Larabar Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Looks like Foodette Reviews is on its 666th post. Hopefully none of the Healthy Month treats will rear up in our digestive system and kill us, but you never know. At least I didn't choose to review kombucha or something today. Which brings us to our (relatively innocuous) reviewable today, a Larabar in Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

There exists a phenomenon amongst products geared toward women that seems to force us to a point where if we eat anything remotely healthy, it MUST taste like a facsimile of something "guilty," "tempting," or "forbidden." Case in point, energy bars. Things like Luna Bars and Larabars promote the concept that women can't just scarf down an energy bar because it has to be a treat, hence flavors like chocolate peppermint stick, dulce de leche, and chocolate covered strawberry.

Today's desserted bastardization is chocolate chip cookie dough. Spoiler alert, it tastes like neither cookie dough or a protein bar, which is surprising as protein bars' grainy texture usually lends itself to resembling cookie dough.

This particular company really excels at their fruit flavors, but just lacks that prowess in their synthesized desserts. The bar had many chocolate chips in it but somehow tasted only of rich figs and nuts. The texture was chocolatey and could be recognized as such but was totally overpowered. The figginess in this bar was about as subtle as crotchless panties. Something about this felt like I was eating a "special" granola bar from a friend- something I wouldn't do now and in my reviews.

Sasebo Burger Drops

How's this for Healthy Month? All the flavor of a juicy burger in...a food drop? It's more common than you think. J-List was kind enough to send over an assortment of foodie goodies for my perusal, so here's one of the most a propos for the month: food drops. In this case, a Sasebo-limited confection that supposedly tastes like the local specialty (and American favorite) fast food chain, Sasebo Burger, similar to the hand-crafted quickservice chain Five Guys with locally sourced ingredients.

While I didn't get the full Sasebo Burger experience, I can only hope that it's not close to this food drop. Definitely more of a novelty than a form of sustenance, you're really trading taste for calories in this treat. Food science has come a long way, though, and there's a disturbing accuracy to these that, for a hard candy, actually had a powerfully smoky and somewhat meaty flavor. Where it was really lost was in the remaining aspects. Any creamy cheese or mayonnaise flavors ended up tasting overly sweet and indistinguishable, lending us the descriptor of "smoked butterscotch." Don't quote us on it. It's not an unpalatable flavor, but it's really something strange. At first, I thought this was coming from the sugared coating on the candies, but it lingered to the point of being intentional.

I don't know whether the burger buns in Japan are sweeter; perhaps someone can clarify on that for me, but I do know that some acidity in this- an element of mustard or pickles, would have cut the sweetness immensely and possibly tasted better. I'm confident that they can do it. After all, if they can manufacture sweet meat, anything is possible, right? Buy this for the novelty. It's neither satisfying to a savory or sweet tooth, but still delights.

Va La Family Farmed Wines

Many times I've started to write a post on Va La, my favorite winery in Southeastern Pennsylvania, but have aborted the mission because 1) the pictures I've taken in the past were seriously bad, and 2) while I love wine, I'm uncomfortable about confidently describing wine.

Well, I've finally taken some half-decent photos, and while I can't banter like a sommelier, all that matters with wine is that if you like it, you like it. And I like Va La's wine!As well as the wine, I enjoy visiting Va La's vineyard and tasting room in Avondale, PA, a tiny town — if you can even call it that — I somehow found myself living in for eight months (long story). Just a ten minute car ride from Kennett Square, and an hour from Philadelphia, a trip to Va La makes a nice weekend getaway.

Hit up other wineries along the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, as well, if you really want to make a day out of it. Va La is sneaky, though, and doesn't show up on the official Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, but don't miss Va La! It's the best of the bunch.
Sitting on 7 acres of land that has been in the family since 1928, Va La vineyards grows all of their grapes (save but a few from other local vineyards) for their wines. Production is small at Va La, producing on average 500 - 750 cases of wine per vintage, but some as little as 250 bottles. You must go to Va La to buy the wine; you will not find it at wine stores.

You'll find quirky mixes like the big, robust Mahogany blended with malvasia nero, barbera, charbono, sagrantino, la grein, carmine, teroldego, and petit verdot; and, if you're very lucky, a straight-up nebiolo. The wines aren't cheap (most bottles range from $25 - $45), but, remember, this is a small operation.

