Sandwiches!

[Greg Nog]

The calorie count is not the ridiculous part—many non-fast food sandwiches are well over 500 calories. The sodium count on the other hand is completely absurd.

1380 milligrams!  That's like drinking three liters of gatorade!  DAMN!

[Greg Nog]

So!  Just had a Double Down, mere moments ago!  In fact, there's still melted cheese stuck to my molars! 

In general, not so great.  The bacon's main purpose seems to add aroma when the sandwich comes out of the package; there's a smoky, chemical-y scent that wafts about the whole thing.  Which is sort of odd; with most fast food containing bacon, the smoky-porcine flavor usually gets integrated pretty well, whether it's a bacon cheeseburger from McDonald's, or my beloved Club Chalupa from Taco Bell.  Here, the bacon seems to sit kind of uneasily against the chicken smell.

The chicken is delicious, but then, I always find KFC chicken to be delicious.  What's disappointing is that the chicken flavors, like the bacon, don't really "integrate".  There's alternately a taste of the fried chicken, then a taste of the melty American cheese, then a taste of the bacon.  No "amplitude", as the food tasters say.  You know how a McDonald's hamburger is its own delicious flavor, and so recognizeably a single flavor-experience that you can make tortilla chips (DORITO X13D, OH YES) that taste like a single, whole burger?  The Double Down does not have that.  It's just a concatenation of salty components, jammed together no differently than any of the other foods one might buy, then jam together, while stoned at midnight.

I think the purpose of the sauce should be working to tie these tastes together, but really, its flavor gets lost in the melty creaminess of the cheese and covered over by the wonderful breading of the chicken, so much so that I couldn't even tell you what the sauce flavor is supposed to be.  Eh.  It's good.  It's passable.  It's not great.

Overall: is the Double Down worth buying?  No.  No fucking way, and I say that as someone who would generally be happy to stab a stranger for some KFC.  The sodium levels may be ridiculously high, but ultimately, the fact that it's 6 bucks before tax (at least in New York prices) means that there are a billion better values on the menu.  Given the way the shitty bacon and cheese get lost in the flavor of the chicken, I can't see myself ever ordering it when I could just get six dollars worth of straight-up fried chicken instead.

[Greg Nog]

So by way of comparison, I just zoomed over to Pies 'n' Thighs, the South Williamsburg chicken joint that pollo (and plenty of others) have been recommending.  I got their main sandwich, the chicken-and-biscuit.

Here, opening the package created an aroma of spicy sweetness -- a mixture of hot pepper and honey, as opposed to the "technically, this is bacon" smell of the Double Down.  The sandwich was a giant, sweet, yellow, moist, cakey biscuit with a flat fried-chicken breast inside.  The chicken's coating wasn't too spicy, but subtle and delicious, and mixed perfectly with the sweetness of the biscuit.  The hot, sweet sauce bridged the two perfectly.  All the components of this sandwich went together beautifully!  And unlike the Double Down, the chicken didn't feel like a lump of Dare dropping stonelike into my stomach; the texture of the biscuit compressed and expanded in my mouth as I chewed, and as it entered my GI tract, it felt like a statisfying, hearty, complete meal.

If I have any complaints about the sandwich, it's that I'm still a sucker for creaminess at the end of the day; the next time I get this, I'd see if I could get it with mayo.  And actually, with a bit of iceberg lettuce to play against the cakeyness of the biscuit, I think this thing would be straight-up unstoppable.

Total cost: 5 dollars, as opposed to the Double Down's 6.  Way, way, WAY more worthwhile.

[FreddyKnuckles]

I pretty much don't eat fast food anymore.  Why get some crappy, smushed-together, reheated sandwich of some sort when there's hundreds of other options out there that are a million times better and the same price or cheaper?

[milesofsparks]

I still haven't been to PnT.  I need to remedy that.

Greg, could you see the Double Down being worth it in the same configuration, but with good ingredients?  like if you made it yourself, would it be more delicious?  is it the idea or the execution (or both) that is at fault?

[Greg Nog]

I was thinking about that, and I believe I've come to the conclusion that you COULD make an excellent Double-Down at home, but that it would require a different, more prominent sauce, bacon chopped into bits rather than strips (although really, the bacon flavor seems like such a stranger to the other ingredients, I'd be more inclined to use something like ham or prosciutto), a less waxy-plastic cheese than American (maybe gouda?), and a rougher-textured, less-black-peppery chicken, possibly with a cornmeal-based batter.  Maybe I'll try it, see what I can do.

[FreddyKnuckles]

doesn't seem worth it to me unless your anti-bread.  There's a reason we put carbs around the outside of our sandwiches--it's just what tastes good.

[Greg Nog]

Generally, I don't eat a lot of bread; most of my meals consist of fairly proteinous foods mixed with raw veggies, not a whole lot of starches.

[elpollodiablo]

So by way of comparison, I just zoomed over to Pies 'n' Thighs, the South Williamsburg chicken joint that pollo (and plenty of others) have been recommending.  I got their main sandwich, the chicken-and-biscuit.

