Ben and Jerry's line of organic ice cream flavors (introduced in 2003), has not been doing very well. I haven't really seen them in supermarkets, and this week they made an appearance at my neighborhood's Grocery Outlet - for $1.50 each! I tried their organic vanilla and organic strawberry and they were both fine, not spectacular. These are not flavors I usually get, so I can't say how they compare to the originals.

It's another matter with Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, which is one of my favorite B&J's flavors. Alas, I'll have to continue eating the regular version (usually $3 on sale at Safeway), as the organic version just doesn't do it. The problem starts with the flavor of the ice cream, the chocolate is just not deep enough, it lacks that almost bitter richness of the original. In a blind test, I would not guess it was Ben & Jerry's. The lack of flavor continues in the brownie - which is also dry (how do they manage to make a brownie that is sitting in ice cream dry?) and non-chewy. Not a brownie you'd pay to eat. In other words - there is a reason why this ice cream is being sold at Grocery Outlet.

It's unlikely you'll find anything if you look for "Hart Authentic Orange Chicken" online - at least I didn't find anything when I looked. It seems that this frozen entree is made by Hart Food Products from Lakewood, CA. I bought it at Grocery Outlet, and I imagine they are their only distributor. Actually, given Hart's pathetic website, it's difficult to believe they are any sort of serious company. Which really tells you something about where Grocery Outlet sources its products. And indeed, orange chicken seems to be one of only three or four products Hart offers (at least it looks that way from this picture at their website).

Anyway, I was in Grocery Outlet yesterday and thought I'd take a look at the frozen stuff they had, as I've been feeling less and less like cooking lately. This orange chicken product didn't seem too bad - at least in comparison to the brand-name frozen food products. Yeah, it has a lot of salt, corn syrup and a myriad of preservatives, but so do all the brand name products. At least it had chicken as its main ingredient :-)

It's not obvious from the picture in the package, but this is really popcorn chicken - which is annoying as that means it has much more breading than you would like. It's uncooked so you need to bake it for 20 minutes, pan fry it for 10 to 15 minutes, or deep fry it for 6 minutes. Then you mix it with the orange sauce which comes in 3 packages. You can't microwave it.

As for the taste, it met our very low expectations. Mike found it too bland, while I thought the chicken had a subtle "off" flavor. The sauce was OK, somewhat orangee and not too sweet.

I'm unlikely to buy it again.

Last night I forgot to cook. Really. Earlier in the day I baked a cake to eat after dinner - but the thought of actually cooking dinner did not occur to me until it was too late. I had bought the ingredients to make lime and coriander chicken, but I had to marinate it for 3 hours and had not done so.

Safeway had advertised meatloaf for $5 for Friday only, so I thought I'd give it a try. Lord, was that the wrong decision - the meatloaf was horrible. It has no flavor of meat, actually, it had no flavor a all, and it had an unpleasant, gritty texture. The sauce on top was disgustingly sweet - but you had to mix it in with the meatloaf, to make it edible at all. In other words, don't buy it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I received a few packages of Amazing Taste seasonings to try and review. Last night I made rotisserie chicken with the Malibu seasoning package. I rubbed it both under and over the skin of a full chicken, which I then cooked to perfection :-)

I was not as fond of this seasoning mix as I was of the one for pork. The chicken was tasty, but I wasn't completely fond of the taste. It had that sort of artificial flavor that store-bought rotisserie chickens have, maybe it was the preservatives in the spice mix. Mike thought it was pretty good, however.

I probably would not buy this seasoning.

A couple of months ago I got a message from the Amazing Taste company asking me to review their spice mixes. I got them in the mail soon after, but for one reason or another, I hadn't gotten to try them until now. Tonight I made pork chops with their seasoning for pork, and I was very happy with the results.

The seasonings (the package doesn't specify what spices it uses) gave the pork a grilled flavor, even though I had cooked it in the George Foreman (where I grill during the winter). Both Mike and I liked it quite a bit. My only concern is that in addition to spices, the package contains a lot of other ingredients: rice flour and tapioca starch (I imagine they are there for volume), caramel and dextrose (for color and sweetness?) and soy lecithin (an emulsifier, to prevent the seasonings from coming off?), among others. I tend to prefer spice mixes that only contain spices.

One package was enough for 8 pork chops, rubbed on both sides.

Another thing I liked about the mix, is that it allowed me to make dinner quite quickly. I usually either dedicate hours to cooking, or make something quick like frozen ravioli. This was a good in-between.

I gave the chili spice mix to my friend Desiree, and she also said she liked the resulting chili very much.

I still have a couple of more envelopes to try with other meats, and I'll review them as I try them.

Food Items Reviews

I got a package of DEEP brand HomeStyle Masala Paratha at Santos Spice Products in San Leandro yesterday. I'm quite pleased with it. The parathas are pretty flaky and don't taste frozen, plus they are very quick to make (just heat for 2 minutes on each side). They are a bit spicy, but not overly so, and nicely seasoned. They are nowhere as good as the parathas available at some restaurants, but I think they're pretty good for a frozen product.

Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Blend is a blend of Israeli couscous, orso, baby garbanzo beans and tiny red quinoa grains. Israeli couscous predominates. I don't remember how much it cost, but it was cheaper than the bags of pure Israeli couscous. Most importantly, my kids love it, and I think it's probably marginally more nutritious than the Israeli couscous by itself.

Though the instructions say to cook it with 1 Tbsp of butter ( I guess to make it more buttery), I always omit it without any adverse effects. I do the same with regular couscous and other grains, why have added fat if it's not needed? Once you have the water boiling, it cooks in 10 minutes. So it's a great and easy side for stews.

Reviews of Food Items

I have been using Better than Bouillion for several years now, always with perfect results. It's much better, denser and flavorful, than the bouillon cubes I'd previously used, and even than the ready-made broths you can buy at the store. Plus it's convenient - you use as little or as much as your recipe calls for, and store the rest in the fridge. Though the jars have an expiration date now, I called the company years ago and they told me the concentrates are good pretty much forever.

