Last night I got take out from Wonderful Cafe, the Hong Kong restaurant that has opened in the Le Soleil space. I loved Le Soleil for many years, before it became tired and I stopped going, so I wasn’t necessarily sad to see it go – but I wish a better restaurant had taken its place.
I didn’t go to pick up the food, so I can’t tell you about the atmosphere and service, but photos I’ve seen online make it seem closer to a cafeteria in style than to the “Asian bistro” look of the 00s and 10s which I so enjoyed. The walls are half painted in a hospital-teal color which I’m guessing is aiming to exude “cleanliness,” I can’t imagine what else.
I ordered the Beef Brisket Clay Pot Vermicelli ($18), which looked nothing like its picture online, and actually consisted of a few cubes of fatty meat, rice and bok choy. There was no vermicelli. The beef cubes were mostly fat, there was very little meat to speak of. The rice was tasty enough in the areas that had been caramelized, but it was mostly insipid. If I hadn’t had a dog to whom I could feed the fat, it would have been a complete miss of a meal. Obviously I wouldn’t order it again.
Mike had the sweet and sour grilled pork ($19.5). It was “just OK.” He found it to be bordering on bland, without the intensity of flavor and just “tastiness” that he was looking for. He wouldn’t order it again.
The people at the restaurants were very nice, they even gave Mike some candied walnuts while he waited for the food. Those were quite good. For this reason, I may give them a try in the future, once they have found their stride and hopefully corrected criticism.
Wonderful Cafe 1515 E 14th St San Leandro, CA 510-756-6103
Meatloaf is a strange meal. It’s basically a giant meatball, basted with a tomato/ketchup or barbeque sauce, and baked. As far as I know it’s an American invention, and it evoques the cuisine of the poor. Now that beef has become so extraordinarily expensive, it might make a comeback, who knows?
Meatloaf is not part of my culinary repertoire, though I’ve made it a few times here and there.
For some reason, however, once in a while I get a hankering for meatloaf. I don’t quite know why, as this is not something I grew up with, but I do love sweet-savory flavors, and meatloaf, with its sweetened sauce, can often go there.
Trader Joe’s traditional meatloaf is sold in the refrigerated section, but it lasts quite a while in the fridge (unopened). The packages have 1lb of meat loaf, so they probably serve 2 people for a meal, more if they are children (though my children tell me meatloaf is the grossest food ever, according to kids in cartoons). I ate it over 3 meals on my own.
I was quite pleased with this version. It wasn’t particularly sweet, but it had a nice, meaty flavor, and the tomato sauce complimented it. The texture was on point, and it was easy enough to slice and microwave. I’d buy it again for when I get a meatloaf hankering.
Good dark chocolate taste, but they are truly mini in size.
Well, when Trader Joe’s says mini, I guess they really mean “mini”. The photo shows two of these Mini Chocolate Mousse Desserts ($5 for 6) on a tea saucer. They are tiny. But if you are counting calories or carbs, this is a great way to treat yourself. The chocolate mousse has a strong chocolate flavor, a nice variety of textures, and is not very sweet. In all, it’s an elevated version of the Belgian chocolate pudding they used to sell, denser and softer (it’s a mousse, not a pudding) but with a similar flavor profile. I liked them very much.
The package comes with a plastic mold surrounding six mini-mousses. You can presumably remove each mousse while frozen to defrost in the fridge (for at least 2 hours), but I ended up defrosting the whole thing, as it was easier. Each mini-mousse is surrounded by a plastic film. Unfortunately, they didn’t keep their shape when removed while they were thawed. It might work better if you remove it when it’s frozen, if you want to preserve its look.
In all, while they are expensive (thank Trump for his tariffs), they are a high quality treat. They are made in Belgium and contain “cream, sugar, unsweetened chocolate, flour, butter, cocoa powder and cocoa butter” in addition to milk products and emulsifiers. I’d buy them again, as they fit my need for small sweets, but next time I’ll defrost them one at the time.
I’ve been trying to up my game as far as jarred pasta sauce goes, and try some of the more “gourmet” sauces, which are made with actual tomatoes, rather than tomato paste, and more natural ingredients. So far, I haven’t really been impressed with any of these sauces, though perhaps I will need to do my own blind test to see which ones I actually prefer.