I admire Va La's passion for making good wine, but most of all for making wine that they want to make, how they want to make it. Fittingly, "va la," which means "go there" in proper Italian, also means "piss off" in the vernacular.I must warn you, before you even drive up the driveway lined with rows of grape vines to the picturesque stone and wood barn, you will smell Avondale's signature scent. Avondale is smack in the middle of mushroom country. Mushroom production — and the compost involved in mushroom production — smells like a loaded baby diaper.

Do not let the abominable smell discourage you. Your nose will adjust in a few minutes, and I actually find that Va La wines taste finest when sipped on premises with eau de compost swirling about. I guess it's true; a wine's terroir is best enjoyed while standing on the terrain in which it was grown.Sidle up to the tasting bar on the lower level of the barn for a $10 tasting of wines, or hit the upstairs art gallery for the $20 tasting of wines. The family and friends who man the bar are always chipper and eager to explain each wine and their food pairings. The tasting pours are healthy (no measured pour spouts here!), and the pairings with local Pennsylvania Noble Cheddar, ShellBark Hollow Farm goat cheese, and Neuchatel chocolate are fabulous.When you're done with your tasting, mosey around the barn to sample olive oils, jams, and marinated mushrooms. I cried when Sunny Dell Foods burned down in 2006, and thought I'd never have their teriyaki marinated mushrooms again, but they rebuilt, and I grab a jar every time I stop in at Va La.You're going to find Va La so cozy that you'll want to stay. Buy a glass of wine (or a bottle), grab some local cheeses from the cooler along with some crackers, and head upstairs to the gallery where there are plenty of tables.
If it's nice outside, go out back and hang on the deck or under the backyard pergola, where many weekends there's jazz music from Glenn E. Williams, Va La's official house band, or wood fired pizza for sale cooked on the back of the aptly named Wood Fired Pizza truck. Yep, you're going to want to go ahead and get a bottle and stay a while.The best part about Va La is the owner and winemaker, Anthony Vietri, and his sarcasm-filled email newsletters. I highly suggest you sign up for the newsletters (scroll down) to be in the know about weekend festivities, and, of course, new wine releases. Va La is also good about updating on Facebook, if that's your thing.

Va La Family Farmed Wines
8820 Gap Newport Pike (Rt. 41), Avondale, PA 19311
610-268-2702

Amy's Organic Margherita Pizza

It was summer today. As we know from the fickle fancies of New England weather, it's no surprise that this morning it was cold, humid, and rainy, and this afternoon it was 83 degrees. But we can roll with that, son, and tonight we busted out the al-ka-hawl and the frozen pizza. Keepitcoming Love picked up this frozen delight from the grocery store 'cause it's new and we're on top of shit all the time. This is Amy's pizza and it kicks the infant asses of both Rustic Crust and CPK. Hell yeah.

The margherita features a thinner crust, tiny balls of mozzarella, tomato chunks, and fresh chiffonades of basil. Fuckin' herbs, natch! Cooked that sucker for ten minutes and took it out. Fresh mozzarella is one of the best textural substitutes for meat out there, and on this pie, it was sliced into chunks that melted and got evenly distributed throughout. There was definitely more sauce than cheese, but it was a really tasty sauce with a subtle sweetness from onions and garlic and reminded me of a fancy bruschetta. Oh you fancy, huh? Well, Amy's is, and it shows. Everything about this pizza, from the airy, crispy crust to the plethora of toppings, really showed how fresh its ingredients were. This pizza was $7 for the two of us and was ready in ten minutes. Of the three closest pizzerias in town, each listed their margherita pizza under their specialty section and ranged from $10-20 for a small pizza. That alone proves that this is better.

My one complaint, and believe me, I'm searching, was that the proclamation of a newer and thinner crust was a little misleading. While the crust was the same crispy, buttery crust I know and love, I just craved a deviation and wanted the product to live up to the promise as much as it had with the toppings.

