The Frugal Gourmand

Peanut butter and 'belly

I decided to try Fresh Choice today, which is a "healthier" place in the building. A large chili there costs about the same as a large soup at Ponte Fresco - which is to say, more than I'd usually want to pay for soup, and I doubt I'll feel a need to do it again, but the comparison was interesting. Fresh Choice's beef chili is distinctly different from Ponte Fresco's - for one thing, it's spicy (I needed to mop up the top of my head after eating it), but it also takes a bit of a different approach to the production. The broth is much thinner but the ground beef is more pervasive, so you don't really notice. There wasn't too much going on in the way of other ingredients; just a minor amount of beans, peppers and onions for variety. The flavor wasn't as strong, though; though I do sometimes enjoy spicy foods, I never really like when spice is used in lieu of flavor. (The chicken vindaloo at Peacock in Vernon Hills is possibly the spiciest thing I've ever eaten, aside from Sean Horan's Couran Cove stir-fry, but it's great because there's also a lot of other flavor hiding under the burn.) That's not totally the case here, but the taste isn't really full-bodied. It could certainly be better. I don't know if that's due to it being more healthful, but that's not my fault. Still cost me six bucks.

Fresh Choice Spicy Beef Chili: 7/10

Potbelly's "Big Jack's PB+J" is kind of a ripoff because it costs as much as any other Potbelly sandwich ($4.19 plus tax), despite a conspicuous lack of meat. I made the slight mistake of taking mine home on the bus before eating it, so by the time I got to it the peanut butter had largely melted up and my first bite resulted in a sizable puddle on the butcher paper. It was fairly tasty, though the peanut butter overwhelms the grape jelly, and a warm peanut butter sandwich isn't a bad idea. But a peanut butter sandwich is something I can make myself in two minutes, so it's hardly worth the expense.

Potbelly Big Jack's PB+J: 6.5/10

posted by Flax @ 10:45 PM