I bought Mezzetta roasted garlic sauce when it was on sale, but it’s usually around $9 at my local Safeway. The tomato flavor is pretty bright, and I did like the relative chunkyness. The roasted garlic flavor was a bit off putting, but that’s my fault for ordering roasted garlic sauce when I’m not the hugest fan of roasted garlic. Mostly, though, I felt it tasted very generic. I’m not sure I’d be able to tell it apart from a cheaper brand.
I tried it both on gnocchi and by itself with bread, and I definitely preferred it on its own. I may try another flavor to give it a real chance.
When I saw these Mushrooms & Truffle Pastificio G Di Martino Stuffed Gnocchi at the World Market (~$4), I got pretty excited. I love gnocchi, I love ravioli, and the idea of stuffed gnocchi seemed logical. They had them in a variety of flavors, and I decided on Mushrooms & Truffle as everyone in my household loves mushroom ravioli.
It wasn’t until I came home that I noticed the Prop 65 warning in the package: the gnocchi have lead in them! There is no safe level of lead exposure, and the consumption of even a standard portion of lead contaminated mushrooms can have negative health effects. Lead is particularly problematic for children, who absorb a far greater proportion of it than adults. Before this purchase, I had not realized how mushrooms – in particular dried wild mushrooms – often contain lead as I hadn’t seen the Prop 65 warning before. I probably wouldn’t have bought the package if I had noticed it, but I decided to make them for myself anyway.
I shouldn’t have bothered. The gnocchi were a complete failure. The gnocchi themselves were simply not tasty. Even though I cooked them in salted water, they hadn’t really absorbed it and were in need of it and probably some type of spicing. The texture was very dry and even powdery, perhaps because they were made with dried potato flakes rather than fresh potatoes. The filling suffered from the same issue, it was very dry and had a strange consistency. Its main ingredient is ricotta cheese, and it really didn’t taste much of mushroom.
I tried them both by themselves and with tomato sauce and grated cheese. The sauce and cheese helped with the flavor, but they couldn’t really do anything about the very unpleasant texture. And for that reason, I wouldn’t bother trying the other flavors.
I got these mini-croissants ($4 for 12) at Amazon to east with the jams from my Bonne Maman Advent Calendar, and so far, so good. According to the reviews and the packaging the croissants are usually sold fresh, but mine came frozen. That was not a problem, 15 to 20 seconds in the microwave and they were fluffy and chewy again. This surprised me, and we’ll see whether the quality remains as the days go by (I’m keeping them in the freezer), but a day after, they still taste fresh. They have a very chewy interior, wonderful when warm, and a strong butter flavor – I didn’t bother adding butter to them as they really didn’t need it.
The croissants are pretty small, about the size of the blade of a butter knife, but they’re perfect for those of us watching our carbs. The third ingredient, after flour and water, is actual butter, so you’re eating the real thing here.
I got Dolcetto Tuscan Crisps at World Market ($5), and seldom I’ve been more disappointed on a World Market find. Granted, it’s my fault for not having closely examined the ingredients before I bought them. If I had, I’d noticed that far from having an “Italian cheese blend,” they had practically no cheese at all. Indeed, “natural cheese flavor” is listed as an ingredient after salt, and “cheese” is the next to last ingredient.
The result is that they don’t taste like cheese. They are mildly salty, but they don’t really taste like anything. They might be a good conduit for actual cheese – I haven’t tried them with any yet – but on their own, they are just insipid.
I’ve been late to the Dubai chocolate craze. Indeed, my first encounter with Dubai chocolates didn’t come until last week, when my husband gave me one of the Nutty Fruitty Dubai chocolate bars he had bought at Costco ($17 at Costco).
The bag came with 15 individually packaged square chocolates, approximately 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″). The chocolates basically consist of pistachio butter in a milk chocolate coating. They are pretty good, quite tasty but I found them too sweet. As I’ve found pretty much every confectionary I’ve tasted in the last few weeks “too sweet,” I have to conclude that’s a me problem.
My husband liked them as well, but he was a little annoyed at the fact that they are not really chocolate, the chocolate covering is there as a wrapper, rather than to contribute much to the flavor. I’m not sure if that’s true with other Dubai chocolates, I’ll probably give another one a try at some point.
I love international snack boxes, but they are usually a bit too expensive for my pocketbook. Alas, I found this box of Universal Yums Germany snacks at World Market on clearance for $9, or 55% off its regular price, as they were near expiration, and decided to give them a go. Most of the snacks expired in December, so the box wasn’t really appropriate as a gift, but there is nothing wrong with gifting yourself.
