Category Archives: New Products

Ginger Time

One scoop? Or two?

Yes, I have a thing for ginger.

Big-time.

Whether it’s pickled, fresh, crystalized, or dried, I can never get enough of it. That sweet-heat on the back of the throat wins me over every time.

So you can just imagine my delight when two new ginger products landed on my front porch for sampling.

First up, the new Haagen-Dazs “Five” ice cream flavors. There are seven flavors — each of them containing only five ingredients: milk, cream, eggs, sugar, and one wild card for flavor. The five-ingredient concept is played up to denote purity and simplicity. The ice cream comes in vanilla bean, milk chocolate, mint, coffee, brown sugar, passion fruit, and ginger.

Guess which one I opened first?

That would be correct.

The mouth-feel of these ice creams is wicked good — rich, smooth, and creamy as all get out. But then you expect no less from Haagen-Dazs.

The ginger one had a musty-ginger flavor. It had fairly subtle heat, too. Perhaps, too subtle for a true ginger addict like yours truly.

I had high hopes for the brown sugar one. After all, it tastes exactly like brown sugar. But let’s face it, how much brown sugar would you really want to eat? After one taste, that’s pretty much enough.

The vanilla bean was the epitome of purity — very vanilla-like. The milk chocolate made me think of my childhood — in a good way. It reminded me of eating cups of Carnation frozen milk chocolate out of paper containers with a tiny wooden spoon.

My favorites were probably the coffee (very perky tasting), the mint (incredibly cool and refreshing), and the passion fruit (like a tropical island on a spoon).

Itty bitty, but with a huge taste.

Next up, the Ginger People’s new Ginger Snaps. A 5.3-ounce box is $5.50.

Read more

A Fruity Jerky

Not your grandfather's jerky.

This is not your min-mart jerky.

Thank goodness.

When Wichita Falls, TX-based Jerky.com sent me a sample of its new “Pineapple Jerky,” I had horrifying visions of sinewy, jaw-breaking dried meat sheets doused in pineapple juice arriving on my doorstep.

What came in the mail was something all together different: Thin, dried rounds of actual pineapple. No meat was involved; only honey. And this “jerky” was actually pretty, almost resembling a dried flower.

Read more

Superb Salumi

Can't stop at just one slice.

When chef-cookbook author-cooking host Michael Chiarello opened his flagship NapaStyle store in Yountville last year,  he finally had enough space for a curing room.

Like his other five NapaStyle stores in California, the Yountville one also boasts a tempting array of specialty cookware and gourmet ingredients. But this one also features a wine bar, as well as a cafe that serves sandwiches and salads.

When I visited recently, I was after what came out of the curing room — artisan cured meats.

Hand-crafted salumi seems to be the rage these days among Bay Area chefs. You have Paul Bertolli, former executive chef of Oakland’s Oliveto, turning out his wonderful Fra’Mani salumi. You have Chris Cosentino, chef of San Francisco’s Incanto, selling his brand of Boccalone cured meats.

Read more

Potato Chip Cookies for Fools

The ''before'' picture of Kettle Brand Baked Potato Chips.

You’ve heard of  “Girls Gone Wild”?

Think of this as “Potato Chips Gone to Hell.”

This is the story of when bad things happen to good potato chips.

Or the tale of a thoroughly foolish recipe for April Fool’s Day.

You see, when I spied a recipe for Potato Chip Cookies in a new cookbook, I got all intrigued. I mean, who wouldn’t at the thought of something as unlikely as potato chips being incorporated into cookie dough?

I’ve decided to let the cookbook go unnamed, since it’s not fair for me to judge the entire cookbook by only one recipe. I’ve also decided not to print the recipe here, because I’m never making it again, and I sure wouldn’t want any of you to.

The "after'' photo of the first bad batch.

The cookies are described in the recipe as being like Mexican wedding cake cookies. I tell ya, look at these photos. Do these look anything like Mexican wedding cake cookies? I think not!

Read more

Fruity, Chocolate-Dunked Meringues

Blueberry CocoaBerries.

Sound pretty good?

Then, meet CocoaBerries — the newest treat from Rubicon Bakery.

If you don’t know Rubicon Bakery, you should. For more than a dozen years, it has created baked treats that are sold at many Bay Area stores, including Andronico’s, Costco, Zanotto’s, and Whole Foods, as well as Rubicon’s online site.

It is part of Rubicon Programs, Inc., a non-profit that provides training, employment, and housing to those in need. The bakery offers work-skill training and entry-level jobs for those who are homeless, or suffer from mental disabilities or addictions. All revenue from the bakery, minus costs, are donated to the agency.

The CocoaBerries are available in two flavors: Strawberry and Blueberry. Each 2.7-ounce box is about $5.50.

I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure I’d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »