Parsnip Chips

We bought these chips earlier this summer, but didn't get around to eating them until now. They should still be at Trader Joe's though, since we're pretty sure we saw them on our last visit.

Product name: Parsnip chips

Price: $2.99 for 5.2 oz bag

M's quick review: I picked up these parsnip chips when they first came out, thinking they would be a healthier version of potato chips. They were crispy, sort of like potato chips, but so much sweeter than I was expecting them to be. They grew on me a little bit as I ate more of them, but they were still sweeter than what I was looking for from our snack time. The chips I liked the best were the ones with more salt on them because the salt balanced out the sweetness more.
Buy again? It's a no for me. They're fine, but I prefer other TJ's chips.

(We forgot to take a picture of the chips themselves before we ate them all, but they did pretty much look like the picture on the bag)

A's quick review: Eh, these are okay. They're sweeter than regular potato chips since they're made of parsnip. I prefer less sweetness when it comes to my salty snacks so this was a little less pleasant in that regard. I also feel like these were a touch greasier than some of Trader Joe's other chip offerings.
Buy again? I don't think I need to get these again since there are better options out there in my opinion.

Jalapeno and Honey Chevre

This was the August spotlight cheese at Trader Joe's, which we liked when we tried it earlier in the fall. We thought it was gone after August, but then we saw it in the cheese section tonight when we went to the store, so we were pretty happy. No idea if it's back for good, but hopefully it'll be a permanent addition to the chevre selection.

Product name: Jalapeno and honey chevre

Price: $2.99

Quick review: We're fans of most chevre from TJ's (at least the savory ones we've tried), and this one was no different. You could definitely taste the jalapeno in this cheese, and it was fairly spicy, more than we expected. That said, the jalapeno was balanced out by the sweetness of the honey and the creaminess of the cheese. We thought this flavor of chevre really worked well.

Buy again? Yes. (Just in case it's not back for good, we bought two more today.)

San Diego

If you're wondering where we've been for the past week (probably no one), we just returned from a wonderful week out in San Diego, which is one of our favorite places in the US. The weather is great, the food is delicious, there is an abundance of good craft beer, and the vibe of the entire city is so relaxed. It's a great place for a getaway.

We've been to San Diego a few times before, but since we always spent a lot of our time at the zoo (after all, we are called panda bytes for a reason), we never really explored as much of the city as we could have. We made up for it this time, driving around, exploring new places, and eating a lot of good food. Can't wait to share more soon!

La Rose Blanche

After a bit of a frustrating afternoon traveling around Brussels and not being able to see most of the places we wanted to, we spent the rest of our afternoon/evening in Grote Markt (The Grand Place) in the center of the city. It was a beautiful square surrounded by grand architecture and was an amazing setting to walk around. We happened upon La Rose Blanche right near the edge of the square, and the menu seemed like it was full of traditional Belgian dishes so we thought it would be a good place to eat for the evening.

We chose to sit outside as the weather was gorgeous, and the scenery was so majestic to behold. There was also some sort of festival or concert going on, and there was a full orchestra playing music, as well as marching bands and lots of other entertainment. It felt so surreal to be there as if we were back in some city celebration back in the day.

As we often did during this trip, M and I each got a beer for dinner. M chose a kriek by Mort Subite, and I got a Chimay Blue. This was the first time we had really encountered kriek, a sour cherry beer mostly found in the Brussels area, and it was wonderful. Unfortunately, it was also about this time that things started to turn a bit. The waiter came to pour our beers, and he inexplicably spilled some of my beer on to the table. Instead of apologizing, all he said before leaving was, "Dangerous!" Yes, this is a touristy spot, and yes, we don't speak his precious French language, but it's rare that I see such terrible service. (M's note: We have nothing against French people or the French language, but this waiter was just the embodiment of every stereotype out there about French people and their attitudes towards tourists. And we weren't even in France!)

