Hatch Chile Cheddar Popcorn

Remember when I said I was going to try to catch up on all the outstanding posts when I was sick? Yeah, me too. That didn't happen. But hopefully, with less than 4 months until the end of the year (how is that so soon?!), I can pick up the pace a little bit.

First up, this hatch chile cheddar seasoned popcorn from Trader Joe's. The ingredients list there had nothing surprising - just popcorn, sunflower oil, cheddar, and spices that included green bell pepper powder, hatch chile pepper powder, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Overall, we thought it was fine. Tasted a little bit like cheddar, a very light hint of spice, but the flavors weren't very strong (and not because I was getting over being sick). We've definitely had better hatch chile products from Trader Joe's (like the mac and cheese), so it was just okay for us.

Buy again? Not for us.

Week 42 - Microwave

I make a lot of food in the microwave, so for the microwave challenge, I tried to think of something I hadn't made before that could be fully made in the microwave. I kept seeing mug cakes on Instagram, and somehow still hadn't made one, so that was perfect for this challenge. I pulled up a recipe for a vegan snickerdoodle mug cake from A Virtual Vegan, and hoped for the best!

Since I didn't know how the ingredients would respond to an attempt to bake in the microwave, I tried to stick closely to the recipe with only minor modifications. The ingredients I used were:

- 1.5 tbsp mixed nut butter ($0.37)

- just under 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.05)

- 4 tbsp vanilla soy milk ($0.07)

- 3 tbsp sugar ($0.18)

- 6 tbsp all purpose flour ($0.07)

- about 1/4 tsp baking soda ($0.02)

- pinch of salt ($0.02)

- 1 tsp or so of ground cinnamon, divided ($0.08)

Not all of the measurements were exact. Some, like the cinnamon, I just added without measuring because it didn't matter if we had a little more, and others we couldn't be as precise because our teaspoons didn't go by quarters at the time. This mug cake snack cost about $0.86, which was great for a snack, and I was happy to see the low cost since a single serving cake really shouldn't cost very much.

Putting together the mug cake was relatively easy. The first step was to mix up the nut butter, vanilla extract, milk, and sugar, making sure to break up the nut butter as much as possible. Then everything else got added into the mug and stirred together. (Most of the cinnamon went into the cake, with just a little bit kept for sprinkling on top.) The instructions said to not over-mix, and to just stir until there was no more dry flour, but that took me a while.

The mug went into the microwave uncovered, and I took the recommendation to put it on a small plate in case of overflow. (It didn't even reach the top, so I guess I didn't need to worry.) It's been many months since I made this (so behind on challenge posts that it was still a few months later when I wrote the initial draft), but I think I cooked it in the microwave for about 60-75 seconds. It's ready when it's fluffy and puffed up, so I might have microwaved it a little too long since it didn't puff up as much as I was expecting it to and I kept trying to see if it would rise more. A little sprinkle of cinnamon on top, and it was done!

This was a fun afternoon experiment, and I could definitely see myself making a mug cake again. Often, I'll just get a craving for cookies or brownies or cake, and it's too late or too much effort to make one from scratch, so a single-serving mug cake would be perfect for those situations. Thankful for easy microwave snacks!

Saddle Potato Crisps

One of the new snacks at Trader Joe's this summer was the sea salted saddle potato crisps ($1.49). Made from potato, sunflower oil, corn meal, rice flour, sea salt, and other corn products, they looked like the TJ's answer to Pringles, even using the same type of container.

We don't really have much to say about these. They were fine, but kind of boring, especially since they only came in the plain sea salt flavor. A liked them more than I did, but wasn't very excited about them since he usually prefers flavored Pringles. I do too, but I also thought regular Pringles tasted better than these and had a better crunch/texture to them. The photo on the TJ's blog (which we looked at after finishing the crisps) topped them with salsa, cheese, and cilantro, and while that does look tasty, you could do that with any type of chips, and I'm not sure how much these crisps would really add to that combo. Nothing necessarily wrong with these, but the most interesting thing about them was the package illustration.

Buy again? No, not for us.

