What I'm Eating

Had an In and Out last night - made me feel sick. In and Out and Chipotle are being severely cut from my diet. I haven't been to Chipotle in a long while and don't see going back anytime soon. For lunch ate pad thai from Bangkok West - decent white people thai food with an ungenerous proportion. For dinner I found a real deal at Albertsons. They make up a bunch of fried chicken and I always see it at the deli counter and never try it. Tonight I was slim on cash and noticed the deal: $4.50 for fried chicken and two sides. Worth a shot, no? They give me a breast and two wings and I got the best looking potato salad and some broccoli salad which was basically broccoli mixed with a little cole slaw. Walking home I was thinking - this dinner could be a real bust - you never know with fried chicken or side salads from crappy grocery stores. But Albertsons is a bit of an enigma. Sometimes it's crappy, other times, serviceable. It's actually rather confusing, if you ask me. I swore it off after I got a bad orange once, but then again the Sopressata is excellent. I'm not kidding - the Albertsons on Lincoln - crappy ass Albertsons on Lincoln - has damn good Sopressata. No one would guess it...

Anyhow, I get home and try the chicken. Not bad. Not bad at all. Not healthy -it's fried chicken for crissake - but come on, this is America. A man should eat fried chicken once in awhile. The salads were pretty good too. The only way to screw up broccoli is to add some disgusting mayonnaise-based dressing. They resisted, either out of taste or laziness. The potato salad was surprisingly flavorful - a little mustard or something in the mix. I ate the whole thing. If you want a good sized meal balanced meal for under $5, I don't think you'll find anything better than the fried chicken deal at the Albertsons deli counter. Bear in mind, I would never count on this option because on any given day, I think the fried chicken could be crappy or the salad selections uneatable...you have to check out the selection to make sure it looks good...but I'll say this: the same sized meal down the street at Whole Foods is definitely costing over $10 and possibly up to $15 (the deli guys fill up the box generously) and in a blind taste test, I wouldn't bet against Albertson's. Swear to God - those salad bars at Whole Foods are not high quality.