So today is Cinco de Mayo, or the 5th of May to anyone living above Denton County, Texas, and to celebrate Taco Bell was offering free breakfast tacos this morning.
Our local Taco Bell had been pushing its new breakfast brand for a little while now, and I'm sure you've seen at least one of these commercials about the "Breakfast Revolution" on some form of media. Well, since it was free, I gave it a shot.
Before I get into my personal opinion of this food item, let me address our local background. We are roughly two and a half hours away, driving, from Mexico. This is deep South Texas folks, and by that standard, we have our own opinion of what good "Mexican food" is, and Taco Bell is not what leaps to mind when we think "good Mexican food." Frankly, its not what leaps to mind when we think "Mexican food" at all. Taco Bell is more of circumstance than it is an eatery down here. Because they are partnered with Pizza Hut and KFC, they have survived in areas where there really isn't a need. There's no real demand for it down here, they just exist.
When they announced their new breakfast brand, many people I know rolled our collective eyes because they called it the "Breakfast Revolution", claiming that it would break the strangle hold the burger joints like McDonalds and Burger King, and in our area Whataburger had on the breakfast market. We rolled out eyes because Taco Bell wasn't filling a void down here. With our abundance of Mexican restaurants, we have other breakfast options. If we want a taco for breakfast, we can get a good, quality breakfast taco at five different locations between our homes and work. An Exxon station less than 100 yards away from our Taco Bell serves better tacos.
But, it was free so I wanted to give it a shot. The problem was, I drove by the Taco Bell at 6:10am and they were closed. Everyone else that offers breakfast down here is open no later than 5:00am to serve the early morning commuters. We have emergency services, type A personality business leaders, and refinery workers on their way to their jobs that need to eat something in route. Taco Bell was not catering to them. I understand that they are open late, but if you are going to compete with the other eateries down here, you need to compete on their level.
My wife was kind enough to swing one of these free tacos by me after she dropped or oldest off at school so finally I got to taste this new breakfast creation.
Sometime soon, I want you to go to your local grocery store or Wal-Mart and pick up a Jimmy Dean, or if you are at Wal-Mart, a Great Value bacon breakfast bowl. Throw that in a microwave. While that's cooking, take a tin of biscuits, pull one out and flatten it out, then bake it. Then put a small amount of the breakfast bowl into the biscuit and fold the biscuit in half, then sprinkle shredded cheese on it. You have just re-created the Taco Bell breakfast experience, only you've added potato. That's it. Finely ground bacon, obscure yellow cheese, and reconstituted egg. All they did was exactly what everyone else does, only they folded the biscuit in half and had reconstituted egg rather than fresh eggs.
And they charge nearly $5.00 for it. That's just the taco itself, not including coffee. For $5.00 you could get two tacos and a small coffee at that gas station I mentioned earlier. They would be superior tacos and...coffee.
The taco didn't fill me up so much as it thudded into the base of my stomach. I swear I can still feel it in there, like its trying to reform after being chewed up or something!
Taco Bell; Breakfast isn't for everyone. Places like Dairy Queen and KFC and Popeye's don't serve breakfast and that's okay. They still play in a very competitive market and do just fine. Not every Revolution is meant to be won, just ask the French.
And stop making breakfast. Leave that to the people who wake up early.
No comments:
Post a Comment