Chicken Chips

We were on a Whole Foods trip a while back looking at snacks and happened upon something we had never seen before but sounded interesting -- chicken chips. Something like cracklings came to mind, but we weren't really sure how chicken would turn into the somewhat more uniform and traditional looking chips in the package photo. They were supposed to be chicken mixed with tapioca flour and crisped in coconut oil, which sounded good but we weren't sure how they would taste. They weren't cheap snacks, but they were on sale if we remember correctly, so we figured why not give them a try? A pretty much eats anything and has a list that he can count on one hand of foods he really dislikes and won't choose to eat again, so trying new things is usually not an issue from a potential food waste perspective.

We got the barbecue flavor because that's one of my favorite chip flavors, and then promptly added the bag to our pantry where it sat until its recent best by date. We opened it up, noted that the chips were far from uniform in shape, much thinner in texture than we expected (sort of like a really light and airy Lay's potato chip), and then each grabbed a few to try them out. I don't know how to describe exactly what our expressions were, but we did not like these at all. The taste of the barbecue flavoring was fine, and it tasted like the barbecue seasoning on many other chips, but there was something about the chip itself that was a bit off-putting. There was some really funky and weird aftertaste that in taste form reminded me of the smell of a certain cleaning solution that usually makes me want to vomit. I wasn't expecting this at all, because there are so many reviews talking about how delicious these chips are. Is this like the people who think cilantro tastes like soap, and maybe only some of us get the odd aftertaste? Would they taste different or better if we had eaten them earlier? (Maybe they would be fresher, but they really should have lasted until their best by date.) What was wrong with our bag of chips that all the people raving about deliciousness didn't get?

We tried to eat more of the chips so our money wouldn't go to waste. We really did. I made it through three chips before tossing the rest of my handful, and A put in a valiant effort, eating much more than I did, but in the end, we just could not finish it. I don't doubt that some people genuinely like these though based on the reviews, so it may be that it's just not for us. Since it does seem to have a "unique" flavor, perhaps the best option is to try them from a place with a Trader Joe's-like return policy of taking back things you don't like, just in case you're like us and not like all the other reviewers who were very happy with them. I'd love to figure out what about them caused this reaction in us (so we can make smarter snack decisions in the future), but with so many snacks competing for our attention, we're not going to experiment some more.

3 Seed Beet Crackers

We picked up these 3 seed beet crackers from Trader Joe's months ago, but only got around to finishing them this month. We love beets, so we were excited to try them (when we finally got around to it after moving). When we first ate them though, our first thought was that we wouldn't have really known they were beet crackers if not for the name, as they just tasted like small tortilla chips.

We were expecting crackers with earthy beet flavors, but that's probably because we didn't read the ingredients that carefully. The first ingredient was white corn, and the crackers also had black sesame seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, and a couple of seasonings. Beets were the third ingredient, but even then it was only beet powder, which we usually see mostly as a coloring. No wonder they tasted a bit like tortilla chips. They weren't bad, but we were expecting something more distinctive since they were supposedly made with beets. They were just good crackers/chips, and worked well with the hummus we ate them with.

Buy again? Maybe, maybe not. We don't really remember how the price lined up against different TJ's (or other) crackers we like, so it would really depend on that more than anything. They're fine, but nothing so unique-tasting that we absolutely have to get them again.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2017

Somehow it's already May, and we still haven't posted our favorite food memories from last year. We originally planned to do it by Chinese New Year, and then wanted to finish them before we moved, but things got so busy and so hectic (multiple all-nighters level of busy), much more than we anticipated despite knowing we had 12 years of stuff to move, and we never got to it. A lot of our stuff is still in boxes, and we still don't have a complete living room, but we don't want to neglect this blog forever. So this post is long overdue, but before summer officially kicks off, here are my favorite food memories from 2017. We ate a lot of good food in 2017, both at home in NYC and on our trips to LA, Seattle, and Vancouver. In (sort of) alphabetical order, here are my 10 favorite food memories of 2017.

