Trader Joe’s frozen entrees vary in quality, but I don’t think any are as bad as its Chicken Adobo ($4.30). I’ve rarely had such a bad frozen meal.
It’s hard to know what to say about it beyond the fact that it doesn’t taste at all like chicken adobo. The chicken itself had no flavor, and I think it was probably cooked without seasonings by itself. The sauce was watery, and just not pleasant. The portion looked small, but it was so bad I couldn’t even finish it. In all, just a bad dish.
Author: marga (Page 2 of 116)
A nice brunch at this Berkeley institution
For her birthday, my daughter wanted to go out for brunch. This seemed like a lovely idea except for the fact that her birthday fell mid-week, she didn’t want to wake up early enough for breakfast, and she didn’t want to go to a coffeeshop/chain restaurant sort of place. That didn’t leave too many options, so I was happy when a google search reminded me of La Note, a quaint French restaurant in Berkeley. Now almost four decades old, La Note has reinvented itself into a brunch place, serving breakfast and lunch from early in the morning to 2 PM everyday. Exactly what we needed.
I’d been to La Note several times over the decades, both for breakfast and dinner, though apparently the only review I wrote of the place was from my first visit back in 2006. The restaurant has a smallish but very cute and crowded dining room, and a busy and funky decore. It’s more low key than country French, but I like the vibe well enough – my daughter wanted something cuter. We got very lucky in that we were able to snatch a window table – they are elevated and you get to enjoy more light. During weekends, you can stare at the people in line to get in. There is also a patio, though it apparently doesn’t open until 11 AM. This was a rainy, somewhat cool day, so indoor dining was best anyway.
We had a reservation and were seated promptly. We got lemon water and were given adequate time to peruse the menu. We started by sharing a kouign amann ($5), and incredible Breton pastry. This was only the second time I’d had one, and we were blown away at how delicious it was. Unfortunately, they were sold out so we couldn’t get any more. It was so good that I think if we go back, we’ll just order pastries.
For breakfast proper, I had the Pain Perdu au Chocolat ($20), French toast filled with chocolate hazelnut spread (aka Nutella). It was served with butter and a little jar of lavender honey. It was just OK. The bread was just too dry. It probably needed more egg. The portion was very large, and half of it would have been plenty for breakfast. I don’t think I would order it again – or even make it, for that matter.
My daughter had the Brioche Pain Perdu ($20), a French toast made with cinnamon brioche dipped in orange blossom water and accompanied with the same lavender honey and butter. She really liked the bread but wasn’t crazy about the lemon water flavor. At least, this toast wasn’t as dry as the other one. She did decide that she likes cinnamon bread French toast, but would probably order something else next time.
My husband had the Cote Est ($22), a dish of scrambled eggs, choice of pancake and either home fries or bacon. He liked the eggs, they were light and fluffy and cooked perfectly. He was also very fond of the lemon gingerbread pancake he selected. It was served with three slices of poached pear and a little blueberry compote and the whole combination worked very well. It was probably the highlight of his meal. He chose the homefries (not pictured), and these were remarkably tasty. The herbed cubed potatoes might have been baked rather than fried, and they had an amazing consistency, crispy on the outside and melt-in-your mouth inside. They were very nicely seasoned and the portion was quite generous.
We also shared a side of bacon ($6 for 3 slices). It was very tasty, definitely high quality bacon, but it was a little too crispy for our taste.
Both my daughter and I had the mocha ($8.25) but we differed in our assessment. I thought it was pretty good, though I found it a little strong for my taste – though that dissipated once I mixed in the whipped cream. It’s served in a handle-less bowl, and I liked the primitive feel of drinking it. My daughter disagreed completely – she pointed out that even ancient pottery comes with handles and disliked having to use two hands to drink it. She also felt the mocha tasted more of hot chocolate than of coffee. She drank it, but wouldn’t order it again. I might.
Service was friendly and competent – but I was unhappy that a surprise 3% surcharge was added to the bill. Upon enquiring, we learned that it was a tip for the kitchen, as the waitress does not tip out. I guess this means you can leave the waiter 3% less than you planed to, though most people, like us, won’t. Thinking back, it leaves a little of a bitter experience. Just increase the price of each item by 50cents or a dollar and don’t try to deceive customers! I should note, however, that prices have gone up $1.50 to $2 per item (drinks included) vis a vis the menu posted on their website.
In all we had a lovely breakfast. If we returned, however, my daughter and I would probably just order a basket of pastries and eat bacon and potatoes off my husband’s plate.
La Note
2377 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA
(510) 843-1525
M-F 8 AM - 2 PM
Sa-Su 8 AM - 3 PM
Why you shouldn’t trust reviews from Google Maps
Yesterday, we found ourselves near UC Merced during lunch and thus used Google Maps to look for a place to eat that wouldn’t take us too far out of our way as we made our way back home. I will say that I’ve used this method before, with mixed results. This time, it was a failure.