Here, opening the package created an aroma of spicy sweetness -- a mixture of hot pepper and honey, as opposed to the "technically, this is bacon" smell of the Double Down.  The sandwich was a giant, sweet, yellow, moist, cakey biscuit with a flat fried-chicken breast inside.  The chicken's coating wasn't too spicy, but subtle and delicious, and mixed perfectly with the sweetness of the biscuit.  The hot, sweet sauce bridged the two perfectly.  All the components of this sandwich went together beautifully!  And unlike the Double Down, the chicken didn't feel like a lump of Dare dropping stonelike into my stomach; the texture of the biscuit compressed and expanded in my mouth as I chewed, and as it entered my GI tract, it felt like a statisfying, hearty, complete meal.

If I have any complaints about the sandwich, it's that I'm still a sucker for creaminess at the end of the day; the next time I get this, I'd see if I could get it with mayo.  And actually, with a bit of iceberg lettuce to play against the cakeyness of the biscuit, I think this thing would be straight-up unstoppable.

Total cost: 5 dollars, as opposed to the Double Down's 6.  Way, way, WAY more worthwhile.

YES dude YES, I motherfucking want one right now

[FreddyKnuckles]

Generally, I don't eat a lot of bread; most of my meals consist of fairly proteinous foods mixed with raw veggies, not a whole lot of starches.

yeah i dig that.  but its a sandwich, you know?  Surely your sanwiches have their share of starch.

[Greg Nog]

I do enjoy a crusty baguette, that's for sure!  In fact, as I was on my way home with the Double Down, I was struck by a craving for a banh mi.

[Greg Nog]

So by way of comparison, I just zoomed over to Pies 'n' Thighs

YES dude YES, I motherfucking want one right now

Have you had their brisket?  That looked intriguing!

[Bernard]

That you can have your sick core and eat your double down too seems unfair.

[cold before sunrise]

Here's the thing for when work is over and you have leftover potatoes and onions all fried up together from breakfast, is you heat them up, and fry up some courgette slices because why the hell not, and then theres red capsicum and beetroot and slicing them up seems a plan, and cheese too because Edam is nice, and two types of hot sauce, and salt and man that's pretty close to heaven, and then you put all of it between two slices of soy and linseed bread and everything seems right with the world.

Yummers.

Oh, the thing I forgot before is horseradish! To make what an old employer called Parisian Boeuf. Classy ass sandwiches eaten with a knife and fork are old school and great to serve when you've got 'mature' folks over and neatly casual is called for.

[milly balgeary]

Doubledown is salt cheese bacony goodness in a double shot glass. If you're a vegetarian you probably won't want to eat it

[Aglaya]

We could just get the veggie option, and have a couple slices of melted cheese.

[diesel_powered]

I think I'd prefer that.

[FreddyKnuckles]

Trying to talk the GF into letting me cook cheesesteaks.  I'm a pro now.  Gino's and Pat's got nothin' on me.

[donblood]

Description of ingredients & process, please.

[FreddyKnuckles]

my above comment was full of shit, obvs.  But they are good--pretty traditional. I like to cook it because it is a really fast, filling, and easy thing to make.  The GF is opposed because for whatever reason she thinks it will make her 900 lbs.  I don't really think they're that unhealthy--no different than a roast beef sandwich with cheese. 

I saute the onions in some olive oil and salt until just tender, then transfer from pan to a bowl or something.  Then I crank up the heat on the same pan and add a couple more drops of oil if necessary.  Then I dump some very thinly sliced Rib Eye in there and cook for like a minute or two while pushing and flipping it around so it gets cooked enough. (I like mine slightly pink inside the thin slices but the outside browned).  Then I dump the onions back on to heat up and slap some sliced provolone on top for just a sec.  Then I scoop the whole thing onto a nicely crusty hoagie shaped roll. 

The whole time between putting the meat on and scooping it onto the roll is less than 5 minutes I'd say.


Ingredients:
onion
olive oil
Roll (really don't remember what I used last time, but it was bakery not prepackaged)
Ribeye (the grocery I go to is pretty crappy meat-wise, but the rib eye I got last time was really cheap. 


The first time I made it I didn't combine the ingredients in the pan and had hot meat with cold cheese on top, with lukewarm onions on top of the cheese just sliding around.  It is also ok to not put the onions back in the pan, but they HAVE to go on top of melted cheese. 

[jm]

Fucking yum.  That sounds delicious.

This is my favorite part:

The whole time between putting the meat on and scooping it onto the roll is less than 5 minutes I'd say.

[Anglophile]

That sounds awesome, but I gotta say that it just isn't a Philly cheesesteak to me without the Whiz

[Thermofusion]

Excellent work FK. Never occurred to me to try making cheesesteaks at home, but that sounds simple. Might opt for pimento cheese on mine

[FreddyKnuckles]

That sounds awesome, but I gotta say that it just isn't a Philly cheesesteak to me without the Whiz

Prov was the original ingredient my friend--the whiz came much later.

[Anglophile]

Yeah, I know, it's just that after the whiz, I've never been able to look back. That bridge is burned.