Top Ten Appetizer List

Okay so it's finally here.. the top ten appetizer list. As a refresher here are the restaurants I considered when making my list:

Applebees

Bennigans

Cheesecake Factory

Chili's

Friendly's

Houlihan's

Olive Garden

Outback

PF Changs

Pizzeria Uno's

Ruby Tuesday's

TGI Friday's

Before starting the top ten list, I'm going to give you my top three restaurants for appetizers. 

3. Pizzeria Uno's  - Several delicious quesadillas, their famous pizza skins, a big nacho dish and a solid combo platter called the Chi-Town Tasting plate make Uno's a strong destination for Fab Firsts. Any appetizer called a tasting plate is alright in my book especially this one which has a strong lineup of buffalo wings, mozz sticks, onion strings, chicken fingers, fries and 3 dipping sauces. 

2. TGI Friday's  - Friday's entire appetizer menu intrigues me and gives me great pleasure. I wouldn't mind going to Friday's just to order a ton of apps. Their menu features parmesan crusted sicilian quesadillas, pot stickers, fried mac and cheese and of course their loaded potato skins. Friday's is recognized as the creator of the potato skin. 

1. Chili's  - Southwestern eggrolls, boneless buffalo wings, queso dip, and very good mozzarella sticks round out Chili's app menu. Strangely the mozzarella sticks aren't listed on the website.. I hope they didn't get rid of them. Both of their nacho dishes are very good as well and their wings are pretty good too. It was a close call between Friday's and Chili's but Chili's wins by a small margin based on their best item being better then Friday's best item. 

Now for the top ten list of the best appetizers in the chain restaurant biz. Each selection will include the description from the menu in italics along with my thoughts. Click on the links for pictures of the items. (Originally I had the pictures in the post but blogspot sucks for trying to include pictures). First, here are a few of the appetizers that didn't make the list but deserve mentioning. 

Honorable mentions: Fridays Pot Stickers, Friday’s Potato Skins, Ruby Tuesday’s Thai Phoon Tenders, Outback’s bloomin onion, Chili’s Queso Dip, Chiil’s Mozzarella sticks, Olive Garden’s stuffed mushrooms

TOP TEN:

10. Friendly's- Mini Mozzarella Cheese Sticks- It's much better than a single stick of cheese. A stack of delicious mini-Mozzarella cheese sticks awaits those who can't get enough melting cheese and marinara sauce.

Interestingly, these are the only mozzarella sticks that made the top ten list even though mozzarella sticks are one of my favorite apps. I'm not sure why their called mini mozzarella sticks when they seem to be sized normally to me. Friendly's gives you a ton of these and the quality is top notch. Friendly's is often an overlooked restaurant which doesn't get enough credit for some pretty solid meals. EDIT: Jody pointed out that apparently the mini mozzarella sticks are a new addition to the menu but they also have the regular mozz sticks which are the ones that I am talking about for the list. 

9. Chili's- Boneless Buffalo Wings- Breaded Chicken Breast tossed in spicy wing sauce. Served with cool bleu cheese dressing.

I’m a huge fan of basically anything with buffalo sauce on it. As a random side note, anything with buffalo sauce also makes me think of my friend Jack Palmer. These crunchy morsels of heat are my favorite in the restaurant business. I prefer them with ranch dressing and the delicious buffalo sauce makes me both sweat and smile simultaneously. As another random side note, most food makes me sweat and smile simultaneously.

8. PF Chang’s- Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps- Our signature appetizer- often copied, never equaled.

PF Chang’s is a great all around restaurant and there is no better way to start off a meal there than the Lettuce Wraps. The spiciness of the chicken matched against the coolness of the lettuce wraps make for a phenomenal beginning to a meal.

7. Bennigan’s- Cheese and Potato Skins- Filled with Colby cheese, bacon and green onions. Served with a side of sour cream.

Bennigan’s is another great all around restaurant that I have fond memories of from my time at Rutgers. Their potato skins are my favorite appetizer on their menu and slightly edge out Friday’s skins as the best pure potato skin in the game.

6. Cheesecake Factory- Firecracker Salmon Rolls- Spiced fresh salmon rolled in spinach and fried in a crisp wrapper. Served with a sweet hot chili sauce.

