What exactly is it about Pocky snacks that makes us love them so much? The cookies dipped in cream icings are not the most delicious thing in the world, they are silly to eat if you’re an adult, and they’re fairly expensive. I got these Peanut Butter Pocky on sale for $1.50 (off $2.50 regular price), and it’s just 1 1/4 oz worth of product. Yet, they are irresistible.
I wasn’t particularly fond of these peanut butter pockys, though. The sweet icing did not taste like peanut butter at all. I’m not sure what they tasted like, but it was somewhat off putting. Not enough to prevent me from eating them all, however – though at least not all at once. I wouldn’t get them again, but you know I’d eat them if I had them.
Carnitas, basic but good. there isn’t much flavor beyond that of the pork, if there is a marinade, I can’t really taste it. It also lacked parts that are crispy and overly roasted. But the fundamental flavor is nice, the carnitas are pretty lean and a bit dry, but they would work to mix with a sauce or dressing.
As you might have noticed, I’ve been both in a cooking strike and grocery review writing frenzy. I go through cooking strikes frequently, particularly after periods of intense cooking. Still, I’ve promised myself that as soon as we eat out everything in the fridge, I’m back to cooking.
Meanwhile, I got a couple of Boston Market frozen entrees at the supermarket because they were just $3 on sale. As it turned out, that’s really all they are worth, even nowadays. But I’d remembered Boston Market as some of the better frozen meals and I thought I’d give them a chance again.
I hadn’t had this “Market Marry Me Chicken Pasta” before and it was quite disappointing. It consists ofcavatappi in a tomato sauce with pieces of what I’d call a chicken product. The pasta is pasta, cooked al dente. The sauce lacks flavor, though it has a kick. The frozen spinach adds bitterness but nothing else. It was in all, even less appetizing than your run of the mill frozen pasta. It was much improved by adding my own shredded cheese and parmesan, but if I’m going to start modifying it I might as well cook the whole thing myself.
The biggest problem, though, was the chicken. I’ve never knowingly had canned chicken, but I’m guessing this is what it’s like. The texture was just all wrong, spongy but somewhat hard, like it had retained water. I wouldn’t say it was chewy per se, but each bite was unpleasant. The flavor wasn’t bad, but that texture is just horrible.
The lesson here is to not be lazy and boil some damn pasta myself.
Boston Market frozen meals are owned by Bellisio Foods which in turn is owned by Charoen Pokphand, a Thai private conglomerate.
Wilkin & Sons Tiptree Orange & Tangerine Marmalade (~£3 in UK , ~$9 in US) is, as you can expect, bittersweet – and so is my experience with it. I bought this little jar, a year ago, when I was staying with my mother after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. We grew up drinking afternoon tea, and I retook this habit with my mom. I needed something to put in my bread, so I bought this marmalade. A couple of months later, after she died, i brought it home where it has mostly stayed untouched – as I had other open jars here.
I opened it yesterday and found that the top was completely crystallized. I’ve stored it high in the refrigerator door, so that might be the issue. I just mixed it back.
This marmalade is absolutely delicious. It has a strong Seville orange flavor, with bright bitter and sweet notes. It’s sweeter than other orange marmalades, and maybe it’s the right jam for me to eat now, when I can finally let the sweetness of my memories with my mother overcome the bitterness of loss.
I am once again amazed at how the Brits are able to create such an amazing jam for such low price (in England). It’s not like other foodstuff in England is particularly cheap, so it’s not just a matter of exchange rates.
These adorable mini-cupcakes were available at Grocery Outlet for $2 a dozen (other flavors also available), and we figured they were worth a try. For the price, we can’t complain.
The cupcakes are very small (pictured here in front of a jar of pistachios for comparison), and while they could fit in a single bite, it’s probably more polite to eat them in two. The yellow cake is a bit crumbly, Grocery Outlet sells many near-expiration products so perhaps that’s because they weren’t too fresh. but tasty enough. It’s your typical yellow cake. The smores flavored topping had a hint of marshmallow flavor, but I also thought it tasted a bit like coffee. It was very sweet, too much so for my taste. They probably work best as a quick bite to get a sugar rush.
California Pizza Kitchen is both a pizzeria chain and a brand of premium frozen pizzas. They were famous back in the 90’s because of their unusual toppings, which has become far more common in the decades since. Their frozen offerings have changed over the decades, and lately they seem to specialize on thin crust pizzas. I prefer thick crust myself, but I decided to gave these a try last time they were on sale at Safeway ($5 each from $10 regular price – $8 at cheaper stores).
I was actually quite surprised with how much I liked the pizzas. They don’t tste like frozen pizzas at all. While the “crispy thin” crust was, indeed, crispy if cooked for the full time, it had a nice, chewy texture if lightly undercooked. It held the toppings well, without much spillage, and because it was so thin, it didn’t compete with the toppings. And the toppings were very good.
Each pizza realistically serves 2 people when accompanied by a salad (or if they aren’t too hungry).
Unfortunately, California Pizza Kitchen is manufactured by Nestlé – a company that I try to avoid whenever possible because it’s evil. Doubly unfortunately, I often forget what items are made by Nestlé and buy them anyway – this was the case here.
The Sicilian Recipe pizza has Italian sausage, spicy ham, Genoa salami, sweet basil, Mozzarella and Fontina cheeses and a spicy marinara sauce. It definitely had a kick – enough that it woke me up but didn’t turn me away from eating it. I can handle a little bit of spice, but I’m someone who orders her food “mild” at a restaurant.
