Flash in the Pan

Hormel Compleats is a line of now one-dish meals in a form called shelf-stable, which means they can sit around on a shelf for extended periods of time, and marketed as meeting the USDA guidelines for a healthy lifestyle. But there are some problems, and I'd suggest passing on firsts, let alone seconds.

The most obvious issue is taste. Rather, the problem is lack of taste. I tried two varieties: beef steak & peppers, served over noodles, and Santa Fe style chicken with rice, black beans, and corn. Darned if I could detect much in the way of identifiable, or even existing, favor. Bite into a piece of chicken or beef, and you can tell there's a difference in texture, but not much else.

Now let's move to the "healthy lifestyles" claim. I looked at the USDA guidelines. There are many versions of caloric and nutritional suggestions for different genders, ages, and lifestyles. But look at Table 2, and you see that for 2,000 calories, total sodium should be roughly 1,800 mg and 65 g fat. Now, Hormel says that the dishes are all under 320 calories, with less than 10 grams fat and not more than 600 mg of sodium. Let's say there are 300 calories in the one you're eating. That's roughly 15 percent of the calories you're allowed, and the fat falls roughly in line with that. But 600 mg of sodium is a third of the daily allotment, so you're hitting double the average sodium you might want.

Clearly you can't expect everything to come out on the average, but this makes me want to re-evaluate the healthy lifestyle claim. You could say that you are meeting the requirements by eating a lot less, which doesn't mean that the food is "healthier." And why is there so much sodium as a percentage? Because there is little flavor, and many packaged foods know that the salt taste is a major taste trigger to people. Which brings us back to square one. Convenience may be ... convenient, but as with convenience store prices, which are generally higher than grocery stores, you end up paying for that ease one way or another.

Update

I had an email from Hormel's PR firm about the review, challenging my remarks about the sodium content. Here's the entry with the exchange.

Labels: meal, opinion, product, review

While driving back from eastern Massachusetts to the western part of the state, we pulled over at the Johnny Appleseed rest stop in Fitchburg, home of that famous gardener. Being filled with the fruit spirit, my wife and I bought a bag of Seneca Apple Chips. The taste was pretty good - not a complete substitute for a potato chip, if you have that specific craving, but slighly sweet without being cloying, and precious little sodium. I thought they might be dried, but according to the company's web site, it uses a "proprietary vacuum cooking process." We tried the original flavor (otherwise known as apple), but there are some others, including caramel and cinnamon, a tart Granny Smith, and sour apple. They're definitely worth trying.

Labels: opinion, product, review, snacks

Scientific American has an article about plastic food containers leaching the stabilization chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) into their contents. The last time I mentioned this was in connection with Nalgene, but, if this story is correct, it expands greatly on the topic. BPA is a stabilizing chemical used in many plastics, not just polycarbonate, and that there are potential health risks with BPA has been known since the 1930s. The chemical is also more ubiquitous in the food industry than I had realized:

BPA is routinely used to line cans to prevent corrosion and food contamination; it also makes plastic cups and baby and other bottles transparent and shatterproof. When the polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins made from the chemical are exposed to hot liquids, BPA leaches out 55 times faster than it does under normal conditions, according to a new study by Scott Belcher, an endocrine biologist at the University of Cincinnati. "When we added boiling water [to bottles made from polycarbonate] and allowed it to cool, the rate [of leakage] was greatly increased," he says, to a level as high as 32 nanograms per hour.

The chemical also leaches more quickly when exposed to other heat sources, like dishwashers and microwave ovens. The problem is that no one seems to agree on whether this is a health risk or not:

The Food and Drug Administration has approved its use and the EPA does not consider it cause for concern. One U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel agreed, but another team of government scientists last year found that the amount of BPA present in humans exceeds levels that have caused ill effects in animals. They also found that adults' ability to tolerate it does not preclude damaging effects in infants and children.

It does seem that the biggest problem is for infants and pregnant women, but who knows what else might be an issue? The plastics industry is pushing to keep using BPA because they don't have a substitute that would make plastics shatterproof and lightweight.

But the question comes up as to whether individuals want to take a greater chance than is necessary. (Polycarbonate containers, specifically, is usually marked with a 7 somewhere.) My family has been talking about moving to glass containers and away from plastic entirely, but we've yet to find products other than canning jars that have tops that can fasten down. I'll be doing some research into non-plastic alternatives and will report/review when I have something in hand.