Cheesecake Factory has an extensive appetizer list but every time I go there I have to get the firecracker salmon rolls. The factory gets points for creativity; you aren’t going to find this dish at any other restaurant on the list. The salmon and spinach are a good combination but the chili sauce is what really makes this starter special. I usually find anything I can to sop up the remaining sauce.

5. Outback- Aussie Cheese Fries- Aussie Fries topped with melted Monterey Jack, Cheddar, bits of fresh chopped bacon and served with a spicy ranch dressing.

If you can survive the likely heart attack after eating these bad boys you are lucky. They are loaded with cheese, bacon, 2900 calories and 182 grams of fat. The spicy ranch dressing is great for dipping and the monster portion is enough for you and a friend or two.

4. TGI Friday’s- Parmesan-Crusted Sicilian Quesadillas- Our flour tortilla is packed with sautéed chicken, sausage, bruscheta marinara, bacon and oozing with Monterey Jack cheese. We coat it with Parmesan and pan-fry it to a crispy, golden brown, then drizzle it with balsamic glaze.

I really love this quesadilla. The flavors explode in your mouth and the glaze gives the dish a unique taste. To be honest, I don’t remember sausage being in the quesadilla but whatever, its really damn good.

3. Pizzeria Uno’s- Pizza skins- Discover what all the fuss is about. The most extravagant appetizer ever created by man. Deep dish crust filled with red bliss mashed potatoes. Topped with bacon, cheddar and sour cream.

Deep dish pizza crust + potato skin equals pure genius. I used to work at Uno’s a long time ago and the pizza skins were my favorite thing to eat. There are no words to describe how good this fusion of flavor is. Go out and try them for yourself.

2. Houlihan’s- Shrooms- Jumbo mushroom caps stuffed with herb and garlic cream cheese, coated in distinctly crunchy panko bread crumbs and crisp-fried. Served with creamy horseradish sauce. Over eleven billion served since 1972.

There is a reason why eleventy billion of these have been served. They are soooooo sooo good. If you go to Houlihan’s and don’t get the shrooms there is something wrong with you. I don’t care if you don’t even like mushrooms, you will like these. Matter of fact get an order as an appetizer and an order to go for later.

1. Chili’s- Southwestern Eggrolls-  Smoked chicken, black beans, corn, jalepeno Jack cheese, red peppers and spinach wrapped inside a crispy flour tortilla. We serve it with our avocado-ranch.

It was really tough to decide between the shrooms and the eggrolls and in an ideal world they’d both be number 1 and I’d eat them both as my pregame before every meal. The eggrolls are another unique item that no other restaurant has been able to replicate. The combination of all the ingredients cooked to perfection inside a crispy tortilla and then dipped in the avocado-ranch sauce is enough to knock your socks off. 

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February 23rd-26th- Weight Loss bet

2/23

Kashi Cinnamon Harvest Cereal

Ham and cheese on wheat

Grilled chicken and provolone on wheat

Pork chops, zucchini and cous cous

orange

2/24

Kashi Honey Puffs Cereal

Grilled chicken salad

Schileens Roast beef sandwich

Chicken w/ brocolli and baked potato

Orange

2/25

Kashi Honey Puffs Cereal

Buffalo Chicken and provolone on wheat

Went to Good Dog in Philly and got the Good Dog Burger w/ sweet potato fries

2/26

Raspberries and OJ

Grilled chicken w/ provolone on wheat

Kashi Margherita Pizza 

Turkey burger on toasted wheat with sauteed mushrooms and melted mozzarella cheese

Top ten appetizer list will be up by the end of the weekend. 

I made a $500 weight loss bet with another poker player. I have to lose 20 lbs. by May 28th. I weighed in at 245.2. I've been exercising a lot and hopefully will continue to eat better than I have in the past. 

Feb 21 and 22nd + List of Chain Restaurants used for Top 10 list

2/21

Bowl of Cascadian Farms Cinnamon Crunch

Salad

2pm- Turkey burrito (made the same way as the previous days)

4pm- Turkey burrito

7 pm- T-bone Steak, asparagus, and Jody made a hot, super hot potato dish. Ate whole wheat crackers with PB&J for dessert

10pm- Orange

2/22

Bowl of Kashi Strawberry Fields

Salad

Turkey nachos (multigrain nachos with cheese, ground turkey, onions, tomatoes, avocado, salsa and sour cream)

Chicken marinated in lemon juice, lime juice and montreal chicken seasoning, parmesan cous cous, brocollini