Because we were hungry, we decided not to send the bread basket back. I don't remember if we were charged for it like in other European countries, but I'm not sure we cared at the time. It was a few pieces of a nice, crusty French loaf. Other than that, though, it was fairly standard.

I liked the Carbonades a la Flamande (Flemish style beef stew) that I had back in Brugge so much that I wanted more of it so that's what I ordered. From what I remember this wasn't nearly as rich or flavorful as the previous night's offering. It was fine, but there was a noticeable difference. Coupled with the rude and inattentive service (more on that later), this was a severe step down.

M got the Boulettes a la Marolienne (meatballs with tomato sauce, onions, Faro beer and pommes frites). Except the fries didn't come with the meatballs, even though the menu specifically said pommes frites. We had photos of the menu and we knew there were supposed to be fries, so where were they? We don't remember all the details this many years later but we think there was an extended period of trying to flag the waiter down for fries, and we don't recall whether they actually arrived since we never took a picture of them if they did. Maybe we were too frustrated about the whole situation and just dug into the fries, or maybe the waiter never brought them even after we asked and we just gave up. No recollection other than that there was some frustration and aggravation about the whole situation (more on the service later).

We also opted to get an order of Fondus aux Fromages (parmesan cheese croquettes). M and I are huge fans of croquettes, and we also really like cheese. At first we thought they might just be something like mozzarella sticks, but instead these were blocks of parmesan, fried and oozing with deliciousness.

In the end, this meal was just okay. The food was nothing special, and the waiter we had was incompetent and also completely inattentive. It took several times for us to actually flag him down whenever we needed anything, and we actually did need things because of all the things that were missing or wrong in the first place. At first we thought it was because we were clearly Americans, but the Spanish tourists sitting a couple tables down from us also were given the silent/ignoring treatment to the point that all of us were joking that we clearly all didn't speak the right language.

Overall, while the food didn't make a lasting impression and the service was terrible, the enjoyable scenery and the beautiful music salvaged some of the night.

German Chocolate Cake

Ever since our favorite ice cream at Target (the Market Pantry birthday cake flavor) was discontinued, we haven't bought much ice cream there. On a recent trip, we found this German chocolate cake ice cream in the clearance section and figured we would give it a try. Almost all the pints of ice cream in the freezer until this point had been Ample Hills (side note: how have we still not written about their Star Wars ice cream yet?), and we thought it would be fun to try something new (and cheaper).

M's review: This tasted just like chocolate ice cream to me with little hints of coconut and caramel. The caramel flavor wasn't very strong, but I mostly associate German chocolate cake with the flavors of chocolate and coconut, so that was okay with me. This was pretty good chocolate ice cream, but nothing so special that I would put it on our shopping list for our next trip.

A's review: This was a really rich chocolate ice cream with some chocolate chunks and flecks of coconut mixed in. I didn't get any caramel flavor, and the coconut was all but nonexistent. I do like a good chocolate ice cream, and this did taste good for that, but it certainly wasn't a German chocolate cake.

National Taco Day

Happy National Taco Day! To celebrate, I went over to Choza Taqueria at Gotham West, since Choza was offering a free taco with every meal for the occasion. An order of tacos there included three tacos, so with the free one, I was able to get about 2/3 of the taco options on the menu. This wasn't my first time at Choza, but it had been a little bit since my last visit so I couldn't remember which of the fillings was my favorite. Luckily they let you mix and match.

For the National Taco Tuesday promotion, you could choose between the chicken and garbanzo tacos. I went with the garbanzo taco (technically garbanzos y hongos - garbanzos and mushrooms) since I had already ordered the chicken as part of the set. The garbanzo and mushroom taco was made with Mexican crema, salsa negra, and avocado. I liked this one, and the best part was the smoky sauce. The mushrooms were very juicy, and the addition of the chickpeas made it even heartier.

