I said that my blog would involve a lot of reviews, thought I hadn't thought about writing a food review -- until this afternoon.

I'm still chugging away at Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits. For those of you who aren't too familiar with this food chain, it's a fried chicken joint, much like KFC. However, its style couldn't be any more different. Popeyes was founded in New Orleans as a means of having the wonder that is Louisiana cooking, but without the hassle of going to fancier restaurants. Since its opening in 1972, Popeyes has expanded its branches all over the United States and even across the seas. To this day, it remains true to its New Orleans heritage, serving not just fried chicken, but a variety of spicy dishes that were first made popular in the land of fine cooking.

Having been working for Popeyes for a little over two years now, I've experienced many lineups in our menu and seen new dishes being added to the mix. For the most part, the concept remains the same: fried chicken, sides, biscuits, and seafood. However, every so often the corporation brings back -- or sometimes creates -- flavorful dishes that exemplify the spirit of Louisiana cooking. This time, it's the crawfish Po'Boy sandwich.

First, you might be wondering just what the heck a Po'Boy is. Well, I'll just let the Popeyes website explain this delicious bit of New Orleans:


There you have it. A simply made sandwich with just the bare minimum -- in the case of Popeyes this includes lettuce, pickles, and a lot of meat stacked between. Note, however, that the picture of the sandwich seen above is NOT the crawfish Po'Boy. Po'Boys are made in a variety of ways at Popeyes -- chicken strip, shrimp, and even catfish. This month's special is centered around crawfish, shrimp like food that's marinated in famous Louisiana spices and fry cooked to perfection. When I took my lunch break at work today, I wanted to try out this sandwich, being both a fan of crawfish and a fan of the Po'Boy.

The result was amazingly delicious. I wish I had a picture to show just how delicious looking this sandwich really was, but I hadn't thought about picture taking for reviewing purposes until after the sandwich was long gone. Instead of using mayonnaise, the Crawfish Po'Boy uses horseradish as its sauce. It was an unusual thing, but it worked VERY well. The sauce gave it just that extra kick that makes me enjoy Popeyes food so much even after having been working there for so long.

With a side of famous New Orleans style red beans n' rice and a cup of our Sweet Iced Tea, this was one of the best meals I'd ever tasted at this place. I'm very much a fan of spicy food. I tend to dump loads of hot sauce on my steaks, burgers, and even my french fries just to satisfy my spicy needs. The food I had here needed absolutely nothing extra. All the spice was there and all the flavor was there.

Suffice to say that I recommend this sandwich to anyone. I know in this day and age fried food is looked down upon, but as the saying goes: "Everything in moderation." There's nothing wrong with indulging yourself a little bit. It might not be entirely healthy for you, but if flavor and good food for your money is what you're looking for, this kind of sandwich is definitely a good way to go.

Have you ever had to deal with a customer -- whether in food, retail, or any other business -- who likes to bargain? Do you hate that? I sure do. I dealt with that today at work.

I'll admit, I don't personally believe Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits has the best deals. But that's just it -- they're still deals. Regardless of my or anyone's opinion, it's still a deal, even if they're not as good as, say, KFC's $5 fill up boxes. Anyway, as of right now, the branch of Popeyes I work at has a deal going on for 10 pieces of mixed chicken for $9.99. After tax it's $10.97. Basically, about $11.00 for 10 pieces. And it's JUST 10 pieces of chicken. There's nothing else. I say again, there are much better deals out there. However, compared to what's on our menu at regular price this is actually a sweet ass deal. And note that the advertisement just says chicken only. Nothing else comes with it.

Every so often, however, a customer seems to think he or she can sway me into making any deal into a better one, and this pisses me off to no end for two reasons: 1.) It's already a deal! and 2.) I could get into serious trouble for doing that. That happened again today. Some guy -- about in his late 30s I would say -- came in at around 6:15 pm. I was at the register at the time and took his order. The first thing that came out of his mouth was this: "That deal out there on the window -- the 10 pieces for $9.99 -- how many sides and biscuits come with that?"

Let's look at this question really, really carefully. I'm not taking his question out of context, he specifically meant "what else comes with this deal?" It's the manner of how he worded his question. "How many sides and biscuits come with that?" The answer is none. There's no indication anywhere on the sign that this deal comes with anything other than chicken. "But, Kevin," you may be saying, "he just made a mistake! No big deal, right?" Ah, read on, my friend.

I politely informed him that nothing else comes with this deal. It's just chicken. This is where the second problem arose. He looked back at the sign and then at me, and gave me a look that clearly said, "Are you fucking crazy?!" He seemed to compose himself for a moment and then added, "Nothing? It's just chicken?"
"Yes, sir." I answered.
"10 pieces for $10? That's not much of a deal."
"I'm sorry, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

He began negotiating a better deal for him. First, he asked if we had any sort of deal that was only sides and biscuits. I informed him we didn't. He looked over at another of our specials, which was a family meal special and asked why that particular one did have a side and biscuit deal. I explained that that was how the deal came to begin with. For whatever reason, this answer seemed to send him on a bit of a rant, accusing us of being cheap (irony at its finest) and calling me a poor example of customer service. Eventually, he left saying, "You need to serve the customer! We're always right!"

No, sir. No, you're not. Customers are NOT always right, and I hate this stupid saying with a passion. You are not in the right when you try to negotiate what's already a deal or bargain to better suit your needs. I'm sorry, but you don't. Not in fast food anyway. The deal already comes how it says; I can't change it just because you don't like it. I'm sorry we don't have something better for you, but you can't satisfy everyone. Instead of getting so angry about it, though, either find another place or get something else on the menu, but don't start getting angry at me -- a simple worker who just follows what he's been told, and try to pin blame on him. As the saying goes: "I just work here."

Seriously, this whole sense of entitlement crap people seem to have of themselves needs to go away.