Apple

Here is the list of restaurants I came up with to do my top 10 best appetizers. These were chosen based on my overall experience level with these establishments. After this list I will list the notable exceptions that I considered but left off due to a plethora of reasons. If anyone has any other suggestions of restaurants that I forgot please speak up. I used this wikipedia link to help me out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_restaurant_chains_in_the_United_States#Casual_Dining

Applebees

Bennigans

Cheesecake Factory

Chili's

Friendly's

Houlihan's

Olive Garden

Outback

PF Changs

Pizzeria Uno's

Ruby Tuesday's

TGI Friday's 

Some notable exceptions from the list:

99 -Only been there once and I thought it was terrible and quite possibly made me sick.

Carraba's  -Only been there twice.. thought it was pretty good but overpriced

Don Pablo's - Been there a handful of times but nothing really stands out in my mind and I don't think I could accurately determine whether one of their apps belongs on the top ten

Famous Dave's- Been there twice I think but I can't really recall much about the experiences because it was in college and I don't remember much from that time.

Red Lobster- Actually have only been there twice in my life. 

The list of my top ten appetizers from the restaurants listed above should be up sometime in the next week. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time in the past month watching shows about food. I really think the Travel Channel has some top notch shows with Man vs. Food being my favorite. I love all the Food Paradise shows and yesterday I even watched a show about the top 10 fast food restaurants in the world which was quite interesting. 

Feb 17th-20th Eating Better

2/17

Strawberries and OJ

Ham and provolone w/ mustard on wheat + cheese curls

Bowl of Cascadian Farms Cinnamon Crunch + Chocolate Chip Granola bar

Turkey burger with provolone cheese, avacado, tomato, mustard and ketchup

2/18

Rasberries and OJ

Bowl of Cascadian Farms Cinnamon Crunch 

Ham and provolone w/ mustard on wheat

One slice of Plain pizza from Me and U

2/19

Bowl of Kashi Strawberry fields cereal

Pork chops and brocolli

Ham and provolone w/ mustard on wheat

Kashi Garlic Chicken Pizza

2/20

Bowl of Kashi Strawberry fields cereal

Salad with ranch dressing

A pork burrito with cilantro, lettuce, red peppers, salsa, cheese and sour cream

Orange

A turkey burrito with cilantro, avacado, tomato, onion, salsa, sour cream and hot sauce

Skinny cow Fudgesicle 

I've done pretty well so far this week with eating better. I've gone to the gym 4 times this week as well. The only time I ate out all week was with my little sister at Me and U and I only had one slice of pizza. I feel a lot better already.. definetely feel healthier although I've been very tired every night and have been going to bed pretty early. 

I want to do a list of the top appetizers from chain restaurants. I need some recommendations of the restaurants that I should consider for the list so help me out with that. Also, feel free to recommend appetizers from those restaurants.

Feb 13-16 Benny's and Jake's

2/13

I didn't eat anything until around 6:30. We ordered from Benny's. We split mozzarella sticks and a pizza with peppers and tomatoes

2/14

Ate two slices of leftover Benny's Pizza. 

For a late lunch, I made us chicken and brocolli. 

For Valentine's Day dinner we went to a place called Jakes on Iona Lake in Franklinville. I had a Victory Hop Devil at the bar while we waited to be seated. I also drank a glass of Pinot Grigio, and two mixed girly drinks. For appetizer we had a stuffed portabella mushroom. My meal came with a salad which was pretty unique because it included corn and pasta. For my entree I got a jumbo shrimp and lobster tail dish which was served over linguini in a white wine sauce. For dessert I got this strawberry and whipped cream thing which came with 2 chocolate covered strawberries, two regular strawberries and a white chocolate covered strawberry. 

2/15

For breakfast we went to a place called Helen's Greentree restaurant. I got two pancakes, two eggs over easy, bacon and a side of wheat toast. 

I had my Jake's leftovers from the previous night for lunch. 

For dinner, we had only a few options because I was playing tournaments online. So we ordered Benny's again. I got a Cheesesteak and we split an order of cheese fries. I also ate Jody's leftover Tirimisu from Jake's. 

2/16

I barely ate anything today. I had a small piece of chicken that was leftover from Saturday. 

I had a small bowl of chicken, potatoes and peppers when I was at my mom's house. 

After I went food shopping, I had a Kashi margherita pizza. 

