Author: marga (Page 1 of 111)

Locale Review

March 22, 2025 / marga / 1 Comment

This meal delivery service has a complete new concept, but does it work?

I have been using Locale for about a year. In its original concept, it delivered meals prepared by local restaurants for you to reheat. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Locale announced that it was changing concepts altogether. Rather that delivering restaurant-prepared meals, it would prepare the meals themselves. They promised the meals would be “healthier” and they raised both meal prices and the price of delivery. They seem to want to compete with Factor, rather than with a local service such as Shef.

I tried the new concept – mostly because I still had over $100 in a gift certificate I needed to use – and while we liked a couple of meals, the lack of selection and the price led me to unsubscribe.

How it works

You subscribe to Locale and choose a plan of 4 to 12 individual meals to be delivered. You choose the specific meals you want to get by Friday and they are delivered to your house the following Monday.

Cost

The cost of each meals varies by how many you are subscribed to get. This ranges from $18.50 per meal when you subscribe to get 4 to $15 when you are subscribed to get 12. Delivery is an additional $10, and you need to pay a $1 deposit for the glass jars the meals come in. My initial 6-meal order came to $116.50 or about $19.50 per meal. That’s equivalent to a meal at a regular restaurant. There is no tax, however, as the meals are delivered cold.

Packaging & Delivery

The meals come in glass jars, which are placed in a cooler with a cardboard divider. A freezer pack keeps them cold. Locale picks up the cooler and jars when it delivers a new order.

The Food

Locale offers only 20 meals which change monthly. I’d describe the meals as falling within modern American cuisine. Locale advertises the meals as being high in proteins – and they do have generous portions of meats, so I believe that is true. Several of the meals I got, however, were also very high in starches – which are not particularly healthy. In all, these are large plates of food, though probably not large enough for two meals.

Locale also advertises the ingredients as being organic and the meats as being “pasture raised, grass fed, wild caught,” – but I take this claim with a grain of salt. For example, their chicken might be organic, but it’s not “pasture raised,” – it comes from Petaluma Poultry, a factory farming operation which doesn’t offer pasture raised chicken and has been accused of animal abuse. Its “Rocky” and “Rosie” brands are available at supermarkets.

How long the food keeps

Each meal had a “best buy” date which was 3 to 5 days after delivery. Everything was still fresh when we consumed it within this time period.

Making changes & cancelling

While their website is sparse and annoying to use – sometimes requiring multiple log ins -, making changes is quite easy. You can change how many meals your subscription to a smaller or larger amount of meals – the latter brings down the per-meal price. You can also easily skip weeks.

Cancelling was easy but confusing. When you go to the cancel page, there is a button that says “Pause my subscription”. If you click on it, it gives you a choice to “cancel,” instead. However, if you choose “cancel,” it takes you to another page. The trick is to not click on that button and simply provide the reason for cancelling.

Customer Service

Customer service has been pretty good, they respond by e-mail within a couple of days.

The Meals

Sesame Crusted Wild Tuna with Cold Peanut Soba Noodle Salad and Bok Choy

My husband enjoyed this dish very much. The salad had a variety of textures, which were brought together by the tasty, spicy peanut sauce. While the sauce was spicy in itself, it mellowed when mixed in with the rest. The tuna was flavorful and fresh, and this was overall a good dish. My husband thought it was worth the price, given that it was a generous portion.

Thai Organic Chicken Coconut Curry with Bone Broth Brown Rice and Thai Basil Leaves

This was another disappointing dish. The curry was light, bright and tasty, but ultimately underdeveloped. It didn’t reach the yuminess of your run of the mill Thai yellow curry. The chicken was cooked separately, and cut into very small pieces, probably to disguise its dryness and lack of flavor. The problem is that it then had no texture to add to the dish. The brown rice was fine. I did like the basil leaves on top, they added an extra element of freshness to the dish, but it probably could have used more. While the portion was sufficient, in all I felt this dish was too expensive for what it was. For the same price, I can get a much yummier yellow curry at any Thai restaurant.

