All Entries Tagged With: "Food Review"
New Jules+Kent and Undercurrents Products from Mad About Food
We have more samples delivered to our home.
This time it came from Mad About Food. We heard of them before. They are the gourmet food gift basket company.
Over the long weekend, Suanne and I had a little project to put into practice a couple of practical tips of taking food pictures. We learned this from Sea Salt With Food whose site traffic stands head and shoulders above every Vancouver blogs we know from the strength of her pictures. [So, Angie, how are these shots?]
The above is Vegetarian Antipasto on Savory Crackers. We topped it with Goat Cheese. Yummy.
This is always a Canadian entertaining appetizer stapple. It had a savoury blend of vegetables and spices prepared in small batches. You can also add to pasta sauce or even use it as a sandwich spread, if you want.
We also had Tomato Chutney, similarly topped with Goat Cheese. The chutney has a pleasant, bright flavour.
It is versatile and is really intended to enhance pork, chicken and fish. You can also use this to cover the top of a wheel of brie and bake. That I got to try someday. How about blending this with cream cheese for an appealing appetizer?
Jules+Kent is the latest product line launched by Mad About Food. It is a range of specialty sauces that are locally-made.
Mad About Food also launched another range of “honey” products at the same time.
The Nutty Hazel Honey is great. I had never tried nuts with honey before. It is organic BC hazelnuts combined with pure, unpasteurized Canadian honey. It is part of the new line of products called Undercurrents.
All these and more came in a nice practical gift basket like this. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Frito Lay’s Flavoured Potato Chips
We did not think that they were serious.
Frito Lay wrote to us some time ago alerting us that they had recently reduced the level of sodium in its entire lineup of Lay’s flavoured potato chips by at least 25% and up to 50% in some flavours. They asked chowtimes if we would be agreeable to feature this in our blog. We replied saying that we do not mind doing so as long as it benefits our readers. We asked them for coupons that we can give away.
Well, they said did not have coupons but said they can ship us samples instead.
Even though they said shipped us some but I did not think that they would ship an entire box.
We always have a bag (or two) at home … but we never had so much before. Oh yeah … Nanzaro was estatic over all the chips.
Frito Lay shipped us six different types of flavours. What’s your favourite? I like the Bar-B-Q the best but hate the Ketchup. The Sour Cream and Onions are not bad.
Oh … about the sodium level of Lay’s potato chips … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Dr. Oetker Jam Express
It’s strawberry season. Ben brought home a 4lb pack one day after work as he found a good deal at the groceries store, $4.98 for 4 lbs. Ben usually does not do groceries shopping. It just happened that he was looking for some stationery in the Real Canadian Superstore and saw the good deal.
With so much strawberries, I quickly check my pantry and found a pack of Dr. Oetker Jam Express Gelling Powder which I bought a couple of months ago. I wanted to make some blueberries jam but do not get down to do it. So, this is just great for making strawberry jam.
I like Dr. Oetker Jam Express Gelling Powder for it’s simplicity to use and no additional sugar is required. You can use it to make jam from various fruit like raspberry, blueberry, blackberry and other fruits or blends. If you use defrosted frozen fruit, include the juice which will enhance the flavour and recipe only requires 1 3/4 cup of chopped defrosted frozen fruit.
Nothing beats some freshly home-made strawberry jam on a toast.
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh chopped strawberries, about 400g/1 lb
- 1 package of 200g Dr. Oetker Jam Express
- Two 250ml washed, rinsed and dried jam jars with sealing lids
Seattle Spring 2009: The Food from Seattle Bites Food Tours
The meeting point of the Seattle Bites Food Tours was at the Seattle Art Museum. We initially thought it was kind of odd meeting one block away from the Pike Place Market. It was later then we realized what a perfect place to start off the food tours.
Yesterday, I blogged about the historical aspect of the Pike Place market. Today it is about the many type of food we sampled on the tour. There were altogether seven major stops we made.
This is what Suanne and I had always enjoyed … not just tasting the food but also learning about the stories behind the food, the people and the place.
TASTE Restaurant
We met at the informal public seating area just outside the TASTE Restaurant at about 10AM. We were specifically told by Jan Marie to come hungry and to even try to hold off our coffee fix at TASTE — we love this kind of instructions! So, we did not have a bite at all and even not have a sip of the free coffee in the hotel room.
It was a good start … we had a nice hot cup of latte and capp. Some of you remembered that the north west had a freak snowy day on April 1st this year. That morning was cold and wet and so it was a real welcome to have a hot cup of freshly brewed drink in hand.
From the looks of it, TASTE looks just like any contemporary west coast style restaurants. We learned a lot of this restaurant in the tour here as this is no ordinary restaurant.
We were treated to the Smoked Salmon Flatbread. This simple but absolutely delicious item is created by the chef of TASTE with local ingredients. I first started off with just one piece but it was so good that Suanne and I ended up finishing the entire plate.
The amazing thing behind TASTE is that the people behind the food actually personally go to the farms and learn about how the food was grown. They had to work the combines in harvesting the wheat so that they have a better understanding of how their ingredients are produced. They even had to experience the catching of salmon. They work closely with the source of their farmers and fishermen. I was very impressed with the seriousness they take to provide the best.
On every table in TASTE, you will not see ordinary condiments. They are heavily into making sure everything is organic. But what they had on the table is their very own Signature Salt. It was good … not too salty but infused with lots of flavours. We can catch some cinnamon but am not sure what else is there. You got to try this one.
Next time we are in Seattle, we will definitely come here for dinner.
Crepe de France
Crepe de France was our next stop. Crepe de France started off as a small stall at the entrance of Pike Place Market way back in 1991.
It was only three years ago, they moved into this much bigger lot.
