Malt-O-Meal Blueberry Muffin Tops Cereal

Do yourself a favor, drop whatever your doing right now, and go get a bag of Blueberry Muffin Tops. You'll thank me later.

Blueberry muffin tops is Malt-o-meal's magnum opus, and can just as well be eaten with or without milk. Eat them out of the bag, pour them over your face, or dump them on Ice cream, whatever creation you can dream up, I promise you that you won't be let down. Versatile, delicious and layered in sugar, what more could you ask for? I don't know, but If you ask me, Blueberry Muffin Tops should be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, because they are quite literally, Rockin!. Imagine if you can a cereal that uses REAL blueberry muffins in every delicious morsel and you've come close to the magnificence that is Blueberry Muffin Tops. A bowl full of Blueberry Muffin Tops will keep those stomach pangs at bay, and should keep you snaking happy throughout the day. Despite this, the only real pitfall I can think of is it's lack of availability, but like a diamond in the rough, you can't keep a good thing hidden forever. So even it takes a few phone calls to your local grocers, believe me, it's worth the search.

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Carl's Jr. Charbroiled Steak Sandwich

Much like reality television, it seems this fast-food steak phenomenon isn't going away any time soon. You've got Angus, you've got Sirloin, and I'm sure somewhere in someone's R&D department, will be the Porterhouse Burger. But in the meantime we have Carl's latest incarnation, the Charbroiled Steak *Sandwich*. They wisely made sure to include that last word to let us know this is not in the burger vein, as it features a long, hoagie style roll. This would indicate we're probably going to be looking at an elongated steak patty as our main attraction, and I must say, it came off tasty enough...for having tomatoes and mayonnaise underneath it! That was a first for me, in all the steak'wiches I've had. Usually it's A-1 with some onions or something. Though they did wisely include some onion rings (natch) which gave it a good balance. And the steak had that perfect toughness that you really have to gnash through. But, alas, (even sans the mayo and tomato additions), the biggest thing that will keep me from requesting another one of these at the speakerbox: the price. $4.69 for something as filling as a Famous Star?? Steak, sure, but it better be the size of a Six Dollar monster for that amount of dead presidents. And flavor-wise for that price...well, let's just say the $5.69 for a Guacamole Six Dollar Burger is justified.

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Golden Grahams

I have a few trusty breakfast cereals that I always eat, but recently I got adventurous and bought a box of Golden Grahams. I don’t recall having ever eaten it, but it looked like a cereal that I would enjoy. I was not impressed by the taste of the cereal, having expected a stronger graham flavor and more sweetness. I also found that the cereal got soggy in the milk too quickly. Just to be confident in my conclusions, I also tried it my second favorite way of eating breakfast cereal – straight out of the box. Again, I didn’t like it all that much. Soggy, mediocre-tasting cereal makes a poor breakfast (or lunch, or dinner…), so I guess I’ll have to continue looking for a new cereal to add to my cupboard.

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Land O’ Lakes Spreadable Butter

A while back, I decided to switch from margarine to real butter for using on bread, toast, waffles, etc. I figured that I didn’t really eat that much of it (at least not as much as Homer Simpson) and it probably wouldn’t kill me if I enjoyed real, creamy, butter. I quickly realized that margarine has one advantage over butter – spreadability. Straight out of the refrigerator, the butter was too hard to spread, resulting in mangled waffles, ripped pancakes, and much frustration. One day, I noticed an item in the supermarket that I previously hadn’t paid much attention to: spreadable butter. My dilemma had been solved! Land O’ Lakes adds a little bit of canola oil to their butter, which makes it easy to spread right out of the refrigerator. If the canola oil adds any flavor to the butter, I really can’t taste it. There are other brands of spreadable butter out there, but be careful. I tried a competing brand that was much too soft and melted quickly when out of the refrigerator.