Organic Chicken and Green Tea Piccata with Bone Broth Barley Risotto, and Roasted Rainbow Carrots

This dish was almost identical to the Thai chicken dish above, except that it came with a “green tea piccata” sauce, and it had carrots and spinach leaves instead of basil. The chopped chicken breast was the same, probably from the same batch, but here the sauce was too thin and too sparse to actually hide the dryness and lack of flavor of the chicken. The carrots were fine, but the raw, undressed spinach leaves added nothing. Who wants to eat raw spinach leaves? I did like the piccata sauce, even if I couldn’t really tell it had green tea in it, but there wasn’t enough of it to soak all of the rice in addition to the chicken. And once again, this was a very starch heavy dish – which makes it not at all healthy. I’m afraid I’ll be hungry again once my body processes all the sugars in the starches. I’d definitely not order this again – indeed, I only ate it because I was hungry and I had already paid for it (and almost $20!). I definitely wouldn’t order it again.

Grass-Fed Steak Fajitas Salad Bowl with Avocado Tomatillo Crema

I wasn’t fond of this dish, but this is partly my fault. I should have looked more carefully at the ingredients before ordering it. The main problem was that I am not a fan of most of the ingredients in the salad. I find lettuce hearts too crunchy, raw bell peppers and raw onions too strong and I just don’t like the texture of black beans. The tomatoes, which I normally do like, weren’t ripe enough. The avocado tomatillo crema was pretty good, but too spicy for me. Probably my favorite part of the salad were the pepitas.

As for the meat, when I read “fajitas,” I expect slices of medium-rare skirt or flank steak. That’s what was shown in Locale photo of this dish. Instead, I got cubes of what I think is probably top round – the meat was pretty lean, but it lacked the fiber and the chewiness I like in beef. The marinade was pretty tasty, however. This is not a dish I’d order again.

Grass Fed Steak Plate with Roasted Rainbow Carrots, Heirloom Marble Potatoes, and Chimichurri

Locale has been selling a similar dish out of its Tenderleaf kitchen, so there weren’t many surprises here. First, there was a lot of food. The portion of steak was perfectly adequate for dinner, and there were enough carrots and potatoes to feed an army. The few spinach leaves, however, seemed to be there pro forma.

Unfortunately, both the steak and “veggies” were unseasoned (or severely underseasoned); I’m someone who prefers to salt food before it’s cooked. The steak was tender and chewy enough, without having too much gristle, but I really didn’t like the taste. The chimichurri did a god job of hiding it, but what’s the point of eating steak then? The chimichurri sauce was fine, it had that acidic tone that most American chimichurris have, but there was nothing to complain about it. In all, it was a competent meal if not particularly noteworthy. I wouldn’t order it again, because it’s simply not worth the price and because pan grilling a steak is very easy and gives you better results.

Puerto Rican Grass Fed Beef Shepherd’s Pie with Okinawa Sweet Potatoes and Arugula Salad

This was an interesting dish. I wouldn’t classify it as a “shepherd’s pie” as it wasn’t a pie and didn’t have mashed potatoes; it was more of a picadillo mixed in with sliced sweet potatoes, peas and other undistinguishable ingredients. It had a gritty, interesting texture that my husband liked better than I. The flavor, however, was all there. It was bright and citrusy and very balanced. The arugula came with a lemon curd vinaigrette which was also pretty tasty. In all, a pretty good dish. My husband would order it again.

I have unsubscribed from Locale and don’t expect to try it again, given their very high prices.

Meal Kit Reviews: Gobble is Great for Those in a Hurry

March 16, 2025 / marga / 1 Comment

2025 Update

I just tried Gobble again and it hasn’t changed too much in all these years. I’ve updated my original review from 2019.

Of all the meal kits out there, Gobble may just be my favorite. The food is very good and it can be prepared in about 15 minutes. They accomplish this by using simple recipes and sending you some pre-cooked (lentis, rice). That convenience has a price, and Gobble has among the highest prices in the industry. Still, if I could afford it, I’d probably stick with Gobble because it gives you the satisfaction of mostly cooking a meal, without the necessary expenditure of time. Plus they have a good selection of international fare.

