More Fast Food Woes

When I get off work, it's usually rather late at night. Most of the time I'm hungry, but I'm in no mood for driving out of my way, then walking through the supermarket. Nor am I often in a mood where I want to wait for something to cook.

And on the times I do stop in at the market, I'm not the type who loads up the cart as if I'm stocking up for an Arctic expedition. I usually only get a few things that are necessary such as cat food, toilet paper, and so on. Because I've never had much interest in "real" cooking and never got around to learning much, what I get is largely limited to what doesn't need cooking or what can be nuked in the microwave. And even if I was into cooking, it's not something I'd be keen on doing in the middle of the night, anyway.

So, more often than not, if I'm hungry when I 'm on the way home from work, I'll get something from a fast-food drive-through. I'm fortunate to live on the north end of town, where most of the fast food joints and other types of restaurants are clustered.

My son would be happy to go nowhere but McDonald's, but I have to vary it, as I get sick of the same ol' thing all the time. Last night, I thought I'd go by Arby's and pick up something; maybe a club sandwich. This is a fast food place, but I consider it a cut above the fare at McD's and Burger King. I pulled into their drive-through about fifteen minutes before they were to close, but no sooner than I'd done so, than a message popped up on their screen advising me that they were closed for the night. Fifteen minutes early. And this isn't the first time these slackers have pulled this shit on me.

Pissed off, but knowing there wasn't anything I could do about it, I backed out of their drive-through and sped off to my second choice, Wendy's. Wanting to avoid the mayo miasma soggy bun nightmare, I decided to get one of their turkey frescata sandwiches on ciabatta bread. I like the ciabatta, as it does better at avoiding the sogginess factor than do kaiser rolls.

But when I ordered, I was informed that they were "out" of ciabatta rolls and would I like that on a kaiser roll? No, I don't want a fucking kaiser roll -- I ordered this particular sandwich precisely to avoid nasty soggy kaiser shit.

What really pisses me off is that they're ALWAYS out of ciabatta bread -- at least the last five times I've been there over the space of a month or two. What the hell is up with that? What's the point in offering a sandwich, then never stocking the key ingredient that makes it unique? I've ordered this sandwich at the other Wendy's locations in town and they're always "out" of ciabatta, too. As far as I'm concerned, if they're not prepared to make me the sandwich as advertised, then they ought to take a damned thing off the menu. Being out of it once I can understand, but they've been "out" of it for months now.

Disgusted now, having been thwarted twice on my quest for a midnight meal, I told them what I thought of their constantly being out of ciabatta, then roared off. I ended up having to drive all the way to the interstate and getting a burger from Hardee's. We've only got two of those in town, one way down on the southern side of town and totally out of my way, and the other on the north end by the interstate. That one involved overshooting the turn to go home, but it was closer than doubling back to the other one. They had what I wanted, and I finally got to go home, satisfied at last.

I just came straight home from work tonight -- there was food in the pantry and I wasn't all that hungry to begin with.