Toad-Ally Snax Hanky Panky

Despite sounding like an underground and illicit pleasure, this snack is not bad at all. It's advertised as chocolate drizzled popcorn with peanuts.

It's definitely chocolate drizzled. Each piece of popcorn is neatly drizzled with no clumps of chocolate, creating a nice and even selection and covering. The chocolate is just a mockolate, but makes a good attempt to not have that cheap, coconutty taste of mockolate, but a nice, creamy taste. It goes well with the popcorn.

Speaking of the popcorn, it's nice, and not clumped. The caramel is a very faint feeling, and I think that without the chocolate, this would not be a very good stand-alone snack. I'm not sure that if you told me there was caramel, I'd have been able to recognize it.

And as far as peanuts go, I don't even want to know where they went. With a name like Hanky Panky, they could be anywhere. But they're not in this bag at all. No peanuts. Not even a shred.

So it was a good snack, but for lack of accuracy and packaging that lies and utter perversion, the grade must go down.

5/10- YUMMY

Ferrero Tic Tac Pink Grapefruit

My older sister and I were big Tic Tac eaters when we were younger. We both liked the orange ones best, even though it was common knowledge that they actually made breath worse.

I first heard about these from a candy blog, but when I searched the Internet, I couldn't find it, so I can't remember which it was. Anyhow, they were released a while ago, but it takes some things a while to get to my town.


They look like standard Tic Tacs, despite coming in a bigger box. At first, the taste is very similar to orange, but once a little of the coating is gone, the grapefruit notes really kick in. It's sour, a little bitter, and fairly authentic ("dry pink grapefruit juice" is listed in the ingredients). There's also a mintiness in the background, but I wouldn't choose these as a breath freshener.

The taste was very similar to grapefruit Jelly Belly jelly beans, or grapefruit e-ma, which also has a minty kick. The mintiness did remind me of a throat lozenge, but I still enjoyed these. They went over well at work, too.

B+

Tic Tac website

Pig Out BBQ Pit

A reader recently called my attention to the fact that Pig Out BBQ Pit, with locations in downtown West Chester and Glen Mills, serves vegetarian barbecue alongside the normal meat barbecue. I said, "sign me up," and then did little poking around the internet to find their menu and see what others had to say about the place.

Main Line Today voted Pig Out "Best NC BBQ" in 2009, but, interestingly, over on WC Dish, a great food blog focusing mainly on West Chester eats that also has listings of restaurants where readers can comment, had widely conflicting opinions of Pig Out, and even a comment from the owner speculating that the negative comments were from jealous competitors.

So what's the real deal? Were there comments from those out to sabotage, and possibly even comments from those close to the owner hyping the place (oh, both happen all the time), or was it all just simply people with differing opinions? (Update: Do check out the comments on this post!) There's only one way to find out, and that's to go and form your own opinion.
First, we had to choose which location. The Glenn Mills location in a renovated 18th century blacksmith shop won out simply because they offer two free beers (Bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite, or Yuengling Lager) to diners who choose to eat on the premises. Free beer does not apply at the West Chester location.
Even with free beer, no one seemed to opt for the dining in option at the Glen Mills location when we were there, but there was a brisk takeout action going on when we first arrived.
The haul: Two small vegetarian spicy chicken sandwiches, coleslaw, twice baked potato with cheddar cheese, mac and cheese, corn muffin, and Yeungling beer.
But wait...these are real chicken sandwiches!

When ordering, we originally asked for the vegetarian bbq sandwiches, to which one of the two college-aged boys had to ask the other if they even had any. They didn't. He said they had the chicken. (Just so I get you straight here, in the vegetarian bbq department, Pig Out offers what they call a vegetarian bbq sandwich and a vegetarian spicy chicken sandwich) So, to be clear, since the boy said chicken and not veggie chicken, I said, "So, you don't have the veggie bbq, but you've got the veggie chicken?" Then proceeded to order two veggie chicken sandwiches. This was obviously very complicated for the two boys.

It turns out, the Glen Mills location had neither the veggie bbq nor the veggie chicken. We were not charged for the sandwiches, although the boys did briefly argue (not in a heated way) that we did order the chicken. Not cool.