1. Eatsa (NYC)

I went to Eatsa for the first time early in 2017 (we posted about it) and returned several more times over the course of the year. (It probably would have been many more if I had still worked in a Midtown office.) Eatsa revolutionized the eating scene in two different ways: the ordering process (automat-style from a kiosk/phone app without any human interaction) and making healthy quinoa bowls affordable (pretty much everything was under $10). In the end, the price may be part of what did them in, since quinoa isn't cheap, and they closed all their non-SF stores in October. (The cynical part of me still wonders if all the stores were just a test run for their tech.) I'll always be sad that I can never have another no worry curry (what ended up being my favorite) bowl again, with its tasty quinoa, spaghetti squash, apple-cabbage slaw, pickled onions, red Thai curry sauce, and more, but all the tasty bowls are a happy memory of 2017.

2. Bollo de pescado from Ecuadorian Delights at the Queens International Night Market (NYC)

I love going to the Queens International Night Market (which has already started up for 2018 before I finished this post). In 2017, we made two visits and sampled Burmese, Guyanese, Antiguan, Salvadoran, Ecuadorian, Guatemalan, Persian, Nigerian, and Filipino cuisine. There really isn't anywhere else in the city where you can do all that in a short period of time and at affordable prices. My favorite thing at the night market last year was the bollo de pescado from Ecuadorian Delights, a green plantain tamale with tuna and peanut sauce wrapped up in banana leaves and topped with pickled onions. It was so delicious, and tasted like something that was just made in someone's home kitchen. We got it on both visits because we liked it so much, meaning we were too full to try their hallaca or corviche, and now I have no idea where to go to get any of those.

3. Corn ice cream taco from Empellon (NYC)

We went to the Midtown Empellon to celebrate my birthday, and one of the desserts that we heard a lot about before our visit was the corn ice cream taco. I figured it would be good, but I wasn't prepared for the explosion of corn flavor in every bite. Corn and ice cream are a great combination, one of my favorites, with some sweetness, saltiness, and savory flavor all in one bite. It wasn't a big dessert, so we were also able to get the avocado dessert and a seasonal apple dessert sampler, but it was probably my favorite dessert of the year.

4. Acai and pitaya bowls from Fruit Wonders (Palm Springs, CA)

Our big trip last year was to California, and we spent a few relaxing days in Palm Springs. It was really hot during the day, and the perfect way to cool down was a visit to Fruit Wonders. We got an açaí bowl the first time and a pitaya bowl the second, and both were really good. Sweet smoothies with granola, hemp seeds, oatmeal, blueberries, bananas, strawberries, kiwi, coconut, and agave. We'd been wanting to try açaí bowls for a while, but this was our first time, and we were hooked thanks to Fruit Wonders.

5. Los Tacos No. 1 (NYC)

Los Tacos No. 1 has been open in Chelsea Market for years, but they finally opened a second location, right near Times Square, last summer. Their tacos are some of the best in the city, and this new location was so much closer to us. We went there a lot since their opening, getting tacos, quesadillas, mulas, and nopal plates topped with (most commonly) pollo asado or adobada. Even with all the new spots in Hell's Kitchen/Midtown West over the past year, its arrival was the most exciting thing that happened for us. One of my few regrets before we moved was that I didn't manage to go there even more.

6. Salmon oshi sushi from Miku (Vancouver, BC)

We had a lot of things on our Vancouver to-try list for our few days there, and one of the must-dos was aburi oshi sushi, a special type of sushi that is not very common around here, pressed and flame-seared. We went to Miku, an expensive restaurant on the downtown waterfront, and sat at the bar for a light meal just so we could try the sushi. The salmon was BC wild sockeye salmon, and it was topped with jalapeño and Miku sauce. This was unlike any other sushi we'd had before. It basically melted in your mouth, and was so full of flavor. Pretty much a perfect bite of sushi, and I still dream about it.

7. The famous chicken for two from The NoMad (NYC)

We went to The Nomad for A's birthday, and we were finally able to try their famous whole-roasted chicken for two. We weren't sure if it would live up to the incredible hype, but it definitely did. They bring the chicken out to you once it's done, but then bring it to the back and plate it. You get a large piece of white meat chicken, so juicy and tender, with foie gras, black truffle, and brioche bread crumbs under the skin, on a plate with potato puree and leeks, and then you get the dark meat in a small bowl like a stew. It was amazing, and its stellar reputation is well-earned.

