Multigenre Project Scott Gardner
Introduction For this Multigenre Project, I decided to do a restaurant that I am passionate about, Taco Bell. Taco Bell is more than just an enjoyable dining experience for the food, but the experience with my friends each time I go is very memorable and fun. The five genres you will find below are a Poem on one of my favorite menu items that was discontinued, the Beefy Crunch Burrito; A personal experience from one of my visits to Taco Bell, a review on a popular item, the Quesarito; a list of breakfast menu items and description, and a news report on the quality of Taco Bell’s beef.
Table of Contents Poem…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 1
Personal Experience……………………………………………………………………………………………………Page 2
Review………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 3
Menu………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 4
News Report……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 5
#1: Poem Beefy Crunch Burrito I walked into Taco Bell, Not expecting anything but a smell. I looked at the menu, And saw something brand new. It was 99 cents, And I knew what that meant, It was known as the Beefy Crunch, And I knew I was in for a munch. When my order was ready, I was feeling unsteady, I unwrapped the delicious Mexican creation, And there went my imagination. The warm flour tortilla, Made me yell “Mamma Mia”, And the deliciously cooked beef, Stole my heart like a thief. The best part of all, Enjoying it with my friend Paul Was the Flamin’ Hot Fritos inside, They made my mouth go for a ride. I knew I would be back, In need of a snack.
#2: Personal Experience It was a Friday afternoon, and my friends and I had just left school. We were somewhat hungry, but did not feel like spending a lot of money for a quick bite to eat. Taco Bell has something known as Happier Hour, which is a time from 2 PM-5PM every day where all Medium drinks and Freezes are only $1. This is hard to pass up, considering on a hot Florida day, what sounds better than a Freeze? My friends and I decided we would go to Taco Bell and enjoy Happier Hour on our way home. We walked inside, and were greeted by the friendly staff member and the familiar popular music we hear on the radio. She politely asked each of us what we would like to order, and asked us for our names so that when our orders were ready, she could call out our names instead of an order number. I find this to be much more pleasant. Immediately after placing my order, the friendly cashier went and made my Freeze so I could enjoy it while I waited. After a very short wait of about 3 minutes, my food was ready, spread out on a tray, wrapped with unique paper so I could distinguish between the items I ordered. After waiting for each of my friends to receive their orders as well, we found a table and sat down. Before indulging in this Mexican feast, I went and ensured that I obtained enough packets of Taco Bell Fire sauce, because this sauce, available for free, enhances my eating experience. The first item I unwrapped was a Beefy Fritos Burrito. This burrito is a good amount of food, and only costs $1. I enjoyed it as my friends and I laughed about our days at school in this comfortable restaurant. The next item I enjoyed was a Chipotle Griller. This item has a spicy kick, and is pressed on the grill before served, which adds a bit of a burned taste. This item is also very affordable, under $2. After I finished eating this burrito, my friends and I spent some more time talking before finally leaving. This experience was definitely the highlight of my afternoon, and I look forward to returning very soon.
#3
There are some fast food products that make us all ponder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” This is usually the case with creations that seem like a no-brainers and it’s anyone’s guess why it’s taken so long to hit the market. Taco Bell’s new Quesarito combines a quesadilla with a burrito… an idea that takes two awesome Mexican food classics and attempts to create one unforgettable fast food experience. Taco Bell describes their Quesarito like this: The NEW Quesarito is the best of a quesadilla and burrito rolled into one! It’s filled with seasoned beef, premium Latin rice, Chipotle sauce, reduced-fat sour cream, and then wrapped up in a grilled quesadilla loaded with melted cheeses. While the idea of a Quesarito is amazing on paper, the true test comes with how well executed the complete package ends up. The biggest hurdle on my mind going into the Quesarito was whether or not the quesadilla part of it actually stands out or will this just be another sloppy burrito that has too many ingredients to recognize.
The Quesarito tested really well and was the best-selling Taco Bell test market item since Doritos Locos Tacos. I tempered my enthusiasm enough to go into sampling my Quesarito with fair expectations. Outside of the fact that this was a quesadilla wrapped burrito and trying to start my focus on the interior ingredients, I liked that the Quesarito featured Taco Bell’s premium Latin rice. The crossover of Cantina Bell ingredients into the everyday stuff is something I’ve been hoping to see in future products and it’s been few and far between. The cilantro-laden rice is cooked with onion powder and garlic powder and it’s something a little different than the norm. It’s hard to dissect a Taco Bell burrito too much when it’s one made with their seasoned beef, so the complement of a sauce is always crucial. The
Chipotle sauce provides a noticible smoky flavor with provides some peppery spice and it went well with the blend of salty seasonings from the ground beef. Reduced-fat sour cream finds its way into a lot of Taco Bell products and it’s normally lost within a burrito and the same case applies here. Taco Bell should save the sour cream for tacos and just forget about it in their burritos. I was happy to see the obvious markings of a grill press with the Quesarito because there are too many hot/wet ingredients for a package like this to not benefit from a little extra crispness in the tortilla. The quesadilla portion of the Quesarito was surprisingly noticeable from just a visual perspective as the picture below clearly shows there’s plenty of melted cheese slathered in there. It’s a cheesy burrito, but during the grubbing process, the novelty of this being a quesadilla wrapped burrito is unfortunately lost. I think the quesadilla portion struggles to stand out much because there’s nothing new about the cheese. If Taco Bell featured a new cheese or sauce within the quesadilla level of the Quesarito, maybe the experience wouldn’t be as forgettable. My Quesarito was priced at $2.19 for the standard seasoned beef version, but it’s also available with shredded chicken for $2.99 and steak for $3.19. It’s right around average and it’s hard to whine about a pretty filling burrito for under 3 bucks. For the sake of being extra geeky, let’s compare the Quesarito to the less-expensive Beefy 5-Layer Burrito (50-cents cheaper at my local TB) on the Why Pay More menu. I figure there will be some that wonder what is so different about the Quesarito versus the cheaper Beefy 5Layer Burrito since both products have the layer of cheese inside the tortilla. The Beefy 5-Layer Burrito has beans instead of rice so maybe you can argue the added fiber will make for a more filling meal. Serving size comparisons have the Quesarito at 259 grams and the Beefy 5-Layer at 230 grams… very similar in weight. The Quesarito is still a superior product to the B5L Burrito in my opinion because it’s grilled, has the heat element with Chipotle sauce, and I noticed a more substantial presecence of cheese. The 50-cents between them feels about right so the Quesarito feels like a decent value.
