Chipotle and Qdoba

Initially, I was going to title this post "Chipotle vs. Qdoba", but after much consideration, I realised that I really don't know which one I prefer. I can't profess loyalty to either company - in fact, maybe I don't adore either (remember, Govinda's took over the "My Favourite Restaurant" label). Sure, I love burritos, but while I was eating Qdoba recently, I realised that I eat burritos for

1. Avocado

2. Beans

3. Cheese

(Haha. The basics - A, B, C.)

I don't eat burritos for the white flour tortilla, the rice, the tomato salsa, and certainly not the cilantro.

For around $7, I can get definitely two cans of beans, two avocados, and a package of cheese.

Anyway, I guess I shall talk about each.

QDOBA

My first visit, with TJ - the location on 15th and Walnut St. allows you to get a free drink if you show the cashier your college ID. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to the one on campus.

I asked for everything in the burrito, which meant that it wasn't properly shaped. By "everything", I mean rice, black beans, all the salsas, sour cream, cheese, and guacamole.

Cross-section.

Taste? Well, I got a super spicy salsa, which TJ warned against, but I could tolerate it fine. The guacamole taste wasn't that prevalent, since guacamole was such a small component of the overall burrito, and it was mashed finely. The cheese melted really fast, and the beans and rice were soft. I don't really love the taste of the tortilla, but I guess I'm not a huge fan of store-made white flour tortillas, anyway.

This is another Qdoba burrito, without the sour cream and only including corn salsa (I don't particularly like sour cream). I find that heating up the burrito in a microwave, thus heating up the guacamole, actually makes an amazing dip! Again, I'm not really big on the rice or tortilla.

A vegetarian burrito with tax is $6.25, and Qdoba has a rewards card and coupons, so after some number of points, I can get a free burrito. The coupons are useful because I managed to get two burritos last weekend for $6.25. Qdoba also has other options (e.g. tortilla soup), but I don't really think I'm interested in them.

CHIPOTLE

I used to prefer Chipotle because there's one in the town next to mine, but since I'm in Philadelphia, Chipotle and Qdobas are usually next to each other (which doesn't really make sense, but it's true). Recently, Chipotle started using gold foil wrappers because they want to stress that their food is high quality. It doesn't really make a difference to me, but...

...they have brown rice now! Definitely a plus. I ordered the burrito with brown rice, fajita vegetables, medium salsa, corn salsa, guacamole, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce. There was a lot of guacamole (okay, not enough in my honest opinion, but enough to satisfy me), plenty of rice, and an even distribution of beans. I definitely should've chosen the mild salsa, because the medium one was really spicy... or maybe that was the fajita vegetables? The rice was perfectly chewy (the way brown rice should be), and the tortilla was plain.

Chipotle's burrito in the town next to mine is $6.25 without tax, and at the one on campus, it's $6.93 with tax. I don't think Chipotle has a mailing list, which therefore means that there are no coupons or anything...

OVERALL

Portion sizes a side (hah.)...the matter of which is better weighs little in my list of priorities (hah.). I would say that Chipotle does have higher "quality" because of the chunkier/higher portion of guacamole, the presence of vegetables (fajita vegetables and lettuce!) and the brown rice option. However, Qdoba definitely has it in for price; it has double-point days, it has a rewards program, and it has coupons.

Through all this chomping though, I realised that neither actually offer what I really love... they just stick in convenience and packaging, and make me think that I love the restaurant. Like I said, I don't care much for the carb parts, or the proprietary recipe for the rice/guacamole/salsas! I don't even care much for the spices added to the beans because I like beans out of a can (or British baked beans!!).

So, I guess I should from now on make my own burritos-without-the-carb-parts...

1 can of black beans = ~50c, 400 Cal

2 mashed avocados = ~$3.00, 550 Cal

2 servings of low-fat cheese = ~$1.50, 200 Cal

Maximum $5.00 for the same 1000+ Calorie "burrito".

Actually, Chipotle and Qdoba aren't even Mexican, right? I mean, maybe the ingredients are used the way they're used in Mexico, but the portion size is highly Americanised. Still, delicious.

Maybe I Should've Gone Home...

...over the long weekend.

I got out of work at 1:30pm today.

I went to Qdoba, got 2 vegetarian burritos for $6.25. Misters Washington and Adam and all those others killed so that I could buy two burritos for the price of one.

I walked into the city. I now realise that Philadelphia is puny compared to NY. The sad part is that I will not be able to go to every restaurant and grocery store in Philadelphia, so why would I ever have the chance to get to all of them in NY? Yet, I already feel sick of over half of Philadelphia - the clothing stores, the shoe stores, the furniture stores...

I realised today that the only reasons I still live is to eat food and to be in situations/environments for which I have a deep attachment. Seeing as I do not currently have family to see, friends to see, familiar places to be at, or time periods of my life to relive, eating is all I can do to feel happy in an impersonal, lonely place. Purchasing food has become my way of coping with being alone. Somehow, I tell myself that apart from tuition, the rest of my money is to be used on food. Then I wonder, what else would I spend my money on, anyway? Jewelry and clothes do not interest me that much anymore. Movies and books can be borrowed. I somehow have a bizarre addiction to food. Anything put into savings would end up being spent on food, right?

Today, I walked 8.43 miles from 4:30 pm until around 9:30 pm, pausing to look at some galleries as it was First Friday. There were nice snacks in some of the galleries and some very inspiring art (including some with glitter). One clothing store was giving out free hot dogs and I briefly considered being a scavenger and not a vegetarian anymore. What would happen? However, I am so used to just disregarding animal pieces. I don't know.

