Halloween Haul

Yes even adults get candy from everywhere. I might go through them as I eat them.

From a table at work.

From a co-worker.

From vendors around work.

The Food Emporium Halloween Cupcakes

Want expensive and greasy cupcakes well head on down to your local Food Emporium. Granted the cake part is light and fluffy everything else taste fake.

The frosting is just whip cream from a can. Then they spray painted the top with what I hope is food coloring, random colors of course nothing Halloween inspired.

The worst part is they are kind of small and are $4.99 per six pack. The list of ingredients was about 75 words long so I doubt they are healthy. If they were cheaper I would recommend them.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

Hershey’s Kisses Pumpkin Spice

Wow these are awful. They are greasy and mushy with and odd color and weird texture.

I never liked Hershey's Kisses because it is too much chocolate for my taste. That said Hershey’s Kisses Pumpkin Spice flavored candies have no real pumpkin and lots of white chocolate.

At $6.00 per bag there is 60 opportunities to spit out and wonder why anyone would make this combination. Nothing nutritional about these so no big loss if you never try one.

Recommendation: Avoid for goodness sake. 

Russell Stover Dark Chocolate & Marshmallow Pumpkin

Like most guys I prefer dark chocolate and even more so I love marshmallows. This one combines the two in a somewhat disappointing way.

Russell Stover Dark Chocolate & Marshmallow Pumpkin is pumpkin shaped and has no pumpkin flavoring. The thin crisp shell is good and marshmallow is a bit more gelatin tasting than I enjoy.

At $0.49 each they are fine and do not bother thinking anything about these are healthy. Russell Stover is an underrated brand since they are often the cheapest but i enjoy the thin chocolate often used. There nut filled bars are among the best out there.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

Snickers Pumpkin

Snickers Pumpkin is only pumpkin shaped and contains no pumpkin flavoring. I know it was kind of disappointing but if you like Snickers this extra fat piece will satisfy.

While the package does not say it has pumpkin flavored I did assume it was since virtually everything else has been pumpkin filled these days. Opening the package you see it is a jack-o-lantern shape, not truly a pumpkin. Tasting it you final realize there is no other flavor than the usual nuts and caramel.

Mine was a bit melty so I left it overnight in the fridge and it got nice an rock solid, a balance between melty and rock hard is better. The flavor is okay it has more chocolate than a normal Snickers bar which I did not enjoy. Since I am not a big chocolate fan I would probably not buy this again unless they actually add pumpkin spices.

At less than $0.75 in most places it is a better bargain than most chocolate bars. It is mostly fat and some sugar.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

Halloween Oreo

It is Halloween week and here are some Halloween cookies from Oreo. They have 5 different designs but taste exactly the same as the normal white cream Oreos.

The 5 BOOrific shapes with orange creme filing make it seem like your eating something new but at the end it is just your basic Oreo.

In general I eat an Oreo by opening them up and placing half of the creme on one cookie then eating each cookie with the half creme. I think there is too much creme in a regular Oreo so double and triple stufff are just appalling to me.

Like most cookies this is mostly fat, sugar, and sodium. I can eat about two or three at a time but they are a bit heavy for me. When crisp and fresh they are great but they tend to absorb moisture and get soggy quick. I guess that is why they are good for dipping in milk but I never enjoyed that either.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Superior Coffee

It tastes fake. The Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Superior Coffee has the false flavor that is common in nearly all flavored coffee. There is a subtle chocolate flavor but a strong raspberry flavor it goes up your nose and stays there for a while.

This is 100% arabica coffee ground finely, natural and artificial flavors, and cocoa powder. It is not heavy and trying to make espresso with this is a bad idea. I also made iced coffee with this and it was okay. A little thicker or more coffee flavor would make this great for ice cream.

Not wanting to waste food I got this bag of coffee from some food service friends that was left over after an event. At about $1.50 per bag you can get a good week or two worth of coffee since this is not a daily coffee.

Recommendation: Avoid for goodness sake. 

Saratoga Spring Water

Saratoga Spring Water is one of the best sparkling water I ever tasted. The carbonation is perfect although some people may find it heavy. This is an upscale water and often not found at local stores.

The taste is like fresh soda without any sugars or flavors. The award winning cobalt blue glass bottle make the whole experience even better.

Wholesale prices has it at less then $1.00 per 12 ounce bottle but retail it is often up to $4.00 per bottle.

This bottle had some 150 anniversary promotions but I think that contest was over back in August. Still they have a dedicated website and events tied into horse racing.

Recommendation: Buy it if you can.