The pollo taco at Choza is kind of unique. I liked the way it differed from your standard chicken taco, combining citrus-roasted chicken, charred pineapple, buttermilk-tomatillo salsa, queso fresco, and cilantro. Pineapple is more commonly associated with pork and al pastor, but it complemented the citrus-flavored chicken here pretty well. I also liked the buttermilk-tomatillo salsa, a combination of flavors you don't normally find in a taco.

The third taco I tried was the chorizo, which was spicy Mexican pork sausage, poblano peppers, salsa macha, queso fresco, and cilantro. Of the four, this was definitely the taco with the most powerful flavors with lots of spice from the chorizo and the poblano peppers. It was a little salty because it was chorizo, but not too bad. I really liked having the poblano peppers on top adding a lot of freshness.

The last taco was the carnitas - braised pork shoulder with tamarind, chipotle crema, escabeche, and cilantro. The flavor of the meat here was pretty good, but the cabbage on top dominated the flavor and texture of the taco a little bit. I'm not really one to complain about extra vegetables to balance things out though, so I was okay with that.

Even though the tacos from Choza looked on the small side on the platter, they were pretty filling. Four was more than enough for lunch for me. I think my favorite was probably the chicken, but they all were pretty good. Out of all the options at Gotham West, Choza is one of the most affordable, so I see more tacos in my future.

Icelandic Yogurt

On a recent visit to Target, they had a giant sale on yogurt. One thing we noticed was that the Icelandic yogurt was on sale. Since we prefer not to spend over $1 for yogurt, we had never really tried them before, as they are usually closer to $1.50 or $2 each. We were excited to try Icelandic yogurt for the first time, and picked up a whole bunch of flavors - Siggi's blueberry and Smari key lime for both of us, Smari coconut for A, and Smari vanilla for M.

A's review:
The first thing I noticed about all of the Icelandic yogurt I tried was that it was far less sweet than the US brands. I liked that a lot as the sweetness tended to mask or overpower the flavor of the actual yogurt and the fruit/ingredients within. That being said, most of the yogurts tasted very, very similar. The lack of added sugar (which is definitely a good thing) also meant that the flavor adds weren't overly sweet as well. Because of that you definitely tasted less of those flavorings as well.

For the actual flavors, I liked the Key Lime the most as it had that bright, tartness from the key limes. The blueberry and coconut didn't really have a discernible difference in flavor, though the coconut yogurt I scraped off the lid had a very sweet, coconut flavor. That was mostly nonexistent in the yogurt cup itself which was odd. The blueberry was similar. I could see the blueberries mixed into the yogurt but didn't really taste too much of them. I really didn't mind much, as mentioned, since I just liked the flavor of the yogurt.

One final thing that I really liked about these yogurts was that both brands had removable paper labels that you can recycle. It's really cool that they did that to be a little greener and eco-conscious. It really fits in with everything that I've ever seen/read about Iceland being very eco-friendly and mindful.

M's review:
I liked these yogurts. Similar to A, I liked that they were less sweet than a lot of the yogurts being sold nowadays, especially by the bigger name brands. Even though these were thick and creamy, they were a lot lighter than the whole milk Australian yogurts we had tried earlier this year, and that fit a little better with my personal preference. I didn't notice a huge difference between the brands, but the vanilla was probably my least favorite, just because it didn't have that strong of a flavor. The key lime and the blueberry were both pretty good. If there were another sale, I'd get these again or maybe try some other flavors.

Off to Boston

To get to Portland this summer, first we flew to Boston. It might sound a little weird to fly from New York (technically, New Jersey) to Boston instead of just taking a direct flight to Portland, but the time and price with the layover were a better fit, so we figured we might as well take the detour. The layover wouldn't give us enough time to leave the airport and explore, but neither of us had ever been to Logan Airport before, so we planned to just hang out there and have a nice leisurely meal.

