hello everyone this is running on empty food review well hello ladies gentlemen and everyone
watching this is running on empty food review i'm your host the report of the week and welcome to
this newest newest edition running on empty rainy day edition and if you if you have noticed you
might say well what is this ring right here what exactly is that is this some sort of
a new you know decorative piece what is this this is a new uh new locale isn't it well
somewhat back in the car it's been a very long time you know there used to be a time a couple
years ago where it was always in the car um but we are back because this is an item that
deserves this new locale it really does i know that there are the risks of the pandemic still
you have actually a tropical storm if not a hurricane passing through hence the rain
but you know what this is worth it it is worth it it is worth everything and once you hear it
you will understand uh completely no questions asked no doubts i mean everything is settled
ladies and gentlemen taco bell has re-released the toasted cheddar chalupa the toasted cheddar
chalupa is back it's back it's here maybe it's not better than ever because i hated it the first time
that i tried it but we'll see maybe it is going to be good this time around but either way yeah it is
it is back taco bell has this um you know semi new release but it is always interesting to try
out these sorts of things um because it's been a year since they last had it and of course in
the meantime they could always tweak things they could always make adjustments for better or for
worse they can say look we realize that we messed up we're going to work on it to make it better
um tastier we're going to work on our faults etc or they're going to say yeah we're going to punish
you guys a bit more and we're going to make it even worse or you know enough who knows so um
here's what it is the toasted cheddar chalupa it comes with seasoned beef lettuce tomatoes cheddar
cheese sour cream so you might say okay well what's so special about it it sounds like your
your standard chalupa well here's the deal it's all about the shell because the shell
has and i kind of laugh when i see this but this is just how they describe it
a six-month aged cheddar cheese blend on on the shell and when you look at it in the pictures
and in the advertisements of course they they make it look uh almost gourmet almost artisan-esque you
know something that you know you might go down to the trendy taco cafe and and pay you know 45
for on a good day but instead you could just go to taco bell you can fool all your friends all
of your uh all of your uh your crew on instagram take a picture say yeah i blew you know 55 bucks
on this at the you know wherever taco taco place the trendy one but instead you could
actually just go down to taco bell get it for 2.99 by itself or as a five dollar meal deal
so that's what it comes down to it's all in the shell hence the toasted cheddar chalupa it's
supposed to look nice and be a little cheesier but more gourmet perhaps you know slightly slightly
better than the normal fare from taco bell now i didn't like it the first time i thought they
made it look a lot better than it tasted and it ended up being very greasy very oily
and very bland but sometimes these re-releases are surprising sometimes they're surprisingly good
sometimes not so that's going to be the interesting thing so we're going to see
how this holds up we're going to see how it ends up being and we'll go from there now before we
get into the rest of the review because of course we're just going to take a look at it we have it
in the protective radiation resistant foil which is always always a plus i do just want to give a
little bit of a shout out real quick on my patreon i have a tier where it allows for a shout out
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to look into but i want to give a quick shout out congratulations are in order for xander and kat
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of a fun shot out there but if you want to get a shout out to again anyone uh just check out
the patreon patreon.com slash the report of the week it's something that i do and i want to let
you all know that it exists and that it's there in case you're interested now back to the review
the toasted cheddar chalupa like i was saying it is here okay this is meant to withstand the end
times as a matter of fact so it's like this for a reason and what we're going to do now
sorry if i wasn't totally in focus for a little bit but now we most definitely are
is we're going to take a look at this so again you can pretty much see it it looks
like how i remember it okay you can see right there close-up view the beef teaming out of it
all right then you look a little bit up you see the lettuce you see some of the cheese the cheddar
cheese the tomato but then there's the famous the famous toasted cheddar cheese on the shelf
right pure gourmet this this honestly looks like something that gordon ramsay would have made
crazy isn't it but you can see there i am with it and let's uh hold it up like this
just the precious cargo all right you know we'll we'll figure something out but again
you can see it's all in the shell it's all in the shell that is the focal point that's what
everyone's focusing on because again you can see the cheddar cheese toasted cheddar and all of that
now again it comes with sour cream on it okay but i will try it with some fire
sauce as well to add a little bit of you know a little bit of spice to your life as they say
but let's just try this out we know what's in it we're just going to see
if it's more flavorful than i last remember it so um again my eating might not be perfect at
least i'll take a couple bites then we'll go from there toasted cheddar chalupa going in
one more bite
sorry if i take a while to eat i'm just trying to chew on the other side of my
mouth
all right here's my observation and again i'll try it again with the fire sauce real quick
this is what i noticed when i tried it out a couple i guess last year it was very bland and
it was very oily this time around it's a little better definitely not perfect but i will say that
they have improved a little bit it's much less greasy than it was when i tried it out in 2019
i remember in 2019 it was just like oil filled it was just really bland and it was it was downright
gross now you can see right now looking at my fingertips they aren't shiny they aren't oily
there is much less grease in it and that's a good thing i think the overwhelming greasiness
was a bad thing and they seem to have gotten that under control what i do notice though
is there actually is a bit more beef in it as well i can taste the sour cream
i can taste the tomatoes as well the tomatoes i think also add a little bit of like a juiciness
to it um you can actually see these are some nice more plump tomatoes which are actually nice
i think the last time there was an issue with them too and the cheddar cheese i can really taste not
only do they have it of course on the taco itself which is your standard shredded cheddar cheese
but i can also taste it on the shell as well so i can taste that cheddar cheese it's most definitely
there um much more flavorful but i would still recommend probably getting this with the sauce
but overall definitely i like you can taste more of the meat this time around
i like that you can taste less of that grease but i can still taste that cheddar cheesy i guess
goodness as some would say but in the end i think it's more flavorful than it was the last time and
that's definitely a bonus because i was worried that it just wasn't going to be all that great
but it definitely is an improvement this time around i am going to put a little
bit of fire sauce on it and we'll just see what difference that makes let's try that real quick
this is one of those things that again even though it comes with the um sour cream definitely get it
with the sauce be that mild medium fire whatever you want to use diablo if you're really daring
um but i like the spiciness that the fire sauce adds i think it's a good accompaniment i think
it works out nicely so um i would say pair it with the sauce but overall i think it is a big
improvement to last year uh definitely it still looks nice but it tastes much better as well now
price for this again was uh 2.99 or five bucks for the meal deal so out of 10 what am i going
to give it last time i gave it a 4.9 out of 10 this time i'm going to give it a 7 out of 10.
still a tiny bit of room for improvement it could still be a little more flavorful
could be maybe a little cheesier but overall it is much better so taco bell you guys did
good definite improvement this time around and that's what i like to see sometimes the first
time isn't always the best but after that it can get better that's all that i have for you
ladies and gentlemen i'm your host the report of the week thank you for checking out today's
review we tried out the toasted cheddar chalupa thanks again do take care that's all for an