Anna's Almond Thins

Got this box of Anna's Almond Thins cookies from a friend at work. I love ginger cookies even though I have found they are not the favorites among most people. Since I was a kid ginger cookies were one of my favorites but I rarely encountered a plate of cookies at school, homes, or work that had gingers.

Although these ginger cookies have almonds in them they are not overwhelming. It is a subtle flavor of almond and each cookie is thin and crisp but not brittle. The cinnamon is very noticeable and the entire cookie is delicious.  

At $2.99 per box your expected to eat 6 cookies per serving, about 36 in a full box. They are just sugar and fat and mostly natural ingredients. Although I found no ginger in the list of ingredients the odd term "flavor" by itself must mean that is where the ginger is hiding.

Recommendation: Buy it if you can.

Santos Bakery Cuban Bread

My favorite unsliced loaf is Cuban bread. The crust is the lightly toasted and the inside is soft and layered like a biscuit. This one from the Santos Bakery is not the best I had but is still better than Italian or French bread which is chewy and hard respectively.

I thinks Santos Bakery is a Portuguese bread company and for the ideal Cuban bread you need a Cuban or at least Hispanic bakery (Hispanic being Puerto Rican, Cuban, or Dominican). Cuban bread is soft and light because lard or some type of shortening is usually added.

Ideally this is a sandwich bread that does not have any sauce. It goes bad quickly so saving it is not a good idea. At $1.39 per loaf you can make two subs that are about six inches each. The loaves are wider than normal Italian or French bread so the are very better if you use a lot of meat.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

Trader Joe's All Natural Chicken Drumsticks

Probably one of the most amazing deals in New York City. Trader Joe's All Natural Chicken Drumsticks are high quality, great tasting, and super cheap. I bought drumsticks from every chain store and national sellers and they are either cheap and nasty or expensive and tasty, included is Purdue on the nasty list.

The price is beyond exceptional. Here is six drumsticks for $2.07, at the time it was $1.49 a pound but price varies from $1.29-$1.79. Often I pick up four packages, that is 24 drumsticks for less than $9.00. If they are out asking one of the workers there will produced just packed pieces from the back. It is so amazingly cheap even some of the workers at Trader Joe's are shocked when they see the price.

The rest of Trader Joe's meat selection is ridiculously expensive but for some reason this is a bargain. I hate sharing great secrets like this but I have to write this to remember that things can sold in NYC for cheap without compromising quality.

Recommendation: Buy it if you can.

Chips Ahoy! Chewy

Chewy Chips Ahoy! is the ultimate in pre-packaged chewy chocolate chip cookies. I do not like hard cookies and try to look for either chewy or crumbly. Often I buy bakery cookies since they have the best texture. On those rare occasions where I want a cookie and a bakery is not nearby then I know Chewy Chips Ahoy! are going to have the same awesome flavor no matter where I go.

Now be careful when picking up the packs because chewy is in a red pack but there is also oatmeal chewy which are not as good. Original is blue and comes in a reduced fat variety, chunky is brown and comes in white fudge, gooey is multicolor and red and comes in choco-fudge, caramel, mega-fudge, and brownie filled, and a bunch of candy filled varieties that are ever changing.

At the end only chewy is worth the $4.99 price tag. Health-wise they are mostly natural and have too much saturated fat bit nothing awful. a bag could last a person 3 weeks if you do not eat them everyday. As I prefer salty foods it does last me a while.

Recommendation: Buy it if you can.

Pepperidge Farm Sweet & Simple Coconut Cookies

Also known as Homestyle Coconut Cookies these are light cookies that is not overwhelmingly coconut flavored. Simple cookies are great but often are bland these Pepperidge Farms line of sweet and simple cookies are a great balance.

These are cookies so there are no nutritional facts to brag about. As long as you keep it to four cookies or less it should be fine. Granted if you have some coffee and it is a cool autumn night then you may just finish the whole bag without noticing.

Pepperridge Farms tends to be expensive for a bag of 20 or less cookies. Still they are high quality and most of there line is great. At $3.49 per bag this is a monthly treat because I want cookies by the pound not the paper cup.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

Suja

Suja is an organic cold-pressed juice that is cashing in on the ridiculous cleansing fad. The juice is made lemonade style meaning it is pressed and filtered and nothing else.

I was at an outdoor festival where they gave away samples for free.

Of course they used young ladies to both hand out the samples and take pictures of attractive drinkers. Sadly no one asked for my picture.

Back to the juice, I tried the flavors Fuel and Purify and both were very good. Light flavor and filtered well. Fuel contains carrot, orange, apple, pineapple, lemon, and turmeric with 140% of your Vitamin A needs. While Purify contains carrot, apple, celery, cucumber, beet, and lemon with 190% of your Vitamin A needs. There are no other nutrients that would make this a replacement meal.