Honest Tea Green Honey

Sorry for the delay in posts. With finals in full swing, I often experience crashes after pulling an all-nighter on a term paper or a take-home test. I drink coffee more than I drink tea, but was curious to add a few more beverages to my repertoire. Honest Tea sent me a few samples of their libations and I decided to test run an iced tea tonight.

With 73 calories in a 0 calorie world of artificial sweeteners and colors, does a carefully curated ingredient list matter more than nutrition? From this experience, I have deduced that the art of a beverage must lie in the flavor. If that's the case, this is more of a community college art portfolio, because it's bland, flat, and overly diluted. The tea flavor comes out strong, a bit more intense than I would have liked it had I brewed it myself, with a slight honey and sugar note at the end.

Overall, I would have liked to see a more pronounced nuance of both sweet and bitter in this. I really do like a good iced tea, I'm no hater, but just think that with such a simple and easily user-friendly beverage, measures could have been taken to make this a more unique and sophisticated drink.

LOOK Chocolat 18

I've been going a little LOOK crazy as of late. Since I've been enjoying their various flavorful fillings, I thought I'd give their plain old chocolate a shot. LOOK Chocolat 18 has 18 small pieces of chocolate rather than the usual 16.

Three varieties were included: Chocolate Mousse, Truffle Creme, and Ganache Creme. Right away, I was skeptical about LOOK's ability to distinguish between such similar textures, especially in such a tiny package. However, I was definitely in love with the cute little modern designs on each piece!


Chocolate Mousse smelled like average milk chocolate. It had a creamy, sweet flavor, but it was very flat. The center was slightly fluffier, but it didn't have that whipped texture of mousse.

Truffle Creme smelled a bit richer (but I could have been imagining it) and the cocoa flavor seemed a bit stronger, but it was still quite mild. The center had a firmer texture than the mousse, but it was lacking in the rich, smooth texture of a truffle.

Ganache Creme had the stickiest texture of the three, and the most cocoa flavor (I think). It didn't have the smooth, luscious texture of a ganache filling at all, not even a cheap ganache, but it did have the best cocoa flavor of the three.

This just was not LOOK's best offering. The small shapes and simple, classy designs were fun, but the fillings weren't even close to mousse, truffle, or ganache. The chocolate certainly wasn't bad, but I'd pass on this one in favor of LOOK's more flavorful offerings.

C

Check out another review at Sweets Blog.

Fujiya LOOK website

Mars Starburst GummiBursts Flavor Duos

Yet another Mars review! It takes time for new candy to work its way into my local grocery stores, and it looks like all the Mars products hit at once. Again, it's a familiar product with new fusion flavors.

Starburst GummiBursts haven't been around as long as some other classic Mars fruit candies like Starburst fruit chews and Skittles, but they seem to be doing well. Flavor Duos is the third variety of GummiBursts (after regular and sour) I've seen, and there are probably more. There were four flavor combinations: Green Apple Strawberry, Cherry Fruit Punch, Strawberry Watermelon, and Lemon Cherry.


Green Apple Strawberry was dominated by the crisp, tart green apple flavor. It was good, but I could hardly taste the strawberry! The firm texture of the gummy part made for an enjoyable chew.

Cherry Fruit Punch had a yummy classic red fruit snack taste. It was both tart and sweet with a hint of a vitamin flavor. Also, the colors of this piece reminded me of a red blood cell.

Strawberry Watermelon was the star of the bunch. The watermelon center was sour and fantastic, and it went well with the fairly authentic flavor of the strawberry gummy.

Lemon Cherry had the same zesty lemon flavor as a regular lemon Starburst, but the cherry center tasted a bit medicinal to me. Still, this one was enjoyable, it just wasn't my favorite (and lemon flavors are usually a sure bet for me).

All in all, these GummiBursts were sweet but not cloying, tart but not sour, and the slightly firm, bouncy texture of the gummies was just right. The flavor combinations weren't all that new or exciting, but the Strawberry Melon and Cherry Fruit punch were particularly well done.

B

Starburst website

Lake Champlain Five Star Chocolate Bar Granola

I was raised on breakfast cereal, and there's none more delicious than granola. It's so filling (and usually packs a caloric punch), and that crunch just gets me. Even though it's not as hearty as full on granola, I think I could eat Honey Bunches of Oats every day for the rest of my life.

