It’s the mysterious prickly-fuzzy chemical additive. Without that, it’s just cloying, but with, it’s divine.
I might be missing the sarcasm, but Carl’s Jr is just the midwest/southwest version of Hardee’s. Except for those strange states like WY and OK that have both.
My bad on making it an obscure reference. Not your fault for missing the sarcasm.
Yes I know they are owned by the same corporation now, but they don’t have the same menu. Many years ago when I lived in Virginia I used to love Hardee’s. I’m talking many, many years ago. They had this great breakfast biscuit that was steak and egg and it was so freaking good. Every part of it. No such luck here in California with Carl’s Jr.
Also, their hash brown thingies? Those were so freaking good.
And there’s no sweet tea on the menu. I know people who look forward to a stop at Hardee’s anytime they get back out to Virginia just because of the joy of getting to order sweet tea at the drive-through. That’s not a thing here in CA.
Carl’s Jr. is fine. But it’s no old school Hardee’s, even if now they are basically the same thing.
Not like Edy’s and Dreyer’s ice cream, which is totally the same thing, just named different regionally because reasons. Why do they do that?
-xtien
Hardee’s here in NC is still proper and the breakfast is my favorite fast food meal / intestinal roto-router in the country.
When I lived in Qatar, Hardee’s was the first or second Western fast food chain to open there in Doha, right before/after Kentucky Fried Chicken. When I got to college here in the U.S., Hardees was the closest fast food place to campus, so I frequented it again during that phase. When they introduced fried chicken that was supposedly better than KFC, I was skeptical at first, but won over when I tasted it. And their peach cobbler was to die for.
When they were eventually bought by Carl’s Jr., I really liked the changes they made in the midwest. Basically the old stuff like their excellent fried chicken was gone by then anyway, but they kept most of their old menu, while also adding the good stuff from Carl’s Jr, like in 2001 when Carl’s added the Six Dollar Burger. At Hardee’s it wasn’t officially on the menu, and still isn’t in some Hardee’s, but if you ask for it, they’ll still give it to you. For a fast food chain, that’s still my favorite burger. Better than In N’ Out and Five Guys, that’s for sure.
Unfortunately, it’s also probably the unhealthiest. No wait, that’s probably something still at Jack in the Box, where they manage to somehow have fast food that doesn’t taste good, while also being the worst for you. They still have trans fat in all their items for god’s sake. At the very least if something is really bad for you, it should taste amazing for some brief glorious seconds as you eat it. Isn’t that the bargain with the devil that we all make? Give me euphoria for a few seconds, and in return I’ll let you give me clogged arteries and a heart attack in the future. At least Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr get that part of the bargain right.
I haven’t eaten at a Hardee’s in at least 10 years. But I remember there being one down the street from our house for a while when I was young. And I remember loving the Frisco Burger. And I keep running into people talking about Hardee’s lately, and it makes me want to try recreating that burger!
I totally thought they were just rebrands of the same thing, just like the ice cream. Had no idea they didn’t share menus! So my bad then. I haven’t eaten at either one…
Is this still the case? When I lived in Bellevue, WA, Papa Murphy’s was definitely the best pizza chain. This was back in the days before Dominos and Pizza Hut had changed their recipes to be edible. Papa Johns in Bellevue had no beef topping, and no banana peppers, I can’t eat pork toppings, so that’s when I tried their Chicken and discovered it tasted like medicine that made me throw up the next day.
But yeah, Papa Murphy’s was amazing when I shared it at my friend’s place. Sometime I was even the person to take it out of its wrapping and follow the instructions to bake in the oven. But when I tried Papa Murphy’s at my own apartment? It was terrible. To be more precise, the taste of Papa Murphy’s is highly dependent on how good your oven is. The oven in my apartment at the time was really badly calibrated. It would either burn the pizza from the top or bottom or leave it underdone or overdone. It seemed impossible to get it right. I thought it was a one-off oven too, but later when I moved to Kansas City, the oven at my parents was the same way.