The box comes with a little booklet describing the snacks, that includes some trivia about German food and even a recipe. There is also a sheet for rating your snacks.
The first snack I tried was this package of Waffelz cheesecake flavored wafers ($3.10 at Universal Yums). This seems to be a relatively new brand of wafers of an old German baking company, and I was somewhat surprised the whole packaging was in English – which suggests it’s manufactured for export. The wafers were just OK. They weren’t as crispy as we prefer – whether this was because they were near expiration or their style, it’s hard to stay – but the main issue was the flavor. It basically tasted like a sour version of a regular vanilla wafer. It didn’t taste of cheesecake, however. I wouldn’t buy them.
Second, I tried the Lorenz Pomsticks, in sour cream (geschmack) flavor. These are very crispy, thin and short potato sticks seasoned with onion powder, parsley and yeast extract, as well as buttermilk powder and sour cream. They don’t have the very strong sour flavor of American sour cream and onion chips; rather, it’s more subtle. They are also less salty than their American equivalent. They are just as addictive, however, and I had eaten half the 2.5 oz package before I realized what I was doing. All in all, I preferred it to American chips, both because of just how crispy they were and how mild the flavor was.
While the chips are made in Germany, this particular bag seems to have been imported to either the Philippines, Malaysia or Singapore before making its way to the US. They were sold out at Universal Yum (previously $3.70), but they are available from other German food stores in the US.
The third and fourth treat I tried was this yum bag which came with five Kuhbonbon salted caramel candies (I ate one before the photo) and four or five unbranded candies. I felt that Universal Yums was rather deceitful about counting this bag of small candies as two treats, particularly as even put together they don’t amount to a full size bag of candy! This con would make me reluctant to buy a box at full price.
Fortunately, both candies were pretty good. The Kuhbonbon candies had a very strong caramel flavor, which was almost too intense. They were a bit crumbly, perhaps because they weren’t very fresh. The unbranded little candies – which came in green apple, grapefruit and passion fruit flavors – provided intense bursts of delicious flavor. Sure, they had only a passing relationship with the flavor of the actual fruits, but they were delicious anyway. Unfortunately, they are very small.
The fifth treat were Halloren O’s fudge in “Brownie” flavor ($5.50 at Universal Yums). The package came with a dozen bite size bombons with a soft center and a chocolate cover.
I was very disappointed in these brownies. They had no chocolate flavor whatsoever and instead they were just super sweet. It was also a weird sweetness, probably because, in addition to sugar, they are sweetened with “wheat glucose syrup,” which I’m going to guess is even sweeter than sugar. I struggled to finish one, and I’m going to leave the rest for low-sugar episodes, where flavor doesn’t matter. Update: they worked exceptionally well for that.
The sixth treat was a nice-sized bar of Böhme Pfefferminz Creme-Schokolade ($3.60 at Universal yums). This was one of two treats that actually had German-language packaging. This is a chocolate bar with a creamy mint filling. I’m not a huge fan of mint chocolates, and I particularly disliked this one (you guessed it, too sweet), but my husband liked it very much.
The last treat was a full size bar of Porta amarena kirsche ($5.50 at Universal Yums), chocolate with cherry flavored filling. None of us in the house are fans of cherries, so I think it will take a while before anyone tries it.
Guardian investigation finds “dangerous labour conditions, antibiotic overuse and ecological harm” in production of salmon in Chile
A new article in The Guardian exposes just how problematic salmon raised in Chile is. The salmon industry regularly violates safety regulations causing a high number of injuries and deaths among salmon farm workers. “Those who eat Chilean salmon cannot imagine how much human blood it carries with it,” quotes The Guardian.
Moreover, the fish are pumped with antibiotics, a recognition that they are kept in filthy, unhealthy conditions. The antibiotics not only help create antibiotic resistant bacteria, but they and other chemicals used by the industry, break havoc with the environment.
Chile is the largest exporter of salmon to the US – over 50% of the salmon Americans consume comes from Chile. While supermarkets don’t label Chilean salmon as such, you can safely assume that most of the farmed salmon (labeled as Atlantic salmon, the name of the species, not the locale) comes from Chile – so your best bet is to avoid all farmed salmon unless you know for a fact it has a different origin. Wild salmon is somewhat more expensive, but it’s also higher quality.
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