For this reason, the Lake Champlain Five Star Chocolate Bar in Granola called out to me. I bought it at the same time as their mammoth caramel bar. As you can see in the next picture, this one had a creamy chocolate filling with granola bits, nuts, and cranberries throughout.


The bar smelled salty when I opened it. The chocolate filling was very creamy and smooth, making for less of a mouthful than the caramel bar. However, the bits and pieces in the middle made the bar incredibly salty.

I liked the flavor of the almonds and cranberries, and the oats and granola bits added an subtle, slightly earthy vanilla flavor. The crunchy texture was fun, and the granola held up well in the filling. Unfortunately, it was just too salty for my tastes, so I had to detract some points from this otherwise delicious and unique chocolate bar.

B-

Lake Champlain website

SNACKDOWN: Healthy Choice vs. Lean Cuisine in Battle Ravioli

Here at Chez Love, we are no strangers to the delicacy of the frozen meal. Many a night has been saved by the good graces of an Amy's frozen pizza or a pint of ice cream. So when we saw these two varieties of gourmet ravioli, we knew a snackdown was in order.The two varieties wouldn't have seemed out of place on the menu in a nice restauraunt. Lean Cuisine boasted a pumpkin ravioli with creamy sauce with walnuts, snap peas, and carrots, while Healthy Choice gave us a lobster cheese ravioli with green and yellow zucchini in a vodka sauce. Both sounded excellent and filling for a cold night.Unfortunately, we couldn't stomach sampling more than a bite of each. While each was visually appealing- the LC's julienned cuts of vegetables and the HC's hearty portions, the flavors were each abominable in their own ways. Let's take a journey into the world of Healthy Choice. The ravioli in this dish were mushy with a crumbly, powdery filling and leaking fishy fluid that completely saturated the rest of the dish with a strong canned seafood flavor. When I tasted the vegetables with sauce alone, despite seeing a firm, colorful piece of zucchini, all my mouth could think was "FISH" and resisted my every attempt to shove it in there. The sauce, which had come out of the microwave thick and rich-looking, was runny when I sat down to eat and also tasted like fish. A quick look at the ingredients showed that one of the main offenders was "pollack powder," and after that, the only thing I could associate this was fish food and worse, the flakes that fish food comes in. No thanks.After that, I was looking forward to trying the Lean Cuisine, but Keepitcoming told me not to waste my taste buds. The crisp, colorful vegetables were drowned in the "creamy" sauce, or in our case, the salty sauce. It was an assault on my blood pressure. For some reason, both of these dishes contained an ingredient or component that made it impossible to taste anything else. The ravioli in this dish was on the other end of the spectrum- too firm and almost chewy, with an acidic, yammy flavor to its filling. This was a particular shame, as the dish itself was really pretty.

Unfortunately, we have no winner. The real winner is the pizza we picked up shortly after! Better luck next time. Expect more frozen food offerings in the future...

Mars Starburst Sweet Fiesta

The thought makes me cringe now, but I used to play with my Starbursts like modeling clay to create hybrid flavors. I would mold two or more flavors together, make little shapes, and eat them. The idea of handling candy so thoroughly grosses me out these days, but maybe it was part of the reason I rarely get sick as an adult.

The newest (to my knowledge) offering from Starbust is called Sweet Fiesta, and it offers a more sanitary set of hybrid flavors. The fiesta includes Strawberry Pineapple, Peach Guava, Cherry Mango, and Melon Berry. Though the flavors are different, I was certainly reminded of the recent Skittles Blenders.


I could smell the pineapple in Strawberry Pineapple, which got me excited. It had a sour, juicy, slightly woodsy flavor, and I could taste the pineapple much better than the strawberry (fine by me). It was a great combination of sour and sweet.

Peach Guava had a tropical, papaya juice-esque flavor. I could only catch a slight hint of peach, and this one was quite sweet and juicy.

Cherry Mango had a fantastic cherry flavor that seemed better than the regular cherry Starburst, but I couldn't figure out why. I didn't taste the mango, just a modified cherry. It reminded me of fruit punch.

Melon Berry had a very fake melon flavor with a richer berry background flavor. It was my least favorite flavor of the bunch, but it wasn't bad.