8. Cheddar garlic roll from Piroshky Piroshky (Seattle, WA)

I'm not big on waiting in line for food, but we waited for Piroshky Piroshky. We had tried their salmon pate piroshky years ago when a relative gave one to us to try, so we got that again along with some other stuff that looked good. While the salmon one was as good as we remembered, what we really loved was the cheddar garlic roll. Layers of perfectly chewy pastry with cheddar cheese, garlic, and scallions, it was a combination of some of my favorite things. We went back again on the day we left to get some more, because it was just that good.

9. Sisig tacos from various spots around NYC

We don't have any Filipino restaurants in our neighborhood (last year or now), so before last year, we only ended up getting Filipino food once in a (very long) while. Last summer, we got some sisig tacos at a street fair, and that ended up kicking off an unplanned summer of Filipino food exploration. We got so much Filipino food last summer, everything from halo halo to sisig bangus to chicken adobo to buko pandan, but of course, more sisig tacos all over the place. They may not be traditional Filipino cuisine, but they're fun to eat and delicious.

10. Sockeye salmon sashimi from Sushi Itoga (Vancouver, BC)

Last but certainly not least, the sockeye salmon sashimi from Sushi Itoga in Vancouver. Sushi Itoga was another one of those must-try things I put on our Vancouver list. It was a small spot where you ordered sushi at the counter, and then they brought it to your table. Even better, it was incredibly affordable. We got six rolls, a plate of sashimi, seaweed salad, and the included miso soup and tea for like US $35. Even better than the price was the quality. That sashimi was so fresh, and it was so soft that it really just melted in our mouths. (I realize I said the same thing about Miku, but it's true.) We went there on our last day in Vancouver, and we were talking about the sashimi the entire way back to Seattle on the train.

There you have it, my favorite food memories of 2017. Somehow it took over four months to put it into words, but it's finally done!

Joe-Joe's Truffles

How is it already February?! We haven't posted all year, and we haven't even finished writing up our 2017 favorite food memories. It's been incredibly busy and chaotic as we prepare for our move, but there's so much we've wanted to write about (or needed to, so we don't forget our rapidly fading memories), whether it's trip recaps or our favorite food memories from last year or my thoughts on abandoning the 52 week cooking challenge. Need to start creating a good habit again and exercising that creative writing part of our brains, and Trader Joe's reviews seem like a good way to dive back in.

Last year, in an attempt to cut down on food waste, I started making lists of all of our food and their respective expiration dates. As a result, we often end up eating our snacks close to their expiration date, because (a) we have a backlog of too many snack foods and (b) we often forget about things until they turn up on the list as close to expiring when they get buried or put away out of sight. That was the case with these Joe-Joe's truffles that we apparently picked up last April, but I thought was much, much more recent than that. (Time is flying.)

Anyway, we were intrigued by the Joe-Joe's truffles, because we have tried just about every variety of Joe-Joe's cookies. These combine the traditional chocolate vanilla Joe-Joe's, crumbled, with more creme from inside the cookies and white chocolate, and then have a coating of dark chocolate and pastel sprinkles. (Now that I'm reading the description again, April makes so much more sense. Pastel sprinkles, Easter candy, that whole thing.) They came in a box of 12 with each truffle separated, and other than having less sprinkles, looked pretty close to what was on the box design. We really liked these. They actually tasted like Joe-Joe's cookies, but in a softer, chewier, far less crumbly form. Texturally, they were basically like cake pops without sticks. A wondered if they might have tasted fresher or different months ago, but they were still quite good and didn't taste that old like some other chocolate we've had close to its expiration date. Not sure if these will be back this spring, but if they are, it might be our springtime treat!

Buy again? Probably. They would be more of a treat purchase for us than a regular thing (we definitely don't need more snacks or chocolate to add to the list), but since they're seasonal (if they return at all), a once-a-year treat sounds good to us.

