Because I review restaurants for this newspaper, people ask me a lot about where my family and I eat when we're not "on the clock," so to speak.

I think they're usually hoping that I'll name some wonderful little unknown place that they, too, could discover and enjoy. And I've eaten at plenty of those, for the newspaper and just for fun. But the truest answer to that question — where do my family and I eat when we're not eating for the paper? — is, frankly, Sam's Club.

Obviously, we eat at home far more often than we eat anywhere else. But we visit Sam's Club about twice a week, because that's where we get most of our milk, bread and diapers. And we've been known to stop at the little "cafe" for a hot dog or slice of pizza while we're there.

I don't always eat something — though the hot dogs can be hot and fresh, they also can be tough from too much time cooking, and the pizza is either melty and crisp-crusted or leathery on top and soggy on the bottom from sitting under a heat lamp. It's not worth the risk to me, but my family likes the food, even when it's not at its best. Even when it's what I would call nasty.

But I'm not immune to loving food that, by all definitions, I shouldn't like at all. In some cases, it's comfort food — a taste of my past. In some cases, it's plain old junk food. And sometimes, it's a mystery: I don't know why I like it — I just do. Today, I'm going to let my embarrassing appetites out of the closet — like the fact that, while I can take or leave the food at the Sam's Club cafe, I'm just about addicted to their Coke Icees.

This is one of those "taste of the past" situations — I've been drinking Icees and/or Slurpees since I was a kid buying them at the Green River, Wyo., Mini-Mart during lunch recess. Back then, I always went for the fruity varieties, but as an adult I can't get enough of the musky flavor of Coke combined with the smooth, frozen rush you get sucking down an Icee.

The only thing better is a Dr Pepper Icee, which I've been able to procure only in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. If you happen to be driving near San Antonio and come to a convenience store called Buc-ee's, I highly recommend you stop and try one. And incidentally, while I like both Slurpees and Icees, I think Icees are better: smoother, with more integrated flavor and less prone to leave a big mass of white, flavor-free snow in the bottom of your cup.

You can get Icees at a bunch of convenience stores around the valley, and also at Burger King, which is convenient for me because one of my other "nasty-good" favorites is the two-for-a-dollar tacos they serve there. There's no way that these should be anybody's favorite: they're premade, so a worker just heats them up, opens the top of the taco and stuffs in lettuce and cheese — the same cheese that's on the burgers. Then each one is slathered with lip-tingling hot sauce.