I was recently contacted by Food Forward, a volunteer organization that harvests otherwise wasted food from local groves and orchards and donates it to needy local residents. According to their website, www.FoodForward.org, “Several times a month we convene at a private property we have been invited to and glean the excess fruit on their trees, donating 100% of it to local food pantries.”
I was asked to help Food Forward spread the word about an upcoming “Big Pick” event. And though I have not yet participated in one of their picks, from what I have been able to read online, they sound like a good organization working for a good cause - namely helping to end hunger in Los Angeles. Here is a link to more about the upcoming Big Pick event.
I have lived in Los Angeles for nearly six years, and I go to the Farmer’s Market, on average, about once a week. Until a few weeks ago, I had never even noticed Market Grill nestled in-between China Depot and Bryan’s Pit Barbecue.
Remember when you were a kid, and you would go to the pool during the long, warm days of summer vacation? When you got hungy, you sloshed over to the snack bar and ordered some chicken nuggets or a sandwich. Market Grill is that snack bar, except instead of a pool, it’s the Farmer’s Market.
I am a sucker for the simplest of foods when they are done right. Take the humble BLT for example. How hard can it be to make a sandwich with three ingedients? Hard enough, evidently, to stump most restaurants that try to muck with the culinarily-sound formula of toast, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. It seems like every time I see a BLT on a menu, it’s served with a schmear of smoked chipotle aeoli or other such nonsense. Either that or the quality of the fresh ingredients requisite for a competent BLT are sacrificed for the sake of speed, cost, or some other unknown. If you’re going to add anything, go the Market Grill route and stick to plain old mayonnaise.
The menu offers an array of other items like a tuna salad, a chicken breast salad, and open-faced steak sandwich, and an assortment of breaded/fried snacks (chicken nuggets, zuchinni and shrimp). I haven’t tried anything other than the BLT (yet), but I’m not sure if I’ll ever get around the other menu items. Now, make no mistake; this BLT is not the product of any fancy kitchen handiwork. It’s two slices of supermarket-loaf wheat bread toasted and dressed with mayo, ripe tomatoes, plenty of good crispy bacon, and crisp lettuce. It’s served with a side of a style of cole slaw that I love (crisp, thick, tangy, and slightly sweet) and a pickle.
UPDATE (5/8 9:30 AM): In a not-surprising-at-all move, KFC began airing the following television commercial this morning:
A rain check? Um… I don’t think so. I appreciate the offer to sweeten the deal with a free Pepsi, but I think KFC has officially crossed the line of how far I am willing to go for some free chicken. But don’t forget that your coupons are still good at El Pollo Loco on Sunday.
UPDATE (5/7 2:30 PM): With reports pouring in about KFC franchises’ refusing to honor free grilled chicken coupons, El Pollo Loco has responded on Twitter by offering to honor KFC’s “1234″ coupons on Mother’s Day. More info at Consumerist. Does history teach us nothing? Am I the only one who remembers the Starbucks coupon fiasco back in September of 2006? Distribution of a “friends and family” Starbucks coffee giveaway spiraled out of control, and Starbucks responded by canceling the promotion. Enter Caribou Coffee who stepped in and announced to the world that Starbucks coupons would be honored at any Caribou Coffee location. Starbucks, the behemoth, looked like a bunch of jerks. Meanwhile, Caribou Coffee, the little guy, enjoyed an avalanche of positive PR. I say, good work El Pollo Loco (now that song will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day). Mom, guess what you’re getting for Mother’s Day…
UPDATE (5/7 11:00 AM): Rumors about the Oprah PDF “1234″ coupons have finally been substantiated. The Baltimore Sun is reporting multiple cases of people being turned down for free chicken. It has been verified that at least two restaurants are not honoring coupon codes that end in “1234.” This keeps getting worse for KFC, as it looks like they’ve decided to take the “screw the customer because of our own mistake” route. Either that or franchise owners are taking matters into their own hands. As far as I can tell, KFC has made no public announcement about the issue. I encourage you to email me or post in the comments if you have more information.
UPDATE (5/6 8:00 PM): The “while supplies last” clause is in full effect. I was denied a free chicken dinner at my local Kentucky Fried Chicken because they had run out of grilled chicken. I wonder how many others across the map are experiencing the same thing.
UPDATE (5/6 10:00 AM): The UnthinkKCF.com site has changed the link yet again. It’s back to generating unique codes for the coupons. I was able to generate 4 coupons with unique codes before I was informed that my limit had been reached. Problem is, only 2 of them actually printed out. The software is obviously still buggy. But this doesn’t really change the fact the the Oprah PDF coupon will still have to be honored.
UPDATE (5/6 7:30 AM): Oprah’s blog has removed the PDF link and replaced it with a link back to the KFC site. And the KFC site is no longer bothering with the coupon software download that generates a unique code. Now it’s just the same PDF download that was previously on Oprah’s site. So the end result has not changed, but the location has.
If you know what the internet is, then you know that television titan Oprah teamed up with KFC to give away coupons for a 2-piece grilled chicken meal. It’s all part of Oprah’s habit of giving away things like cars and chicken and Kentucky Fried Chicken’s ruing the day that they agreed to included the word “fried” in the name of their restaurant.
Just minutes ago, the “Print Coupon Now” button started redirecting to a post on Oprah’s blog apologizing for the errors and delays.
So what’s the big deal? Well, for those of you who actually got any coupons to print (I only got 2 of the 4 that KFC promised after waiting for 2 hours and having to install software), you’ll notice a unique 2-D barcode near the top-right of the coupon accompanied by a one-of-a-kind number code. This was KFC’s way of ensuring that there woulnd’t be a chicken-run on an epic scale. Also, during the coupon-printing process, the KFC guidelines clearly prohibit printing to PDF.
Obviously, the Oprah blog post is providing a downloadable PDF. This means that thousands if not millions of people are going to show up to KFC with identical bar codes. Kentucky Fried Chicken has two choices. Either they can honor every coupon that walks through their doors and take a bath on their stock of grilled chicken, or they can cancel the promotion entirely and take a bath on PR. Either way, they’re pretty screwed.
I advise you to hurry up and go to the Oprah blog post with the download link and print out as many of these as possible. Perhaps we’ll all be eating free chicken for the next few weeks. I’m amazed how completely KFC underestimated Oprah AND social media. I can’t wait to see how this pans out.
The May 2009 issue of Los Angeles Magazine’s feature story is 101 Cheap Eats. I picked it up at the supermarket last night out of curiousity. Honestly, I just assumed that I have probably eaten at all or most of the restaurants detailed in the story, but to my surprise, I have only visited an handful. Here are the ones that Los Angeles Foodie has conquered:
Baby Blues BBQ
Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery
Cafe Brasil
Casa Bianca
Great Western Steak and Hoagie
J n J Burgers & Bar-B-Que
Langer’s
Original Pantry Cafe
Original Tommy’s
Pann’s
Philippe The Original
Phillips
Pie ‘N Burger
Pink’s
Clifton’s Cafeteria
Spitz
Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles
Tito’s Tacos
Zankou Chicken
I’m thoroughly impressed by Los Angeles Magazine’s thorough exploration of good, cheap eats in our city. And I’m looking forward to putting a check mark next each and every one of the restaurants on the list. I have a feeling that a few months from now, this issue is going to be pretty ragged and dog-eared. My only complaint? The mouth-watering burger on the cover is the work of a food stylist and not a local burger joint. Why would you do that to me?