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Doritos Collisions Pizza Cravers and Ranch

I’ve met some people who like to dip their pizza in ranch dressing. Although I love both pizza and ranch dressing, I tried the combination one time and didn’t really like the result. Doritos thinks that pizza and ranch make a good combination and have brought the idea to their line of Doritos Collisions, which combines Pizza Cravers and Ranch-flavored tortilla chips. Doritos Ranch have been around for years, but I don’t remember ever seeing Pizza Cravers. I realize that it is probably very difficult to put all the flavor of pizza onto a tortilla chip, but Doritos just didn’t do a very good job with Pizza Cravers. The flavor is unremarkable and generic and doesn’t really taste much like pizza. To me, it tasted more like a taco flavor. I can’t recommend Collisions Pizza Cravers and Ranch, but luckily there are many other great Doritos flavors to satisfy your chip cravings.

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Carl’s Jr. Big Country Breakfast Burrito

Carl’s Jr. has done a pretty good job of making hearty breakfast food, and their latest attempt is the Big Country Breakfast Burrito. It sounds delicious, even heavenly, on paper: eggs, sausage, ham, bacon, hash brown nuggets, shredded jack and cheddar cheeses, and sausage gravy in a flour tortilla. It reality, the burrito is much too small to contain all of these ingredients effectively. What I tasted was mostly eggs and gravy with some added saltiness from the sausage/ham/bacon. The hash brown nuggets were hard to detect (and they had become very soggy), and if there was any cheese in my burrito, I sure couldn’t see or taste it. If you want a good breakfast at Carl’s Jr., I recommend the much superior Monster Breakfast Sandwich.

As an aside, the Big Country Breakfast Burrito is perhaps the most blatant example that I have seen of the actual product having almost no resemblance to the company’s advertising image. This is nothing new and I’ve always been turned off by it, but the Big Country Burrito takes it to a new level. If a company can’t show a reasonably realistic image of their product, this should be a concern to them. Alas, it doesn’t seem to be.

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Kit Kat Extra Crispy

I like Kit Kat candy bars so much that I named one of my cats Kit Kat. I’ve always thought that the best part of the Kit Kat candy bar is the crispy wafers. They are what make the candy bar so delicious and are a perfect complement to the milk chocolate coating. I was in heaven when I recently ate a Kit Kat Extra Crispy, because it has twice the number of crispy wafers. The wafers themselves aren’t more crispy (now there’s a new product idea, Hershey. You’re welcome…), there are just more of them to enjoy. The additional wafers make this candy bar even better than the original Kit Kat, in my opinion. Kit Kat lovers like me may find this Wikipedia entry interesting, as it lists dozens of Kit Kat varieties sold around the world, including delicious flavors like azuki bean, wa guri, and hascapp.

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Bob Evans Sausage Gravy & Biscuits

A few years back, I was on a business trip in Ohio and ate at Bob Evans. I was surprised to see a bowl of sausage gravy on the menu. I live in California, and it’s common to see biscuits with gravy on a menu. But I had never seen an entire bowl of gravy on a menu. I ordered it, of course, and ate it like an Ohioan would. I recently found Bob Evans products in the frozen food section of my supermarket. Now, I can enjoy Bob Evans sausage gravy and biscuits whenever I want. The gravy is very tasty, with lots of pieces of sausage. I thought that the gravy should have been thicker, but this is just a personal preference. I was less impressed with the biscuits, which didn’t have the tenderness and flakiness that a biscuit should have. I cooked the biscuits in the microwave according to the directions in order to save time. They probably would have tasted much better if I had cooked them in the oven. With the nearest Bob Evans being over halfway across the country from me, their frozen gravy and biscuits will do until I once again have the pleasure of ordering a bowl of gravy in one of their restaurants.

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Taco Bell Triple Steak Burrito

If you haven't already had a Triple Steak Burrito, get yourself to the nearest Taco Bell and get one as soon as you can! It is, without a doubt, the best tasting item I've ever had at Taco Bell. When they said triple steak, they really meant it. This burrito is very big and full of delicious steak. It also has cheese, rice, and sour cream, but there's not a lot of these to get in the way of the generous amount of steak you get in every bite. The fire roasted salsa – slightly smoky with a little heat - is delicious and is what makes the burrito stand out from the other items on the menu. I paid $3.99 for the burrito here is Sacramento, California, which is a lot higher than other items on the menu. However, it is worth every penny and I'll gladly buy it again. The Triple Steak Burrito is only available for a limited time (let's hope they make it a regular menu item...), so get one before they are gone.