Ohiopyle Bakery

We're coming up on the fourth anniversary of our road trip through Pennsylvania, so our travels are on my mind a lot. When we last left off, we had just visited Fallingwater and had lunch at their cafe. Fallingwater is still one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen, and we're so glad we made the trip out to Western PA. Back to the recaps!

After lunch at Fallingwater, we lingered around the property some more, trying to take in as much as we could before hitting the road. Our plan was to drive over to nearby Ohiopyle State Park and go for a walk. When we had initially researched Ohiopyle, we wanted to go bike riding, but we just didn't have enough time for that on this visit, considering we still had one more stop to make that afternoon before heading up to Pittsburgh.

I had made a full list of activities we could do that afternoon, trying to take advantage of our brief time in the southwestern corner of the state, but since we didn't end up leaving Fallingwater until after 2, most of those plans ended up going out the window. It also meant we only had a very short window of time at Ohiopyle, just enough for some strolling, seeing one of the waterfalls, and grabbing a snack.

We had heard good things about the Ohiopyle Bakery, so we stopped in there for some sweet baked goods to tide us over until dinner. It was mostly cookies and some doughnuts from what we remember, and we went with both of those. The doughnut was your regular yeast doughnut with some chocolate glaze and sprinkles (of course in Steelers colors). We also got a couple of sugar cookies, because it's hard to go wrong with sugar cookies. While they didn't have any unique variations or flavors at the bakery that we could see, what they did have was done well.

After our snack and a little more time at Ohiopyle, it was back on the road for a short drive over to Laurel Caverns. I had never been to a cavern before, and A's only visit had been when he was really young. We didn't know when our next opportunity would be, so we definitely wanted to check that out. After our tour, we began our trip up to Pittsburgh (of course, in rush hour), where we would spend a couple of days before beginning our drive home.

Uwajimaya Food Court

When we got to Uwajimaya, we were pretty hungry. Although we wanted to investigate the store, we thought it would be a bad idea to do that on an empty stomach, so we stopped at the first stall in the food court that looked good to us. It happened to be the very first stall right next to the doors, but not that surprising that we stopped there since we like takoyaki.

We placed our order and then waited for a short time as they put together the takoyaki. Since they were freshly made, they were pretty hot when they got to us. We only had a thin stick to eat them with, which when combined with their temperature, made it more challenging to eat.

The takoyaki was good and tasted as we expected it to. The only problem was that not long before our trip, we had stopped by Otafuku in the East Village for some takoyaki, and we've never had better takoyaki than Otafuku (haven't been to Japan), so it suffered a little bit in comparison. The batter here wasn't quite as good as Otafuku, and the octopus came out a little on the chewier side, but as a pre-shopping snack, it definitely worked.

After buying some grocery souvenirs and snacks (probably too many, but that's the usual, and at least we did already eat most of the snacks), we were still hungry. We had planned on visiting Pike Place Market later in the afternoon and food crawling, but it was still a decent walk to get there, so we got one more snack from Uwajimaya.

Right near the registers, there was a deli-like counter with a bunch of different prepared foods from Chef Kenzo, including a bunch of different croquettes - shrimp, kabocha squash, and plain (which was potato). We decided to get one of the shrimp and one of the squash and split them. The croquettes came with a small sauce on the side. Not sure exactly what that was, but it tasted both a little salty and a little sweet. Neither of us really liked the sauce that much and preferred the croquettes without it.

Both croquettes were nicely deep-fried. Between the two, the shrimp one had more flavor and you could see the actual pieces of shrimp inside. The squash one didn't have a ton of flavor to it, but it was kind of comforting, sort of like mashed potatoes are.

There were a lot of stalls at Uwajimaya's food court that had more substantial food that would probably have been healthier than what we got, but we were just looking for something small for a snack. Overall, we had a nice visit to Uwajimaya. Not sure if we would go back on another Seattle trip, just because we have Asian grocery stores and food courts at home, but we're glad we went.

