Savory & Sweet

I wonder what the deal is with the "chicken & waffles" craze of late?

I've had the real deal twice in my life. The first time was in Vega$, June 2011 at B.B. King's Blues Club for breakfast before flying home. The last time was at M&M's Fish & Chicken Shack in Sparks and their waffles were great! I believe there was a cornmeal taste to them. Loved it, even if I had to pick the chicken wings apart. There's nothing like being one with your food. I thoroughly enjoyed both times, actually. 

B.B. King's chicken and waffles, great for the morning after you partake liberally

Todd got a bag of Lay's Chicken & Waffles flavored potato chips. OMG, they are so addictive! Generally speaking, I prefer sweet to savory, so chips are usually not my downfall, but daaaang these are goooood. It's such a strange combination that I keep wanting to eat them to make sure my mouth isn't lying to my brain. The maple flavor is subtle but distinctively there. I told him not to buy another bag, because I can't resist them.

And by the way, he bought the cheesy garlic bread flavored chips to, and my thoughts on those are:  Meh.  They are OK. Totally resistible. The person who suggested the Chicken & Waffles flavor got totally ripped off in that contest. But I understand if you don't agree.  If you don't like maple, you would probably hate them.

Next up, thanks to social media, I heavily anticipated Popeye's special promotion of their Chicken Waffle Tenders. Thank you, Popeye's. Thank you for dreaming up such a creative approach to chicken tenders.

I remember the first time I "experienced" creative chicken tenders. It had to be almost 20 years ago when Todd and I loved visiting Chicago on at least an annual basis to eat and shop. We went to Planet Hollywood and had their Captain Crunch chicken fingers. They were divine. I've had them again since then, and the magic is gone, now replaced with low-quality mass-produced sub-par frozen-fried chicken strips. I guess they got so popular that they decided to cut costs and go with a cheap version. I will prefer to keep my memories of the first time we had them.

Anyway, back to Popeye's. We went on a little adventure today to find them because Todd knew how much I wanted to try them, and after all, they are only here for a limited time.

The crust is light, crunchy, crispy, slightly sweet and tasty. We waited two minutes, happily, for fresh waffle tenders to be up in the window. I did not care for the maple dipping sauce at all. It was thick and chemically smelling with a sweet taste of nothingness so I skipped the sauce. Our tenders were accompanied by steaming hot mashed potatoes with Cajun gravy. I do not want to know what's in that gravy. It's SO ugly with unidentifiable components. But that's OK because I wanted to eat it and taste it, not look at it.

Popeye's Chick Waffle Tenders, MMMmmmmm!

It was worth driving an hour for lunch to try these. I don't think I will do it again, but now that I've had them, my curiosity is satisfied. And so is my tummy.