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Taco Rack

If you enjoy making tacos at home, the Taco Rack is a tool worth considering. It keeps your taco shells upright when you cook them in the oven, which prevents the shells from closing in when you bake them on their sides. When taken out of the oven, the upright shells are easy to fill with your favorite fillings and toppings. I used a Taco Rack recently to make some tacos at home and found that it worked as advertised. The rack itself if made in the USA from stainless steel and looks like it would last a lifetime. Check out the Taco Rack web site to see the several different versions they make. My only minor quibble with Taco Rack is how expensive it is. I’m sure that being made in the USA is probably the reason why, but still, twenty bucks for a couple pieces of metal seems awfully high to me.

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Budweiser American Ale

Phoood Haiku:

I bought a six pack
The King of Beers, a new ale
What was I thinking?




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Freschetta PizzAmoré Pepperoni Duo

My favorite food is pizza, but I’m not a pizza snob. I like just about any type, including frozen pizzas and the stuff you find in cafeterias. Freschetta has a new line of frozen pizzas called PizzAmoré, and I recently tried the Pepperoni Duo variety for the first time. There are a few things about this pizza that supposedly set it apart from others. First, the pizza is cooked in a plastic tray, which is designed to cook the crust evenly and so that it is crispy from the center to the edge. Second, the pizza is pre-sliced for the truly lazy who don’t want to bother with getting the pizza cutter out of the drawer. The cooking tray didn’t work as advertised. In fact, the pizza had one of the limpest crusts I’ve ever had on a frozen pizza. The pre-slicing is a nice gimmick, but I actually enjoy slicing up my own pie. The taste of the pizza was pretty forgettable. Not bad, but there are definitely better frozen pizzas on the market, such as DiGiorno and California Pizza Kitchen. Take my advice and go with one of those rather than PizzAmoré.

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Claim Jumper Chicken Fried Beef Steak

Those who have had the opportunity to eat at a Claim Jumper restaurant know that they are known for extremely large portions of food. My last visit to Claim Jumper was one of the few times in my life where I left with a doggie bag. I simply could not eat all of my dinner, Country Fried Steak. Eating way too many appetizers may have had something to do with this, but it’s still a rare occasion that I leave food on the plate. Claim Jumper also has a line of frozen entrees that are sold in grocery stores. I recently tried the Chicken Fried Beef Steak, which included mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn on the cob. Both the meat and mashed potatoes were very tasty, and the gravy was pretty good too considering it came from a plastic pouch. The meat, however, did not have any crispiness at all (and I cooked it in an oven rather than a microwave). This is one of the best things about chicken fried steak and I really missed it. The meal was also smaller than I thought it would be, given the Claim Jumper name. Overall, it is a pretty good meal but those with big appetites may want to eat two of them – or just go to a Claim Jumper restaurant instead.

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Pizza Crepe Taco Pancake Chili Bag

You may have already seen this. If not, enjoy!

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Burger King Cheesy Tots

I recently tried the Burger King’s Cheesy Tots. Officially, they are on the breakfast menu but I think they serve them any time as I bought them after they stopped serving breakfast. These cheese-filled tater tots are a great idea but fall short in a few ways. They are kind of small, and they aren’t shaped like most tater tots. They resemble a traditional tater tot that has been pressed from both ends. Not that this makes much difference in how they taste, but they just look odd to me. Also, there isn’t really much cheese in them, and the cheese tastes low quality. The texture isn’t as good as a regular tater tot, either. Cheesy Tots aren’t as crunchy and tend to fall apart easily. I’m a big fan of both tater tots and cheese, but Burger King’s combination of the two doesn’t work as well as I would hope. I’ll stick with fries to go along with my burger.

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Del Taco Big Fat Taco

It’s too bad that Del Taco isn’t as popular as their main competitor, Taco Bell. Del Taco has an interesting menu with a number of very tasty items. For those with diverse fast food cravings, you can get a burger, fries (crinkle cut!), and a shake to go along with your taco and burrito. Their Big Fat Tacos are the best tasting item I’ve eaten at Del Taco, and may be better than just about anything on Taco Bell’s menu. You have a choice of chicken or steak, both of which are juicy and well seasoned. Instead of a regular tortilla, the tacos are made using “taco bread,” which I guess is similar to the flatbread used in a Taco Bell Gordita. The taco bread is delicious – much better than a boring old tortilla. So, have an open mind and think outside The Bell. There are a lot of reasons to like Del Taco, and my number one reason is the Big Fat Taco.