The Plans

Gobble offers plans for 2 or 4 people. You can order as few as 2 meal kits a week or as many as you want. Cost is $15 a serving (or $17 if you only order 2 meal kits) – that is $30 per kit for 2 or $48 per kit for 4. You also have to pay $10 shipping, regardless of how many kits you order. Thus, the standard plan of 3 meals for 2 people per week costs $100.

As other companies, Gobble usually offers discounts for its first week. Currently, you can get two meals for two for $18 with my referral link (and I’d get a $20 credit if I happened to be subscribed when you use it).

Gobble also offers lunch and breakfast subscriptions, but I haven’t tried them.

The Food

Gobble offers mostly American and European food with some Asian, Indian and Mexican choices. They have numerous beef, chicken, seafood and vegetarian (but not necessarily vegan) choices every week. The dishes do take about 15-20 minutes to put together and most were quite tasty.

The dishes are simpler than those offered by other premium meal kit companies, but the ones I had were nice enough. Cooking speed is also achieved by sending some ingredients pre-cooked, you just have to warm them in the microwave. These precooked ingredients (rice, lentils, roasted sweet potatoes) were surprisingly tasty. Indeed, my daughter thought the rice was the best part of the vegan meal she had.

Pre-roasted sweet potatoes sent by Gobble

Ingredients seem to be fresh and of good quality, though I had some issues years past. Instead of one or two steaks for one of the recipes, I received beef slices – which made cooking them according to the instructions difficult. I contacted customer service and they gave me a $15 credit, which was nice.

Another problem – one that seems ubiquitous with meal kits – was that the portions of meats/seafood sent were of different size and shapes, meaning that you could not cook them at the same temperature without burning one. This I found annoying. This problem seems to be ongoing years later.

One piece of tuna was long and thin, while the other one was small and twice as thick.

Finally, some recipes require the use of multiple pans, though you can modify them so you only use one at the time, albeit that takes longer. As someone without a dishwasher, minimizing the number of pots and pans I use is a priority for me.

The Shipping and Delivery

I was now able to get my meals on a Monday. They were promptly delivered in the morning and I got a text when they arrived.

The Packaging

The kits come in a recyclable cardboard box, just like those from other meal kit companies. They contain non-recyclable insulating material and freezer packs that have to be discarded in the trash.

Inside the box most of the ingredients come in plastic bags organized by recipe. Cold ingredients are at the bottom of the box, between freezer packs.

The Results

I found that the recipes I made in my last order, in 2025, were not significantly different than those in years past.

Caramel-Glazed Cobia with Coconut Rice & Chinese Broccoli

This was a perfectly pleasant dinner. It felt a little bit rushed to cook, but it was simple to prepare and the results were very good. The coconut rice was tasty, the fish well portioned and boneless and the vegetables were fresh. But this dish was all about the prepared teriyaki sauce it came with and that you use to cook the fish with and the four over the whole meal – and the sauce was very good. The vegetables added some crunch to the meal, so it was multi-textured as well, and I liked that the fish was meatier than some. All in all I’d have it again.

Flat Iron Steak with Sugar Snap Peas, Sherry Vinaigrette, & Goat Cheese

I was disappointed by this dish. The steaks were pretty small but, more problematically, tough and with too much gristle. The fennel rub didn’t do anything to enhance the flavor which was pretty mediocre. The rest of the dish tasted only of the pungent sherry vinaigrette, which was too acidic and not particularly tasty. After plating it according to instructions (or as close as I could), I had to rescue the mushrooms from the salad

Meal kits from years ago

	Blackened Chicken with Marble Potatoes & Broccolini a forgettable dish
	Seared Flat Iron Steak with Baby Carrots & Harissa Green Lentils Great meal quality, but it wasn’t a steak.
	Thai Basil Tofu with Brown Rice The tofu was tofu, but the rice was great!
	Curried Beef Bowl with Basmati Rice & Mini Samosas Very tasty!
	Albacore Tuna with Pearl Couscous, Chermoula Vinaigrette Loved the chermoula!
	Burmese Shredded Chicken with Coconut Rice & Burmese Salad Best meal kit yet!
	Thai Tofu Noodle Bowl with Peanut Sauce Great Vegan choice
	Gobble’s Japanese Style Steak with Jasmine Rice & Vegetable Stir-Fry OK

In all, I was pleased with Gobble. Most of the recipes weren’t mind blowing, but they were good to really good and quick/easy to prepare. I particularly liked their steaks (which don’t have a premium price). However, it’s the high price that would keep me from subscribing to Gobble. At over $30 per meal for two, this is only a few dollars less than the price of takeout, and with takeout I get leftovers. It seems a particularly low value if you are not eating steak and tuna.