Just Beets

Product Name: Just Beets

Price: $2.99 for 1.3 oz bag

Quick review: Just Beets were literally that - just beets. The bag consisted of a little over an ounce of dehydrated beet chips. We really like beets, so even though the price tag was a little high for the amount, we thought they would be worth a try. They were okay. They tasted like beets, and the texture was a little chewy, like a lot of the other dehydrated fruit at TJ's, and not crunchy like vegetable chips. (We did eat these a little bit past the best by date, so maybe they were affected by that, but no way for us to know.) They were fine, but nothing we were still raving about an hour later. Even if they had been crunchier chips, they still wouldn't have been worth it for the price, in our opinion.

Buy Again? Not likely, because they're pretty expensive for the amount that you get. (What's in that bag photo was the entire thing.) We'd rather just eat regular beets.

Passaris Nikolaos

We began every morning in Santorini the same way - with pies. On the pedestrian walkway into the heart of Oia, there was a small bakery that we passed by every day, and every day, we got some pies. I think we had read somewhere in our research that the bakery was really good, so we figured that would be a good spot for breakfast, since this was the one hotel on the entire trip where breakfast was not included.

The bakery's name appeared to be Passaris Nikolaos (if I am converting correctly from the Greek letters), and they were certainly popular. We aren't early morning people, no matter what time zone we're in (maybe someday that'll change), and by the time we got to the bakery in the morning (and it was still morning), there was never that much left. We were able to get some pies every day, but there were always some unavailable because of the demand.

One of the pies that we really liked (and I only know this because I see that we have photos of this pie on multiple days) was this special cheese pie. It reminded us a little bit of the one from Ariston in Athens, but that one was a little better, if we remember correctly this many years later.

We got a bunch of different types of cheese pies from the bakery over the few days we were in Santorini, and couldn't tell you at this point the names of the different ones or how they differed, but we definitely liked them for breakfast.

We didn't only get cheese pies though. We tried other pies including some with vegetable fillings. Unfortunately we couldn't tell you which pies we got on which days or any details, and we really wish we had written something down, but we've learned for the future. All we really remember is that we liked the pies.

One of the things we liked a lot about Greece was all the savory pies that you could get as snacks, whether you were in the city or the islands. There were pies everywhere. That's not as easy to do at home, especially for savory snacks, which is part of the reason we treasure the Greek bakery in our neighborhood. We love Greek pies!

Meyer Lemon Pinkberry

A few days after making the Meyer lemon bars, A decided to redeem his free birthday treat at Pinkberry. When we walked in, we saw they had a new seasonal flavor - Meyer lemon. After trying it, he ordered a small Meyer lemon yogurt with mochi, shredded coconut, and cinnamon crumble (which was the recommended topping in their poster).

A's review: I was really happy with my choices for this because I wanted to turn this into something of a Meyer lemon pie. The cinnamon graham cracker crumble and coconut were the base flavors to pair with the Meyer lemon yogurt, and I added the mochi because I like mochi, and they would be a very loose interpretation of the meringue topping. The sweet and tart yogurt worked really well with the unsweetened coconut and cinnamony, sugary crumble. The mochi wasn't really a meringue substitute, but I still liked it just fine.

M's review: I thought the Meyer lemon yogurt itself was really good - sweet, tart, very bright. While I liked the combination that A put together, it was a little on the heavier, sweeter side. I think I probably would have paired the yogurt with raspberries and mochi, but I personally prefer fruit flavors when it comes to yogurt. I really liked the lightness of the yogurt flavor itself and would get it again.

February Cronut

Continuing our exploration of the Dominique Ansel Bakery Cronuts thanks to the convenience of pre-ordering, the February Cronut flavor was lychee rose jam with pistachio ganache. Since Cronuts are a treat, now that we've gotten them for a couple of months, we've decided that we should probably only pre-order for the months where we are really intrigued by the flavor. The February flavor was an absolute yes for both of us, so we happily put in the order.