Before our flight to Boston, we grabbed a quick lunch from Currito Cantina, which we remembered we had seen at a rest stop in Maryland earlier in the year. They had a sit-down restaurant but we stuck with the grab and go case and ate by our gate. We only picked up one salad to share because I had eaten a giant breakfast of leftovers from our Sticky's dinner from the night before and wasn't that hungry, and we also had plans to eat when we got to Boston. A chose the ensalada mixta (romaine lettuce, pico de gallo, corn salsa, black beans, applewood smoked bacon, cotija cheese, guacamole, and lime dressing). The salad was good, very light and refreshing, and exactly the type of thing we like to eat on a travel day. The only criticism we had was that it probably would have been better if parts of it hadn't frozen in the to-go case. Aside from that, it was great having a place with fresh vegetables instead of all the fast food and sandwiches.

Since the flight from New York to Boston was really short, JetBlue only did express service instead of their full menu of snacks, which made sense. The choices were water or soda (water for us), and cookies or chips. We both went for cookies, which we didn't remember being on the snack menu during our last flight and came in cute packaging.

Mini chocolate chip cookies like these always remind me of the cookies I used to bring to school when I was younger. I liked these, but I don't know if it was because of the cookies themselves or nostalgia (or both). I got another bag of cookies and also some Cheez-Its on the flight to Portland, but didn't take any pictures of them since I didn't open them until it was already dark outside. A fell asleep and missed snack service on that leg. We love the free snacks on JetBlue and hope they'll never take those away.

El Gran Castillo de Jagua

We found ourselves in Prospect Heights recently around dinnertime, and after checking our bookmarks on the map, decided to stop in at El Gran Castillo de Jagua, a restaurant that seemed to us like a diner, Dominican style. The menu had soups, salads, sandwiches, daily specials, and an extensive list of meat and seafood options. Although we've eaten plenty of Dominican food in our lifetimes, we had somehow never written about any of it for WorldEats, so we figured this would be a good place to start.

After ordering, the first thing to arrive was a basket full of buttered, griddled bread. This was delicious. It was buttered and then "cooked" further on a griddle to warm the bread and melt the butter. One of the pieces also looked like it was smushed in a sandwich press which crisped the crust a bit more than the others. The really nice thing about griddling instead of toasting the bread is that, especially for M, the crust wasn't overly crunchy. It also didn't toast the bread itself; it just made it nice and warm.

Both of our entrees came with rice and beans on the side. We hadn't realized that rice and peas was an option when she was asking whether we wanted yellow or white rice, so we both ended up with yellow rice and beans. The rice itself was okay. It was a little dry and hard, and didn't have as much flavor as some other places we've been to before. A got the black beans, and M got red beans, and both were good and more flavorful than the rice.

For the entree, M got the pollo guisado (stewed chicken). She thought it was okay. The meat was tender and the flavor was fine, but it alternated in temperature throughout the plate. The same was true of the dish that A got. We both thought that was strange since we could see the steam table in the back of the restaurant, and the meat from most steam table places is usually piping hot. We realized when we passed by the steam table though that there was so much meat in the tray that the meat was only partially submerged, and it was a cool night with the door open and the fans on, so it must have been that part of the meat that was chopped off was above the water line and exposed to the cool air. That would account for all the temperature differences.

A's entree was the pernil. His initial impression was one of amusement as it was a literal plate of meat that came out. He's more accustomed to getting a small portion of meat on top of the rice next to the beans. The meat was mostly tender, though there were some definite drier pieces. There was a lot less fat on the meat, though, so that made it easier to just dig through the meat without having to worry about getting a blob of pure fat. Overall the meat had pretty good flavor, but it's not the best he's had. It wasn't too salty, and the lime squeezed on top gave it a nice brightness. M thought that the pernil had more flavor than the pollo guisado.

We thought our dinner at El Gran Castillo de Jagua was fine, but we've had other Dominican food in the city that we've liked better (and that we'll hopefully be able to share at some point). If we were in the area, we might drop by again, but we probably wouldn't travel there to get our Dominican food fix (especially with some great options that are closer).