Stuck my finger in the honey mesquite sauce and spicy sauce topping the sandwich, though. The honey mesquite is the redder sauce to the left, and is an extremely sweet ketchup-based sauce with mustard tones. The spicy sauce is the darker sauce to the right, and is also a very sweet ketchup sauce, but less so than the mesquite sauce, and not really spicy. The spicy sauce tastes exactly like the barbecue sauce from Kraft.

Other barbecue sauces available are mild, hot, raspberry chipotle, and buffalo wing sauce. Absolutely no vinegar or light tomato sauce available on the menu, which begs the question, how did Main Line Today award Pig Out BBQ Pit "Best NC BBQ" when there are no North Carolina-style barbecue sauces at Pig Out?If getting served chicken wasn't bad enough, the corn muffins are the kind you buy from Costco -- very little corn meal and dessert-like sweet. Does any one eat these things, outside of business meetings and desperation?
Does that mac and cheese look gluey? It is. And bland and a little chewy. And unbelievably, it's not the worst mac and cheese I've ever had. It's barely passable, though.
I laughed when my partner ordered the twice baked potato with cheddar, but this small, limp potato was the best thing we ordered. It's kinda hard to mess up a potato (well, you can under cook it) with cheese on top.
The creamy and sweet coleslaw tasted like it came from one of those large food service containers, and I wouldn't be surprised if it did.
And this is what we left behind. We ate the twice baked potato because it was the best thing, and we ate the mac and cheese and a few bites of the coleslaw because we were starving.

Needless to say, I was very upset with driving out to Glen Mills and not getting to try the veggie bbq, but I was even more upset about the sides. The Costco muffin (or what ever brand it is) is just unforgivable. What we could eat of our meal was comparable to a meal in a school cafeteria.
I never got the veggie bbq sandwich I originally wanted, and thought the review would be incomplete without trying one, so called the West Chester location first to see if it was available before trekking out there. It was, so we headed out thattaway.

This time the owner was at the helm of the register in West Chester, and was much more engaging and, well, intelligent than the two hapless boys at the Glenn Mills location. The owner asked for our feedback on the vegetarian bbq sandwich and vegetarian spicy chicken sandwich, since he's never tasted them.

What? Shouldn't you taste what you serve?The vegetarian bbq sandwich is made of a shredded dark "beef" that my partner said had a brisket-like taste. We got the hot bbq sauce since the spicy was not to our liking. The hot bbq sauce is still a sweet ketchup-based sauce, but actually is spicy (hotheads will think it's not hot, wimps will think it's hot), and is the better of the three sauces we sampled.

Sandwiches are served on a soft hoagie roll, which suits the fillings fine. I know this is hoagie territory, but hoagie rolls are not the best bread for all sandwiches. A soft hamburger bun would do nicely here, providing less bread and a more authentic Southern barbecue experience if that's what Pig Out is aiming for.
Same sauce and same roll for the vegetarian spicy chicken sandwich, but the veggie meat is lighter and has breading on it, from, I assume, when it was a whole breaded chicken patty or nugget before it was shredded. The breading soaked up the sauce and became this weird, gunky, saucy substance.

If you have to go vegetarian, get the veggie bbq sandwich and skip the veggie chicken. (And I did tell the owner that the veggie bbq sandwich was better than the veggie chicken, and that the breading on the chicken was weird.)
We also tried the potato salad, since we missed it the first go round. Very creamy (almost soupy) and very sweet...just like from a large food service container! Now, I'd hate to call the potato salad and coleslaw food service items, if they're not, but I've never tasted coleslaw or potato salad that tasted like these except for when they did come from a food service container.

The vegetarian sandwiches are decent, although nothing you couldn't make at home with some soy meat, a hoagie roll, and a bottle of barbecue sauce. The gesture to the vegetarian community is nice, though.

Of course, the true testament to a barbecue joint is the real meat, but I can't speak to that. For me though, the true testament are the sides, and Pig Out failed miserably. Obviously they don't think it's worth the effort to make all of the sides from scratch, but it makes a world of difference. And it's easy, too. Well, maybe not as easy as buying from Costco.

Gordon Ramsay, are you out there? Pig Out needs you.