Now on to the cleanse myth. They advertize this as a great juice for cleanses. The problem is that cleanses, especially 5-day ones, are useless and never work as they claim. A cleanse is temporary starvation. The body reacts in a primitive way slowing shutting down your organs, when you finally do eat after the cleanse your body rewards you with a euphoric feeling. It is your bodies way to say that you almost died and please eat more on a regular basis.

No toxins are ever removed during a cleanse since your body actual retains more during this starvation period. Not to mention that toxin build up is also a myth. When you have surgery you are urged to stop eating for immediate medical reasons and some fools thought that it was the liquid diet that helped cure them.

The 16 ounce bottle is $8.99 each and $6.99 for the bad flavors. The ridiculous price along with the nonsense use as a cleanser make this a product to avoid. The flavor is good for the ones I tasted but I see nothing special about it. There are currently some $1.50 coupons available online for this product.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

Cool Ranch Doritos Chips

The holy grail of tortilla chips is cool ranch. It is like dry dip on each chip. The whole things taste artificial, as

it can never be found in nature, but who cares it is great.

I really have to force myself to eat an apple or two just like that I do not stuff myself with these chips. That side of me that wants to eat healthier will lose if these chops are around. Thanks to their partnership with Taco Bell there is a resurgence in cool ranch flavors and that is a good thing. If they can make a cool ranch breading for chicken I would be thrilled.

One day I will make kale chips and abandon all these pre-packaged goods. Hopefully my heart will not give out before then.

At $4.29 per large bag they are expensive but usually a local pharmacy/convenience store has them on sale for 2/$5.00 so keep an eye out. Often when chips are needed for a party these are ideal to get.

Recommendation: Buy it if you can.

Cheetos Crunchy

For you corn haters it would best to turn away now. Nothing about Cheetos is found in nature. That said it is not as fake as you would think. Corn meal is shaped and baked and covered in cheese and artificial color.

These are a bit salty yet for me taste better than the regular Cheetos. Then there is the staining factor. These snacks are so powerful your finger will be stained for hours and god forbid it lands on your white shirt.

 

At $3.49 for a 9-1/2 ounce bag they are a bit expensive, here I though corn was subsidized. These cheese snacks are something you can pass up, most things that are labeled cheese flavored snacks can be passed up safely.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

McDonald’s Mighty Wings

There is no reason to buy these wings in NYC. I have been to the cheapest dive bars in the city and they have better and cheaper wings than McDonald’s Mighty Wings. Intrigued by the glowing review at The Impulsive Buy I decided to pick some up.

Packaging is nice but a big for only 5 pieces. The "BONE-IN" description is just silly, I get that is the point but it sounds ignorant. A worse description is Spicy, Bold, Delicious.

Not limited to wings there are also tiny drumsticks, hehe. Each bite is uneven. One bite is almost flavorless while a another bite gets you a mouthful of hot and spicy crumbs. Now my batch may have overcooked since they were very crispy and would crumble at the slightest touch.

Do not be fooled by the grease glistening on the surface the meat was dry. All the pieces were not juicy and the creamy ranch dressing included did help but then all the uneven flavor gets masked. Judging by the black marrow burn at the side I think my patch may have overdone.

I will not be trying a second batch since the $4.99 price for 5 pieces, plus tax is steep. I can get a dozen juicy wings at any dive bar for the same price. I am not one of those anti-fast food people but I have yet to find crispy wings from one of these joints that taste great.

Recommendation: Avoid for goodness sake.

Bloody Eyeball Gum

It is Friday the 13th so here is a piece of Halloween candy I still have from last year.

Individually wrapped they were given out at the end of a Halloween party in 2012 because all the real food was gone.

Not very detailed but looks a eyeball.

Inside is a gooey syrup meant to be blood.

The gum is very hard even when it was fresh. It had about 5 minutes of sweet sugary flavor until it lost all of it. Then 5 minutes after the flavor was gone it becomes ridiculously hard and must be spit out. Half the time the oozing bloody center had soaked into the gum so you were left with a hollow gum.

I do not know what company made it but they should be ashamed. At an average price of $0.05 per gum these are still not worth it.

Recommendation: Avoid it for goodness sake.

Birds Eye Voila! Garlic Chicken vs. Homemade

First up Birds Eye Voila! Garlic Chicken:

This bag of precooked pasta is so easy to make. First you buy a package for about $6.00 or less depending on sale. Then you open it and put into a non-stick pan, which I do not own so I lightly oiled a regular pan, and heat for about 15 minutes depending on pan thickness. After that you serve and eat.