Years ago, whenever a recipe called for broth, I used to boil the water, mix it with the base and then add it to the other items. But I've become lazy. What I do now, is add the water instead of the broth, wait until the liquid gets hot, and then add and mix the concentrate. Much easier and it works just as well.

Now, I've never made broth myself (and I'm not likely to), but I do wonder if home made broth is better than Better Than Bouillon. In his book Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain talks about how he improved in the homemade stock he had to make for cooking school, with commercial concentrate. The results were better than what anyone could otherwise make. Of course, in his cookbook Bourdain talks about the virtues of homemade stock - but I don't think I believe him :-)

My friend Charlotte got me a big bag of True North Pistachio Nut Crisps, along with other food products, for Xmas (yes, I opened the bag early), and I'm amazed at just how good they are. The main ingredient is pistachios, and you can clearly taste them. They're perfectly salted, and yes, crispy. Only problem is that I can't stop eating them (and they're quite caloric). For those with actual will power, they do come in a resealable bag.

Yesterday we went to the Ghirardelli's factory store here in San Leandro, and tried their new pecan pie chocolate squares. It's delicious, my favorite of all of them (the caramelized almonds one was my former favorite one). Check it out. And if you do get them in San Leandro, look for a 20% off your whole purchase coupon in the San Leandro Times.

Wednesday I got a shipment of mini-cheesecakes from The Confectional - a cheesecake bakery in Seattle that does mail order. They wrote to me a few weeks ago asking me if I'd like to review their cheesecakes - and after thinking about the ethics of such things - I decided to do it. I knew I'd feel bad if I had to give them a bad review, but really, how likely was that when we are talking about cheesecake?

As it turned out, the cheesecakes were great - in particular their plain cheesecake. I got 8 different kinds, and I'll review each one below. The cheesecakes are small and round, each one the size of a generous personal portion, and come in a variety of flavors.

The first cheesecake I tried was the Seattle's New York-Style cheesecake, and it was probably the best cheesecake that I've ever had. It was rich, creamy, sensual - plainly delicious. I think one of the things that made it so great was the crust. In my experience, cheesecake crusts often taste stale and are usually not very tasty. These ones would be good enough to eat by themselves - they are sweeter than your general crust and taste fresh with a vibrant, crystal flavor. Yummm.

The kids and I shared the Peanut Butter & Chocolate cheesecake - and this one wasn't as successful (but how could it be?). The main problem was the dark chocolate - I'm sure it will fully satisfy you if you like dark chocolate, but I thought it was a bit bitter and Mika (my 6 year old) found it too bitter to eat at all. I liked the peanut butter part, but more when eaten by itself rather than in combination with the dark chocolate. That said, Camila (my 4 year old) really liked it.

Later on, we had the Caramel cheesecake. We all loved it. According to Mika "It is yummy! I love it so much. You make good cheesecakes." Camila, meanwhile, says: "I like all the cheesecakes. I like them a lot and a lot." This cheesecake was sweet, though not overly so, with a definite but not overwhelming touch of caramel.

By my fourth cheesecake, the Raspberry white chocolate. I liked this cheesecake quite a bit, it was refreshing and just as creamy as the other ones - and the (chocolate?) crust was delicious as well. But I still liked the Seattle NY cheesecake better.

After that, I decided that I couldn't really wait to taste all the cheesecakes, so I took bites of all of them - sharing some with my kids.

I did not like the Coconut Cherry Chocolate cheesecake - made with lighter chocolate than the peanut butter & chocolate cheesecake. But then again, I do not like cherries. I didn't realize it was cherry when I tried it, but was unhappy when I encountered the fruit - both because of its taste and its consistency. Camila didn't like it either, which I found surprising. Mika, on the other hand, loved it and had it all for herself.

I shared the Cookies & Mint Chocolate cheesecake with everybody. Mike, a mint fan, specially liked it - though he didn't think it tasted much like a cheesecake. Camila thought it was very yummy, and I thought the mint flavor had been well incorporated into the chocolate. Mika, on the other hand, wasn't impressed - no reason why.

I'm not the biggest fan of cinnamon either, so the Pumpkin cheesecake was not my favorite. If you like pumpkin pie with a lot of spice you'll probably like it - but then again, why not eat pumpkin pie then?

And finally, if you want a real kick, you have to try the Mexican Chocolate cheesecake, sprinkled with cayenne and cinnamon. I hadn't checked which one it was before I tasted it, so the spiciness (and it is very spicy) really surprised me. I can't imagine I could eat a whole one at once, but I've gone back for other bites here and there.

And that was it. My general feelings are that these are very high quality cheesecakes, with great cookie crust, well balanced flavors and a great consistency, creamy, yet firm. I also think that they are very well priced at $32 for 9 cakes - that's less than $4 a serving - and you probably can't make a cheesecake for that price. They get even cheaper - per cheesecake - if you order more (however, I don't know how much the shipping costs are - they may make the cheesecakes significantly more expensive).

The cheesecakes look very elegant, so I think they would be a great end to a dinner party. While I personally would order a box just with plain cheesecakes (though I would like to try the quadruple chocolate and the kahlua white chocolate cheesecakes), I think for a dinner party you should order a variety (though of course, you then risk people fighting over their favorite one).

This cheesecake experience actually made me change my plans for Xmas dessert. I was going to make Frozen Grand Marnier Torte with Dark Chocolate Crust and Spiced Cranberries, but now I think I'm going to make individual cheesecakes. I'll definitely use the Maria cookies from Spain (what they use), if I can find them. I was thinking of making plain or white chocolate cheesecakes and adorning each one with a strawberry and a couple of mint leaves :-) I'll let you know how they come out.

Finally, the cheesecakes came very well packaged, with four cooling packages that were still semi-frozen when they got here. The cheesecake arrived at a perfect temperature - not too cold, but still not room temperature and had the perfect consistency right off the box.