San Leandro Bites: Mai Thai

March 11, 2025 / marga / 0 Comments

For fifteen years, this has been our default Thai restaurant

For the last fifteen years, since it opened, Mai Thai has been our “default” Thai restaurant in San Leandro. The food is good standard Thai-restaurant-in-America faire, the prices are reasonable and it’s close enough to our house. Since the pandemic, we usually get take out from there but last Sunday night we decided to go there for a quick date before watching White Lotus on TV – this season the series is based in Thailand.

Mai Thai has been remodeled since our last visit, and I can’t say I like the new format. It now has a long bar, which I guess allows for alcohol sales and more casual dining, but the restaurant altogether has a more casual look.

The decore now looks pretty generic and not really Thai, though I did like having flowers at the table.

I also liked the table setting, even if came with paper napkins.

Still, I’m not sure I feel a compelling reason to go to eat there versus getting take out.

Though we have explored much of Mai Thai’s menu, we tend to go back to our usuals, and we did so this time as well. To start with, we shared the roti with yellow curry ($13). I discovered this dish at Mai Thai and the restaurant continues to have my favorite version of it. Roti is a multi-layered flat bread, rich with oil, that is absolutely delicious – dipped in a good yellow curry, it’s just heavenly. I don’t really understand why this dish is so expensive, but it’s invariably so no matter where you order it. On the plus side, it’s so rich that you can’t eat that much of it.

I had the massaman curry with beef ($19) and, unfortunately, this recipe has changed a little. It was spicier than usual and I could taste the bitter flavor of the pepper. The curry also didn’t feel as deep and delicious as usual. It did continue to suffer from having undercooked potatoes, but this is a problem with every massaman curry I’ve had everywhere.

Mai Thai uses sliced beef which I think they add at to the curry after cooking it, rather than cubed beef cooked in the curry itself. This makes sense practically, as they can then offer your choice of multiple proteins with each curry, but it means that the meats are tougher and less flavorful.

Mike had the panang chicken ($19), which we both felt was better. It tasted just as it usually does, though it was less spicy than usual. Still, he enjoyed it. Like with the massaman curry, the sliced chicken seems to be cooked separately and is therefore not as succulent and tasty as it otherwise could be.

Rice was an additional $3.50 for a single but generous portion and a soda was $3. Service was friendly and competent.

Read my original reviews of Mai Thai.

Mai Thai
13700 Doolittle Dr #110
San Leandro, CA 
510-351-9898

Tate’s Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies review

March 11, 2025 / marga / 0 Comments

Not bad, but too sweet

Tate’s cookies were on sale at Safeway, and while I’m not usually a cookie buyer, I was curious to give these a try. They looked pretty fancy and the regular price was quite high. I thought they were good for a commercial cookie, but not something to write home about.

The cookies are smaller than similar ones – those from Pepperidge Farms, for example – which is not a bad thing for those who want an occasional sweet treat and can limit themselves to just one. They are crispy, which I enjoyed, though they also sell “soft” cookies. Flavor wise there were hints that reminded me of the homemade cookies my aunt used to make, but just hints. Mostly, they were sweet. They didn’t have enough walnuts – or large enough pieces of walnuts – for either their flavor or texture to push through.

I did like that the cookies have mostly natural ingredients: unbleached flour, semi-sweet chocolate chips, butter, white and brown sugar, walnuts, eggs, salt and baking soda. It does have added “natural flavor,” whatever that is, and I think it probably takes away rather than add to the quality of the cookie. There is a lingering sour/metallic taste that I don’t quite like (it could be from too much baking soda too).

