Chopo Chicken Vs. Me

This class is called Food For Thought. In this class we discussed many things such as how animals are treated badly and how some restaurants try to pump food out vs some restaurants that try to make quality healthy food that is better made. During this class, we watched a documentary called Food Inc., which is about the food process and how bad it is. I learned so much from this because, before I watched it, I only had an idea of what the process was like, but after this, I felt that I could go as far as to teach others. For this action project, I had to go to a restaurant and get a dish then make the same dish at home. I chose to get chicken, rice, and beans from Chopo chicken. After eating both I have to compare them and after that make a recommendation. Hopefully, you learn something new!

In this AP we compared a meal that we got from a restaurant to a home cooked meal that was similar. I compared chicken, rice, and beans from Chopo Chicken to my home cooked chicken, rice, and beans. In the end there was no clear winner, but I decided if you don't want to cook or you want a better meal and have money to spend than the restaurant meal is better for you.

Every bite releases juice and wonderful flavor. When you bite into it, you get tastes of light salt, lemon, and even a hint of garlic. But that's only the main part when you bite into the rest you get overwhelmed with a garlic, peppers, and light salt. Yes, I'm describing chicken, rice and beans, and not from any restaurant, these are from the wonderful Chopo Chicken. When I received my dish of the hardwood counter. I could smell the wonderful spices wafting off the plate. It made my mouth water even before I took a bite. When you think of chicken, rice, and beans what do you think of? Possibly strong scent, spices, juice, and maybe even some spicy flavor. When you eat this chicken you get a burst of all these (except for spicy). This meal is what you hope to get every time you order. Not only did it taste and smell amazing but it just simply felt good, it wasn't like a piece of fish that I had to worry about bones, and it definitely did not change texture throughout the piece. The whole thing was a constant soft piece of chicken that felt good and I was able to just savor and enjoy. The beans also felt good and the rice was soft and had a great flavor.

Chicken with rice and beans from Chopo Chicken

I am a fan of this meal, it is something that I get at least once every couple weeks. The place I got this from is rather new and only opened a couple of weeks ago. It is a small place called Chopo Chicken that has an outside eating area and a small inside area. It always smells good and it's definitely always busy. This was the first time I went there and it definitely surprised me. I usually get average quality food and this tasted much better than that. The menu size was not the largest and slightly resembled Chipotle's but without any other meats. I ended up buying a custom dish that allowed me to choose the ingredients. You may think this is a Mexican restaurant but actually its Peruvian.

This dish relates to Michael Pollan's five food transformations because it is a prime example of quality over quantity. The reason I think these two relate is that I noticed that they didn't have a large amount of chicken in the restaurant and the chicken they did have was less than average size (implying organic) but tasted really good. This shows that they aren't trying to pump food out as fast as possible but they are actually trying to put some effort into what they make. Chopo chickens food is fresh but they don't specify whether it's organic or not.

Home cooked meal

After eating the restaurant dish I really wanted to see how well I could make the same dish, so I bought chicken, rice, and beans. I figured this dish would be fairly easy to recreate since it isn't super complicated and the ingredients were simple. I cooked the chicken, added salt, pepper, and lemon. Then with the rice, I boiled it with onions to add flavor. When it was the beans turn I was slightly stumped since I have never made them before. I looked it up and they said I had to boil it so I did then I added garlic. After everything was done I put them all on a dish and invited my family to try the warm food. When I took the first bite I sensed that the chicken was delicious. The rice was very good and the beans also tasted flavorful. When I took a bite of the chicken I could really tell it was cooked just right because it was soft and it had a good constant texture. The rice was pretty flavorful and it felt like most rice would, soft and consistent. The beans tasted great and they had a great texture because they felt firm but not squishy or chewy.

I think the food from Chopo chicken was much better than the one I made because it was bursting with flavor and the way they made it made the chicken, beans, and rice taste better. Now there are two ways for me to do my recommendations because Chopo chicken was expensive compared to the home meal. I think if you're looking to save money the home meal definitely was not bad but you will save $10 at least. But if you really want good food and are willing to spend a little more than normal then Chopo Chicken is a perfect option for you. My food is fresh because the ingredients were not frozen and you can't consider frozen food fresh.

The food I made was pretty healthy, for example, the beans nutrition facts stated there was only 0g of total fat, 0g cholesterol, 430 mg of sodium, 20g of carbohydrates, 6g dietary fiber, 2g of sugar, and 7g of protein. The nutrition facts on the brown rice are as follows, 1g total fat, 0mg of cholesterol, 0mg of sodium, 33g total carbohydrates, 2g of dietary fiber, 1g of sugar, 4g of protein. The nutrients for the chicken are, 2g of total fat, 150mg of sodium, 0mg of potassium, 0g total carbs, 0g dietary fiber, 0g sugar, 27g protein. So overall this was a healthy and protein filled meal that I recommend anyone tries.

In conclusion, both dishes were good and I recommend the restaurant if you are wanting better food but for more money and the home cooked meal of you want cheaper and possibly larger quantities. You can't go wrong either way. Thanks