I bought a ton of groceries yesterday and also went to the gym. I'm going to try to get in the habit of going to the gym again and improving the way I eat. I'm sure I will still go out to eat from time to time because there is no way I can just cut myself off cold turkey. I feel like if I'm going to cut myself off of all the fast food then I should probably try to eat a little bit better too and at least profit something personally from the bet. I'm still working on a few lists and stuff so hopefully will have that up soon. 

Feb 10th-12th- Summary and January Recap

2/10

Jody made scrambled eggs with peppers and onions

For dinner I made my Tbone steaks. For side dishes, I made brocollini which was flavored with olive oil, lime juice and salt and pepper and cooked on the stove. I also cut up slices of potatoes and soaked them in Frank's Red Hot Sauce, pepper, salt and garlic salt. I cooked them on the stove and then put them in a pan and covered them with parmesan cheese (I was out of regular cheese) and bacon bits and cooked them for about 5 minutes. I served them with both salsa and ranch dressing. 

2/11

Played golf in the morning and met a couple of friends and Jody for lunch at Colonial Diner. I had buffalo chicken tenders and chicken quesadillas. 

Jody and I went to the 6ers game at night. Ate a cheesesteak with provolone and whiz from Campo's. Also, got  an order of crabfries from Chickie's and Pete's. 

2/12

Bowl of Kashi cereal for breakfast

Went to Shop Rite and got a salad and a bowl of brocolli and cheese soup for lunch

Bowl of Kashi Honey Nut O's later that night. 

January Recap:

I ate out 26 times in January. Four of them were in one day. I had 3 meals paid for by the Borgata due to playing in the tournaments. I had 3 meals paid for (Mulligans in Florida by Jody's Uncle, Colonial by Raj, and Old Homestead by Tom). These 3 meals combined probably saved me about $250. I paid for one meal (Legal Seafoods) for two other people which cost me an extra $120 or so. 

Keeping in mind that I also pay for Jody's meals when we go out together the total amount I spent eating out in January was $684.46. 

Feb 3rd-9th Recap of the last week

Here is the rundown of everything I've eaten over the last week. I ate a lot of meals at home since we finally went food shopping. Jody did a lot of the cooking and did a very good job. We used a lot of the same ingredients in a lot of different dishes as you'll see. Sometime this week I'm going to do the January recap and another fast food article. 

2/3

Bagel with jelly for breakfast

Bowl of cereal for lunch

For dinner Jody made a chicken dish with ranch dressing, tomatoes and cheese with brocolli and cous cous for side dishes.

2/4 

Bowl of Cereal

Leftover piece of Jody's chicken

For dinner I made Tbone Steak's with mixed vegatables and cous cous. I tenderized and marinated the steaks in A-1 and garlic salt. 

Later at night, I ate Jody's leftover pasta and chicken from Marlina's. 

Bowl of Cereal

2/5 

Bowl of Cereal

For Dinner, Jody made tacos using ground turkey. I made myself a few double decker tacos similar to what you would get from Taco Bell. I ate these both for dinner and for a late night snack. 

2/6

For breakfast Jody made quite possibly the best meal I've eaten so far this year. She made me the best breakfast burrito I have ever had. She sauteed potatos, tomatos, onions and green peppers with cilantro, salt, pepper and olive oil. She added the eggs and combined it all in a whole wheat tortilla and added in fresh avocado and a colby monterrey jack cheese. I had a salsa on the side to dip the burrito in. 

For dinner, Jody made a chicken dish which was marinated in lime juice, olive oil, and cilantro. She let it simmer on the stove and then topped it with avocado and a little bit of mozzarella cheese. Sides were brocolli and brown rice. 

I snacked on some crackers with peanut butter and jelly later that night. 

2/7

Bowl of Cereal 

For Dinner I made some absolutely delicious turkey burgers. I broiled the burgers after seasoning them a bit with salt and cilantro. I put them on whole wheat toast which I coated with Burger King's Zesty Onion ring sauce. I threw some mozzarella cheese on the burgers and added a few slices of avocado and tomato along with some ketchup. The zesty onion ring sauce gave the burgers a great kick and really brought out the flavor of the burger. 

Bowl of Cereal

2/8 

Went to Jody's Grandmom's for breakfast where I had two over medium eggs, bacon and toast. 

Went to PJ Whelihans again for lunch. I had 5 buffalo shrimp for appetizer along with a Leinenkugel. I had a PJ's Original Burger which came with cheese, bacon and fried onions along with their famous fries. 