Once again, you can find these cheesecakes at The Confectional in Seattle.

Yesterday I went to Messob for dinner, on Piedmont Ave. in Oakland, and we happened to park just in from of Euromix Deli, a small, tidy store carrying products from all over Europe, but specializing in Eastern Europe. I've been here several times before, ever since my friends Victoria and Penelope bought me a huge assortment of food items from there, but I don't think I've blogged about the place yet. I won't now either, :-), but I promise to go back to the place and tell you more about what they carry.

One thing they do carry, and that Victoria & Penelope had included in their gift, are Russian spice mixes. They come in little green envelopes good for one meal and they have them for rice, kebabs, roasts, fish and other things I couldn't really tell what they were. I've tried the ones for the rice, the kebabs and the roasts and they are excellent.

I made a tri-tip roast in the rotisserie with the roast spice mixture for election night, and the results were great. The meat was super tender and very flavorful. I let it sit at room temperature with the rub for almost an hour before cooking, and I'd recommend you do the same. I've made the kebabs before, and they also rock. You marinate the chunks of beef or lamb in some red wine mixed with the spices and then grill. Yumm.

But I think my favorite mix is the one for the rice (pilau). I've made it a few times last year and the results are great - very satisfying.

Alas, the packages of these mixtures are in Russian, so I can't tell you even what they're call. They are distributed by West Coast Trade in Newark, and, as I said, available for sale at Euromix.

This time they didn't have the roast spice mixture, so I bought several packages of the ones for kebabs ($1.40) and rice ($1). The former consists of: sweet paprika, salt, coriander seeds, onion, MSG, garlic, red hot pepper, sugar, basil leaves, black pepper, mustard, turmeric, cumin and nutmeg. The latter includes: salt, sweet paprika, turmeric, barberry,curry,coriander seeds, cumin and ground marjoram. Of course, they smell divine.

Yesterday was my birthday and my mom got me (by proxy) an ice cream cake from Safeway. It was a simple affair, a matter of vanilla ice cream sandwiched by white cake, and it wasn't the most delicious thing ever, but pretty satisfying. I do think that I like their regular cakes better. They cost about the same, I think.

I think it's been many years now since Ben & Jerry's has come out with a flavor of ice cream I actually like. Meanwhile, they've gotten rid of many of my favorites, including the best flavor they ever had, Wavy Gravy. Still, I always try the new flavors they come up with, showing that I'm a pretty slow learner.

The latest flavor I tried was ONE Cheesecake Brownie, and seldom have I tasted a more flavorless flavor. The ice cream itself just tasted sour - no cheesiness, no complexity, just a note of sourness. The miniscule cheesecake brownie bits were also sour, though at least a bit chocolaty. They didn't add much. In all, a complete failure of a flavor.

This ice ceam seems to be part of a campaign to "end poverty", the carton doesn't explain how, just directs you to a website. I personally find it deeply offensive when big corporate giants like Unilever (Ben & Jerry's parent company), who themselves contribute to world poverty, by, for example, exploiting child workers, use the plight of poor people as a marketing scheme.

As I mentioned in my last post, yesterday was Mika's 6th birthday party and as usual I got her a Safeway cake. I'd been going with Safeway cakes for several years - ever since I got a horrible cake from Just Desserts for her welcoming ceremony. Why pay $60+ dollars for something that in the end doesn't taste good?

Part of the reason I go with Safeway is that there aren't many choices for cakes in San Leandro. Costco has cheap cakes, but I dislike the frostings (which you know most likely have hydrogenated oils in them) and they only have basic designs, OK when your kid is very young but a problem by the time they are into cartoon characters. (Yes, I'm one of those parents that gives into commercialism and let's her kids have character parties - I also buy Bratz for Mika! shoot me).

The chinese bakery
has nicely decorated cakes, with cartoon characters and all, but I find their cakes not to be sweet enough. This is a plus for some people, but I'm just not into them.

There is, of course, Marita's, whom I like to support as they are locally and minority owned -, but while I like their cakes (in particualr their frostings), they don't offer decorations. Plus I'm not sure you can get a rectangular cake that is less than a 1/2 or full sheet.

Then there is Baskin Robbins. We've gotten cakes from there before, and they are usually pretty good - if extremely expensive. Indeed, we were planning to get Mika one of them - but they didn't have the Bratz decorations she wanted.

So we went for our tried and true Safeway cake. They didn't have Bratz decorations but they did have Bratz pets decorations (I didn't even know they existed!) and that was OK with Mika - who by then realized there weren't many other choices. Plus the good thing about Safeway is that if you don't want such a junky cake you can order it with whipped cream and strawberries (or another fruit). I usually get the white cake, which is very light, and the results are very good. For Camila's birthday I actually got the whipped cream and banana cake, and I may have liked it even more. Best of all, the kids love it and I don't feel they are eating too much sugar.

The one minus about Safeway cakes is that they aren't cheap. A small, 1/4 sheet cake is about $21! You can get a half-sheet cake for about $16 at Costco. But hey, I'm willing to pay for whipped cream and fresh strawberries (and nice decorations). You can order the cakes just one day in advance, good for us procrastinators.

One thing to keep in mind is that the cake book that they have outside does not include all the decoration options. I was bummed when we didn't find the Bratz there, but Mika insisted that we ask if they had Bratz anyway. I thought it was futile, but once again my 6-yo proved to be smarter than her mother. They indeed have other cake books under the counter - and usually they carry a Bratz cake. Unfortunately, there is a backorder on Bratz decorations and that's why we had to go for the Bratz pets, but the point is that even if you don't see what you want in the book, you should ask.

Anyway, this is a long posting to say that I like Safeway cake.