I appreciate that they come in an easily resealable package so that they can stay fresh. Each portion of 2 cookies has 150 calories, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 11 grams of sugar (21% of daily value!) and 9 grams of fat.

Signature Select French Toast Sticks Review

March 10, 2025 / marga / 0 Comments

Terrible in every sense – except for taste

I shouldn’t have bought these French Toast Sticks at Safeway. I was planning to get plain old frozen waffles to have as a snack mid-morning, when hunger finally hits me but I feel it’s too early to actually have lunch. But then I saw these and I was curious. Curiosity killed the cat.

These French Toast sticks are bad nutritionally. The serving of 4 sticks – equivalent to a single thick slice of bread, has 310 calories and 40 grams of carbs – and that’s before you dip them in maple syrup. They don’t seem to contain any egg. As far I can tell, they are made by dipping bread slices in soybean oil and then dusting them with a batter made of flour, sugar, water and other ingredients with caramel and turmeric for coloring. They are probably then fried once more. And they are expensive if you compare them with the cost of making French toast at home, even if you use now-expensive eggs and milk. The package of 12 sticks, equivalent to 3 thick slices of bread, is $4. And you can’t cook them in the toaster. When I got them, I thought I’d be able to cook them just like frozen waffles, but these have to be cooked in the oven, toaster oven, air fryer or microwave.

My first time, I tried them in the air fryer and God, were they good! They were crispy outside and melt-in-your-mouth soft inside. The perfect texture. Dipped in maple syrup (and you don’t need much of it, given how much sugar they have to begin with), they were just delicious. Alas, because they are mostly carbs I was left hungry not too long after. In all, I don’t think I’ll buy them again, but I enjoyed them when I had them.

Harry & David Pop! Cinnamon Caramel Popcorn Review

March 10, 2025 / marga / 0 Comments

My husband picked up a package of Harry & David Pop! Cinnamon Caramel Popcorn at Grocery Outlet and finally decided to open it today. I had been avoiding it as I don’t take to like cinnamon in commercial products – it’s often fake and tastes horribly. But I tried them and they are pretty good. Not great. I won’t be scarfing them down or encouraging him to buy another package, but they weren’t bad.

First, the cinnamon flavor, which comes from “cinnamon powder,” is pretty subtle. It’s there but it’s not on your face in an offensive way. It mostly just tastes of corn syrup, the ingredient they used to create the “caramel”. And that’s a problem because it doesn’t have those toasty caramel notes you want from caramel. The popcorn is just sweet, overwhelmingly so.

Harry & David introduced their Pop! line of popcorn in 2022, but I don’t see them being sold at the Harry & David website or mainstream retailers anymore, which suggests it’s been discontinued as a brand.

Guolis Conitos Review

March 6, 2025 / marga / 0 Comments

Are these conitos better than Havanettes?

Once upon a time, conitos – or as we then knew them, Havannets – were my favorite treat. These are small cone-shaped sweet with a thin cookie base, and dulce de leche coated with chocolate. If you like dulce de leche, you’ll like them.

While for decades, conitos were the exclusive province of Havanna and maybe Balcarce – the two posh brands of alfajores Argentina had -, as new brands of gourmet alfajores exploded in the 90’s, so did conitos. They are now available from a large variety of brands, at least in Argentina.

Guolis is one of the brands having a moment right now. My cousin Adriana brought me a box of them when we saw her in Washington DC. She told us they had become popular as they are overstuffed with dulce de leche.

Indeed, they are, but otherwise they didn’t seem very different to me than Havannets. I don’t think I could tell them apart in a blind taste. They were very good and I enjoyed them, but not more or less than an Havannets. I’d buy them if they were available for sale – as long as they cost the same or less than Havannets.

By the way, I buy my Argentine treats through Pampa Direct (this is a referral code that if used will give both of us a $5 off coupon).

Meal Kit Reviews: EveryPlate is Pretty Good for the Price

March 6, 2025 / marga / 0 Comments

Updated on March, 2025

After years of not using meal kits, I’m open to trying them again. I started with EveryPlate because it’s cheap. I’m updating my 2019 review.