Crepe de France is very much a family restaurant. They went to Paris to learn the art of making crepes from the city that is famous for crepes. I remembered the excellent crepes I had when I was in Paris (see here).
All the people we met on the food tour are such friendly and genuine people. We got to chat with Michael who was telling us about his first vacation to Vegas — he is a funny young man.
We had Nutella Chocolate Crepes. It was awesome and yummy — especially when we had followed Jan Marie’s advice to come hungry. We sat by the counter overlooking the kitchen area and listening to Michael’s tales. We enjoyed ourselves a lot.
They make all kinds of crepes. One day we will return and try their specials, like goat cheese crepes! When you are there in Crepe de France and feel adventurous, ask Michael (or Nani, his mum) for these specials.
One thing I fail to mention earlier (and I did not have photos of this) … in every place we stopped at we were given drinks that goes well with the choice of food. Most of them are Dry Soda with lots of uncommon flavours like celery, kumquat, lavender, lemon grass, rhubarb, etc. We were served Dr Brown Cel-Ray here — a popular pop in New York.
US Military MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat)
Corporal Nanzaro had been a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadet for two years now. He enjoys the activities and signs up for almost every event organized. Just a few weeks ago he went to a spring survival camp called Spring Thaw in Golden Ears.
I won’t even think about signing up for a camp where the day high temperature is zero degree celsius … but he did … and he enjoyed it a lot. He brought back some of the rations that he had left over from the camp. So here it is … our blog about MRE’s.
Canadian Forces calls their rations IMPs which stands for Individual Meal Packs. The US Military calls theirs MRE’s (Meals, Ready-to-Eat). The ones that Nanzaro had at the camp are the US Military version because they ran out of the Canadian Forces IMPs.
The MREs are designed to feed an army personnel in battle or field conditions. Each day pack consisting of breakfast, lunch and dinner contains 3600 calories, sufficient for the energy needs of a soldier in active combat. The food are packaged into cardboard boxes.
On the flip side of the cardboard box, they can even double up as a post card. I wonder how many soldiers actually make use of this.
In each of the boxes are lightweight pouches. Normally, the boxes are discarded and it’s these tough pouches that are carried in backpacks. These pouches are designed to be resistant to punctures. These are good for at least one year.
While the MREs may be eaten by itself, the proper way is to boil them so that it becomes a hot meal.
There were many types of Entrees. The Mexican Rice was not too bad really — close to being good actually! We tried it and actually finished them. Arkensen said that it does not taste as good at home but remember that they were great during camps. I guess when you’re hungry anything tastes good.
We also tried the Lagsana Pasta too.
MaxFrut — Gourmet Fruitcicles
“Yes Virgina. Not only are there Gourmet Jerkies, there is such a thing as Gourmet Popsicle”
Anna of MaxFrut invited us to visit their premises to check out their cool new product … fruitcicles, not popsicles. We went right after the lunch we had at Kash Cool. It was just perfect … this will be dessert after the heavy lunch.
MaxFrut is located just around the corner from Kash Cool. They are located in an industrial area on 127 Garden Ave. This is where the MaxFrut Flavour Lab is … the birth place of the many uniquely cool flavours.
We were greeted by the lovely Anna who were so helpful with our many questions. Suanne and I love learning about the food we eat and was lapping up every single word she said.
As much as we were curious, we were more excited when Anna brought this large tray of samples. Oooo … nice!
Hey … these are not your day to day popsicles. These are what Anna calls whole fruit frozen fruitcicles. She had made a new batch of interesting flavour of cucumber lime. What a combination but really, it was quite nice and fresh.
They had all kinds of Classic flavours made from real fruits. Since this is a laboratory of sorts, they even have Premium flavours which is not found elsewhere but here in the flavour lab in North Vancouver.
We noticed they had a $5 bill tagged on the top corner of this poster. Suanne and I guessed that it must be the first $5 they sold here. You think?
It was fun learning about flavours. Out of curiosity, Anna brought out some chili seasonings and use us as guinea pigs. She wanted to see how we react to this odd combination.
Mango fruitcicle is a very Asian flavour since it is a common tropical fruit found abundantly in South and South East Asia. So, Anna figured perhaps some chilli seasonings may go OK with the Mango fruitcicle.
The taste was … errrr … different. It was not bad especially. Who would have thought of putting chilli on popsicles? MaxFruit would, that’s who!
Pineapple Jerky from Jerky.com
Guess what came through the mail last week. A quick scan of the envelope showed that it’s a package from Jerky.com. I was rather surprised this package actually came … and that it passed Canadian Customs.
I received an email from Jerky.com asking if we would like to try one of their latest product. Doug was pretty convincing that what he had is going to be awesome, in his words. Sure thing … awesome is good … so I asked him to send some over all the way from Texas.
The awesome new product he was referring to was … tada … Pineapple Jerky. Yes, PINEAPPLE Jerky. We could not wait to try them out. We had never come across fruity jerkies before … beef jerky yes … fruit jerky no.
We double check to make sure it’s not some pineapple flavored jerky … no siree. It is the real thing. 100% natural … so the packaging said. And made in Maui too. Of course now … pineapples and Hawaii are synonymous.
What I had was sample packages which came in singles. If you order from them, it comes in packs of 5-8 slices in a bag.
Nanzaro commented that it looked like a flower and nothing resembling a pineapple. It is a healthy one-of-a-kind snack. Sticky, sweet and tangy, these hand-sliced pieces of pineapple are dehydrated and drizzled with honey. It has a certain exquisite taste … very unique and makes us wished they had shipped more!
You can order the Pineapple Jerky here. Shipping is free in the US but am not sure if they will also ship free to Canada.
“Yes Virginia … there is such a thing as Gourmet Jerky”!