Week 39 - West African

For the West African challenge, I decided to make a chicken peanut stew based on a recipe I found on Simply Recipes. That stew was based on a Ghanaian chicken groundnut stew and sounded really delicious. I remembered that I had made an African peanut stew sometime in the past, but completely forgot that it was for a previous challenge meal and also didn't realize how similar it was until I re-read that post after making this. (Even funnier, it was the Week 39 challenge also, 2 years ago.) While I guess I could have tried making something more complicated like dishes we got during our Nigerian dinner, I went for something a little easier, with more accessible ingredients, and that I was fairly sure I wouldn't screw up. I guess I also just have a liking for African peanut stew.

The ingredients for the stew we made, adapted from the original, were:

- about 1 tbsp olive oil ($0.20)
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($3)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 1 yellow onion, sliced ($0.50)
- 2 spoonfuls crushed garlic ($0.25)
- 1-2 tsp ginger paste ($0.30)
- 4 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped ($1.96)
- 4 cups water ($0)
- 2 large spoonfuls chicken bouillon ($0.50)
- 1 can diced tomatoes (not drained) ($0.75)
- 1 cup roasted peanuts ($1.30)
- 1 cup peanut butter ($0.80)
- about 1 tbsp ground coriander (whatever was left in the jar) ($0.25)
- about 1 tsp cayenne (should have used more) ($0.05)
- about 1/2 cup chopped cilantro ($0.90)

The total for this stew was approximately $10.81, which is a really good price for the amount of stew it made and how full we were. If you added another sweet potato and a little bit more of some of the other ingredients, you could probably stretch this to two meals and stick the other half in the freezer.

The steps for making the stew were:

- heat olive oil in large pot
- slice chicken into thinner pieces and sprinkle with salt/pepper on one side
- add to pot in single layer and sprinkle with salt/pepper on other side
- brown chicken, flipping halfway through, and then remove to plate
- while chicken is cooking, slice onion, peel and chop sweet potatoes

- add onion to pot and cook for a few minutes, scraping off browned bits while cooking
- add crushed garlic and ginger paste and cook another minute
- add sweet potatoes and cook for a few minutes
- add chicken back to pot along with water, chicken bouillon, diced tomatoes, peanuts, peanut butter, ground coriander, cayenne, salt, pepper, and mix together well
- bring to boil and then reduce heat to simmer
- simmer covered for 60 minutes
- at some point during the cooking, chop cilantro

- remove cover and allow stew to keep simmering while removing chicken pieces (sweet potatoes should be really soft by now, but if not cook longer)
- shred chicken with 2 forks and return to pot, stir well
- add half of the cilantro to the stew and mix in well
- the original recipe said to add more black pepper here (as peppery as you can stand) but I forgot
- ladle soup into bowls and garnish with the rest of the cilantro

This stew was so good. I forgot how filling sweet potatoes can be, since we don't eat them enough, and ate way too much stew. Even after that, there was still plenty left for another meal. It was warm and comforting, perfect as we're getting into cooler weather, and so full of flavor. I think next time I would probably add some more cayenne and black pepper, and maybe garnish it with some chopped peanuts on top as well (similar to the H&H Senegalese chicken with peanut soup). I'm also not sure if it really needs the cilantro on top, which would make the process even easier (and I am always looking for easier on a weeknight!). I would definitely make this again.

Sriracha Hummus

Product name: Sriracha hummus

Price: $1.99

Quick review: The main ingredients of the sriracha hummus were chickpeas, sriracha sauce, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and white pepper. This hummus was really good. It wasn't too spicy, but there was some punch to it, which we liked. It was spicier than the spicy hummus we've liked before and had a really good balanced flavor to it.

Buy again? Yes, absolutely.