Last night I had my friend Aamani and her family over for hors d'ouvres and sangria. I wasn't up to actually cooking, so I let Trader Joe's do the catering. I got the Coconut Curry Chicken Sticks, the Pastry Bites with Feta cheese and caramelized onions and the Mushroom Turnovers. I'd had all before. The chicken sticks are pretty good but they scream for some kind of dip - probably that Thai sweet and sour sauce. I didn't have any, though. The mushroom turnovers are also very tasty, a favorite of mine. But the pastry bites were just delicious, I can't imagine I could make something better. I can seem myself buying a couple of boxes for my next party (hey, nobody needs to know). The only problem is that I may eat them all myself.

I also served TJ's andouille sausage, which nobody ate, and bread with triple cream brie, which was very good.

We bought this bacon because we liked the idea that it doesn't have any nitrates or nitrites added (not that I know the difference between the two). I don't think consuming these substances is good for children. As a "healthier" (very much in quotation marks) bacon, I was afraid it wouldn't be as good. Boy, was I wrong. It's simply delicious. It has a great smoky flavor that doesn't taste fake, and it's deep and satisfying. It's a bit too salty for me, however, though that is often true of bacon. In any case, I'll buy it again - specially if it's on sale at buy-1-get-1-free like it was last time.

Tonight we had leftover lamb with TJ's Thai Red Curry Sauce. I really like their yellow curry sauce, and this one is not bad, albeit too salty for me. It's a bit on the spicy side, but nothing that some rice can't cure. It was good for a change of pace, but I think I'll stick with the yellow one in the future.

We had that for dinner. Mike liked it, so did Camila. I thought the seasoning was too salty, but I'd buy it again. I served Mika plain mahi mahi, she has a problem with anything that's in the least spicy (read "seasoned"). It was a struggle to get her to eat the fish - she had to really understand that that was all there was for dinner - but she finally did it and did not complain she didn't like it.

I served the fish with steamed broccoli and it was wonderful to hear Camila repeating "I want more broccoli". Mika used to like it too at that age, but she stopped liking it with age :(

I really like hot brie, at least what I've had at Horatio's, and I've been having a craving for some since my last visit to that restaurant (which I think was on my birthday, in May). I knew that a supermarket product wouldn't be the same, but I had no idea it could be so inferior. The pastry itself seemed underdone and heavy, while the brie was light and uninteresting. I didn't even think it was worth it to bring down my very expensive balsamic vinegar to mix with it.

In all, I won't buy this product again.

I'm not a big pork eater in the first place, but once in a great while I'll have pork ribs or pork tenderloin. No more. This article by Rolling Stones magazine has convinced me not only that eating pork is unethical, but that it's also bad for my health. Thanks god my children have only had it a handful of times in their lives.

Here is an excerpt:

Smithfield's pigs live by the hundreds or thousands in warehouse-like barns, in rows of wall-to-wall pens. Sows are artificially inseminated and fed and delivered of their piglets in cages so small they cannot turn around. Forty fully grown 250-pound male hogs often occupy a pen the size of a tiny apartment. They trample each other to death. There is no sunlight, straw, fresh air or earth. The floors are slatted to allow excrement to fall into a catchment pit under the pens, but many things besides excrement can wind up in the pits: afterbirths, piglets accidentally crushed by their mothers, old batteries, broken bottles of insecticide, antibiotic syringes, stillborn pigs -- anything small enough to fit through the foot-wide pipes that drain the pits. The pipes remain closed until enough sewage accumulates in the pits to create good expulsion pressure; then the pipes are opened and everything bursts out into a large holding pond.

The temperature inside hog houses is often hotter than ninety degrees. The air, saturated almost to the point of precipitation with gases from shit and chemicals, can be lethal to the pigs. Enormous exhaust fans run twenty-four hours a day. The ventilation systems function like the ventilators of terminal patients: If they break down for any length of time, pigs start dying.

From Smithfield's point of view, the problem with this lifestyle is immunological. Taken together, the immobility, poisonous air and terror of confinement badly damage the pigs' immune systems. They become susceptible to infection, and in such dense quarters microbes or parasites or fungi, once established in one pig, will rush spritelike through the whole population. Accordingly, factory pigs are infused with a huge range of antibiotics and vaccines, and are doused with insecticides. Without these compounds -- oxytetracycline, draxxin, ceftiofur, tiamulin -- diseases would likely kill them. Thus factory-farm pigs remain in a state of dying until they're slaughtered. When a pig nearly ready to be slaughtered grows ill, workers sometimes shoot it up with as many drugs as necessary to get it to the slaughterhouse under its own power. As long as the pig remains ambulatory, it can be legally killed and sold as meat.

I wanted a quick and easy dinner last night and this kit from TJ's seemed to fit the bill. And it would have, had it been good - alas, it wasn't.

The kit is, in theory, a good idea. All you have to do is microwave a bag of ravioli for 3 minutes, and then the bag of sauce for 1 1/2 minutes. I can't imagine a quicker meal. And while the sauce was pretty nice, albeit a bit mild, the ravioli itself were quite tasteless. Indeed, if they tasted of anything at all, it was of staleness. That's too bad because I love mushroom ravioli - the Safeway brand portobello mushroom ravioli are particularly good. Even with the convenience, and despite the fact that the kit is supposed to last you a month in the fridge so it could be there whenever you need it, I can't see myself buying it again.

Last night, and agains today for lunch, we had "Rancher's Reserve" tri-tip, grilled on the BBQ. Rancher's Reserve is select grade meat (i.e. fit for human consumption) that for whatever reason is supposed to be more tender than it should. And indeed it is. Flavor wise it's clearly inferior to Costco's choice meat, but it is probably just as tender. I'd probably buy it again if I couldn't get Costco beef.

Yesterday I made tandoori chicken and brownies. We didn't eat them at the same time, so I can't tell you how well they work together, but they were pretty good separately.

The tandoori chicken was bone-in chicken, skinned and marinated for a while on yogur mixed with Parampara Tandoori chicken mix. We then grilled it on the BBQ. Mike thought it was quite good, I was less enthusiastic. I liked the charred parts, but I think the other parts might have had too much marinade. Next time I'll make sure to wipe some off before grilling. Parampara has a lot of other mixes, which I'll probably try as well.

