The one perk about having to check into the airport 3 hours before an international flight is the ability to explore and sometimes try food that you can’t get from your airport, at home.
Case in point, waiting for my plane ride back to YVR and Vancouver, from the SJD airport in Mexico, after a successful trip to Cabo all inclusive. (More about that in another post to come).
I had breakfast earlier in the day, and actually packed some food for the plane ride. But that didn’t stop me from exploring the food court enroute to my gate. I was familiar with all the brands and offerings there: Subway, Panda Express, Carls Jr, a New York Style pizza option, and tacos. Not enthused by the selection, I decided to take a closer at the menus of each, in case there was something they offered specific to Latin America.
And that was the case for Carl’s Jr, where I spent $61USD for two burgers, a side for fries, and a bottle of water. It would have been more, but despite the menu reading hand scooped ice cream milk shakes, they actually don’t serve milkshakes. Shame, as I wanted to try their canelitas milkshake. “Canelitas is a cinnamon cookie” and with vanilla ice cream I felt it would be reminiscent of a horchata or churro flavoured dessert. But I digress, back to the review of what I actually had.
In celebration of the movie Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire coming to Latin America, they have 3 limited edition menu items. Two burgers and a speciality fries. As expected there is a lot of beef in each of the burgers. The one representing Godzilla is all meat, the one for Kong has a unique colour to the bun and a bit more vegetable because Kong is vegetarian? And the fries are for the new antagonist.
Named Skar fries, after the character they have a fiery red dusting to them and are incredibly salty as is. My take out bag included a packet of Hellman’s ranch dressing and a sauce container of jalapeño slices, so I figured they were meant for that. After dressing the fries like nachos it did make things slightly better. Still salty, but now they were also soggy fries. The ranch helped to temper with its tang, and as I am a fan of the dressing so this actually helped me to eat more. Similarly, the spicy jalapeño aided in creating more interest in the serving. Although overall, these were not a great fries, and I would not order them again.
The burgers were a little better. The Godzilla Burger had three grilled patties topped with American cheese and bacon. For condiments barely their ketchup, mayo, and maybe mustard? The first bite was great, but the flavour does wear on as it is very flat and one toned. The patties are also flattened and incredibly dry, thankfully my take out bag also included over half a dozen packets of Heinz ketchup. At least three were needed to help inject moisture and much needed acidity. This one is a pass for me. Outside of the “monster” size there is nothing about this that relates to Godzilla. Some fried shrimp or a rice patty would have been nice. Something to say that this representing a popular Japanese character. Or at least some spicy chillies to represent the fire Godzilla breathes? This felt very American and it might as well represented a giant bald eagle monster.
If you can only try one, let it be the Kong Burger. This is striking with its black dyed bun. Same 3 flatten and dried patties as above, but instead of bacon you get tomato and lettuce, plus a thick helping of pepper jack cheese. The cheese was a runny queso-like sauce that made things messy, but was striking against the black bun. It unfortunately also made it soggy so the bun was easy and quick to break apart. Not the most easiest to eat, but tasty, especially with the addition of more ketchup like above.
In short, I do like a good feature, but they could have done more to have it more unique and true to the characters they were representing. This felt like a quick money grab and I fell for it. Although I actually have no regrets and would do it again; that is what I do, try it so you don’t have to.
