Budget-Friendly Bites: Fast and Faster Food

E and I were at West Ed Mall, so we decided to grab a quick bite from T&T Supermarket. E wanted something more meaty and hearty, but I kind of just wanted a salad. Conveniently, T&T offered both!

Normally, I'm not one to take a chance on T&T ready-to-eat food because of my easily-offended stomach, but when E pointed out the salad, I gave a "what the hay" shrug and picked it up.

They called it an "Asian Chicken Salad", which, to be honest, was quite accurate. Usually, when you get salad with chicken (with the exception of chicken salad as from Tim Horton's), the chicken comes in dry, shredded pieces. This one was shredded, but it was like that Chinese-style steamed chicken meat...it was so soft and tender and moist. The vegetables were surprisingly fresh, and there was tons of romaine lettuce, cucumber, celery, red bell pepper, carrot, green onions, and grape tomatoes (which I removed on my own terms). The "croutons" consisted of slivers of almond, sesame seeds, and these small fried noodle-like things. The dressing was super light, and not as oily as I expected. It was like...an Asian-inspired vinaigrette of some sort...It probably amounted to what would fit in both sides of a standard takeout box, and was only $5!

It feels kind of weird that I ate the entire thing even though it was practically all vegetables...

While groceries from T&T can be a bit on the expensive side, as with other grocery chains, there can be some decent deals on the weekends. That was the case for their milk tea. I love the taste of Darjeeling milk tea :)

Yay, milk tea! This is my favourite flavour :D

E opted for a selection from the hot foods. He chose a 2 item combo, which came with rice and a bowl of soup. I tend to be a bit more sensitive to foods high in salt and oils, but for the typical person, there were quite a few choices. Unfortunately, I didn't catch a picture of it. :/

There's apparently some sort of winter season special?

Lesson of the day? Don't necessarily rule out T&T as a quick meal choice if you happen to be at WEM!

On the way to badminton, I needed to stick something in my stomach before playing, so we stopped at Wendy's. Wendy's, although fast food, has a menu of 8 items for $1.89 each (paralleling the value picks menu at McDonald's). The JBC (or Junior Bacon Cheeseburger) isn't too bad. It's slightly smaller than your average burger with a square-shaped patty of beef, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a slice of processed cheese. For $1.89 plus tax. Not a bad option, aside from its lack of nutritional content, but if you're going to Wendy's, you're expecting low quality, fast food.

Wendy's JBC.

Of course, your best option to have a balance of low in cost, but high in nutritional content would be to make your own meals, but sometimes, it's not a bad thing to indulge a little!

-M