The brownies where Trader Joe's Truffle Brownie Mix. They were also very easy to make (add a lot of butter and eggs) and they were scrumptious. Soooo good, so moist. I'll definitely not make them again, so I can avoid eating the whole tray.

A friend of a friend recommended this pineapple slicer (which turned out to be the "Vacuvin Pineapple Easy Slicer") available at Safeway and I wanted to try it. She was kind of embarrased about having bought it - it seemed to her like the type of products they advertise on TV and you pay a fortune for - but she loved it anyway. She was so enthusiastic that I thought it was worth a try. At $10 I was a little hesitant, but we're pretty bad about eating our pineapples once we buy them. Not any more.

This "easy slicer" is a true wonder. It allows you to easily slice the pineapple into perfect rounds, keep a perfect pineapple shell and easily core it. And with pineapples bred to be sweet, sweet, sweet, the girls love it and we're eating pineapple galore. OK, the girls are - we don't get to eat any.

I'm still looking forward to using the shells for some mixed drinks - something tropical and rumy sounds perfect.

Is it just me or do cans of Coke have less gas now? Maybe it is me, but they just seem flatter lately.

A reader writes telling me that Entally sausage "is the best sausage ever to come out of Calcutta, India" and asking me for the recipe. I've never even heard of it - but if you have, please e-mail me!

I couldn't find it in their product list, and I don't have a picture of it, but Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Fudge Sauce is just delicious. Dark, intense, creamy, perfect over ice cream or from a spoon. I know it's available at their factory store in San Leandro. You should certainly try it.

I found Sunny Harvest Blueberry Preserves at the 99cents only store and, after looking at the ingredients and noting the use of sugar and not corn syrup, I just had to try it. They were great. I served them at my last tea party along with a large selection of jams and spreads, and these were the favorite ones (after dulce de leche, of course). They have a very strong and definite blueberry taste. Interestingly, they are made in China, which I'd never pegged as a big producer of blueberries.

I've said it before, but I love going to the 99-cents store and seeing what treat I can find for my 99-cents. They are particularly strong on preserves of all kinds, which come from all over the world. I suspect much of it could be sold by European-type stores for many times as much.

What a difference a butter makes. I got some President Unsalted Butter at the EuroMix deli on Piedmont Ave. and I'm in heaven. That butter is just so, so good. I recognize it as being the butter I enjoy at many high-class restaurants (which, I'm sure, don't churn their own). It also wasn't particularly expensive given the quality.

Last week I went to London for a meeting, and I got to taste kangaroo. Needless to say, it was the first time. It was served in a salad, and the vinagrette dressing overpowered the flavor of the meat (served medium rare), but it had the look and texture of beef, but a milder flavor, sort of like venison. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to order it again, but I'm glad I tried it.

Indeed, this is the second exotic meat I've tried recently. On my trip to the northwest of Argentina last December I had the opportunity to try llama - both in empanadas and as a steak served with the sauce. I found the meat reminiscent to pork, rather dry and not very flavorful in itself, but good with other condiments or sauces. Again, not something necessarily worth ordering but for the novelty aspect.

Alas, what I did not have in this very brief trip to London was either Indian food or fish & chips. Or anything, really. I had a couple of pasties - self contained bready pies with meat fillings - and they were very good. I imagine they are full of calories, but they do make a cheap and convenient meal. Other than that, I either ate at the conference or at the home of the friends I was staying with. And given the prices of the food in London (and everything else for that matter), I can't say I feel too bad about that.

A week or so ago I found (organic) green garlic at the farmer's market. I'd had heard of it for the first time only recently, when it was featured in one of the dishes we ate at Chez Panisse. But I figured it was worth trying to cook with it.

You basically use it like green onions or leeks, slice/chop the bulb plus the white and light green parts of the stem. It has a much milder taste than regular garlic. I tried mine both chopped and mixed in with mashed potatoes and mixed with cheese as a stuffing for hamburgers. In both situations we really liked it, though I think it's particularly flavorful when it's been browned.

Green garlic has a short season in the spring so get it now and give it a try.

A couple of weeks ago I bought organic celery at the Farmer's Market - it came in a bag. I left it out on the table that afternoon, in moderate heat. By the evening it had completely wilted. Or had it? Had it been like this all along? I must confess that I've never seen such flacid celery in my life - not that I'm a celery connoisseur or anything. Weird.

Today is my birthday (yay!) and my friends Victoria and Penelope got me a great (and very appropriate) gift of yummy, exotic foodstuff. They went shopping to the Euro Mix Deli in Oakland, a place I'll definitely have to check out. Their comprehensive gift basket included:

Gia Russa Artichoke Bruschetta Topping from Italy. Haven't opened it yet :)

ZerGüt brand Ikra. This is an Eggplant "caviar" spread from Bulgaria. It's made with eggplant, carrots, tomatos, oil and spices and it's quite good. I'd served some of it at a Bulgarian dinner for Victoria and her husband Geoffrey a few weeks before. It has a pleasant smokey flavor, and it's good both as a dip for bread and a spread for sandwiches.

Ararat Young Walnut preserves, from Armenia. I have no idea what this is going to be like, I can see the young walnuts floating in a viscous liquid. I think I'm going to wait until I have a "tea" at home to open these.

Tkemali is a Georgian sauce made with sour plums. There seem to be at least three varieties, and the one I got is from red (as opposed to yellow or green, per the drawings on the bottle) plums. This is suppose to be Georgia's version of ketchup and it's used to accompany grilled meats and vegetables. I served it with plain grilled chicken breast and it didn't do too well. It had a very vinegary taste, though the hints of plum were nice. I think it may go better with lamb and I'll try it on that next.

Bliny mix from "JSC "Atlanta-Service". Blinis are small, delicate crepes from Russia. I've heard of them but have never tried them. They sound delicious. Yum, yum, yum.