The toppings are well balanced, complementing each other without interfering. It’s clear someone worked to make sure they all worked together in the right proportions. The sauce had a slight sweetness to it that worked very well to counter the spiciness – again, thought went into this. What the toppings lacked, however, was an element of crunch. This might be provided by the crispy crust – but I purposely undercooked it. I would have liked some added onions or peppers.
I liked the Margherita pizza even better. It has Roma tomatoes, Mozzarella and Fontina cheeses, olive oil and basil, and comes with an Italian herb sauce. The toppings were tasty and extremely well balanced. The sauce succeeded in not being too sweet, being subtle and not competing with the tomatoes while still providing some needed acidity. The tomatoes were bright and fresh tasting and the basil pesto was very tasty and used sparingly, which made it a welcome surprise when you took a bite with it. In all, I enjoyed this pizza very much.
I call this a “review” but is it really? What can I say about Barilla campanelle pasta that would be in the least original?
Barilla is an Italian mass market brand of pasta which over the last few decades has become the largest producer of pasta in the world. It produces a cheap, consistent and satisfactory product in a variety of markets. Most products for the American market are made right here.
They offer a variety of lines but the “classic” is their standard one. The pasta is pretty neutral and does a good enough job of attaching to the sauce.
My daughter prefers to eat her pasta with butter (or butter substitute) and shredded cheese, and this shape worked well enough with that. Given the hollowness of the bell/flute shape, it probably will work even better with an actual sauce, but I haven’t tried it with that yet. I did like the unusual shape of the pasta, so it gets points for originality.
In general, I find that DeCecco pasta is superior, though more expensive – Barilla can sell for as little as $1/lb.
I’ve boycotted Barilla in the past for their anti-gay stances, and followed their support for genocidal Zionism by buying a brand from a well known genocide-supporter, I think I’ll go back to boycotting it again. Given the mid quality of these pasta, it’s one of those boycotts that are really easy to do.
I love strawberry jam. It reminds me of my granny. I’m not sure why, perhaps it was her favorite, but when I eat this jam, my grandmother comes to mind. And that is precious, as my memories of her have receded deep into my mind in the last half a century.
I like it because the flavor is bold and fresh, happy and bright – and the more a strawberry jam approaches these characteristics, the more I like it.
Surprisingly, my favorite strawberry jam of all times is Smucker’s Low Sugar Strawberry preserves, precisely because it’s all the things I mentioned above. It has the added sugar of these strawberry preserves but a bolder, stronger strawberry flavor. Perhaps they pick riper strawberries to make it, or the sugar simply detracts. The no sugar added type has artificial sweeteners, so I’ve stayed away from that.
As much as I love my low sugar strawberry preserves, they didn’t have them in stock last time I needed some, so I got the regular preserves instead. They are a good second choice. As I mentioned, the flavor is not as intense, bright and fresh as the low sugar preserves, but it’s definitely brighter and shinier than most other strawberry preserves. I’d buy them again if I can’t find the low sugar ones.
These Smoked Beef Brisket Ravioli are filled with smoked beef brisket in a very tasty BBQ sauce. They are quite similar to the pulled pork ravioli I reviewed previously, but the flavor is milder and therefore better suited to the medium. I served them with butter & sage (I melted some butter in a skillet, added sage leaves and then added the boiled ravioli) and that worked well. I don’t think the ravioli would work with a tomato or cheese based sauce, though perhaps they would go with a cream (maybe and mustard?) one. Plain butter works as well.
The 8 oz package has 1 1/2 portions, which makes it a very awkward size, unless you’re feeding yourself and a child. These ravioli are 2-bite sized, but if feeding a young child you could pre-cut them for them or serve them as finger food, though the filling is prone to spilling out.
I probably will buy these again when they go on sale for $5 (normally $8 at Safeway).
My husband does not like mineral water. He always complains about the mineral flavors and believed, until now, that he preferred as pure and clean water as possible. Come Acqua Panna.
Acqua Panna is mineral water. It comes all the way from springs in Tuscany. But I read that it was as pure and neutral tasting as water can possibly be. After buying a bottle on sale for $3(!) we can say they are right. This water somehow manages to taste like absolutely nothing.
It’s quite disconcerting, really, how water can be so completely insipid. And insipid is exactly what I meant. Tasting it, I was brought back to 3rd grade, when we studied the properties of water: colorless, insipid and odorless (it sounds better in Spanish, inodora, incolora e insípida).
I really don’t think I’ve ever truly knew what insipid meant until I drank this water, however. Not a trace of a single mineral, a single sort, a single chemical. Not a trace of anything. It’s actually quite remarkable. And quite unsatisfactory. No one in the family liked the water, even my husband had to admit that he likes flavor in his water after all. Indeed, what he likes is tap water – our tap water – which might have hints of chlorine and fluorine, if nothing else.
Besides sucking, Acqua Panna is owned by Nestlé, one of the most evil corporations in the world.
I asked my husband to bring a weird snack next time he went to Grocery Outlet and he certainly delivered. Trenzy Gahm Milk Classic Rice Snacks ($1) are flatish rectangular rice puffs that come in milk and cheese flavor. The cheese ones, which we got, seem to have the flavor added to the milk one, which results in a sweetish-salty-cheesy one which is definitely weird, but not unpleasant. It’s hard to describe, but it’s exactly the sort of flavor you’d expect coming from Korea or Japan.
The snacks come individually wrapped in a bag of six. I wouldn’t get them again, but I’m glad I tried them. I think it was about $1 for the package, but I need to check.
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