Overall, the combinations felt fresh, and although some of them missed the mark, it was hard for me to save any for my husband (though I managed to leave him one of each flavor and a spare Melon Berry).

Check out some other reviews at Sugar Hi and Sugar Pressure.

B+

Starburst website

Smart Ones Anytime Mini Cheeseburgers

Smart Ones makes a rather bold claim in assuming that you can eat their Anytime selection any time of day. Oh, can I, Smart Ones? Now that I have your permission? Coming from someone who has been known to eat Easy Mac in the wee hours o' the morn with chopsticks to boot, I don't feel any more liberated knowing that I'm allowed to snarf down one slider any time I please.
Along with the Mini Cheeseburgers, Smart Ones seems to be on a trend of "bar snacks for infants," also offering mini quesadillas, mini non-stoner bagel bites, and mini taquitos to round them off. The mini burgers are easy to prepare and boast a fair amount of cheese. Thirteen words to basically yap about a very simple concept: tiny Frankenstein burgers with TVP and a strangely delicious bun. The bun is the best part about this slider, actually, with a floury, dense texture and buttery flavor. I don't know how the bun alone isn't the 200 calories in each 'wich, but I do know that don't want to eat it as much as I want to stick googly eyes on the little sucker, film a short comedy series, and adopt it as my own. It's that twee.
Unfortunately, it didn't really blow me away. If anything, this was the equivalent of a lazy backseat handjob. This was like the latter-day excitement I'd normally reserve for a used salad shaker. While I don't expect the same level of expertise in frozen foods than say, at wd-50, I do expect a modicum of congruity and tastiness. This was just insulting. For 200 calories, I was able to eat one of these dense, salty little suckers, which, despite having a fair amount of slick, weak-flavored cheese, contained a pungent and soft, yet tough burger patty the size of a commemorative coin. This was no slider. I couldn't lie to myself.

What's worse is that I made a meal out of this with some oven fries and one burger, coming out to 500 calories. 500 calories nets me four White Castle hamburgers, a far more filling and well-prepared food, even if out of the freezer. Not to mention that White Castle sells their frozen counterparts in six packs for around $2.50. I picked up this package of two Smart Ones sliders for a little over $3. At $1.60ish a slider, that's like comedy club prices and I didn't even get a commemorative shot glass to show for it. So Smart Ones, you can suck it. I've had enough of this baby bar food tomfoolery and will stick to my regular favorites.

Seattle or Bust

The tickets have been purchased, and I am ecstatic! Tripping it to Seattle this summer!!

In nerdy fashion, I've already started to make a Google map of places of interest, so I can whip it out wherever I am and be, like, "Oh, there's a bakery four blocks over. Pastry, go!"

Since I've never been to Seattle, I would welcome any suggestions on places to check out. Of course, I'm looking for y'all to steer me in the direction of good food, but I'm am also all ears about parks, gardens, hikes, museums, wineries, and anything else that's awesome. Maybe even a trip down to Portland?

So, please flood the comments with your favorite tourist must-sees and local secrets in and around Seattle.

Tirol Kagami Mochi

This review is about four months late, but this was such a cute promotion that I had to post it. New Year is a very important holiday in Japan, and one of the traditional decorations is called Kagami Mochi. Though they are often very elaborately decorated, the simplest form is just two stacked mochi balls, the top one smaller than the bottom, with a bitter orange on top.

The Tirol version consisted of several small Milk Mochi flavored chocolates with a large Mikan flavored chocolate on top, all encased in plastic shaped like Kagami Mochi. For some reason, Tirol felt the need to include instructions on how to pop out the Mikan piece. Before I even tasted anything, I was extremely amused by the variety of New Year-themed images on the Milk Mochi pieces. I especially liked the cute little Daruma.