Yellow Magnolia Canteen

Our IDNYC membership at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is ending soon, so we spent some time last weekend visiting the garden, trying to see all the exhibitions we never got around to on other visits. One of the other things we never did on any of our other garden visits was try the Yellow Magnolia Canteen, the garden's quick service restaurant. We usually eat outside the garden, but the menu sounded interesting and eating on the premises would definitely save some time. We decided to get 2 sandwiches (both $13), which came with some lightly dressed mixed greens on the side.

The first sandwich we got was the sliced roast turkey, which came with bacon, green chile avocado spread, and pickled easter egg radishes on 7 grain bread. Between the two sandwiches, I liked this one a little more, at least once I ate all of the unexciting crusts of the bread, as the bread was a little sweet on its own. The turkey and radishes were fine, as was the bacon, although that could have been cooked a little longer. The best part of the sandwich was the green chile avocado spread, which was kind of like a spicy guacamole, and it had a nice zing to it. The menu didn't list it, but I think there was also pepper jack cheese, which was also a good match for the other ingredients.

Our second sandwich was the kimchi cheesesteak, which A liked better between the two. This sandwich wasn't at all what we were expecting. We thought it would be like most cheesesteak sandwiches we've had with chipped meat, which expectation was only reinforced when the menu called it bulgogi beef. Instead they were like soft burger patties with American cheese and kimchi on top. The bread was a hero, which I found a little too crusty. The kimchi mixed with the cheese was good, but the meat didn't have as much flavor as I thought it would and there wasn't enough kimchi to counteract that and all the flavorless bread.

The sandwiches we got at the canteen certainly aren't earning a spot on any of our "best of" lists, but they served their purpose. It was relatively quick to get the food once we ordered, we didn't have to leave the garden to get food, we got to sit outside in gorgeous 70 degree weather, and it took about 30 seconds to get to the conservatory once we were done. Just what we needed.

Chicken and Cheese Tamales

Product name: Chicken and cheese tamales

Price: $2.49 for 2 tamales

Quick review: Similar to the sweet corn tamales I reviewed before, these chicken and cheese tamales came in a package of two in the frozen section. One difference I did notice between the two was that the instructions on the package this time didn't require wet paper towels or plastic wrap to microwave them anymore, which was a welcome change. So much more convenient, but I don't know if it's a change TJ's made overall with the tamales or if it was just made to the chicken ones.

Back when we got the refrigerated chicken tamales, I mentioned that I couldn't remember how they compared to these frozen ones. They're pretty different. These frozen tamales were made with white meat chicken, corn, cheddar cheese, bell peppers, and seasonings, and didn't draw their flavor from a salsa verde base. Between the two, I probably liked the refrigerated ones more, partly because of the salsa verde flavor but also because the masa was softer. Not sure if TJ's makes a chicken and green chile frozen version too, but I guess I'll look next time. Although the refrigerated ones won for flavor and texture (and had a slight edge in price per tamale), the frozen ones were still pretty good, and they won as far as convenience (package of two versus six, and also lasts longer in the freezer).

Buy again? Yes, although I will probably try some of the other frozen tamales first so I can remember which ones I like better. Comparing these with the frozen sweet corn ones, both are good, but I prefer these.

Curried White Chicken Deli Salad

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get this review up, but I'm pretty sure I saw this salad on the shelf during a recent TJ's visit, so it's still kind of relevant.

Product name: Curried white chicken deli salad

Price: $4.49 for 11 oz

Quick review: This chicken salad combined chicken breast with mayo, carrots, raisins, scallions, honey, toasted cashews, curry powder, and other seasonings. The result was a salad that was creamy and filled with flavor from all of the various seasonings and the curry powder. It definitely was not a bland chicken salad. It reminded me a bit of the biryani they used to sell in the frozen section (and which we miss), but in a salad form. There were probably some similar spices in the mix that contributed to that. I liked this salad a lot. It wasn't cheap, $4.49 for a little tub, but even paired with the greens, it was probably cheaper than most lunches I could buy outside.

Buy again? Maybe. It probably won't be a regular purchase since I can put together cheaper lunches at home, but it was tasty and I'd get it again every so often.