M's review: I was really excited for this Cronut. I love lychee, I love rose, and in recent years, I've had greater appreciation for pistachio. My first thought biting into this Cronut was that the rose flavor was really nice, very floral, but from then on, the subtle flavor of the rose just got overpowered by the cream. The filling in the Cronuts is really rich and creamy, another reason I probably shouldn't get them that often. For some reason, I missed the fact that there was pistachio ganache and thought it was only the pistachios on top and thought the inside would be all lychee and rose jam without cream. I guess I was kind of confused about the flavor, but it probably also shows how little pistachio flavor there was. I did like the lychee part of this a lot, especially since it seemed like there was actual lychee jelly in it, sort of like the ones you would get in snack-sized containers in the big tubs at the Chinese grocery store once upon a time.

M's Cronut rankings: 1) blueberry elderflower, 2) lychee rose jam, 3) golden honey vanilla

A's review: Unfortunately since the day we got them was so cold, by the time M got up to my office for us to eat this month's flavor it was cold and sort of tough from starting to freeze. That being said, the flavors were still great, and the Cronut itself was still good despite being slightly firmer and tougher. The rose flavor in the cream was very pronounced and offered a wonderful, floral flavor. The lychee jelly tasted heavily of lychee, and I think I found bits of actual lychee in there as well. The pistachio I didn't get as much flavor on. Yes, there were actual pistachios on top, but I didn't really detect a ton of pistachio anywhere else. This was really tasty, and I think it cemented the fact that we definitely prefer the fruit-centric cronuts better.

A's Cronut rankings: 1) blueberry elderflower, 2) lychee rose jam, 3) golden honey vanilla.

Cronuts We've Tried

June 2016: blueberry elderflower with lime sugar

January 2017: golden honey vanilla with lemon sugar

February 2017: lychee rose jam with pistachio ganache

3 Cheese Wafers

Product name: 3 Cheese Wafers

Price: $0.99 for a 3.5 oz bag

M's quick review: I thought these wafers were okay. They were really thin and light, kind of paper thin, and I expected them to have a little more substance, more like the texture of a wafer cookie but tasting like cheese. There were three cheeses - cheddar, parmesan, mozzarella - so the flavor was good, but I didn't love the texture.

Buy again? Not for me. They were okay, but I like other snacks better.

A's quick review: I definitely liked these more than M. I liked the mildly styrofoam-ish texture to these crackers, and I liked the subtle hint of cheese that I got from each one. Sure, they weren't the best crackers/snacks that Trader Joe's has to offer, but I certainly enjoyed them.

Buy again? Probably not. I wouldn't say no to them, but there are so many good options at Trader Joe's for snacks.

A Dominique Ansel Day

We started off MLK Day by heading down to Dominique Ansel Bakery for some Cronuts. No, we didn't wait in the long line early in the morning. Instead we took a leisurely trip down in the early afternoon and picked up our pre-ordered Cronuts with barely a wait at all. They were sold out of Cronuts for the day and the regular line went for the entire length of the bakery, so we were pretty glad pre-ordering exists. 

This wasn't our first time getting Cronuts from the bakery, although we haven't been pre-ordering as much as we would like because we often forget before it's too late to order for that month. (You have to order two weeks in advance.) We got some last summer when the flavor was blueberry elderflower with lime sugar (which made A's favorites list last year), and this time around, the flavor of the month was golden honey vanilla with lemon sugar. Both were good, but between the two, we preferred the blueberry elderflower one, as there was just so much delicious fruit flavor in that one.

If you've never had a Cronut before, they're a magical creation of Dominique Ansel that is part croissant and part donut. It's layers of flaky croissant dough formed and fried up like a donut. It's filled with whatever cream/jam and then frosted with the second flavor. It's a simple concept that no one else has seemed to figure out how to do. A has tried several imitators, and none of them have come anywhere close to being as light, airy, and delicious as the original.

After our Cronuts, we intended to go get something savory for lunch, but after we found out the place we planned to go for fried chicken had closed down, we meandered up the avenue trying to decide what to do instead. As we deliberated, we found ourselves approaching Dominique Ansel Kitchen. We knew they had some special collaborations over MLK weekend and had thought about dropping by for a snack later if we had time, so since we were already there, we put off our savory food for a little bit longer.

