Carl’s Jr. – my secret lover

When I grabbed my dinner at my local watering hole tonight the two counter dudes were smiling wide as they keyed in my order not asking me what I wanted but merely whether they had guessed right. They did, as I had my usual. They shared a look, one of them said “I knew it”, and the other said something to me that left me smirking:

“We all know you here; you are famous sir!”

A few months ago the cute Filipina girl had used “you always get the Super Star, it’s good right?” as an ice breaker to flirt with her regular customer.

When I moved to Serangoon almost seven months ago I moved to a place only 2.5km away from a Carl’s Jr. I had had their food maybe once or twice before, on my visits to California. I remembered it was good, and the two burger chains we have in Germany – McDonald’s and Burger King – were no match for it. But then again McDonald’s is much better in the states, and in general I didn’t have any special feelings for CJ. While settling in in Singapore I frequented places that sold chicken rice or mixed veggie rice at first. I was determined to adjust to the lifestyle of the foreign country I lived in.
Now, people tend to be drawn to food they are familiar with. And that is why after a while I did not get rice and noodles every day, no, instead I started a strange ritual: walking 2.5km every day just to have some “real” food, with carbs and meat and TASTE. I started eating that stuff every day. Burger every day! Things like our parents and Supersize Me have warned all of us from doing that. But what could I do, I was hungry, craving western food and Carl’s Jr. is just way too damn good! Nevertheless, I kept losing weight constantly which continued to astonish me.

For a brief period in November last year I remembered that burgers are bad for your health – or at least are supposed to be bad for your health – and stopped eating Carl’s Jr. every day. A week later I looked at myself in the mirror and realized I had gained weight. I, more as a joke, blamed my weight gain on not having my CJ anymore, and started going again. Sure enough, my body fat decreased. At another occasion I reminisced about trans fats, fats in general, glutamine, artificial flavors etc. in another attempt to get me off my addiction. The result of my considerations however was that Hawker Center food is probably much worse for your health – hawkers are no experts in sanitation (just look at one and you see what I mean), nobody knows who their suppliers for ingredients are, how they store their ingredients and how often they wash their hands. The international food franchise outlet has the A label for sanitation and world-class know-how. So health is not really an argument to go to a dirty, cockroach-infested

Super Star, photo by Carl's Jr.

hawker center instead of Carl’s Jr.
And talk about a balanced diet, yes I have even considered that, you still can’t win the argument. At the hawker center I sometimes go to, I always get the chicken cutlet that comes with fries and ketchup – not very healthy either. At least a good burger has nice fresh bread, salad, tomatoes, cheese and onions on it. Just get Iced Lemon Tea instead of Coke at the drink fountain and who is eating unhealthy? Of course Carl’s Jr. has a burger for when you feel you need something worthy of a real man as well – Bread, bacon, beef, cheese, BBQ sauce. Called  the Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger – the name alone makes me melt. Suck on that, McDonald’s with your line of salads.

Then there is price – towards the end of last month I ran out of money big time. I could simply not buy anything from Carl’s Jr. anymore. Sometimes I treated myself to McDonald’s or Wendy’s. Both sell combos at about 8 dollars, while Carl’s Jr is around 12. But, when you are used to CJ and then open the box of your “Big”-Mac, you know who gives you value for money. The Big Mac, the by name largest thing McDonald’s sells, is just ridiculously small compared to ANY burger at Carl’s Jr. On top of that it tastes like a stack of cardboard with a little, but careful not too much, sauce. And Wendy’s, let’s not talk about that. It is nice around two times in your life, but it quickly wears off and just tastes cheap. So I am back, back to my routine at my local place, and nothing can drag me away from there. And hell yeah I like it.