Serendipity, part two (the Wendy's connection)

Joltin' Django spent Thanksgiving 2008 in a hunting cabin on Kentucky Lake -- in Big Sandy, TN. On my way home Saturday night, I stopped at Wendy's for my first non-turkey meal in two-and-a-half days. What I got was a Buffalo-Dipped chicken sandwich and a Frosty™. Here's my sammich:


Yesterday, I received a "fast food" e-mail from AOL yesterday featuring a link to reviews of food and beverage offerings at some half-dozen fast-food joints. Imagine my surprise when I spied a review of Wendy's Buffalo-Dipped sammich. Here's what AOL said:

Wendy's Buffalo Dipped Chicken Sandwich

Grade: F

A fried chicken patty meets a sickly, stinging, neon orange sweet-and-sour sauce in a sandwich we wouldn't inflict on our worst enemy. One puckery, cloying bite scorched the throats of the testers and caused at least one to skip dinner that night. The taste of the chicken? We wouldn't know, because it was so completely overpowered, but it sure wasn't anything we'd call "Buffalo."

I couldn't disagree more.

First, I think it's kind of funny that the throats of AOL's testers were "scorched" after eating Wendy's Buffalo chicken sammich. I mean, who'd they hire to test that sammich? Ten-year-old girls?! Wendy's Buffalo sauce is right tasty, but the heat level is anything but scorching. If you've ever had Frank's RedHot Pepper sauce, well, that's about the heat level you can expect from Wendy's Buffalo sauce. (Experienced hot-saucers now know exactly what I mean about AOL's hiring 10-year-old girls as taste-testers.)

Second, not only was the chicken in my Buffalo-Dipped sammich extra-juicy, I in no way thought that the sauce was so overpowering that I couldn't appreciate how expertly the chicken'd been cooked. Furthermore, the sammich was bedecked with crisp lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles ... and damned if I didn't think it was the finest Buffalo chicken sammich I've ever had. (It's certainly better than Ruby Tuesday's Buffalo chicken sammich, and probably less expensive by 3 or 4 bucks.)

I don't eat a lot of fast food. Indeed, prior to eating at Wendy's on Saturday, it'd been two months since I'd visited a fast-food joint. It ain't gonna be another two months before I "go fast-food" again, however. I'm going back to Wendy's tomorrow to get me another one of them Buffalo Dipped sammiches. I'd invite the foodies from AOL to join me, but I'm sure they'd harangue me with a whole bunch of this-porridge-is-too-hot weeping and sniveling.