Bahlsen's Kipferl were small hazelnut cookies from Germany. The croissant-shaped cookies are small, somewhat dry (which is why it's suggested they go very well with tea or coffee) and quite addictive. It didn't take me long to finish the package.

Tula honey cake or Tulsky Pryanik is a traditional dessert from the Russian city of Tula. This one came with apricot-flavored apple sauce as filling, though they have other flavors as well. It was interesting, but I also found it a bit dry and not really something I'd be hankering over. I ate all, though :)

Costworld Double Gloucester with Onions & Chives is also called "pub cheese", it's supposed to have a strong cheddar flavor and I can't wait to try it.

Finally, I got and envelope of Pilau seasoning and one of schaschlik seasoning, both from Russia as well.

Truth be told, I can't believe just how generous Victoria and Penelope were. And I'm of course thrilled :)

In one word: yummy. I've had Trader Joe's Green Curry and Red curry sauces before and I had enjoyed them, but I have to say this one is my favorite. It's thick and creamy and sweet and spicy (good spicy, but too spicy for my kids) and pretty well balanced. Mike found it a bit too sweet for his taste, and I almost agree, but I like sweet food. In all, a great sauce to have in the pantry for when you want something quick and easy.

I found these Canadian sodas (also available on Cranberry & Raspberry, Cranberry & Blueberry and Cherry flavors) at the 99-cents store and I was intrigured enough to try them. They are organic, and GMO free, and have no artificial colors or flavors. They also come with the recommended daily value of vitamin C. And at 3 for 99cents, they're pretty cheap.

Alas, I didn't really like it. It's too sweet for my taste, it tastes mostly of lemon oil with a hint of coconut (must be the "oil" aspect of it). I couldn't even finish the bottle.

I just tried Barilla Plus Spaghetti, from the new pasta line from Italian pastamaker Barilla. It was surprisingly good. It's a little bit darker (and the spaghettis seemed cut a little thinner) than regular Barilla pasta, but it tasted pretty much the same. That's not too surprising as its main ingredient is still semolina - but what makes this pasta special is that the semolina is mixed in with a mix of ground lentils, chick peas, oats, spelt, barley and flaxseeds) which give the pasta extra fiber and protein (4g of fiber and 10g of protein per 2 oz portion). The flaxseeds also give it a lot of omega3. The pasta still has a lot of carbs (38g) and calories (200), but it does seem a healthier alternative to regular pasta. For me it's particularly enticing as Mika doesn't like sauce on her pasta, so when she eats it she has it plain - which doesn't do much for balanced nutrition.

Anyway, I think it was about 2.50 at Safeway for a 1lb box - expensive but I think worth it. I'll definitely continue buying it.

Trader Joe's frozen pad thai is surprisingly good, it's sweet and spicy, with nice chunks of chicken. The noodles are a tad too soft (and I like soft noodles) but all in all it's one of the better frozen entries I've had.

During my last trip to Trader Joe's I stocked up on bottled and frozen items. I tried the Trader Joe's korma simmering sauce. It didn't taste at all like a korma, it wasn't creamy, it was sort of spicy and quite acidic, in other words, it tasted just like their curry sauce. I wouldn't buy it again.

I also got the frozen nan bread. At $2 for 4 pieces it's kind of expensive, but I think worth it. In all it's pretty good, it tastes just like the nan bread from a good Indian restaurant, it's light and fluffy. Plus as you cook it yourself it's also quite warm when you get it. The only minus is taht you have to preheat the oven for 10 minutes before cooking it, though I've done it for less time in my toaster oven.

Finally, I got a bowl of tortellini with pesto sauce - not worth it. The tortellini themselves were good, nice al-dente consistency, yummy cheese filling, but the sauce was completely tasteless. They were actually better without the sauce.

I got this already made flan at Casa Lucas. Heed my advise and stay away from it. This thing was vile. Even though sugar is its second ingredient after milk, it wasn't very sweet at all. Mostly, however, it had a bitter, medicine-like taste that I can only imagine comes from the artificial vanilla extract. All I can say is "yucky".

Tonight for dinner we had grilled chicken thighs served with heated up Trader Joe's Mole sauce and couscous. This is the sauce that is labeled under TJ's name and comes in the small jar - they also serve another one. We were not happy with it. The sauce had a distinctive chocolate flavor and was slightly spicy, but it had no complexity of flavor a all. It was monotonous and slightly bitter. I wouldn't buy it again.

Last night I made chicken simmered in Trader Joe's Green Curry sauce. It was yummy. The sauce is a little bit too spicy for my taste, but it had a very light and yet full flavor, with a strong hint of cilantro. Its high fat content made the chicken feel wonderfully buttery and in all it was very enjoyable. I added some orange bell pepper to the chicken and served it with rice. In all, a thumbs up.

We got Patak's Korma sauce along with its tika masala sauce a couple of months ago at Cost Plus ($3.50). We didn't like the tika masala, but the korma was much better. It wasn't as sweet or delicious as a restaurant korma, but it was creamy and tasty enough for a quick, weekday dinner. I browned and simmered some cubed beef on it for about an hour (with some extra water), and served it over cuscus. Next time I'm at Cost Plus, I'll probably pick up a couple of more jars.

Our friends Charlotte & Daniel got us a bottle of Stonehouse "Olio Nuovo" for Xmas. This is a very fresh olive oil (pressed two weeks before we got it) and it's delicious. It's taste is actually much fresher than that of regular olive oil and I like it more. Mike doesn't seem to like it as much, which is great as it means there is more for me! I'm using it just for dipping, though I imagine it could also be used on salads.

http://www.stonehouseoliveoil.com/

I really like the Asiago Cheese from Safeway. Actually, most of their premium (and non-premium) breads are pretty good, but the Asiago one is delicious. It's not cheap (about $3.50 I think), so I don't see it as an every day sort of bread, but once in a while I really crave it.