EveryPlate is a budget meal kit brand launched by HelloFresh. It offers simpler meals than its parent company, without fancy ingredients.

The Food

EveryPlate now offers a choice of over 30 meals a week, including several “premium” ones that have an additional cost, a few “oven ready” meals that come in a tray ready to be put in the oven and others that can prepared ahead and cooked quickly. They include several vegetarian meals, and several meals allow you to switch to a different protein for a small additional cost.

The meals are usually uncomplicated American favorites, things such as grilled cheese sandwich with tomato sauce, burgers, baked pastas and the now-popular “bowls”. Most meals include pork, chicken or sausages – though you might be able to switch to beef for an additional cost.

Even though they have expanded their menu, I still struggled to find enough recipes that sounded like things I wanted to eat.

The ingredients, in general, are of good quality. The meats are tasty and at least as good as supermarket meats. I particularly liked the ranch steak. The produce is hit and miss. Some items are not exactly what’s mentioned in the recipe (different types of onions or peppers), some seem overripe and some under. I’ve gotten old garlic and limes. The meats are vacuum sealed and are good for a week after receiving them.

While some meal kits include all the ingredients you’ll need, save for salt, pepper and cooking oil – EveryPlate is more stingy. They require you to use (and have!) your own butter, milk, sugar, flour and ketchup, for example. As not everyone has a stocked pantry, make sure you read what each recipe calls for before ordering it.

The Shipping & Delivery

EveryPlate now delivers their boxes six days a week. My box was delivered in the morning and I got a text altering me to it.

The Packaging

The ingredients come in a cardboard box with a cushioned liner. Some of these are recyclable and other aren’t, so you need to check before you dispose of them. The meats are sandwiched at the bottom of the box between two freezer packs and the rest of the ingredients come in their own little cardboard box. I usually just transfer the whole box into the fridge, though some ingredients (like dry pasta) don’t need refrigeration.

The Plans

EveryPlate allows you get 3 to 5 meals a week for 2, 4 or 6 people each. The basic plan of 3 meals a week for 2 costs $50 ($39 for the meals and $11 for shipping), or $17 per meal / $8.50 per portion. If you order more meals, the cost per meal goes down.

You can usually find discounts online that are good for at least the first week. You can get $15 off by using this link, but there are probably better deals elsewhere.

EveryPlate’s reduced costs are achieved by offering meals with few ingredients, reducing assembly time by not separating ingredients by recipe in the box and by not including some ingredients their recipes call for (e.g. butter, milk, flour & ketchup).

The Meals

These are the Every Plate meals I made in 2025 – I didn’t take photos of the first three.

Beef Bolognese over Linguine
Simple and perfectly acceptable. Also, relatively quick to make.

Molto Mozzarella Beef Burgers with Creamy Marinara & Potato Wedges
I only made the burger, it was pretty good. I didn’t use the marinara sauce and instead used my own ketchup and garlic aioli.

Crispy Caesar Chicken with Roasted Carrots & Garlic Mashed Potatoes

The chicken was simple but pretty tasty. The caesar dressing helped keep it moist. I roasted the potatoes instead of mashing them and tossed them with olive oil, chopped garlic and Italian seasoning. They were quite yummy.

Creamy Tomato & Pork Sausage Linguine with Garlic Bread

This was also pretty good, but pretty heavy and I don’t think worth the calories or carbs. I added my own Parmesan to both the garlic bread and the pasta – it needed it. I cooked the garlic bread in the air fryer for 5 minutes at 350F. No need to preheat.

Back in 2019, I made these ones:

	Carne Asada Fajitas with Pickled Onions and Lime cream This dish was just OK
	Steak Tagliata with Tomato Jam, Creamy Kale and Garlic Bread A surprisingly enjoyable dish with good quality beef.
	BBQ Pork Sloppy Joes with Pickled Onions and Sweet Potato Wedges I made a mess of this, but the pork was still tasty

All in all, I was happy with them. They were relatively easy to make, quicker than other meal kits, and they were tasty. The portions were also OK – though in some cases this was because of the empty carbs (just look at the size of that garlic bread in comparison to the beef!).

