Last (meat) Feast

I've failed to add stuff from over the past couple of weeks, but I'll post one today, in honor of Mardi Gras and the quickly approaching Lent season.

Although I'm not a regular church-attendee (forgive me!) I do have my beliefs and I do classify myself as being Catholic. As a kid, I always followed my parents' rules that from Ash Wednesday until Easter, you don't eat meat on Fridays, and I just accepted it. It wasn't until I started my religion classes that I understood why (but please don't ask me to explain in detail), and that in addition to not eating meat on Fridays, it was customary (or I suppose a better word would be 'respectful' or something of that sort) to give something up. As kids it seemed the most common thing to "give up" was soda. Or candy. Something like that. 

Coming out of those years of classes, I learned it as making a "sacrifice". So I altered my "giving up" list to a "sacrifice" list, something that would be a serious challenge (as I don't really have a sweet tooth). Meat. I love meat, I crave meat, the smell of meat cooking calls for instant salivation. Meat. That is my sacrifice.

And I don't mean just red meat. I mean all meats. Beef, pork, chicken... any type of animal. Although I will make the exception for dairy and eggs. So in a matter of minutes, the clock will strike midnight and it will officially be Ash Wednesday. And meat will be off-limits to me until Easter Sunday. I know I can do it, and I've done it for the past several years, but it still doesn't make it any easier to visit Ruth's Chris website.

As I left the mall this evening (making a quick stop to Sanrio), I eyed McDonald's from the escalator. A giant image of the new Mac Snack Wrap called to me. Try me, it said. You know you want to. C'mon, what are you waiting for? It's Mardi Gras. No meat for the next month and a half.

You had me at "Mac Snack Wrap". And, what the hey. Toss in a cheeseburger and an order of fries. Yum. 

The image doesn't really say "yum", but it really was. Something about it... doesn't look all that great but the taste does it. Maybe it's all the processing. That's some good processing. And you know what? The Mac Snack Wrap really did taste like a Big Mac. Except for the tortilla part. It has too much of it's own flavor to remind you that you aren't really having a Big Mac, but in fact, a wrap.