A couple of nights ago I served chicken with Patak's Tikka Masala simmering sauce which I bought at Cost Plus ($3.50 for a 15 oz jar, enough for 1 lb chicken and 2 1/2 people). It was OK but it didn't taste at all like tikka masala. Mostly it tasted like other generic jarred or frozen Indian curries. Its main ingredient was oil, so it's very fatty (but it gave a wonderfully tender consistency to the chicken), followed by lemon juice, so it's also very sour. I don't feel any compelling reason to buy it again.

I'm getting tired of take-out and I'm often too tired to cook (not to mention that my kitchen is too much of a mess to cook in), so the other night I decided to try one of those ready-made entrees available in the refrigerated meats section of the supermarket. I'd had a craving for Beef Stronganoff before and while I didn't have high expectation of this version, I figured it was as good a choice as any.

It was OK. The meat was tender and not very fatty; the sauce tasted like a sour gravy, and not at all like Stroganoff, but it was perfectly edible. I served it over spaghetti and it was OK with the pasta. I don't think I'll buy this again, but I may try one of the other entrees.

Last night we had fondue for dinner, from a box. It was Le Superbe Fondue, imported from Switzerland, which we got at Trader Joe's. It was quite good, a little bit less alcoholic tasting than the ones from the red boxes we usually get at tthe supermarket, which is good. Of course, home-made fondue is often better, and it is really easy to make, but last night I wanted something that took no time at all. And that would save us having to wash the food processor (after grating all those cheeses). Anyway, we liked it.

Yesterday we went shopping to Trader Joe's. As usual, most of what we bought were impulse buys including a pint of Sharon's Sorbet, coconut flavor that I got a craving for. That's the problem with being pregnant, you see something and you want it.

I've never had coconut sorbet before but I liked it. Unlike other sorbets, it's quite creamy, which makes sense given that its main ingredients are coconut milk and coconut cream. Still, it's lighter than regular ice cream which I liked. It had a nice coconut flavor, though I would have preferred more coconut and less sweetness. It wasn't as refreshing as I wish it was. But it was good.

Growing up, I was never too fond of orange marmalade. As the cheapest of all the fruit preserves, it was ubiquitously served by all the old aunts and their friends with whom I had the misfortune of having tea at some point or another. I am sure they were great ladies on limited budgets trying to save a few pennies, but as a child I wasn't that understanding. At home, I insisted on strawberry jam, or if we were lucky and found it available at the store, on rapsberry jam. Even as a kid, I felt sophisticated eating toast with butter and those exotic berries.

I still prefer berry jams, which in the US are as obiquitous as orange marmalade was in Argentina. All jams & jellies here seem to be priced identically, regardless of flavor, so there isn't an incentive to buy any but the one you like.

I hadn't given a second thought to orange marmalade for at least twenty years, until I ran into this product at the 99-cents store. I could recognize the brands, they were imported from Argentina. I was intrigued, it had been sooo long since I had tasted it and it could indeed bring memories back of home and childhood. And yet, I hadn't liked it as a child so why should I like it now? So I didn't get any.

I kept thinking about it, though, so when we visited the 99-cents store again last weekend I decided to get a jar of orange marmalade along with one of apple jam, also a product of Argentina. Today I tried it and was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Perhaps its sweet and sour taste is more pleasing to adults, or perhaps it's just nostalgia speaking, but I thought it was great on a slice of toast, and even better in a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. At 99 cents it cannot be beat.

The apple jam is quite good also, it tastes like a sweeter, denser apple sauce. This is something I might have had once as a kid, so it didn't any evoque any particular feelings, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I hadn't been to the farmer's market in quite a while. Generally, Mike and Mika go there on Saturday mornings letting me sleep late. But I was awake today so I tagged along. I discovered that there was a new stand I hadn't seen before, staffed by two African-American older ladies and selling seafood gumbo, cobblers, cheesecake, pecan pie and the like. I wanted to try something, of course, and I settled on the bread pudding. I LOVE bread pudding but as Mike doesn't, I seldom feel inclined to make it.

Unfortunately, this bread pudding wasn't very good. It was too dry and while it came with a sauce, there wasn't enough of it and it hadn't permeated the pudding enough. As a result, the pudding didn't have much flavor. It was a large portion and it satisfied my hunger but not my desire for good bread pudding. I guess I'll have to make my own after all - maybe a savory one. Anyone has a great recipe?

We got these bars (peanut butter chocolate chip) at Trader Joe's for Mika's school lunches. Unfortunately they are too tough for her to bite into. I don't particularly like the flavor either. They taste too much of plain cereal and they are too sweet. I wouldn't buy them again.

Safeway refrigerated cakes are often very good, the best cakes I can get in my little city (but if you know of a good source for cakes & desserts in San Leandro, please let me know). Unfortunatelly, their non-refrigerated cakes are not as successful.

Yesterday we were going to Charlotte's for dinner and, as usual, I figured I'd take dessert. The dessert had to stay in the car for several hours so I didn't want something that would have to be refrigerated, thus I decided to get the non-refrigerated coconut cake. It was OK but not great. The cake itself was a little bit dry and the frosting too-sweet and artificial tasting. I wouldn't get it again.

I got one of the gold pinapples at Safeway. I don't know if they had other kinds, I just picked up what I saw. It's a special variety (genetically modified, no doubt) twice as sweet as regular pineapple. It's delicious, without a doubt, but perhaps too sweet. Even Mike, who doesn't always like pineapple because he finds it too sour, thought it wasn't sour enough. After all, the combination of sweet and sour is what makes pineapple so great.

Still, this was really, really good. We'll see how it works out on the pizza tonight.

We just made another trip to Trader Joe's so I figure I'll write a few words about new products we'd bought. I'll keep adding more items to this posting as we try them.

-Corinthians Chocolate Cream Wafers. These are very long cylinders filled with dark chocolate cream. They are very brittle and most of them seemed to have broken at least in two even before we open the can. They are good and addictive but not as good as others I've had. I probably shouldn't buy them again.