After that I gave up on Papa Murphy’s. Technically I haven’t tried the oven at my own house yet, so it is possible that I’ve got a good oven for Papa Murphy’s. But Papa Murphy’s is so much more expensive compared to the now excellent Domino’s (7.99 for a Large 3 topping) for the last few years, so the question becomes, is it worth the extra money to experiment and risk discovering that my oven sucks?
I actually just had Papa Murphy’s for the first time last week. Was out camping in the Quad Cities area, and on the way back we stopped for ice cream. One of the couples we were with saw there was a Papa Murphy’s across the street and insisted we needed to try it. So we got a Medditerranean and a bacon artichoke pizza. They were pretty tasty. The Meditteranean in particular, though I’m an easy sell for anything with sun dried tomatoes.
Not really something in my area though. The nearest one is over an hour away, up at the Wisconsin border. Otherwise it’s going out by Indianapolis, or the Quad Cities. It seems like I-74 is the dividing line for the chain.
Papa Murphy’s is definitely a little different as chains go. They have popped up around Houston. I tried it once and found it not very memorable, like the frozen pizzas I can get at most stores, but that was a ways ago, maybe I need to try again. The kids like Digiorno if we have to go frozen.
This caused me to stop by a random Round Table last night and order a King Arthur Supreme pizza - the go to pie of my youth. The linguica was definitely there and is very distinct. Nice nostalgia trip in a crappy little strip mall pizza joint.
I’m a huge fan of Papa Murphy’s. I just got myself a brand new gas stove/oven, and they turn out absolutely perfect every time. Heck, even in my old 30+ year old oven (also gas), they turned out great. Tops anything any of the major pizza chains have made for me. Part of that might be because the Papa Murphy’s pizza comes straight out of my oven, piping hot and fresh.
Is there any difference in how things turn out whether it’s a gas oven vs. electric? I know one chef personally, and he swears he will only ever have a gas oven in his house. I can’t remember why though. Anybody know?
Well, I think I would prefer an electric oven, with a gas range. Gas heats up faster, but also isn’t as dry in an oven, and tends to be less even.
I don’t know why you would prefer a gas oven to an electric one for baking or roasting. But, If broil things a lot, it would make sense.
Gas burners are excellent for cooking on the stovetop though.
Gas does preheat faster, but the notion that it’s less even is an old wive’s tale. It definitely is moister, but that’s generally a good thing, particularly for baking. Electric ovens also cycle on and off, so they are somewhat less consistent. Not a big deal on the oven side though. Convection is a big deal, gas vs electric isn’t.
God what I’d do for a gas stovetop though. . .
If you can’t install gas, get an induction cooktop. They get incredibly hot, shockingly fast, and are quite inexpensive these days. Also great for the summer as they won’t heat up your house, are much less likely to start a fire as there’s no flame or electric burner, and are safer around kids.
In many ways induction is superior to gas burners for actual cooking too, only bummer is that you can’t glance at the flame or turn an analog knob to judge how hot you’re working, it’s all digital. But once you get used to it, the precision is awesome.
My apartment has gas hookups, but when I replace my stove I will be getting an electric conduction oven and an induction stovetop.
Main drawback is you can’t use aluminum pans. If a magnet won’t stick to it, it won’t work.
I’d kill a man for their old chicken sandwiches from the 80’s.
They were the best fast food item that has ever existed.
I have a lot of kitchen gadgets and also disposable income. However, inexpensive is not how I would describe the induction stoves, unless you just mean one standalone? Having used them at the Melting Pot, I’m definitely interested.
EDIT: nevermind, I missed the link on your post which is just the single burner add-on. Carry on, sir.
Dude. These?
At least here, those things were dry as a bone, overly crunchy on the edges, and had nothing but dry tasting cut up lettuce on them.
And they were trying to win over people who had gone to malls and had Chic-fil-a sandwiches, which were fantastic, juicy, and fresh and had just started to proliferate the areas that Hardee’s was in. Chic-fil-a literally blew them out of the water in taste.
It could have been your local Hardee’s had it going on, but the ones near me just didn’t know how to do chicken. At least back then.
Chic-fil-a wasn’t in my area, but Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich was delectable back in its day. Don’t think I’ve been to a Wendy’s since Clinton was president.