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Budweiser Chill Chamber

The concept here is to serve good ole' Budweiser products (Bud, Bud Lite, Bud Select) at a temperature below usual freezing temperature - so your beer is more than ice cold. The creators (Anheuser-Busch and Hussman Refrigeration) say chilling the beer to 22F (-5.5C) is possible through a new "sophisticated cooling system". I don't know enough about physics to figure out how this happens, but I do know that this is the first time I've been able to drink a 22 ouncer and not have it taste like warm yak spit by the time I'm finished. On first opening, the beer really is noticeably colder and crisper. Those of you with sensitive teeth will feel some pain. Also, slamming one of these does result in a mild ice-cream headache. Fortunately, the can isn't cold enough to freeze your lips to the mouth of the bottle when you drink (though, I have to admit, I tried to get that result.) The local bar with this setup charges $6 a bottle for this, so the economy is good (they charge $4 for a 12 oz bud). All in all I think this is a "good" thing.

Postscript: About 3 months after I originally wrote the above words, I ran into a rather drunk Anheuser-Busch sales rep hovering around the Chill Chamber. He told me rather frankly that "It's all a big marketing gimmick." - Basically a response to the Coors "cold bottle turns blue" thing. He elaborated by saying that "any major American Brewery is gonna admit that their beer tastes like crap at anything above 40F. This helps... but its still all just branding." Interesting. Still, I give this a "good" because I like Budweiser... and if I can save some coin by buying a larger bottle without ending up drinking 10 ounces of warm backwash at the end, I'm happy.

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Phoood Hall of Fame: Jack in the Box Ultimate Cheeseburger

Jack in the Box’s Ultimate Cheeseburger is in the Phoood Hall of Fame for several reasons. First, it’s an extremely tasty burger. Second, it has been on the menu for about as long as I can remember and has been consistently good the entire time. Third, I don’t have to pick off the rabbit food (otherwise known as lettuce, pickles, onion, tomato etc.) like I have to with most other burgers. Sure, other fast food restaurants have their own version of the double cheeseburger, but none come close to the Ultimate Cheeseburger. Maybe it’s because the others try too hard, while the Ultimate Cheeseburger keeps it simple with a perfect combination of meat, American and Swiss cheeses, and condiments. Jack must have been reading my mind when he thought up this burger, because it has exactly what I want and none of what I don’t want. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Beer Chips

It was only a matter of time until someone got the ingenious idea to combine beer and potato chips into one snack. Beer Chips start with a very tasty, thick, crispy, kettle-style chip that would, no doubt, taste great even without any flavoring. Then, sugar, salt, honey, and beer are sprinkled on them. Eating them, you don’t really get the impression that they are covered with beer. Instead, you taste some sweetness and some maltiness that may remind you of a quality beer. It’s a unique flavor that I really enjoy. Those who like beer will probably like the taste of Beer Chips, and even those who aren’t beer drinkers will probably enjoy them too because of the mild beer flavor they have. Don’t worry about eating too many chips and getting tipsy – they contain no alcohol. Beer Chips have limited distribution so you may not be able to find them easily, but you can order them online at www.beerchips.com.

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Phoood Fight!: Jif vs. Skippy

One of the most hotly debated issues in America has been which peanut butter is better - Jif or Skippy. Families have been torn apart, friendships have been ended, and states have got to battle against other states. OK, I'm exaggerating just a bit. The debate hasn't been quite that intense. In a blind taste test of Jif Extra Crunch versus Skippy SuperChunk, I found that the two are extremely similar in most ways. Both have a great peanut flavor and lots of peanut pieces. Skippy has a creamier texture, and Jif has more and larger peanut pieces. Both of them would make a mighty tasty PB&J sandwich, but my preference of the two is Jif. Compared to Skippy, it has a more pronounced peanut flavor and a texture that I prefer. Interestingly, my grandmother recently told me that she raised her seven children on Jif peanut butter. That may be one of the reasons I prefer it - it's in my genes.