Pig Out BBQ Pit
138 Glen Mills Rd, Glen Mills, PA 19342
610-361-8200
Sun-Thurs, 11am-8pm
Fri-Sat, 11am-9pm

134 E. Gay St., West Chester, PA 19380
484-887-8107
Sun-Wed, 11am-8pm
Thurs-Sat, 11am-9pm

Athena's Silverland Dessert Collection, Part III

Part III! Sorry it's been a slow few days. I had my graduation party yesterday, so that took up my day.

Anyhow, I still had time to come home and try some brownies and dessert bars. I had another selection of three, both room temperature and warm. I was pretty pleased with today's bunch, but mixed with some.

The first bar I tried made me a little sad. I was most excited to try this brownie, the Alpine White Chocolate, but it fell extremely short of my expectations. I'd never tried a white chocolate brownie and had no idea that such a thing was possible. I didn't really know people were capable of making baked goods with white chocolate, so it fascinated me.

The bar was very dense and very greasy. It was too thick and tasted not of white chocolate or even vanilla, but shortening and butter. There were very little chocolate chips spread around, giving it a very bland and flavorless aroma and taste. There were supposed to be white chocolate shavings on it, but none that I tasted of.

I didn't enjoy this brownie, but I really wanted to. I ate the whole thing, trying it in the fridge, warmed up, at room temperature, but it didn't cut it at all. It's a shame, because everything else was really excellent.

3/10- HM.

The next bar I tried was the English Toffee Crunch. I liked this bar. It was very similar to the chocolate toffee, but much tastier and more toffee-ee. If that makes any remote sense. It had a crunchy exterior, like a Skor bar, and a buttery bottom crust.

Microwaving this is not advisable. It melted and stuck to my teeth. Still tasted great, but was sticky. Got chewy, and then brittle. I liked the flavor. If I had to make any improvement to it, it would be to put in more chocolate. There was a drizzle, but if there was a layer of fudge or chocolate chips, it would have been absolutely sublime.

6/10- GOOD

The last flavor for today was the Snickerdoodle flavor. I think it was a little misnamed, because "snickerdoodle" usually refers to those cookies and flavors of that nature that involve cinnamon, sugar, and spices in the cookie, like a souped-up sugar cookie. This was more of a Snickers bar flavor, but I'm guessing the company made a narrow save in avoiding any copyright infringement.

Name aside, this was an excellent brownie. Truly. There was a thick, thick ribbon of caramel all over the brownie, topped with the halves of salty peanuts. I love the juxtaposition, if I might use such a pretentious term, of salty and sweet. The caramel was nice and firm, and abundant all over the brownie. The firmness of the caramel made a nice contrast to the gooiness of the brownie, and the salted peanuts were just divine. I liked how they were in pieces and halves, instead of larger chunks, or ground up. It seemed to be the perfect consistency to have as a good blend, instead of overpowering or fading away. Didn't notice any peanut butter chips, though. Still good.
9/10- AMAZING

Wrigley 5 Gum Solstice

While shopping for a baby shower gift for some friends, this new Solstice gum caught my eye, and I couldn't resist. From the name, I couldn't really tell what the flavor would be, but it certainly looked cool.

In fact, the packaging really drew me in. It's not that different from the normal 5 Gum packaging, but the swirls look pretty. Also, I love the color of the wrappers, which you can see in the next picture.


As soon as I took off the shrink wrap, there was a really strong wintergreen scent. The gum was a bit milder than it smelled, but had a very strong cooling sensation. The sharpness of the wintergreen was toned down by a subtle sweetness that I couldn't place.

The gum was pleasant and minty, and the sweetness was a nice twist on the usual wintergreen. The flavor lasted at least 20 minutes, though the cooling effect did subside over time.

B+

5 Gum website

Athena's Silverland Dessert Collection, Part II

Here's the next selection of bars from Athena's Silverland Desserts. I've been slowly nibbling away at them, little by little, and they're just fantastic. I ate three flavors of bars today, and I am full and bloated, but for you readers, I'd do anything. ;)

I started out by trying a 7-layer bar, also called a magic cookie bar. That's how I've always known them to be, magic cookie bars. They're bars with a graham cracker crust base, condensed milk, nuts, chocolate, walnuts, and coconut. I don't actually think there are seven layers, just seven ingredients. They're prepared in layers, though.

This particular bar had a nice, chewy coconutty flavor, with the addition of butterscotch chips with the chocolate. My mother doesn't like to put butterscotch chips in her bars because she thinks they're too sweet, so growing up, I never had the luxury of trying the bars with butterscotch. It's fantastic. I love how the butterscotch adds a salty bite to the bar and gives it a slightly richer taste.

