Fake Plastic Food

Yesterday I ended up in my local "neighbourhood" Applebees, someone else's choice not mine.

To make the best of things I picked through the menu to try and find something relatively healthy, which in Applebees terms would be anything that is not deep fried and dredged in salt, which in my terms would exclude 95% of the menu.

Being relatively fresh off the plane from Italy, and having devoured many a bruschetta, the

BRUSCHETTA TOPPED CHICKEN SALAD

caught my eye, and having read the description

Grilled chicken breast served on a bed of crisp romaine tossed with champagne vinaigrette and topped with bruschetta, juicy tomatoes, red onions, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, basil and garlic. Sprinkled with Asiago cheese, golden-fried mozzarella scoops and finished with a balsamic glaze.

I foolishly ordered it.

What arrived on my plate was dried reconstituted chicken that had been grilled, (but not anytime recently), limp romaine with brown edges dripping with run-of-the-mill italian dressing, topped with 6 pieces of diced tomato, a few slices of red onion, several spoons of sliced olives from a jar, (that they had somehow rendered tasteless), and one microscopic sliver of roasted red pepper. Somehow they had managed to forget the basil and garlic that would have made chopped tomatoes into "bruschetta". But wait there's more....

Liberally coated with fake plastic grated american "cheese", golden fried globs of breading with a speck of mozzarella in them, with a bit of brown squirty stuff on the chicken.

In the interest of health if you don't want a full sized portion for $9.49, you can get a half size for $8.49!!!! Not worth the price and certainly not worth the calories, and not even vaguely reminiscent of bruschetta.

I won't be back.