Apple Pie Cheddar Cheese

When we saw that the spotlight cheese at Trader Joe's this month was apple pie cheddar cheese, I was prepared to hate it. It sounded like it would be really sweet, and not only am I not a huge fan of mixing fruit in with more savory foods, but I haven't loved that many sweet cheeses in the past. But despite all of my bias against it, I wanted to try it, and it helped that A was pretty intrigued by it. It sounded interesting, and I figured that at least if I did hate it, I would know for sure in the future and never get it again.

As I sliced up the cheese, it smelled incredibly sweet, just like apple pie, and I was already disliking it. But once I tried the first piece of cheese, my opinion completely changed. It reminded me of eating slices of sweet apples with cheese cubes or slices from cheese plates (which I had obviously completely forgotten that I do). It was refreshing, not overly sweet, and lightly spiced. The cheddar cheese here was infused with apple cider, soaked dried apples, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, and the key, I think, was that the infusion was done with restraint. All the elements of apple pie - the comforting spices, the sweetness and tartness of apple - combined well with the cheddar cheese here, mostly because they weren't overpowering at all, but just an accent.

We ate this with the enchanting crackers from Trader Joe's, which, since they are also a little on the sweeter side, were a great fit. The suggestion on the sign at the store had been to melt it on a cheeseburger, and I'm still not sure whether I agree with that, but the cheese itself gets a rave from us.

Buy Again? Maybe. It'll only be around for a little longer (if they haven't already sold out) since it's the spotlight cheese, so we might already be out of luck.

Goddess and Grains

When we go to Panera, we usually get the You Pick Two combo, and we both usually get the Thai chicken salad. Although we've tried other salads from time to time, that's been our go-to for a long time. On a recent lunch visit, we both decided to try something new. We don't think these salads are brand new to Panera, but they were new to us.

M's review of the Green Goddess Cobb with Chicken:
I like traditional Cobb salads a lot, except for one component - blue cheese - so whenever I see some variation of a Cobb salad that doesn't include blue cheese, I jump at the chance to try it. The Panera version of the Cobb salad has no cheese at all, and instead mixes chicken with a bunch of different greens (arugula, romaine, kale, radicchio), tomatoes, pickled red onions, avocado, bacon, a hard boiled egg, and a green goddess dressing. The dressing was packed with herbs and really tasty (Panera's website tells me it's mostly tarragon, chives, parsley, and watercress), although I personally prefer some of the green dressings at places like Chop't a little more. I liked the salad, and there was a decent amount of both avocado and bacon, which was nice to see. My only constructive criticism would be more onions and more dressing, but otherwise, it was really good. I might mix things up on future visits and get this sometimes instead of the Thai chicken if it lasts through the fall.

A's review of the Ancient Grain and Arugula with Chicken:
M has a bit of an aversion to mixing fruit with her savory foods, but I don't have that much of an issue with it. This salad consisted of "chicken raised without antibiotics, arugula, ancient grain blend, red grapes, and fresh apple and cabbage slaw tossed with white sweet balsamic vinaigrette dressing and topped with roasted and salted pumpkin seeds." This was a really fresh and tasty salad. The grapes and apples weren't so sweet to overpower the rest of the salad, and the grain blend added a nice crunch to the mix. The chicken was a touch on the bland side, but it had enough seasoning to at least not be a complete bore. Overall the salad was tasty, but I don't know that I would consistently get it over the Thai chicken salad.

Week 38 - Acid

For the Week 38 acid challenge, I originally intended to do something with balsamic vinegar, but I just wasn't feeling very inspired so I started looking into recipes starring lemon. What I eventually found that I liked was this recipe from The Kitchn for a chickpea casserole with lemon, herbs, and shallots. I thought the lemon would be front and center since it was in the title, but while there was lemon flavor, it wasn't really a lemon-focused dish. One of the alternate interpretations of the acid theme was to use acid-forming foods, which would include most dairy products, so even if there wasn't enough lemon in this dish, it still fit the challenge using that basis.

