Flamin' Hot Cheetos

Sometimes I just need a spicy snack to get me through a long rehearsal. The nice thing about spicy foods is the chemistry behind them. They irritate the trigenimal nerve, which is responsible for facial sensation, and endorphins are them released to help soothe it. So they keep me happy and relatively sedated, especially in times of tension. And they wake my mouth up, too!

So these Cheetos are awesome. The packaging is different from the other bags- Chester has flames shooting out of his mouth, and there's a little Element flame critter running across the bag. As far as taste goes, these are like the crunchy reincarnation of Frank's Hot Sauce. They're a nuclear orange color. They're still crunchy and, oddly enough, have about 1/3 of the residue that normal Cheetos have. There might be more oil, but less powder. I'm not sure why aside from that, but it sure is nice.

Taste-wise, these are mild. At first. Eat one or two, you'll get a tiny burn, but keep eating them, which you will do, as they are addictive, and you'll get a full-on burn in the back of your throat, front of your mouth- everywhere. There's no cheesy flavor. No barbecue. Just pure hot, and it's awesome. There's a slight aftertaste of lemon or lime, or something like that, which leads me to believe that Cheetos Limon might have just been these, or the other way around. Awesome, awesome, awesome- but potentially too hot for some.

8/10- SPICY GOOD

Twix PB

I first saw these on a commercial in maybe, 2000, 2001, where a guy took peanut butter and put it in a CD player and instead of screwing up the internal circuitry, the boom box played awesome, legume inspired tunage. I figured they were a limited edition snack and were then gone forever, but lo and behold, I found them in a local convenience store and had to try them.

These are the reincarnation of a far better snack, folks. Yes, I'm referring to the Reese's Crunchy Cookie Cup. Probably one of the best Reese's snacks, it was discontinued in 2000, never to be seen again. But in a more compact form, this is it. It's got the salty and oddly textured peanut butter that we all love, milk chocolate, and a crunchy cookie base. The cookie itself is an almost bitter chocolate that I like, reminiscent of Nabisco Famous Wafers. It cuts the saccharine sweetness of the chocolate. With normal Twix, I find that the cookie gets soggy with the caramel and doesn't crisp as much as I'd like it to.

With this bar, you get a lot more peanut butter than I would have expected, which is good. There's a certain portability that makes this better than the CCC. If Twix keeps this around, I'll be buying it again. It's really delicious and excellent for nut and cookie lovers.

Oh, and I'm back to using my own photos again!

9/10- NUTTY

Pie In The Sky

It's not too late to order a pie for Thanksgiving from MANNA during their 13th anniversary Pie in the Sky fundraser. With every single pie sold, MANNA, a Philadelphia area organization that prepares and delivers meals to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, is able to deliver six prepared meals to those in need.

Last year we ordered MANNA's sweet potato pie through my partner's office, a company that also allows him to take off work and volunteer preparing meals for MANNA a few times a year.

And how is MANNA's pie? Seriously good! I can vividly remember savoring each silky bite of sweet potato pie and thinking, "This might be one of the best sweet potato pies I've ever eaten."

Order one of MANNA's five varieties of pie by November 20.
Pick up is November 24 at one of over 40 Philadelphia and surrounding area locations.

New layout and improvements...

Finally, someone sent me an email regarding the site's content and personal issues that they have with the site. Although this person did mention that they will not be returning to the website for a few reasons, I have some announcements to make for all my other readers.

1. I am looking into getting my own domain, www.foodette-reviews.com, and have a donation button up for raising money to purchase it until I can get it myself, and will be doing some of the layout design myself to avoid using all the default stuff. I might need some help with this as I am very busy, but you can expect to see this up by this summer.

2. I am also changing up the rating system. The scales will still be out of ten, but will be similar to Gigi's format, with an image and rating corresponding to the scale. For now, I realize the fraction is pedantic, but it will stay until the new one comes up.

3. I have taken off the OpenID/sign in format for commenting, and I expect it to be followed and not abused. I had the settings on from another personal blog and never took them off, but now realize what a hassle it is to comment especially if you're only interested in saying a few words. Too many bells and whistles. But with great power comes great responsibility. Don't fuck around in the comments, minions!

That's it for now. Expect more photos, more reviews, and more fun!

Foodette

Arizona Mango Iced Tea (Half and Half)

I drank this on a 14-hour work day to see how well it would hydrate and sustain me while doing hard manual labor in a scene shop, as I am in an upcoming production of Sweeney Todd.

The result? A really tasty drink that carries the best of both specific beverages- Arizona's regular iced tea and their mango juice- without the bad stuff.

The best part of the mango juice is the nectar-like texture that goes down your throat, almost a thicker, lassi-like depth to it, but sometimes gets sticky in the back of the throat and all the sugar tends to dry you out. The syrupy texture is cut by the tea's watery texture, and the bitterness of the tea is sweetened by the mango. It's a really perfect drink.

8/10- LOVELY

Doritos Smokin' Cheddar BBQ

I cannot be the only one who is absolutely delighted that these are back! I thought they'd disappeared forever, going back to the realms of guacamole and X-13D. These were a promotion a while back, butting heads with the less tasty White Cheddar. For a while, they left, and are now back under another promotion, the likes of which I cannot ascertain.

They're really spicy for a cheese and BBQ flavor. The flavor is overwhelmingly barbecue-based but has a really nice spice at the end, like a cayenne flavor to it. And the heat definitely lingers! The cheese is definitely less felt, but gives a creamy and rounded flavor to the chip as a whole. I'm not sure I'd be able to distinguish a particularly "cheddar-y" flavor, though.

All the chips in my bag were whole and unbroken and were really crunchy and fresh. There is a healthy dose of powder on each chip, as opposed to some of the regular flavors. Frito-Lay has gotten really lazy with those. But these pop in my mouth and are really tasty. An excellent snack. I'd love to make nachos with these or eat them with pulled pork. They seem really versatile for other flavors, too.

9/10- AWESOME

Ocean Spray 100% Juice

This is a tasty juice that I like to drink when I'm sick. The reason I buy it over a cranberry juice cocktail is because it's so much more fresh and hydrating than the latter. The added sugar in a juice cocktail really sticks in the throat and tends to dry you out, hydrating much less than you want!

This particular juice is really excellent, carrying a massive boost of antioxidants and flavorful berries. It's not actually 100% cranberry juice, they've worded it very carefully. It's 100% "juice," flavored with grape and apple juice as well as cranberry, but if you served me this and a full-on cranberry in a blind taste test, I honestly couldn't tell the difference. It's completely cranberry flavored and completely delicious.

8/10- DELIGHTFUL