Scott Diner gets 4.8 stars on Google Maps and pretty much all of the reviews were great. Most mentioned the service and made general comments about the food, but everyone said they enjoyed it. The reviews sounded honest and maybe they were, but our lunch at Scott Diner was one of the most disappointing meals I’ve had in a long time – which is saying quite a bit as we’ve had several less than stellar restaurant experiences lately. I have to guess that inflation is pushing restaurants to using lower quality ingredients and maybe even hire less experienced cooks.
Scott Diner is your basic American diner/coffeeshop. The building is a bit run down and it looks like it’s been there for ages and ages. It has booths and tables, it’s pretty dark inside, and it’d be the type of place where you can go with younger children and they wouldn’t get in anyone’s way. Indeed, my husband pointed out there was a screaming child at one point, but as my super power is being able to completely ignore kids, I hadn’t noticed.
The diner is decorated with military memorabilia, though it’s not particularly intrusive. One review specified that they don’t offer a military discount.
The menu is pretty basic, breakfast items (apparently served all day, but the menu didn’t specify), salads, sandwiches and burgers, and a list of specials you need to go to the front and have good eyesight to see (but I’m providing you with a photo so you don’t have to). Prices are reasonable for this day and age – or would be, if the food was up to par.
I had the tri-tip sandwich ($17), which comes with a choice of fries, garlic fries, crinkle fries, sweet potato fries or onion rings – I chose the latter. The beef in the sandwich might have technically been tri-tip – it was very thinly cut, so it’s hard to tell – but the sandwich would be better described as a French dip. The beef felt and tasted like roast beef and it came accompanied by the little bowl of absolutely tasteless broth. It’s quite amazing how they managed to have a broth with no flavor at all. They do have a kitchen, and the sandwich was warm, but I can’t imagine they make the “tri-tip” in house.
The onion rings were fine, they were made in oil that was in the cusp of needing to be changed and cooked a minute too much, but they were sweet and tasty. They were screaming for some ranch sauce, but that’s on me because I forgot to ask the rushed waiter (who doubled as the cashier and host) for some.
Mike had the double western bacon cheeseburger ($17), and the massive sandwich looked impressive – as long as you didn’t look too closely. The patties had a very strange, smooth consistency and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were frozen and precooked and then just heated up in the kitchen. Not only did they look uniformly gray, but the consistency was very weird, it had no grit but some unexpected chew. Flavor wise, it wasn’t too bad, barely better than a McDonald’s burger.
Mike opted for the garlic fries, and these weren’t bad. They were a tad overcooked as well but they had a pleasant flavor.
Service was a bit rushed – no fault of the waiters, who had too much to do -, but friendly.
Scott Diner
2015 E Childs Ave
Merced, CA
(209) 658-1819
M-Su 7 am - 7 pm
But only available in cheese and pepperoni
I had a $10 Doordash credit that I could only use to pick up stuff at 7-11, and we figured we’d use it to try their pizza. I had first heard about it a few years ago, when a cousin was visiting from abroad and found 7-11 pizza an affordable and easy way to feed a picky child. Still, with frozen pizzas available at the supermarket, and lots of pizzerias around, I never had an actual reason to buy it at 7-11 – until now.
I failed to take a photo of the pizza before we ate it – and the photo of the slice is after microwaving it a day after -, but it looked like a normal pizza. It wasn’t bad. My daughter felt it tasted like frozen pizza, but I liked it better than most commercial brands. It has a good amount of garlic in it, which helps flavor it. I wouldn’t necessarily seek it out – but I can see having it again, either to use that $10 credit again or if we wanted something while on the road. The slices, once they cool down a bit, are pretty firm and not too messy.
One of the cool things about 7-11 pizza is that you can buy it cold and have them heat it up for you. This means that you can use EBT (food stamps) to buy it, despite the fact that EBT doesn’t work for hot foods. Given how many people on food stamps don’t have access to a kitchen – or might want to give their kids the “treat” of a “real” pizza, I love this option. I’m not sure whether you save tax if your order it that way too. As I ordered it through Doordash, the pizza was hot and taxed.
The 14′ cheese pizza was $8, so about the same price or cheaper than a frozen/refrigerated pizza at the supermarket.
The saga of getting a refund
I just had to call Safeway – again. Last week I ordered, among other items, grapes and lamb chops. I tried the grapes right away, and while they were very tasty, they were clearly on their way out – some already inedible. So I filed for a refund online.
A couple of days later, I opened the lamb to cook them – only to find that some of the chops were unquestionably rotten. They smell so bad, even the dog was offended. As I had already requested the refund for the grapes online, I had to call to get the refund for the lamb. That time, the call was answer quickly but the connection to the foreign customer service was quite choppy. Still, I thought they had approved the refund and that was that.
Six days later, I still hadn’t received it so I called back today. After wasting my time with the AI, I was put on hold while connecting to a customer representative. And god, they have the worst hold music I can imagine. I’m the exact opposite of a music connoisseur, but this made me think of 70’s psychedelic music. The main element was a loud drum that forced me to turn down the volume. It was so painful that, had it been a lesser amount, I’d probably would have hang out.
I do have to give to Safeway for their tricky way to avoid phone calls. I do wonder if bad connections and agents with thick accents are also used on purpose to disuade customers from calling.