I made a few deviations from the original recipe (as usual), and the ingredients I used were:

- 3 cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained ($2.25)
- 4 large shallots, finely chopped ($0.99)
- 2 large spoonfuls of crushed garlic ($0.25)
- 1 cup brown rice, cooked ($0.50)
- juice and zest of 1 large lemon ($0.49)
- about 5 hearts of palm stalks, finely chopped ($2.50)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 2 large eggs, beaten ($0.20)
- 1 cup small curd cottage cheese ($0.90)
- 3/4 cup lowfat plain yogurt ($0.75)
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided ($2)
- 1/2 bunch of parsley, leaves finely chopped ($0.90)
- a couple tsp of dried rosemary ($0.10)
- Italian bread crumbs, about 1/2-2/3 cup ($0.50)
- olive oil for drizzling ($0.20)

The total for the dish was approximately $12.58 (although I'm not entirely sure on the cost of the hearts of palm as we bought the jar a very long time ago), which was enough for a filling dinner for two, quite a few spoonfuls of rice mixture to snack on while prepping, and some leftover pieces of casserole for another lunch.

This was a relatively simple dish to put together even if it took some time to get everything together. The basic steps were:

- start rice in rice cooker (so that it'll be done once the ingredients for the chickpea mixture are ready) and preheat oven to 375 degrees
- drain and rinse chickpeas, and add to large bowl
- prep produce: chop shallots, juice lemon, zest lemon, chop hearts of palm, chop parsley
- mix chickpeas with the chopped shallots, crushed garlic, brown rice, lemon juice, lemon zest, hearts of palm, and salt and pepper
- additional prep: beat eggs, grate parmesan cheese (could probably do all the prep together but we don't have enough counter space for all of that)
- mix beaten eggs and 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese with the cottage cheese and yogurt, and stir until mixed well together
- add parsley, rosemary, and egg mixture to chickpea mixture, and combine well
- grease 9x13 baking dish and add combined mixture to baking dish in flat layer
- add remaining parmesan cheese and bread crumbs to the top, and then drizzle with olive oil
- bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, and then let stand for 5-10 minutes

We really liked this. I've never really made much with cottage cheese, but the combination of that with yogurt made this casserole feel so light and airy even though a small amount was pretty filling. I'm glad we added the hearts of palm which weren't in the original (some people had suggested artichokes, but we've had hearts of palm in the pantry for a long time), and I'm wondering what other vegetables I could add to this next time. The only other change I would make would probably be to ditch the fresh parsley. For the amount of added work with the washing and chopping, and the need to get fresh parsley in the first place, it really didn't add much parsley flavor to the end result. I think I'd rather substitute some dried parsley or just leave it out all together, since the rosemary combined with the Italian bread crumbs seemed to add enough flavor. This was a pretty successful casserole, and we definitely want to make it again.

Smurfen

After filling our bellies with spaghetti, we loaded up our luggage and set out on foot for the Brugge train station. It was time to journey to the last city on our trip - Brussels. We were sad to leave Brugge, since we really loved our short time there, but at least we got one last walk through the narrow streets in on our way to the train.

Since we were pretty full, we didn't buy any food for our train journey, but that didn't mean we didn't eat any snacks. We broke out the Haribo Smurfs that we had bought in Antwerp, and got our first taste of that berry-flavored goodness. I've mentioned these Smurfs before in my favorite food memories from 2010, so you can probably tell how much we liked them (well, I especially did).

We really like Haribo gummy candy, especially the European versions since somehow they just taste better. After tasting these Smurfs, we looked for them in every shop we stopped into in Brussels but we didn't find any more bags to bring home. Now, 6 years later, you can get Haribo Smurfs here in the States, but they just don't taste exactly the same as the German versions. But it's better than nothing for one of our favorite candies!