It comes out very good and the corn makes it slightly sweet. Good texture and so simple I thought I could have made it.

Next Homemade Garlic Chicken Pasta:

I used snap peas since I like them better than corn in food. My chicken was cut a big fat and was not as flavorful. The pasta and chicken had to be cooked 20 minutes earlier. The peas and broccoli were fresh frozen and I threw them into the final pan after the chicken and pasta were done. Sauce was soy sauce and light spices with a bit of flour for thickening. After about 10 minutes it was done.

While it was edible it was not as good as the bag food. Granted it was enough for six portions the price and time seemed to be more than just buying three bags of Birds Eye. About $12.00 for the homemade but the time and lack of great taste made it a waste.

I am not a chef in any term but recreating a simple pasta dinner should have been easier. I may try again but as long as Birds Eye offers coupons and free samples I will keep buying bags of meals until I get married :) .

Recommendation: Buy it if you can. Avoid making it home.

Coco Cafe

It was a hot and sunny summer day on the not-so-mean streets of Brooklyn. After waiting an hour in an unshaded line to get to the Bushwick Block Party (technically Williamsburg) I was in need of some refreshments. I spot the free Coco Water booth but I hate the taste of coconut water so I start to walk away until I hear Latte.

Apparently the awful coconut water has been mixed with delicious coffee. These were chilled and very cold. I asked for the original latte flavor and braced for overwhelming coconut. Luckily the flavor was not there it was just a hint of coconut and smooth weak coffee. It tasted cold and refreshing but nothing was distinct. I actually liked the original latte enough that I would buy it in the future.

The mocha was not as good but I never been a fan of mocha drinks. There is always a bittersweet cocoa flavor to mocha drinks and his was no different. I really want to try the vanilla since that is usually the best but I am going have to wait until the next free stand at some local festival.

Very little information on the Coco Cafe website but the drink seem healthy enough. Some calcium and potassium and surprisingly a bit of protein. Vita Coco is the main site but that equally lack any detailed information.

Josh Rubin over at Cool Hunting thought it was good and raved about the hippie-ness of the the fair trade and natural stuff. I do not trust all the fair trade all natural stuff since it is more of a fad.

While over at Food Junk both the writer and visitors seem to miss the coconut kick and found it greasy because of the carrageenan which is a seaweed thickener that gives drinks a milky texture. Yes you feel that greasy quality to Coco Cafe but that was expected as the coconut water on its own is to sharp and watery.

Recommendation: Buy it if you can.

Chiquita Banana #4011

#4011 is the standard yellow variety officially known as the Cavendish Banana. While Chiquita is the number one world banana seller. Of course they sell other fruit but they are famous and sometimes infamous for their bananas.

While politics should rarely invade food blog you have to know that Chiquita has had past problems paying workers fairly. Also the sub-contractors have also been heavy handed when farming. I believe they have honestly been improving but are still far from a great company.

All that aside I did get these bananas because they were super cheap and the organic bananas I've been eating were not the best. Chiquita has perfected bananas especially with refrigerated shipping. While I tend to avoid imported, this is from Guatemala, items I have to say these taste great and worth the price. Hopefully Chiquita will continue to improve and the quality of their fruit will stay high.

See I eat food that has not been prepackaged just highly modified.

Recommendation: Buy it if you can.

Pirouline Chocolate Hazelnut Rolled Wafers

Rolled wafers are delicious crunchy cookies usually with some sort of creme in the middle. Cremé de Pirouline, America's only rolled wafers are all natural and Chocolate Hazelnut.

The creme versions of Pirouline wafers come in a tin and are also split into two foil packages. Even with that they tend to get soggy quick and the hazelnut smell is not the best. They are softer than I prefer and not overly sweet. Overall they are fine but not great.

At about $5.00 per tin that meant 32 wafers and 480% of you saturated fat if you eat the whole thing. The website has little information about the products but it is American made.

Recommendation: Try it for yourself.

PopCorners Kettle Popped Corn Chips

Just awful. I did not want you to wait for a full review to say how awful tasting these were.

PopCorners are pressed popcorn triangles coated in different flavors. While I cannot judge an entire line of products by one flavor this was not a good introduction. Kettle flavor is an awful mixture of super sweet popcorn and some odd salty powder on top.

There is slight hint that this could be a great tasting snack but this has the texture of a bad rice cake. I was expecting a salty snack but this is more of a sweet treat. Claiming to be all natural and gluten free are just buzzwords that I ignore. This is just a bag of sugar and salt.

PopCorners at Amazon are about $2.00 per bag but since these are relatively new they have been giving free samples across the country. I suggest taste-testing before committing.

Recommendation: Avoid it for goodness sake.