-Think Thin Sugar Free Sour Citrus Slices. These are little soft candies in sour flavors. Mike bought then and didn't like them as they weren't very sweet, though he says they are growing on him.

-Piccolo Limone Italiano. This pre-squeezed lemon juice comes in a little plastic bottle in the shape of a lemon. Unlike other commercial lemon juice, it's neither lemon juice from concentrate, or pure-lemon juice. Instead it's a mixture of water, lemon juice, citric acid and lemon oil. It does need to be refrigerated after opening it. It was quite good, it had a distinctive lemon-oil flavor that I actually found quite pleasant on top of last nights milanesas. Of course, fresh lemon is better - but if you don't have your own lemon tree it can be quite expensive.

-Kettle Corn. Though obviously not as freshly made as the kettle corn from the farmers market, it tasted quite fresh. It was very good, but much sweeter than the farmer's market stuff. That's not bad in itself, though a concern if you're watching your sugar intake.

-Orange Chicken. This is a frozen product that has to be heated by baking or sauteeing (in 1/2 cup vegetable oil!). I was VERY dissapointed. The chicken was pretty tasteless without the sauce, and the sauce was too runny and not very good. It didn't really taste much like orange and not at all like the sauces you get at Chinese restaurants. Given how much time it takes to make this dish, and how it's not microwabable, it's certainly not worth it. It probably wouldn't be worth it either if it was microwabable.

-Chicken Curry. This is a frozen entree under TJ's label. It was very disappointing, much worse than the other frozen Indian entrees that TJ sells under a different label. The "basmati rice" was long-grain and may have been basmati, but it was completely tasteless. The curry had very few pieces of chicken and the spicy sauce tasted mostly of cinnamon. It was edible but not enjoyable.

I'm ashamed to say it but I love Stouffers lasagna. The small ones are OK, but they can't compete with the large party-tray size. For some reason, maybe the long, slow baking, it tastes much better.

I don't even want to look at the list of ingredients as I'm sure I'd be apalled. But it tastes sooo good, it's such the perfect comfort food. Plus, if you bake a tray you'll have dinner/lunch for at least a couple of days.

Michaela and I have fallen in love with Trader Joe's frozen gnocchi. Both their Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, with a tomato sauce and mozarella cheese and their Gnocchi al Gorgonzola are great. We specially like the gorgonzola one, though it's terribly caloric. One 1lb. package has almost 1,000 calories and while it's supposed to be four servings, that would only be if you served them as a side dish. Mika and I had no problem devouring one whole package for dinner last night, and she was even hungry enough to have some more gnocchi from my mom's plate.

The gnocci alla sorrentina is much healthier, with 510 calories for the 1lb package. Of course it's not as yummy, but it's quite good nonetheless.

You can make them with less sauce for less calories and less mess.

They are made in Italy, without any artificial ingredients, though the gorgonzola gnocchi has margarine in addition to butter. You can heat them on the microwave or in a frying pan (7 minutes). In all, it's a delicious and quick meal.

I just tried the flan from costco. AFAIK it's a new item and was in the cakes section (next to a fruit cake and a cheesecake). It's delicious. It tastes just like great flan, but it's incredibly smooth and creamy. I actually missed the rough texture I get when I make flan, but my mom loved the smoothness. It's also very, very rich. Yummm.

Of course it has some ingredients I don't like (like corn syrup), and at $13 for the 3 lbs flan it's not exactly cheap. Plus it's very flat so I wouldn't serve it to guests. But lord, is it good!

They were very good. At 450 calories for the 12 containers in the package, a little bit too caloric for an everyday meal - but very, very tasty. All ingredients look good as well.

Today we got some Kheema Turkey Paratha (Indian flatbread filled with minced turkey) made by Shukkhi's Freshables and sold at the farmer's market. It's really good, not in the least spicy but very, very tasty. Much tastier than the keema nam usually served at Indian restaurants. It doesn't seem to have anything "bad" in it either, though it doesn't spicify which "spices" it uses.

The one down side could be the price, Mike didn't remember if he paid $4 or $6. It would be OK, though not cheap, at $4 but defnitely very expensive at $6.

I like Albertson's chicken salad. It's nothing out of the ordinary, but it's tasty and crunchy and just like chicken salad should be. It's also very convenient, not having to make it myself.

They're so good they are evil. Mike warned me against getting them. He knew I'd not be able to stop myself from eating them. He even took them off the cart (but then went and got himself some shortbread!). But I had to have them.

They are sooo good, so crunchy, they taste just like you expect them too.

Obviously, I won't be buying any more tubs.

Casa Sanchez guacamole is the best commercial guacamole I've tasted so far. It's available at Albertsons and Beverages & More for about $6-7 for a 12-oz tub. It's expensive, but it's fresh, it contains no preservatives, oils or fillers. The next best thing to home made.

I should have known better. I knew better. A brand of BBQ sauce (or anything else for that matter) that needs a celebrity to put their name behind them cannot be very good. And I already had an idea that that guy, Emeril, was a joke. For the first time I saw his show on the Food Network (in Oregon, at the Weasku Lodge, while Mika slept in my arms). He looked like a construction worker... no, he talked like a construction worker. He was making steak tartare (which turns out to be an uncooked ground beef patty) and he was going through the steps as if instructing us how to change a faucet. Is that the deal with him? How unlikely he seems to be a top chef? Is he a top chef, anyway, or a joke to everyone but himself - or is he in in the joke as well?

But I digress, I should have known better but I bought the damn BBQ sauce (Emeril's Sweet Original BAM B-Q). It was on sale at Safeway - Jack Daniels wasn't. I needed two bottles. It tasted exactly like Heinz. Even Mike thought that.

If the guy is not a joke, how sad for him! I mean, to give up your whole professional credibility in order to make a few bucks! How greedy or desperate do you have to be to put your name on such a low quality product?

Now for the review: If you like Heinz BBQ sauce, you'll like this, if not, or you've never tasted Heinz, avoid it.