For Dinner, Jody made some pasta with meatballs. 

2/9

Went to lunch with my Mom to Marlina's. Had the potato and green bean dish for appetizer. For my main dish I got the Chicken Marsala. 

For Dinner, I made my pork chops which I've talked about before I believe. Jody made a side dish with sweet potatos. 

The History of The Whopper- The Burger of Kings

First, you take a 1/4 pound patty and put it through the broiler along with a sesame seed bun. Take the bottom bun and the burger, slap on two slices of cheese and put it in the microwave for 12 seconds. While the bottom is in the microwave, take the top bun and evenly apply a coat of mayo, a handful of lettuce and two tomatoes. Grab the bottom out of the microwave, throw on 4 pickles, a swirl of ketchup and a handful of onions. Wrap that baby up and send it out for someone to enjoy. This was the process I repeated over and over again as an employee at Burger King. Of course, since you can Have it Your Way, this wasn't always the exact process but you get the idea. The Whopper is Burger King. It was created in 1957 by Burger King founder James McLamore and sold for just 37 cents. Using the original ingredients, there are 221,184 different ways to make a Whopper. Through the years there have been many different variations on the original Whopper which I will talk about in a bit. Burger King has marketed the sandwich with many different entertaining advertising campaigns. Throughout the years, the Whopper has proven to be the best signature item in the fast food business. 

I'm going to list here all of the Whopper's that have been offered over the years and then talk a bit about the Whopper's that I have personally eaten. 

The standard variants of the Whopper sandwich are:

• The Original Whopper — one ¼ lb (113.4 grams) hamburger patty;
• The Bacon and Cheese Whopper — one ¼ lb (113.4 gram) hamburger patty, 4 pieces of bacon and 2 slices of American cheese;
• The Double Whopper — two ¼ lb (226.8 grams) hamburger patties;
• The Triple Whopper — three ¼ lb (340.2 grams) hamburger patties;
  In Europe the standard build for the Triple Whopper is without cheese, while in the Americas the Triple Whopper comes with cheese standard.
• The Whopper Junior — one 2.2 oz (62.4 gram) hamburger patty

   

These are the standard Whopper's offered pretty much everywhere. For a long time, at least in New Jersey, the Double Whopper was the biggest sandwich offered. Affectionately known as the #2 in our circle, the Double Whopper packed a nice punch as a value meal but still allowed enough room to add a side of tenders. I have never attempted to eat the Triple Whopper, although I imagine it to be quite good, I think that it would make it tough to throw in an additional side or two with the meal. 

Other variants available

• The Veggie Whopper — a Whopper without the meat patty; not to be confused with the BK Veggie
• The Double Whopper Junior — two 2.2 oz hamburger patties.

I have never heard of a Double Whopper Junior and it doesn't really make much sense because you could just get a Whopper and it would basically be the same thing. The Veggie Whopper was actually pretty popular when I was working there.. not sure how many people still get it today. 

Promotional variants

• The Angry Whopper - pepperjack cheese, jalapeños, Angry Sauce and "Angry Onions" are added
  Sold in Europe, Canada, Australia and the U.S.
• The Bacon Swiss Whopper - Swiss Cheese and bacon are added
  Sold in the US and Canada
• The California Fresh Whopper - sour cream-onion dressing and cucumbers instead of pickles and mayo.
  Sold in Sweden
• The Dark Whopper - pepperjack cheese, Black-Pepper Ketchup and Grill Sauce
  Sold in the UK and Ireland.
• The Dark Whopper - Barbecue sauce instead of ketchup, with no pickles.
  Available in Australia in conjunction with the film The Dark Knight.
• The Indy Whopper — pepperjack cheese, blackened cajun mayo and bacon.
  sold in the US and Canada.
• The Ultimate Double Whopper (f.k.a. The Extreme Whopper w/ Cheese, also as Homer Burger for The Simpsons Movie promotion.) - features a double order of American cheese and 8 half-pieces of bacon
  Sold in the US, Canada; sold permanently Argentina and Chile as the Ultra Whopper Double and The Extreme Whopper Double with half the bacon and cheese.
• The Fiesta Whopper — spicy sauce replaces the ketchup, pepperjack cheese and no pickles
  Sold in the US and Canada.
• The Piñata Whopper — Jalapeños, tortilla chips and hot sauce are added
  Sold in Sweden and Denmark.
• The Texas Double Whopper - Jalapeño peppers, bacon, mustard replacing the ketchup
  Sold in the US and Canada. Sold permanently in El Salvador, Argentina and Chile as the Whopper Texano.
• The Whopper Mexican/Mexican Whopper - hot sauce and hot peppers instead of the mayo and pickles.
  Sold in Sweden, Mexico and Australia
• The Western Whopper - BBQ sauce, Cheddar or American cheese and bacon. It is also available as a double and triple.
  Sold in the US, Canada and Australia.
• The Meat Beast Whopper — Bacon, American cheese and sliced pepperoni are added.
  Available in the UK and Ireland.