The collaboration was with Wildair, and they came up with two things - an apple pie corn dog and a warm quince apple cider. We didn't order the cider because we were only there for a snack, but they gave out some samples so we got to try it anyway which was great. The cider combined local quince, Red Jacket apple cider, kaffir lime, cinnamon, clove, allspice, and hints of maple and birch. It was cozy and comforting, and if we had been looking for a warm drink, we really would have considered getting a cup of that.

The apple pie corn dog consisted of roasted parsnip ice cream, caramelized gala apples, and almond biscuit in a cornmeal batter, topped with apple cider caramel and potato chip feuilletine. Neither of us could really taste that the ice cream was supposed to be parsnip flavored. A thought it really just tasted like vanilla. The apples were a nice mix of tartness and sweetness, and they made an excellent topping. The potato chips didn't add a ton of flavor, but they gave the dessert a depth and texture that was very similar to streusel with just a mild hint of salt.

We hadn't planned on hitting up both Dominique Ansel spots one after the other that day, but sometimes things just work out for the best. We're glad we were able to try the apple pie corn dog since it was a very limited time offer. It definitely pushed back our savory meal for the day, but in the end we weren't too upset by that.

Hello San Diego

Our San Diego vacation from last October feels like it was just yesterday, and we wish we were back there instead of in New York's cold winter (even if today felt like spring for a day). We normally do separate posts for every place we visit on our trip, but since the first day was mostly spent traveling and we hit up lots of places that are repeats from other recent trips, I'm going to combine them all here to move things along faster.

We flew out on JetBlue from JFK, so there weren't a ton of fast options for lunch. A chose to go with Famous Famiglia's pizza, getting one slice of plain pizza and one slice with sausage and pepperoni, the first of which he found bland and the second a bit too salty. They both could have used more time in the oven, and generally he didn't particularly think too highly of them.

I went to the Boar's Head Deli which had a fancy tablet ordering system, and got a chipotle chicken sandwich with lettuce, avocado, and provolone. I remember the menu saying something about a mango mayo but didn't taste anything like that. This sandwich was supposed to be a panini, but it wasn't very pressed. The provolone cheese was melted, but the sandwich just seemed to come out like it would if I put a sandwich in the toaster for a few minutes, not a panini press. I had thought the chipotle chicken would be chunks of chicken, not slices, but that was not the most logical expectation considering where I went to get the sandwich. It was nice having some avocado, but since that was in chunks, it kind of fell out and made the sandwich harder to eat. The sandwich wasn't cheap, but at least the flavors were good.

In-flight, we got our usual free snacks - lots of water and (for A) some ginger ale, plus some chocolate chip cookies and Cheez-It crackers. We've mentioned JetBlue's free snacks plenty on this blog, and we hope they never stop doing that.

Once we finally arrived in San Diego and got our bags, our first stop was the Ryan Bros coffee stand near baggage claim. Ryan Bros was a local micro roaster, but A had no idea of that when he opted to get coffee. Unfortunately, he didn't think it was that good. He's not judging the whole brand by this offering though, because it was really late and this was just a small kiosk with coffee sitting in those silver cylinder dispensers and not freshly brewed. It really wasn't a very good cup of coffee.

To close out the day, we went for pretty much the same meal we always do when we first get to California, In-N-Out Burger. Is that what most people from the East Coast do when they go out west? We were pretty hungry, so we got three double-doubles, animal style of course, and two orders of animal style fries. It had been so long since we had In-N-Out that we forgot our usual order also added raw onions to the burgers, but it was fine without them. Everything was so, so, so, so good, and we were thankful that we got there at the exact time we did because that branch was packed. It was so crowded that the drive-thru line went out of the parking lot and circled down the street, and at one point after we ordered, we saw the restaurant line go out the door. Can't think of any fast food out here that would inspire that type of line other than Shake Shack (but you definitely couldn't get out of Shake Shack with all this food for $20).

It was a good first day of our trip, mostly traveling, with the San Diego portion kicked off by a delicious visit to In-N-Out. We were pretty excited for the upcoming week of relaxation and good food, and couldn't wait to get started.