Labels: container, contamination, plastic

Disappointing is the word that comes to mind as I write this review. I have greatly enjoyed Honest Tea bottled ice teas, so when I heard about Honest Kids fruit-based drinks that had only 40 calories and complete vitamin C requirements for a child, I looked forward to testing them on the family. In came the Goodness Grapeness, Berry Berry Good Lemonade, and Tropical Tango Punch flavors. In went the straws so we could try them. Down went our brows, as the products are anything but impressive. The ingredients are organic, and the first two are water and cane sugar. At 40 calories, you might think that the products had little sugar, and you'd be right. Unfortunately, they have even less fruit juice (10 percent, according to the package) and flavor brings up the rear after a long delay. These drinks taste watered. With a suggested price of between $3.99 and $5.99 for eight 6.75-ounce pouches, my suggestion would be to buy a bottle of good fruit juice and water it down yourself.

Labels: drinks, opinion, product, review

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• What's In a Name? A strip club owner in Boulder, Colorado is trying to claim that the cut up fruit, ice, and cups used in serving drinks makes his establishment a restaurant, which would get him out from under a zoning challenge. (Rocky Mountain News)


• Taco Terror A California man was assaulted and then robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint. (AP)


• Just A Little One? Some Chinese producers of alcoholic beverages are trying to overturn a government ban on officials drinking at lunch. (AFP)


• Take This F-ing Bill Ten diners found an invitation to oral sex listed (though with no charge) on their computer-printed bill. (BBC)


• Do Drink the Water Los Angeles and Clearbrook, British Columbia, Canada recently tied as having the best tasting municipal water in an international competition. Will we soon seen a bottled brand called LA's Finest? (AP)


• Put the Bun Under the Burger A California McDonald's is trying to boost sales with feng shui. First order of business: get some real food in. (AP)


• But Don't Ask For Their Doughnuts On apprehending a freezing burglary suspect in the winter cold, Canadian police offered a cup of coffee. What, no bagel? (The Toronto Sun)

Labels: news, odd, weird

A sample of three Veroli Foods products - three-cheese lasagna, meat lasagna, and marinara sauce - came in a few weeks back from the company's PR firm. It's taken this long to finish trying them all, and I can happily report that all were worth eating. A constant among all is the bright and sweet tomato flavor. The company says that they are vine ripened - I wouldn't know, but the taste is elemental, with little in the way of spicing to muddy the results. A jar of sauce can run between $5.99 and $6.49, but they are good.

The lasagnas were surprisingly good - not just because of the tomatoes, but the pasta, which comes out al dente, something I've never seen in a frozen pasta-based dish before. We liked both the cheese and meat ones (between $8.99 and $9.99). One box could serve four people, but expect heating in a regular oven to take 90 minutes total. I misread the package of the meat lasagna, took off the covering film at one hour, and was surprised by how loose it was. My fault; the extra half hour is key.

Unfortunately, distribution right now is thin. You can get the products in Central Markets if you live in Texas, or Kings Supermarkets in New Jersey. They're supposed to launch in other markets "in the near future," which means I haven't a clue, so check with the company itself.

Labels: Italian, opinion, product, review

There's a lot about VeeV that would ordinarily make me wary, if it weren't for one massively redeeming factor. It's made of açaí berries, which various celebrities (and would-be celebrities trying to market themselves) describe as a "super food." Comments like that make me look for my culinary kryptonite, even if I can feel healthy while pickling my liver. Next, the company claims to be carbon neutral, which is a worthy goal, I reckon, but it bothers me when this all becomes marketing and you wonder how buying credits from someone else does any good when the same amount of carbon ends up generated. Third, they tout donating $1 per bottle to "green initiatives," which bugs me because if a company wants to donate money, great, but don't put it in the form of "You'd better buy if you want us to give," which is how such things hit me. And their PR people circulate a list of celebrities, some of whom I've never even heard of, that love love love VeeV. Frankly, I don't care who else likes it. Now for the redeeming factor: it's really good.

I didn't try any of the supplied drink recipes, because I think an ingredient must be able to stand on its own. And it did - neat, in a wine glass. The berry flavor has deep earthy depths, which they described it as "notes of chocolate," a description I didn't find completely accurate, but close enough, as I couldn't figure out how to describe it. It's an unusual taste, and a tad astringent on the finish, but quite pleasant. I can see how this would work in mixed drinks as well. It's certainly worth trying, even if you do run the risk of becoming an eco-centric celebrity follower.

