DINING BEAT : A WRAP REVISION.Byline: Larry Lipson Big restaurant chains The following is a list of restaurant chains. See also: Fast-food restaurant, Casual dining, List of reference tables. International
The popularizing part makes some sense because the big chains use expensive TV campaigns to advertise rollouts of their new products, the enormity of which results in huge numbers of TV watchers getting bombarded with this information. But the introduction part is often questionable. Case in point: A letter sent here from T.G.I. Friday's T.G.I. Friday's (often referred to as just "Fridays") is a popular American restaurant chain focusing on casual dining, with over 500 restaurants across the United States, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Australia and the UK, as well as many other countries around the world. begins, ``Dear Larry: American diners are finding themselves wrapped up in a '90s version of the sandwich first popularized by T.G.I. Friday's, the world leader in casual dining.'' It continues with glowing stuff about its wrapper sandwiches having ignited a culinary trend since their introduction a year ago, while suggesting that all the other restaurants followed suit. But wait a minute. I remembered writing about wrapper sandwiches in a review of the California Chicken Cafe, 15601 Ventura Blvd., Encino, that appeared around mid-1995. So I looked up my files to confirm, and sure enough, the ``wraps'' as they called them there, mostly stuffed with chicken and an assortment of accompaniments, were an integral part of the cafe's menu. This was some time before ``a year ago,'' actually late May of 1995. And California Chicken, with other locations preceding this one, probably had introduced their ``wraps'' months before - or even earlier. Meanwhile, T.G.I.F. has already started serving its newest ``wrappers.'' One is the Texas Torpedo (chicken breast with rice, pico de gallo Pico de gallo (Spanish for "rooster's beak") is the term generally referring to a fresh condiment made from chopped tomato, onion, and chiles (typically serranos or jalapeños). , lettuce, avocado, ranch dressing and cayenne pepper sauce Noun 1. pepper sauce - for venison: brown sauce with sauteed vegetables and trimmings and marinade and plenty of pepper Poivrade sauce - flavorful relish or dressing or topping served as an accompaniment to food ), another the Szechuan Steak (marinated steak with sauteed mushrooms, red and green bell peppers, onions and carrots, all cooked in sesame oil Noun 1. sesame oil - oil obtained from sesame seeds vegetable oil, oil - any of a group of liquid edible fats that are obtained from plants benniseed, sesame seed - small oval seeds of the sesame plant with crushed red pepper red pepper: see pepper. plus rice and hoisin sauce hoi·sin sauce n. A thick, sweet, pungent sauce used in Chinese cooking. [Chinese (Cantonese) hoísin, seafood, equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) h ). Personally, I've had few wrap sandwiches that I've liked. Most of them have too much rice, have wrappings that are leathery leath·er·y adj. Having the texture or appearance of leather: a leathery face. leath  er·i·ness n. and tasteless, have juices in them that tend to run down your arm when
you take a bite, and have a tendency to fall apart completely.
Also, the stuffing combinations don't always taste good because there are too many ingredients fighting each other, creating an overload of textures and flavors. But I must admit, there are many I haven't tried yet, including the latest ones at T.G.I.F. Who knows? They just might be worthwhile. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: T.G.I. Friday's may not have invented wrap sandwiches, but they've sure got them. |
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