I also made a meal based on an EveryPlate recipe, and might make more in the future:

Garlic-Rosemary Chicken with Roasted Root Veggies

A very decent meal to put together with stuff I had at home.

Cancelling the service was also very easy – just do it online – and reactivation is a breeze as well.

Cuisine Adventures Butter Chicken Naan Bites Review

March 4, 2025 / marga / 0 Comments

I’m not a huge appetizer eater, but when I saw that Costco was carrying these butter chicken nan bites I was curious. I love nan bread, I love butter chicken, and combining the two in a bite seems to make a lot of sense.

The 25 oz package comes with 2 bags of nan bites, each with 18 pieces. They can be baked in the oven or cooked in the air fryer. I did the later, preheating it at 350F for 5 minutes, then cooking the bites for 4 minutes, tossing them and then cooking them for an additional 3 minutes. Even though I let them rest for another 3 minutes they were extremely hot when I bit into one. I’d advise to let them sit for at least 5 or 6 minutes before attempting to bite into them.

They were pretty good. They look little samosas but the shells are a little puzzling. They were crispy on the outside and rather thin, but pleasantly chewy.

The filling was tasty, though it was closer to a generic chicken curry than to butter chicken in particular. It had none of the complexity and yuminess of the latter. There was also not enough chicken. Moreover, the sauce spurts all over when you bite into them, particularly when hot. They were a bit on the oily side, however.

All in all, I don’t think I’ll buy them again but I will likely finish the package.

Update: I ate some more dipped in honey mustard dressing and they were absolutely delicious. Of course, most everything with honey mustard dressing rocks, but these went particularly well. They are still too greasy for me to buy again, but I am enjoying those I have left.

Cuisine Adventures is a brand of frozen products made by Plats du Chef, a once Canadian company now owned by a private American company.

Junior’s Mini Cheesecakes – Review

March 4, 2025 / marga / 0 Comments

A nice treat

Last year, when we went to New York City, our first gastronomic stop was at Junior’s – the famed coffeeshop that was credited with serving the best cheesecake in town. We liked it, so when I heard that Costco might be carrying their cheesecakes I directed Mike, my husband, to get one. It turned out that what they are actually carrying is a package of mini-cheesecakes, and that what he finally got for us a few days ago.

The package comes with 24 frozen cheesecakes and costs around $21. I say around because Costco actually forgot to charge us for it – and charged us for an extra of another item instead. Unlike the regular cheesecake, these ones don’t come with a cake or cookie base, they are all cheese. Indeed, the ingredient list is very simple: cream cheese, sugar, heavy cream, eggs and milk. You are supposed to keep them frozen and let thaw at room temperature for an hour before serving, but I thawed them in the fridge to no ill effect (so far).

The box comes with three flavors of cheesecakes: “original” (plain), strawberry and chocolate. The original cheesecake was pretty good, but not as good as the cheesecake we remembered from Junior’s. That one had a rustic flavor which made us think of a farmer’s cheese. This one just tasted like regular cheesecake, albeit a less sweet version. Indeed, while it was still a tad too sweet for my taste, I did appreciate that it wasn’t as sweet as most cheesecakes are. And I didn’t miss the cake base layer at all.

The strawberry cheesecakes have a swirl of strawberry sweep on top and what seems like a thin layer of strawberry syrup in the middle. The syrup tasted “real,” like what you get when you cook strawberries with sugar and then puree. It was pretty good, and gave bright, fresh hints to what is otherwise a very uniform experience, but I wish there had been more of it.

I had a similar thought with the chocolate cheesecakes. These ones had a swirl of chocolate cheesecake – rather than chocolate syrup – a bit deeper than the strawberry one. The flavor of the chocolate cheesecake was very good, but there just wasn’t enough of it to reach every bite.

In all, these are a good dessert both to serve to others and to practice portion control – particularly if you thaw one at the time.

Author: marga (Page 1 of 111)

Locale Review

This meal delivery service has a complete new concept, but does it work?