OTOH, getting a refund online has gotten much easier – though now I’ve learned that I should wait to check on the status of any perishable before requesting a refund for any originally missing or spoiled items.
My daughter and I both love tomalito, that corn pudding that used to be served as a scoop with the fajitas at Chevy’s (and now at El Torito). I’ve made it over the years, but it takes a lot of time and it’s a bit of work. The recipe below is a hack that I found in the comments of a recipe in AllRecipes.
- 2 cups frozen corn, divided
- ½ cup cornmeal
- ½ cup water
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup masa harina
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 5 Tbsp butter
- 4 tsp milk
Place 1 cup of frozen corn, the cornmeal and the water in a rocket-like blender. Blend until pureed. Add the sugar, masa harina, baking powder, salt, butter and milk and blend until well combined. Add the remaining cup of corn and mix with a fork. Transfer the whole mixture into a microwave-safe container that can accommodate 3 cups. Cover and microwave for 6-7 minutes at 30% power. Microwave on high for 4 more minutes.
The bottle fooled me: this is just a generic apple juice
In a recent post, I raved about Amazon Grocery apple cider, which tastes very similar to the fresh apple juice from the farmer’s market. But Amazon has not had it available for a while now, so I went looking for alternatives. Safeway’s Signature Farms Apple Cider With Honey Crisp Apples came in a milk-bottle look alike, rather than in the clear plastic bottles apple juice regularly comes in, and seemed to not come from concentrate, so I thought I’d give it a try – despite the fact that it listed glycolipids as preservatives.
Well, it turns out that it tastes just like the typical commercial non-filtered apple juice. It’s not bad, I prefer it to filtered apple juice, but it does not have the deliciousness of fresh apple juice.
I’m a menu planner and comparison shopper. I do a lot of my grocery shopping online, but for the rest, I send my husband to the grocery store with a list. While some stores have the same prices online and in-store (or don’t have in-store prices at all, as is the case with Amazon groceries), some charge more if you order online. This is particularly true for those that use Instacart to deliver their groceries. And that is true for Costco.
I’ve decided to make this page to record the difference in prices between items as listed for same day delivery on the Costco website, and the prices at my local warehouse. This is for my own reference, but it might help others as well.
- Blueberry Cheesecake Croissants, $1.75 more
- Beef chuck roast, $1/lb more
- Pistachio nuts, $2.15 more
- Blackberries, 44cents more
- Kirkland sparking water, multipack, $2.50 more
- Diet Pepsi multipack, $3.33 more
- Frozen goat cheese & honey pizza, $2 more
- Frozen ham & cheese croissants, $1.75 more
- Frozen Crazy Cuizine Mandarin Orange Chicken, 66 oz $1.50 more
- Belgian waffles (on sale), $1 more
I love fresh apple cider. I mean, who doesn’t? Though nothing compares with the freshly-“squeezed” green apple juice I had in Syria a lifetime ago, fresh apple cider from the farmer’s market is darn good. It is also expensive. Now that the economy is on the brinks, it’s become a very occasional treat. I miss it, though. Supermarket apple juice or cider, even those that are 100% apple like Simple Apple, are just not the same (and are expensive as well). Enter Amazon.
I found Amazon apple cider when looking for unsweetened fresh grape juice, and I was attracted by the bottle – it looks just like the ones at the farmer’s market. The reviews were very positive, and it cost only $2.50 for the 1/2 gallon bottle. Plus, it’s only ingredient is apples – and it’s not made from concentrate. It might be a tad sweeter than the apple cider from the farmer’s market, but it tastes so much like it that wouldn’t be able to tell them apart on a blind taste.
The only negative thing is that I don’t know how farmers can possibly compete with prices like this.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the only natural juice that Amazon carries under its brand name. All the other ones are from concentrate.
Fresh and vibrant, it satisfies my cravings
I’m obsessed. It’s been a handful of days since I first discovered Amazon Kitchen Roasted Tomato Salsa, mild, and I have already devoured three 16-oz tubs. I almost fear it’s a medical condition driving me to it – maybe I lack vitamin C, but I have little desired for cooked tomato sauces and I haven’t been craving citruses. Just this salsa.
It reminds me a lot to the salsa that used to be available at Chevy’s. It has a crushed tomato texture (though it’s made with diced tomatoes) and it just exudes freshness. It has the right amount of spice, the right amount of onions and it’s just delicious. Fortunately, i’s also not bad for me – though the tortilla chips I’ve been eating it with, do. The whole tub has 150 calories but 90% of your daily limit for sodium. Let’s be honest, though, I always exceed that.
Before trying this salsa, I tried Amazon Kitchen Pico de Gallo Salsa, and I was not too happy with it. I tend to prefer pico de gallo to salsa because it usually tastes fresher, but this was not the case here. Even though it was a fresh, refrigerated salsa it evoked the shelf-stable jarred stuff. That one, I wouldn’t get away.
The great thing about Amazon fresh salsas is the price. They are currently $2.70 for the 16oz tub. That’s almost half the price of Safeway’s version.
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