Labels: drinks, opinion, product, review

There are times I see connections between scientific concepts and the kitchen - not in the "science explains food" sense, but as direct metaphors. One that's scratching at my mind today is the concept of states of matter. As you probably remember from high school (or even grade school), matter can move into different states: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma (which is a superheated gas). A New York Times article on "sperification," or the latest development in encasing liquids (Cointreau, in this case) in edible spheres.

That reminded me of the edible foam that's become a bit of a gastronomic craze, and that was started by Spanish chef Ferran Adrià Acosta. Much of such experimentation seems to come out of the idea of molecular gastronomy. I'd probably put gelatin filtration into the same category, and would probably argue that ceviche, in which you "cook" fish in a citrus marinade, could also qualify. How about steamed milk? The resulting liquid is sweeter than regular milk and has a different mouth feel because of the encapsulated air.

I do wonder what might be next. Maybe we can use the steam wands on espresso makers to foam up liquids other than milk and serve them as hot dollops over some dish. Perhaps films of food supercooled into fragile sheets to drop into drinks and melt as they cool them, or one ingredient frozen about a second. Maybe we'll see thin marinated sheets of vegetable dried, like nori, the Japanese seaweed sheets, used to encase some finger food. Think I'll heat up the steam wand and try some experiments.

Labels: chemistry, cooking, ingredients, molecular gastronomy

The PR people for Guiltless Gourmet sent a sample of a new version of their apparently 20-year-old baked tortilla chips. There are a number of flavors, though the one that showed up here was chili and lime. I'm not typically someone that likes flavored chips, but the tartness and bite weren't bad, which leads me to think that if you do like flavored chips, this might be to your taste. The crunch in them was excellent, even after the bag had been opened and then folded over and clipped shut for about a week. The release for the reformulated chips mentioned "better" texture and aroma - you won't get an argument out of me, although I never tried the earlier versions, so couldn't give a good comparison. But these seem good for a snack. Now, if only we had made salsa the other day, my afternoon would have been complete.

Labels: product, review, snacks

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Space Pickle A bacteria-free version of the Korean hot pickled cabbage dish, kimchi, is ready for a space mission later this year, along with instant noodles, cinnamon tea, uncooked organic food, and the world's first Korean astronaut. (AFP)


• No Eggroll For You Asian restaurants in Israel went on a one day strike to protest a new government plan to replace Asian restaurant cooks with Israelis. First off the menu were eggrolls. Next? Sushi and noodles. (Reuters)


• Do You Take This Slyder? Three couples got married on Valentine's Day at a White Castle in Columbus, Ohio, the chain's home town. The flower girl threw salt and pepper packets instead of rice, and the grooms' lapels sported employee name tags. (AP)


• What You See Isn't What You Get The Omnivore Food Festival in Deauville, France featured some trompe-l'oeil cuisine, like slices of meat that were actually made of watermellon, or an edible bar of soap with honey bubbles. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

There are those who like their iced tea sweetened and flavored enough to mask the taste of the foundational ingredient. And then there are others who enjoy the tea itself. Finally, there are the fickle, like me, who sometimes want cold tea one way and sometimes another. This morning, after making the rounds for my daughter (busy social calendar) on her paper route, I wanted something more astringent and yet delicate. I found that with Teas' Tea from Ito En. My choice was a jasmine green tea, brewed, apparently, from loose tea leaves, jasmine flowers, water, and some vitamin C. The taste was pleasant, clean, and as close to real tea as I can imagine you can get in a bottle. The 16.9 ounce bottle I had was a bit under $2, a case of 24 bottles purchased online is $36 (not sure about shipping, as I didn't want to sign up for the site), and there's a retailer locater. There is also a range of flavors, mostly based on green, but with a golden oolong and a brown, not available at the local shop. Wish they were.

Labels: product, review, tea

Ghirardelli has come out with a new line of "filled premium chocolate bars," so I asked them to send some samples to test. And as it's still Valentine's Day, I figured it was an appropriate time to mention them. Reactions here were mixed. My wife snarfed the solid dark chocolate and managed to finish it off while forgetting to give me a taste. Uh huh. But she thought it was good, some depth of flavor, and fruity. I trust her taste, even if I obviously can't trust her with chocolate.

