of its 5,800 locations in the US after an outbreak of at least 43 cases of E. coli infections in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania last week. Testing revealed that they were a possible source of the bacteria, although other non-meat sources have not been ruled out yet. Samples of the cilantro, cheddar cheese, blended cheese, yellow onions, tomatoes and lettuce are being sent to FDA labs for testing and comparison to the green onion samples. The states were the infections occurred will be testing their own samples, and Taco Bell is likely to have scientists at work on their behalf, as well. The sources for the potentially contaminated foods are still being identified, but consumers (unless you just ate at a Taco Bell despite the potential health risk) should not worry too much about it because suppliers for large buyers such as Taco Bell rarely sell directly to supermarkets.
When I watch too much TV, I crave Taco Bell. A primitive neuron deep within my brain stem fires. Within days, if not minutes, I find myself running to the border.
Normally when I'm in the mood for Mexican, I settle for nothing less than homey soft corn tortillas. Best case scenario: Standing at a taco truck downing a double layer of lard-griddled goodness topped with carnitas, cecina or al pastor, while cilantro-and-onion-infused reddish grease threaten to ruin my outfit.
To make their way into my kitchen supermarket tortillas must pass a strict test. The package needs to showcase the words "tortilleria" and "hermanos" and bear an address within a 45-minute drive from my humble abode. I never purchase "tortillas" that bear the dreaded word "wrap."
Hopefully the above rant explains my issue with a recent article on tortilla sales. I have no beef, cecina or otherwise, with citing 2002 Tortilla Industry Association stats that rank the delectable discus just behind white bread. I understand that those figures are no doubt the latest digits. Perhaps, I'm jonesing for pork and lard, but I was put off by what I found to be a puff piece for Tumaro's Gourmet Tortillas, which earned top honors from Men's Health's for wraps. But who am I to say, maybe Tumaro's pineapple flavored tortilla will hit Taco Bell just after I've maxed out on Seinfeld reruns.
A teenage Taco Bell employee in Virginia has received a sentence of six months in jail for spitting in a loyal customer's Mountain Dew, according to the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. After the customer raised a stink about the lack of iced tea, Shaleesheya G. Ford, 18, decided to lace his second choice with something of her own. According to the victim, Ford giggled and told him to have a nice day as she handed him his drink. The victim discovered the "loogie" shortly after leaving the restaurant. "Once I touched it, I knew exactly what it was," he told the FFLS. The spit in question was turned over to police. Charges stemming from the incident include assault and battery, obstruction of justice and filing a false police report. It's unclear from the FFLS story how the charges are related to spitting in a drink.
It was probably inevitable that a fourth meal would be added to the day and I am not surprised that a fast
food restaurant is the one trying to do it. Taco Bell has recently unveiled
their concept of Fourthmeal, the meal between dinner and breakfast. I am not sure
what happened to the "midnight snack," but it seems likely that the word "snack" must not have been
encouraging people to buy enough late-night tacos. To be honest, I don't think that "fourthmeal" is a very
convincing name, nor is its cause helped by the very creepy website that Taco
Bell designed for it.
I'm sure that plenty of you are familiar with Taco Bell's Cruchwrap Supreme, a quesadilla-like item designed to be
eaten on the go. Well, to give customers and car owners a little bit more to chew on, Taco Bell recently teamed up with
Kelley Blue Book for a study in how much people care about their car interiors. The
study found that almost 60 percent of car owners eat in their cars or allow others to do so. Only about 34 percent
ranked a clean interior as the most important aspect of their car's long-term value, however. The folks at Kelley of
course stress the importance of a squeaky clean interior for a good resale value and Taco Bell steps in to help with
their self-contained quesadilla. A press release for the findings is available here.
Have you ever stashed a Coke in the freezer, hoping to chill it quickly, then forgotten all about it, only to have it explode all over your frozen peas?
Another round-up of food posts from our favorite environmental sister site, Green Daily:
Of course, a lot of people would say "just avoid fast food altogether!" But sometimes you just need a Wendy's double cheeseburger and fries.
This is thinking a little too much outside the bun.
The playful antics of the rats at a Taco Bell-KFC restaurant in New York City's Greenwich Village have probably seen more ink than Taco Bell's recent 
Yum Brands, the company that owns the KFC/Taco Bell that was in the news recently because it was overrun by rats, has 
After 
Taco Bell has decided to 
When I watch too much TV, I crave 
A teenage Taco Bell employee in Virginia has received a sentence of six months in jail for spitting in a loyal customer's Mountain Dew, according to the 
It was probably inevitable that a fourth meal would be added to the day and I am not surprised that a fast
food restaurant is the one trying to do it. 
I'm sure that plenty of you are familiar with Taco Bell's Cruchwrap Supreme, a quesadilla-like item designed to be
eaten on the go. Well, to give customers and car owners a little bit more to chew on, Taco Bell recently teamed up with
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