Since I was supposed to run today instead of walk, tomorrow I will probably walk at least 16 miles, since I feel that my W-H ratio puts me at a high risk for cardiovascular disease.

So, what did I do today?

1. Nuts To You on 20th St. Nice. Let me try a piece of dried kiwi (tasted NOTHING like kiwi; just sugary...flavourless. Luckily I tried it; otherwise, I would've bought a whole pound of it). Instead, I bought two pounds of sour gummy bears because they were "on sale" for $1.99/lb.

2. Nuts To You on 13th St. Less friendly, but I went because I realised that I could sample a circus peanut. The guy seemed a bit miffed that he'd have to untie a bag of circus peanuts, just for me to take one of them and thus make the "one pound" bag a little less than a pound. Last time I checked, a dried piece of kiwi was heavier than a circus peanut. The person at the 20th St. store was much more lenient about it, I guess. This store was bigger, though, and appeared to have more variety, although it could all just be spatial bias. I am glad that I didn't buy a packet of circus peanuts. Okay, I slightly like circus peanuts; they're chewy, but not really sticky like marshmallows, and certainly too soft to be considered similar to Lucky Charms cereal marbits. Circus peanuts are too moist for that. They're also super-artificial banana flavoured, and I would probably fall in love with them if they were peanut or chocolate or even mint flavoured instead. At this store, I found loads of sour gummy bears, NOT on sale, for $1.99/lb, so I don't know what I'm supposed to think (negatively, I reckon). I bought a bag of animal crackers for 40c because my sister loves them and as I was paying, a guy walked in asking about the pizza peanuts. The cashier said that there were none left, but that they were selling plain peanuts for 99c/lb. I bought a bag of those too. They aren't completely peanuts; they're covered in a flour coating which reminds me of this batter-coated peanut thing I used to eat in HK. And AUS.

A pound for $0.99 is pretty good. Maybe I will go tomorrow to buy another bag.

3. Art galleries. I did enjoy some of the art. It makes me realise how dreary my life has become after starting college. I no longer find inspiration or draw properly anymore.

4. I unintentionally found Bread St.

5. I walked to Franklin Square Park. Watching the families, the toddlers, the skateboarders, and the couples playing mini-golf, I felt lonely.

6. Chinatown. Small. No sign of stores selling those food-shaped erasers. I momentarily considered collecting all food versions of the erasers but I suppose I will just keep a scrapbook of pictures of them on my computer. It serves the same purpose. Collections.

7. Trader Joe's. Corn tortillas. $1.49. Bananas. 19c each or 29c for organic ones. I bought two organic bananas from Colombia. I haven't had enough potassium in the past month so that may explain why I nearly fainted yesterday when I was biking. I ought to add these two items to my Trader Joe's list.

Spring Fling 2011!

Spring Fling 2011. The yearly event that everyone loves, because of the blatant alcoholism and horde of people wavering around drunk. The event in which alcohol is in every bottle and cup. The event in which wearing neon is purely acceptable, and wearing those huge sunglasses and no pants is classy snazzy.

Despite missing the Fling concert, my friends and I did have a lot of fun with a lightsaber fight with glowsticks, and walking around, eating food, and watching movies. We went to the Burger Fling, an event right before the Fling concert. It was advertised as a huge barbecue, but it was nothing of the sort; all we did was stand in line indoors, get a plate of food, and disperse. Because I asked for a veggie burger, I had to wait an extra 11 minutes for them to cook it :( but it was pretty good, and I got an extra slice of cheese with it. I also got a pretty fresh and yeasty pretzel. It wasn't bland, airy, and untextured.

Tonight, I present you with the carnival! The carnival was supposed to be on College Green, but since It's been raining for the past 12 hours, it was moved into Houston Hall. Somehow, they managed to stick in a whole bunch of food samples, a jumping castle, two mechanical bulls, and over the fire-hazard-limit number of people&umbrellas onto two floors, and everyone actually seemed happy about it!! I had arrived a bit early, and there were already lines forming. I got some key lime water ice, and the best part was that it was a full container of it! It was delicious, although I think that the cookies and cream flavour was way better (I tried some of CC's. He actually preferred the fruity ones since mixing cream and water didn't seem to be his thing).

I also got some Chipotle, but they didn't really offer what I wanted; it was just a flour tortilla with cheese, tomato, and lettuce. Dude. Where're the beans? The guacamole? The salsa? Where are all the things that make a Chipotle burrito a Chipotle burrito? Yes, I understand that they had to feed some 1000 or so of us with a limited budget, but this gave TJ a bad impression of Chiptole. As I am already biased towards Chipotle, I don't really mind but now TJ will value Qdoba over Chipotle :(

Actually, I did try some Qdoba tortilla chip dip. It was pretty good-cheesy, spicy, drinkable like soup, so I ended up chugging most of it since we ran out of chips. My friend took a picture of me drinking it, and that's the closest picture I have to the cliche plastic-red-cup-filled-with-vodka image. Haha.

Boxes of...

Costco churros! This is the second (?) Costco churro of my life, and although it tasted rather stale and dry, the inside was quite delicious and spongy!

Samosas from...someone, filled with potato and peas and spicy stuff- Amazing! (still vegetarian although it looks like there's cow mince in there)

...And the grand finale...THE MAGIC CARPET MEATBALL PITA! Delicious mustardy cheesy something light kinda sauce (Not sure what it is), seedy nutty delicious falafelish smooshed non-meat meatballs with crunchy lettuce and a crusty pita - AMAZING! I really have to advertise Magic Carpet now! Next year... Gonna buy from this food truck!