I actually found that I liked the fillings more than the chocolate itself. The flavors inside over powered those of the coating. I particularly liked the raspberry and even the mint, which is unusual, as I'm generally not a big mint fan. (After a taste, I passed it on to my daughter, who snapped it up so fast that it was a good thing my hand was open. Do you detect a pattern in my family?) The caramel was also good.

Suggested retail price of the bars is $2.29, which isn't bad compared to the price of many higher end chocolate bars.

Labels: chocolate, opinion, product, review

A load of these snacks that are vegan, wheat free, organic, and without genetically-modified materials came in from the PR people fro Nature's Path, which has a "collaboration" with Andrew Weil, M.D. I take that to actually mean licensing use of his persona, name, and image, but toss all that aside for a moment. These are genuinely good. It's solid fruit and nuts, and I'm glad I insisted that my family members leave at least a taste of each for me when they snarf the bars. For example, the Banana Manna (oh, please, spare me the name) has dates, dried banana, and almonds. The 1.6 ounce bar has 180 calories, with 50 calories from fat (nuts being the culprit), 4 grams of dietary fiber, some low level vitamins. But if you've got a craving for something sweet, skip the candy bar and tuck down one of these, or maybe a chia seed and raspberry, chocolate walnut, or one of the other flavors.

Labels: opinion, product, review

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Step Away From the Restaurant Three legislatures in the Missouri legislature had filed a bill that would prohibit restaurants from serving obese people. (AP)


• I Am Not a Leftover After nearly 50 years, an Illinois man still has a buffalo sandwich that was half-eaten by Richard Nixon. And, no, it's not a lot of bull. (AP)


• Whale of a Meal According to a poll, 56 percent of the Japanese public supports eating whale meat. (AP)


• How Much By the Glass? A London diner was sure that the £18,000 bottle of wine he ordered at a restaurant was actually a fake. (AP)


• How About Official Picnic Bucket? PETA tried to keep fried chicken the official food of Kentucky. Maybe everyone should take a time out and have a mint julep. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

I generally eschew product announcements because I either want to know I'm suggesting something good, or I want the opportunity to mock someone unmercifully. However, my family has been eating Tribe hummus for years. It's very good, given that it's ready-to-eat, so this seemed a natural - consider it a review of a new packaging concept. The company is putting hummus into 2 ounce snack containers. You get a choice of roasted garlic, classic, 40 spices, and roasted red peppers.

The small containers come in two ways. One is a four-pack, whose suggested retail price is $2.99, "which is line priced with their most popular 8oz hummus product line." In other words, apparently they're not charging a premium for smaller packaging. Nice to see for a change. There is also a single 2-ounce snack pack that comes with a few crackers and runs ... $1.49 suggested retail, or roughly twice the unit price in the four-pack. Ah, well, so much for avoiding premium pricing.

The hummus does have to be refrigerated, so don't plan on keeping it in a hot lunch box all day.

Labels: opinion, product, review, snacks

There are books that amuse and a few that shock. But if you partake of fast food in any of its forms - whether a burger joint or upscale chain café - get ready to be dumbfounded. The Stop & Go Fast Food Nutrition Guide by Steven Aldana, Ph.D, shows calories, fat (split into various categories), sodium, and dietary fiber of a wide range of the snacks, meals, and drinks you could find at close to 70 chains ranging from A&W to White Castle. Entries are color-coded in a green, yellow, and red motif to show relative healthiness of of the chow.

Let's take an example or two. Like the Starbucks apple fritter? That's 790 calories, with 37 milligrams of fat and a whopping 830 milligrams of sodium. Death on a dish. A plain old 16 ounce latté? That's a grande at 260 calories. How about a Hardee's Big Country Breakfast Platter with country steak? Just 1150 calories, 455 milligrams of cholesterol, and a completely astounding 2660 milligrams - otherwise known as almost 2.7 grams - of sodium. Personally, I'd double check the numbers for the green, yellow, and red coding: a Subway sweet onion chicken teriyaki 6-inch sub may have only 5 milligrams of fat and 370 calories, but it's got 1220 milligrams of sodium.

At $6.95 list, it's a great investment, and if you want to go to the web, you can get all the contents for free. Take it with you when you're out and get rid of some weight, because you'll surely lose your appetite.