The bar itself wasn't dry, but the coconut was a little flaky and fell off in parts. I could not taste any nuts, but the graham cracker crust was moist and buttery. Warm, it melted in my mouth. The bar was tasty and very rich.
7/10- WONDERFUL

I also tried the chocolate toffee crunch. This brownie was chilled in the fridge for whatever reason, so I let it sit a while at room temperature and get a little warmer. The brownie base was good, a nice, chewy, almost fudgie brownie, but there was very little toffee to see on the brownie. I couldn't taste much within the interior, either. My mother said that she felt as though the brownie was undercooked, but I thought it was perfect

The toffee that I did taste reminded me less of toffee than it did caramel, and it wasn't very noticeable. It was overpowered by the chocolate, which was good, but didn't balance well regarding the ratio of chocolate to toffee. I would have preferred to see a layer of toffee, or perhaps hard toffee pieces, because it said it was a toffee crunch, but there was no crunch to speak of.

5/10- OKAY

The last brownie I tried for today was the hopscotch bar, and I'm a little confused about it. Looking on the website for the description, I saw no notice whatsoever of the hopscotch bar. There wasn't any product description or photo for it, and nothing came up when I searched, either. I'm thinking hopscotch might be a cute nomiker for their blondies, which is the closest thing that came up for me.

Either way, it was a good bar. It had lots of chunks in it, and lots of goodies- chocolate chips, butterscotch, and walnuts, on a blonde brownie base. The texture was very rough, but it provided a nice contrast to the smoother flavors I'd been having. The walnuts were big in the flavor department here, and went very well with the vanilla-flavoring in the base.

6/10- TASTY

Again, excellent selection! See you tomorrow for Part III of the bar reviews! I have some backed up reviews for you, too, including Mia's Mallows, Barker Chocolate Box, and Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M's!

Cappucino Brownies

Gosh, I think it's been over a year since I've made brownies...and that's just not right.

When I saw the recipe in July's issue of Bon Appetit for cappuccino brownies -- those are brownies flavored with coffee, topped with white chocolate, and sprinkled with cinnamon -- it spoke to me. The white chocolate and cinnamon mimic the frothy top of a cappuccino. Isn't that cute.

Normally, I'm a believer in plain-Jane brownies, but, seriously, I won't deny any fancy-pants brownies that would like to fly into my mouth.

And before you white chocolate snobs dismiss these brownies, just get over yourselves already. White chocolate adds a nice, concentrated, sweet umpf to desserts. Here, it's like frosting, but white chocolate.

Cappucino Brownies
adapted from Bon Appetit
makes about 16 2"x2" brownies

*I had to bake these brownies for about 15 minutes longer than the suggested baking time, so do check on your batch.
*These are fudgy, soft brownies. With the warm weather, I enjoyed these much better refrigerated. Even frozen, they were soft enough to eat.
*These are also rich, sweet brownies. I cut these in half (not pictured) after my initial divvying, because they were a bit too much. Yep, I'm getting old.

Brownies
nonstick vegetable oil spay
1/2 cup butter, diced
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (I subbed 2-3 tablespoons instant coffee powder)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all purpose flour

• Line 8"x8" baking pan with tin foil, leaving overhang on two sides. Repeat with another piece of foil in the opposite direction. Spray foil with nonstick spray.
• Over very low heat, stir together butter and chocolate in a large saucepan until melted.
• Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, then eggs, one at a time. Stir in espresso powder, vanilla, and salt. Stir in flour, and transfer batter to pan.
• Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for about 35 minutes, or until puffed and dry-looking and a tester inserted in the center comes out with some moist batter. Cool completely before icing.
  

White Chocolate Ganache
6 ounces white chocolate, chopped
5 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

• Place white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.
• Bring cream to a simmer in a saucepan, then pour cream over white chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted. If needed, microwave on low in 10-second intervals until white chocolate is melted.
• Chill for about 25 minutes, or until ganache is slightly thickened but still pourable.
• Lift brownies from pan, turning out onto a work surface, and remove foil.
  
• Pour ganache onto center of brownies, and spread to the edges. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
• Chill until ganache is set, about 2 hours, then cut into pieces.