Great fast food nation t-shirts

Threadless (my personal favorite when it comes to cool t-shirts) has just released 2 great new fast food related t-shirts from their Fast Food Nation design contest. (I previously wrote about their shirt "The Fast Supper.")

The first is titled "Fast Food Meal" and depicts a hot dog, fries and soda as a stick of dynamite, a grenade and a revolver (in the soda cup):

The second is titled "Inside You" and looks like this:

Click the images to see what they look like on a t-shirt. I can't wait to get mine!

Raw McChicken at McDonald's

Susie Felber has e-mailed Fast Food News to tell of her 'raw chicken experience' at McDonald's.

Two Sundays ago Susie dined at a McDonald's in Windsor, Connecticut while driving to New Hampshire. It was her first time to eat at McDonald's in 15 years. She was not pleased. The Chicken Sandwich that she (finally) received was raw inside. The rest of her story, in her own words is below this photo of the sandwich:

"At McDonalds my husband ordered 2 coffees and two grilled chicken sandwiches -- what we considered to be the healthy option.

Much time passed. Ten minutes later neither the coffee nor the sandwiches were ready. The store was not busy at all, there was never a line. But people who ordered burgers and fries were being served. However, when we arrived, a guy was fighting with the employees because he had paid for his breakfast item, but apparently they were all out of breakfast food.

My husband noticed people shuffling back on forth from store to behind the counter, some of whom were not in uniform. He got the impression that they possibly didn't work there and were just hanging out with their friends. Not sure, but it was odd.

My husband asked where our food was. They said it was coming. Then he asked if the coffees were ready. They were. Apparently they had been put by the drive thru window.

After about 20 minutes the sandwiches arrived. I was hungry and in a rush with a squirmy baby, but surprisingly I didn't eat it immediately, as I noticed there was heaps of mayo spilling off of it, so I opened the sandwich to rake as much as possible off.

I ate two bites. It wasn't good, but as it was road food, I didn't expect it to be great. It was hard to eat as the mayo kept making the chicken slip out of the mushy bread. I noticed the cheese hadn't melted, but that didn't bother me. On about my third or fourth bite, I noticed something was very wrong. I spit it out and yelled, "Oh my god, it's raw!"

Long story short, the McDonalds workers didn't apologise. They gave back our money in a resigned way that suggested this wasn't uncommon. The manager looked dully at me and her only answer was, "yeah...um...I don't know how that happened." But this was only after demanding an explanation as they seemed like my husband and I were making a stink over nothing even after showing them the raw sandwich.

It was a degrading experience, all the way around.

I was sick for a few days, but don't know how much was physical and how much was from the idea of it. I don't think I'll be eating chicken for a long time to come. And I'll never eat at McDonalds again."

Here's a larger version of the raw chicken at Susie's Flickr site. You can also read about it on her blog, Felber's Frolics.

DQ FlameThrower ad a hit

Dairy Queen has unleashed a new TV ad touting their FlameThrower Grill Burger and the ad is getting rave reviews on YouTube. You can watch it below.

DQ's FlameThrower chicken sandwich comes crispy or grilled or you can get the 1/4 pound or 1/2 pound burger version. They all have pepper jack cheese, 2 slices of jalapeño bacon, tomato, lettuce and DQ's "serious" FlameThrower sauce.

What the ad doesn't mention, of course, is that all these sandwiches (except the grilled chicken version) have high amounts of trans fats (see below).

The 1/2 pound FlameThrower GrillBurger has 1030 calories, 650 calories from fat, 73 g total fat, 23 g saturated fat, 3.5 g trans fat (that's a lot!), 145 mg cholesterol, 2020 mg sodium, 41 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 9 g sugars, 53 g protein.

The 1/4 pound FlameThrower GrillBurger has 780 calories, 490 calories from fat, 54 g total fat, 14 g saturated fat, 3 g trans fat (again, that's a lot of trans fat), 90 mg cholesterol, 1490 mg sodium, 41 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 9 g sugars, 33 g protein.

The Crispy FlameThrower Chicken Sandwich has 840 calories, 510 calories from fat, 56 g fat, 11 g saturated fat, 5.5 g trans fat (that's huge; it's as much as the FDA recommends you have in a day), 100 mg cholesterol, 1860 mg sodium, 51 g carbs, 3 g fiber, 8 g sugars, 33 g protein.

The Grilled FlameThrower Chicken Sandwich has 580 calories, 320 calories from fat, 35 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, no trans fat (because it's grilled), 100 mg cholesterol, 1590 mg sodium, 53 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 7 g sugars, 34 g protein.

Chick-fil-a's new shake for St. Patrick's day

Chick-fil-a will be introducing a new hand-spun Mint Cookies and Cream Milkshake starting on St. Patrick's Day (March 17). It will be available through June 30th.

The new shake includes Oreo cookies and mint flavoring and will be available in a 20 oz. cup and priced at $2.79.

“The Mint Cookies and Cream Milkshake is just plain fun,” said Woody Faulk, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of brand development. “Following last year’s highly successful rollout of Hand-Spun Milkshakes, we wanted to let our customers know that we appreciate their enthusiastic support of the shakes – and that we have a few surprises in store for them!”

Chick-fil-a's Cookies and Cream Milkshake has 790 calories, 300 calories from fat, 33g total fat, 18g saturated fat, .5g trans fat 95mg cholesterol, 660mg sodium, 111g carbohydrates, 1g fiber, and 100g sugars.

Prince Charles suggests McDonald's ban

Prince Charles isn't "Lovin' It" when it comes to McDonald's. During a visit to the UAE the Prince suggested that banning McDonald's was an important move towards improving people's diets.

"Have you got anywhere with McDonald's? Have you tried getting it banned? That's the key," the Prince said to a nutritionist at the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi.

McDonald's was quick to counter and had their research ready: Nick Hindle, a McDonald's spokesman, called the remark disappointing. He said other members of the royal family "have probably got a more up-to-date picture of us," alluding to reports that Charles' son, Prince Harry, was spotted eating a chicken burger at McDonald's in 2005.

Again, do we really need people telling us what to eat? It's enough to be able to know what we're eating if we happen to be concerned about it (which we hopefully are). But when a member of the British Royal family speaks, with their enormous amount of credibility and real-world knowledge, the world listens... right?!?!

McDonald's tests Angus burger

Sean in Los Angeles has contacted Fast Food News to report that McDonald's is testing a 1/3 pound Black Angus burger in 3 versions: a deluxe burger (with lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle, mayo, mustard and ketchup and 2 slices of American cheese), a Bacon Cheeseburger and a Mushroom and Swiss burger. Sean saw these on the menu and tried one at a North Hollywood location.

Sean's description:

The burger itself was dry, which made me suspect it was overcooked. The person before me in line ordered "just cheese" but was given condiments too and had to send it back, so perhaps the kitchen staff wasn't very attentive. But she liked the burger so much it was her second straight lunch there, recommending it unsolicited and telling me it tasted like a "real" burger, not a McDonald's burger."

The vegetables were all fresh and crisp, and there were two slices of American cheese, one on top and one below. All three sandwiches were $3.99 (more than a dollar more than a Quarter Pounder with Cheese) and I think the meals were $5.49. Had my burger not been overcooked I might have liked it, but as it was I had to add ketchup just to moisten it up.

If you have a photo of the in-store signs for these burgers and/or the burgers themselves, please send them our way at tips@foodfacts.info

Chowhound also wrote about McDonald's test of the Angus Burger back in December.