Labels: book, diets, fast food, nutrition, review

I've never heard of food being called hand-held, though obviously the term is apt in a number of cases. (Just so long as I can avoid the front-of-shirt held experience.) A food and beverage consulting company called the Center for Culinary Development regularly produces a food trend report. Here are some of the "[e]xciting hand-held foods trends" the company sees:

Multiculturalism- Indian, Chinese and Latin American street foods, such as dosas, empandas, and bao, encase sweet or savory fillings in unique carriers. Now, making a cultural cross-over and expanding American palates, these hand-helds have intriguing shapes, and can be filled with a wide variety of ingredients.

Fresh & Wholesome- Paletas are bright, Mexican frozen pops made from fresh fruit or vegetables, spices, water or milk and just a little sugar. They feature chunks of hand-mashed fruit, rice or nuts for texture and ingredients such as cucumber, mango, avocado, corn, chili, lime, salt and mint.

Premium Twists to the Familiar- Sliders are craveable mini burgers that elevate the typical burger experience through creative variations of protein like premium beef or lamb, unique sauces and specialty cheeses. Their appetizer size encourages sampling for the culinary curious and also appeals to kids.

If you've been feeling left behind by the world of foodies, now's the time to get a handhold ... uh, handful?

Labels: snacks, street food, trends

There are a lot of people who are alergic to peanuts, and when the persons in question are young, they must feel as though they are sticking out like sore thumbs. Parents have to check for the presence of the nobby legume everywhere, with some schools having gone peanut free to prevent cases of anaphylactic shock. There is also the feeling of deprivation, as everyone else gets to eat PB&J. Those with peanut alergies might want to check out SunButter from SunGold Foods. It's made of sunflower seeds - just as you could make a butter out of any nut, seed, or legume with enough oil content.

PR materials from the company say "Tastes Like Peanut Butter, But Is Peanut-Free." I'd disagree. The three varieties I tried - smooth, organic, and natural crunch - were perfectly fine if you like the taste of sunflower seeds. I don't mind them, but am not a huge fan, so this is not a product I'd regularly purchase. Also, no one in my family is allergic to peanuts. But if that is a problem, I could see how these products could be useful. They also have a pretty wide distribution, so finding them shouldn't be that difficult.

There is another use I can see, as well. If you use peanut butter in baking or cooking, this could let you experiment with an alternative taste.

Labels: opinion, product, review

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Hope The Chairs Don't Melt As part of a Valentine's Day promotion, Godiva creates a chocolate room, including furniture and art work. (AP)


• And Tater Tots Are Grenades Laramie, Wyoming police charged some junior high girls who threw french fries during a food fight with hurling missles. (AP)


• Next, Exercise Suppressing Walks Scientists experiment with food additatives, that could be put into snack foods, that could reduce hunger. (Press Association)

Labels: news, odd, weird

I just finished a draft of a story, for a publication on New York's Long Island, on smoked fish. As part, I was looking for good local purveyors and got pointed to Shwartz Appetizing. The company sent samples and I'm in complete heaven (and jockeying with my wife for portions). With a couple of stores in Brooklyn and one in Cedarhurst, I don't know exactly where the proprietors find their wares, but, good heavens, they are gastronomically trancendental.

Pickled herring in cream sauce and a Mediterranean style had subtlety and a continuing echo of flavors that makes any other brand I've had from a store taste like so much library paste. Like lox? Try the creamed pickled variety and realize that you only need to nibble on a piece - forget the bagel and absolutely avoid the cream cheese. The whitefish chubs were magnificent, and although my wife didn't care for the Matjes herring, it was the first time I've tried this style and found myself looking forward to a second bite. (Don't care for that dear? Don't toss the rest of that piece - here, let me take care of it for you.) Finally, smoked sable, when prepared this deftly, is something you should start with, because the delicate flavor is something you should savor and enjoy before more raucus tastes come into play.

If you live anywhere near Cedarhurst, Flatbush, or Boropark, drive over immediately. (Well, not during Shabbos starting Friday afternoon and lasting through Saturday.) If you don't, look up the number of one of the stores and call - if you're lucky, maybe they'll ship some to you. And if it's expensive, pay for it anyway, as this is an experience that you should have at least once in your life.

Labels: fish, opinion, product, review