To sum up the Quesarito, when you’re gnashing your teeth against a compact package of ingredients, you’re going to have to do something extra to really separate yourself. The Quesarito experience wouldn’t have felt very different if the quesadilla cheese layer was on the inside with everything else. We should expect some new varieties of Quesarito in the future and my hope is that the quesadilla portion is where the change comes… until then, this feels like more of the same.
#4: Menu California A.M. Crunchwrap: A warm flour tortilla with a golden crispy potato hash brown, fluffy scrambled eggs, flavorful bacon, chunky guacamole, real cheddar cheese and freshly prepared pico de gallo, wrapped up and grilled to go.
Chicken Biscuit Taco: A warm, fluffy, buttery biscuit folded in the shape of a taco and filled with our new premium marinated all-white-meat crispy chicken that is rolled in tortilla chips, served with jalapeno honey. Also available with country gravy
Grilled Scrambler Burrito: A warm flour tortilla filled with fluffy scrambled eggs, seasoned breakfast potatoes, warm nacho cheese sauce, tender grilled marinated steak, and topped with freshly prepared pico de gallo, cool reduced fat sour cream and real cheddar cheese. Also available in bacon or sausage.
Cinnabon Delights: Warm, golden bite-sized pastries filled with Cinnabon速 frosting and covered with cinnamon sugar.
#5: News Report
TACO BELL NOT SERVING REAL BEEF? Article By: Scott Gardner, Food Analyst April 15, 2015- It is always a fun experience to walk into your local Taco Bell and check out the new items on the menu. Every month, you will usually find some new “Beefy” creation, whether it be the discontinued Beefy Crunch Burrito or a new addition like the Beefy Fritos Burrito. These are all so tempting when they feature “warm seasoned beef, thick nacho cheese, and premium Latin rice” at the cheap price of $1 each. But for only $1, can this beef really be genuine? We spoke with several Taco Bell employees to discover their understanding about Taco Bell’s “mystery” beef. An employee at Taco Bell in Royal Palm Beach who preferred to not disclose her name informed me that, “The filling is made from 88 percent premium beef, and 12 percent signature recipe.” Although I was happy to hear that the beef really did contain a significant amount of premium beef, my next goal was to discover what this “signature recipe contained. After completing further research of my own, I found that this remaining 12 percent actually contained oats, cellulose, artificial flavor, soy lecithin, torula yeast, sodium phosphates, lactic acid, trehalose, potassium chloride, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, citric acid, and cocoa powder. This is actually a very extensive list, and to some, it can actually be somewhat frightening, especially not knowing what most of those ingredients really are. Will you second guess ordering beef at Taco Bell in the future? I know I won’t, because to me, it tastes very good.
Reflection: 1.) By writing this Multigenre Paper, I was surprised by the amount of new information I learned about Taco Bell. People have differing opinions about the restaurant and the food it serves. It was also interesting to learn how some of the interesting food they serve is created, and the testing process each item goes through. I also enjoyed learning further about some of my favorite Taco Bell items 2.) While writing this paper, it was hard to find negative information about Taco Bell, which is something I am passionate about. It was hard discovering that Taco Bell’s beef is not completely real beef, because I enjoy eating it very much. 3.) I enjoyed examining Taco Bell’s products and writing about them because it made me excited to go to the restaurant after school and eat them. 4.) To make my work more efficient, I could have followed the timeline more effectively and used my time wisely each class instead of becoming distracted. I also could have gathered all of the information I was going to need for the project before starting and finding new information along the way. 5.) My advice to future students who embark on writing the Multigenre Paper is to find a topic you are genuinely interested and believe you could write extensively about.
Bibliography http://www.tacobell.com http://www.takepart.com/video/2014/05/02/and-now-you-know-whats-taco-bells-seasonedground-beef http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/04/taco_bell_secret_ingredients_revealed_me at_is_88_percent_beef.html http://www.grubgrade.com/reviews/review-quesarito-from-taco-bell/