Taco bell snacks in the city

I have a separate, much longer post on my latest position on taco bell, which is that it's probably the best fast food place in America across multiple categories no matter how you slice and dice the numbers. But that needs more extensive reporting and sourcing, so here's a short anecdote that'll give you a good sense on my perception of the fast food chain.

I landed in the City in the middle of the day, kinda' full that my stomach didn't need a solid meal, but hungry enough to not be on the top of my mood. I needed a quick snack, and I needed it to be cheap. I evaluated my options: mcDonald's doesn't have anything vegetarian and it's not affordable anyway, I didn't want to do Chik-fil-e, and was in no mood for fries. I needed something under two dollars that'd give me a few yummy hundred calories to take me through the hours.

Then I saw the Bell.

I went in, scanned through their menu, and ordered the cheesy rice and bean burrito, with a side order of potatoes, to be put inside. And a couple of packets of diablo sauce. The order was complete in a matter of less than a minute, and three minutes within that, the entirety of the not-insignificant burrito was inside me. For a dollar-seventy, in the city of new york, I had gotten myself several hundred calories of rice, beans, potato, cheese, and a tasty and spicy sauce, within a matter of few short minutes. What's not to like about that?

I liked it so much so that on my way to the bus stop to ride back to Boston, I decided to repeat that order even as I was running out of time. I didn't have even confidence in myself to eat it in the outlet itself, so I took it to the bus, and had the burrito as the bus exited the holland tunnel to New Jersey northwards. It was satisfying, it was extremely light so I had a lot of space in my tummy for real food, and most importantly for eating something inside a bus full to the brim with passengers: it was inoffensive to other passengers. It was the perfect handsnack.

What's not to love?