Winner: Jif Extra Crunch

Hot Pockets Pepperoni & Three Cheese Calzone

How good can a frozen meal cooked in the microwave taste? When you only have three minutes to heat something up, you could certainly do much worse than Hot Pockets Pepperoni & Three Cheese Calzone. At 8.5 ounces, it’s a good size for either a large snack or a small meal. To cook it in the microwave, you use a crisping sleeve, which is supposed to give it a crispy crust. It didn’t work so well – the crust wasn’t soggy but it wasn’t very crispy either. Those crisping sleeves never really seem to work as well as advertised, do they? Anyhow, the pepperoni and cheese filling tasted good, and there was plenty of it. The herbed cheese crust was also very tasty, even if it wasn’t as crispy as I would have hoped. All in all, it’s a good choice when you want to eat in a hurry.

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Rockstar Punched

I’m not sure why, but energy drinks almost never do anything for me. I think I’m immune to the effects of caffeine, guarana, ginseng, and all the other stuff that is in them. Every now and again, I like to have one just to see if it will have any effect on me. I recently drank a Rockstar Punched, which tropical punch flavored. I really liked the flavor of it, mostly because it didn’t have any of that odd “energy drink” flavor (I’m not sure how else to describe it…) that energy drinks usually have. It just tasted like a very good fruit punch. If I hadn’t have read the label, I would never have guessed that it contained 120 mg of caffeine, 1000 mg of taurine, 150 mg of ginko biloba leaf extract, and a bunch of other stuff that I’ve never heard of. And it’s effect on my body? Nothing. Oh well, maybe 16 ounces just isn’t enough. Next time, I’ll drink two cans.

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Carl’s Jr. Monster Breakfast Sandwich

Carl’s Jr. gets reviewed here on Phoood a lot, not only because I tend to like their food but also because they are always coming out with something new. The folks in R&D must never sleep! They recently introduced the new Monster Breakfast Sandwich and I ate one for breakfast a few days ago. Like the name implies, the sandwich is on the large side and is perfect for people with big appetites. It has two eggs, two pieces of bacon, a sausage patty, two kinds of cheese, and toasted sourdough bread. The sandwich was tasty and big enough to fill me up, at least for a couple of hours. Actually, it may have been a little too big for it’s own good. There was a lot of eggs and cheese, which is mostly what I tasted when eating it. The poor little bacon strips were buried at the very bottom of the sandwich and were barely noticeable. Even so, this is a good breakfast sandwich that I recommend giving a try.

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Taco Bell Cheesy Double Beef Burrito

Taco Bell has a new “value” menu with a couple of new items, one of which being the Cheesy Double Beef Burrito. It’s made with ground beef, rice, nacho cheese sauce, and red sauce. Nothing fancy here, just four fillings that really go well together. The workers at TB must still be learning how to make them because all three times I’ve bought one it has been a little different. The first one had a whole lot of nacho cheese sauce and the last one was extra big, with a huge portion of ground beef. Who cares if it isn’t very consistent - at only 89 cents, it’s a real bargain. I think Taco Bell has a winner here. Hopefully, it will stay on the menu for a long time because it has quickly become one of my favorite items.

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Cheez-It Reduced Fat White Cheddar

I’ve enjoyed Cheez-It original reduced-fat crackers for years. No, they don’t taste as good as the regular ones, but I got used to eating them and really like the fact that they have 40% less fat. That means I can eat 40% more of them, right? I often wondered by they only made one lower fat variety. Why not a reduced fat white cheddar cracker? Well, they must have read my mind because now on the supermarket shelves are Cheez-It Reduced Fat White Cheddar crackers. I should have been more careful for what I wished for, because they aren’t as good as I hoped they would be. The cheese flavor is not very good. In fact, I wanted to spit out the first mouthful I ate. After my taste buds adjusted, I was able to continue eating them, but they didn’t get that much better. OK, I ended up eating the whole box, but I only did it because loyal Phoood readers deserve to know the truth. I don’t recommend that you eat a whole box.

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