Milk Mochi tasted like coconut, according to my husband. The mochi center was chewy, gummy, and slightly sweet, so it was similar to the real thing. The surrounding white chocolate, however, was a bit stiff and chalky. It wasn't too sweet, and did taste like milk or cream. My favorite part was the packaging. B-


The Mikan piece boasted real mikan flavor, and the chocolate smelled very much like oranges. I was thrilled to discover that it had a gel center. The gel was tender and chewy with a tart orange flavor, while the orange chocolate coating reminded me of sherbet. This Tirol reminded me of a punch my mom used to make for church parties (ginger ale, pineapple juice, and orange sherbet - yum). The gel had an odd sort of skin to it, but it did remind me of real fruit. This flavor was tastier than Milk Mochi, but unfortunately, there was only one Mikan in the set. A-

Tirol website

Annie's Cinnamon Roll Bunny O's

With the warm weather impending (hint hint, Massachusetts, stop raining now) I'm starting to become a cereal convert. While I'll be quick to admit that it's a lot of fun to whip up a big, hot breakfast, it's certainly less fun to slave over a hot stove in the middle of the summer. But while I may have been won over by Honey Nut Chex, I wanted to test my theory and see if I'd enjoy other cereals as much.
Annie's sent over a few of their products for Healthy Month, one of which was Cinnamon Roll Bunny O's. As soon as I pulled these out of the package, I knew I had to review these. After all, where else am I going to find a product that combines not two, but three of my favorite things? Ooey gooey cinnamon rolls, an adorable product name, and disembodied rabbit heads. Man, it sounded like a winner.As I opened the package, I noticed that these had a decidedly different texture than the Chex. They were much thicker and less crispy and had an airy, oaty texture that seemed if they were left out too long, they would get chewy and stale. I tested this theory by opening my box and storing it as I would any other cereal. Within a week, it was stale. Unless you're living the purgatorial life of a perpetual college student, there's no way you're going to finish this box in such a small window of time. The flavor reminded me less of cinnamon buns and more like cinnamon toast, the main difference that they were not coated in neither sugar nor butter. Probably better to err on the healthy side when starting out in the morning, but not the best manifestation of a cinnamon-based breakfast I've seen.

There was just too little to enjoy about these. With the small aging window, the poor ratio of sweet to spice, and the lack of resemblance to its namesake, I wasn't enthralled by the whimsy of rabbit shapes and the organic promises to ensure a place in my cupboard for these again. Bummer, too. Those bunnies are too damned cute. I'll have to stick to my Annie's Easy Mac, a form of quick cooking that brings a whole new level of sadism to the epic Bunny Suicides.

Fujiya LOOK Dessert aux fraises a la Francaise

After thoroughly enjoying LOOK's Italian-themed chocolate assortment, I was compelled to buy this collection of French desserts with strawberries. The box is adorable and inspires me to work hard for my French class (at least that's what I tell myself).

The flavors, all strawberry based, are a bit ambitious. We have strawberry mille-feuille (a dessert made of layers of puff pastry, custard, cream, and strawberries), strawberry mousse, strawberry fromage (which might be fromage blanc, which is sort of like cream cheese), and strawberry champagne dessert.


I apologize for the lack of a cross-section photo
Strawberry Mille-feuille had an odd texture. There were tiny chunks of wafer that gave a crunchy texture to the creamy filling (to give the feeling of puff pastry). The filling didn't really taste like cream or custard, but was dominated by a bland cheese-like flavor. There was a layer of strawberry jam on top of the cream filling, which, while nice, was too mild to make a difference.

Strawberry Mousse had a stronger strawberry flavor than the mille-feuille, but the chocolate and cream had a very sticky mouthfeel. I'm not a big mousse fan, so it was a pretty good imitation of strawberry mousse in that it was rather dull.

Strawberry Fromage had the nice, tart pop of strawberry I was looking for, as well as a good, creamy cheese flavor. Everything went nicely with the chocolate, and it was pleasant. It was almost like it was a stronger version of the previous two flavors, though.

Compared to the rest of these wimpy flavors, Strawberry Champagne Dessert was a big surprise! The initial kick was quite boozy, but the underlying dry champagne and tart strawberry flavors were excellently matched with the mild chocolate. It was my favorite of the bunch!

I wish there had been more variety in the flavors, but I suppose the strawberry theme was a bit limiting. Though this assortment probably wouldn't disgust anyone, with the exception of the champagne flavor, it was underwhelming.

Check out a different take at Japanese Snack Reviews.

B

Fujiya LOOK website