The Angry Whopper was the inspiration for this entry. It really pains me to watch the commercials day after day and know that I may never ever get to try this Whopper. I would appreciate it if someone could go out and get one and try it and let me know their thoughts. It seems like it would be delicious. I remember ordering the Bacon Swiss Whopper before and it was good as expected. The next three are all Whoppers from other countries. The California Fresh Whopper seems kinda strange and I'm not sure how the cucumbers would taste on a burger. The two Dark Whopper variants seem pretty standard. I've never had the Indy Whopper, nor do I remember hearing of it but it seems like it was a promotion for the Indiana Jones movie that came out last year. It sounds quite delicious and by the looks of a quick google search it seems as though people loved it. The Ultimate Double Whopper is my kind of sandwhich. It was introduced to promote The Simpsons Movie in 2007. Anything with 8 slices of bacon is great in my book. I have a lot of experience with the Fiesta Whopper. I believe this Whopper came out around the time I started working at BK in 1999. The spicy sauce was really, really good and I actually prefer it over the regular mayo. I remember it didn't really sell well though and they scrapped it at our BK after only a few weeks. I haven't had any of the next 3 Whoppers. The Pinata and the Mexican Whopper seem particularly interesting to me and I'll give them a shot when I go to Sweden. The Western Whopper is definitely the most memorable Whopper to me on this list. It's introduction coincided with the beginning of my employment at BK. It was introduced as a promo for the Will Smith movie " Wild Wild West" and featured Bullseye BBQ sauce. I used to eat one of these every day I worked, it was so delicious. Coincedentally, the Western Whopper was responsible for me almost quitting BK on my 2nd day. I had a manager named Wes who was the no nonsense type. He was doing the expo and asked me for a Western Whopper, no onion. I told him I had just put one up there. He asked again for it and I said.. I just put it up there. He walked around to the back and looked me square in the eye and said, "Son, when I ask you for a Western Whopper with no onion, you make me a Western Whopper with no onion". I was furious at that point and strongly considered leaving the job and the $6/hr I was making but instead convinced myself to become the best Burger King employee ever. From that day forward, I made my Whoppers with a passion that I have not displayed for any other job I've ever had. Last but not least, the Meat Beast Whopper is an interesting idea but I'm not sure how the pepperoni would taste. I would like to hear from my UK friend Rob on this one if he's ever had one. 

Regional variants

• The Garlic Whopper has chopped garlic added
  Available in Israel
• The Mustard Whopper substitutes mustard for mayonnaise
  Available in the US states of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas
• The Rodeo Whopper replaces the raw onion and ketchup with onion rings and barbecue sauce
  Available in Argentina and Israel
• The Whopper with roasted onions and mushrooms
  Available in Israel
• The Whopper with egg — a fried egg is added to the sandwich
  Available in Australia ( Hungry Jacks franchise )
• The Aussie Whopper - beetroot replaces the mayonnaise and pickled cucumbers and a fried egg, bacon and cheese are added to the sandwich.
  Available in Australia
• The Whopper Teriyaki has teriyaki sauce instead of ketchup
  Available in Japan
• The Italian Whopper has avocado instead of lettuce
  Available in Chile
• The Bacon and Cheese Double Whopper — two ¼ lb (113.4 gram) hamburger patties, 4 pieces of bacon and 2 slices of American cheese
  Available in Japan

I can say without a doubt that I've never had any of these Whoppers. The Rodeo Whopper sounds pretty much like the Rodeo Cheeseburger that BK used to have on the 99 cent menu so I can imagine what that tastes like. The Aussie Whopper seems really weird and I don't have the slightest idea what beetroot is or tastes like. I like the idea of avocado on a Whopper so I imagine the Italian Whopper would be quite good. 

Discontinued variants

• The Chicken Whopper (mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato with a grilled chicken fillet)
• The Chicken Whopper, Jr. (smaller chicken fillet and bun, smaller amount of toppings)
• The Quarter pound cheeseburger — A copy of the Quarter Pounder with ketchup, onions, pickle and mustard.

The Chicken Whopper was pushed really hard as a promo for the Chicken Little movie. The sandwich was originally known as the BK Broiler. In 2002, they changed the name yet again to its current name, the tendergrill chicken sandwich. I personally like it with cheese and bacon although I could say that about pretty much anything. I don't remember ever hearing of a quarter pound cheeseburger. 

Burger King has always done a great job marketing the Whopper especially in the past few years. Recently, they've had the Whopper Virgins ads running which garnered a lot of attention in the media. They also had the Whopper Freakout ads where they told people that they were taking the Whopper off the menu. Even more recently they introduced the Whopper Sacrifice. The promotion was a tool on facebook that you could add and if you sacrificed 10 of your facebook friends by deleting them you would get a free Whopper. 233,906 people were defriended before Facebook put a halt to the promotion after less than a week. BK has also introduced a perfume for men called Flame that allows men to carry that great Whopper scent with them all day. I started using this in December of 2007 and Jody clearly could not resist that flame broiled scent and WHAM next thing you know I had a baby 9 months later**. 

Plain and simple, the Whopper is the best signature sandwich in the business. The strength of the sandwich lies in its versatlity, something I should know a lot about as Most Versatile, Class of 2001 Deptford High School. I look forward to the day that I can once again eat a Whopper and I can't wait to see what BK has in store for the future. For those of you that can eat fast food, do not take the Whopper for granted. In fact, I suggest you go out right now and get an Angry Whopper.. take a picture of it, eat it and enjoy every bite and then let me know your thoughts. Also, feel free to leave any other comments on the entry. 

**This did not happen. 

Let it be known that I used Wikipedia for most of my research. 

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January 31st, February 1st and 2nd- Recap and Matt's list

I am still working on the Whopper post and hope to have it up by tomorrow. It will be worth the wait believe me. I'm also going to have a January summary of how many places I ate at and how much I spent. Jody and I are going food shopping tonight for the first time in a month and Jody has picked out several recipes from cook books so that we can have a lot more meals at home so hopefully we can save some money and I can eat a little bit healthier. Here is a quick recap of the past few days. 

January 31st:

Helped my friend Timmy move in to his new place. Ate two sticky buns from a local bakery called Stocks. Had 5 slices of pizza from a Philly pizza place called Santucci's. 

For dinner, I ordered from a local place called Oriental Express. I got the Spicy Supreme roll which was a California Roll with a spicy tuna roll on the outside of it. I also got shrimp in hot garlic sauce and chicken with brocolli. I ate about half of all this food. 

February 1st:

Ate all of my chinese food leftovers around 2 pm. 

Went to Jody's brothers house for the Super Bowl. We ordered from a place called Buffalo Bill's. I got a Buffalo Chicken Cheesesteak cooked Texas style along with Ranch Fries which came with bacon, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. 

February 2nd:

I made rice and eggs around 2 pm along with a bagel with jelly.

Around 7, we ordered take out from an italian place called Ristorante da Marlina. I got an appetizer that isn't on the menu that has green beans and potatoes in a red sauce. I got Pasta Fagiola soup as well. For my entree I got the Chicken Parmigiana which came with spaghetti. 

Here is the list of restaurants that my opponent Matt ate at for the month of January. Feel free to look up these restaurants to see if there are more than 50 locations :)

Vintner Grill
Hash House A Go Go 
China A Go Go
Metro Pizza
RE Tapas
Firefly
Prommare's Thai Food
Naked Fish's
Famous Uncle Al's Hot Dogs
Pips @ Aliante Station
Sunday Brunch Buffet @ Red Rock
Burger Bar @ Mandalay Bay
Border Grill @ Mandalay Bay
Snacks @ Bellagio
Noodles @ Bellagio
Terrace Pointe Cafe @ Wynn
Zoozacrackers @ Wynn
Society Cafe @ Encore
SIMON @ Palms Place
San Marco @ Venetian
Stack @ Mirage
ESPN Zone @ NYNY