Month: February 2012

REVIEW: DiGiorno Three Meat Pizza Pizza Dipping Strips

Marvo 6 Comments

DiGiorno Pizza Dipping Strips Three Meat Pizza

Pizza Hut did it!

I couldn’t help but yell those four words and rip off South Park when I saw the DiGiorno Three Meat Pizza Pizza Dipping Strips. As you can imagine, this frightened my fellow shoppers in the frozen food aisle and caused them to scurry themselves and their shopping carts away from me.

That was not the first time I yelled the words “Pizza Hut did it!” in public while looking at a DiGiorno product. I also did it when I discovered DiGiorno’s Pizza and Wyngs, DiGiorno’s Pizza and Breadsticks, and I do it whenever I see DiGiorno’s Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza. It’s as if Pizza Hut is DiGiorno’s R&D Department.

DiGiorno’s Pizza Dipping Strips is made up of 12 pull-apart strips of pizza and comes with a container of marinara sauce and another of garlic dipping sauce. I picked up the Three Meat Pizza one, but it also comes in Pepperoni and Four Cheese varieties. The three meats are sausage, pepperoni, and beef.

Even though they were connected by just crust, the dipping strips weren’t super easy to pull apart. Or maybe I’m as horrible at pulling than a one-legged ox. After burning my fingers trying to split the strips apart, I decided to break out my pizza cutter.

DiGiorno Pizza Dipping Strips Three Meat Pizza Closeup

I prefer DiGiorno frozen pizzas over Red Baron, Tombstone, Totino’s, Freschetta, and a few others, so it’s no surprise I enjoyed the pizza part of the Pizza Dipping Strips. I think DiGiorno’s tasty pizza sauce is what sets it apart from other frozen pizzas, but I also think their crust is a bit too thick. Another slight issue I had with the dipping strips is the amount of pepperoni. Each strip had just one lonely slice of pepperoni. Although, I will admit this is easy to fix by stealing the pepperoni from other dipping strips when your fellow eaters aren’t looking.

What about the dipping sauces? Well, let me just say, one is better than the other and they’re quite watery.

Preparing the dipping sauces is more complex than baking the pizza, which is pretty much just stick pizza in oven, take pizza out of oven, and enjoy. The steps to get the sauces ready are: place sauce packets in hot tap water for 4-5 minutes, tear open packets, squeeze each sauce into separate microwave-safe bowls, heat one sauce for 20-30 seconds in the microwave, heat the other sauce for 20-30 seconds in the microwave, and enjoy.

The garlic dipping sauce is not very garlicy. If you enjoy the garlic sauce from Domino’s or Papa John’s, this DiGiorno garlic sauce will disappoint. Its garlic flavor is mild enough that I would not be afraid to make out with someone after eating it. Despite my not so glowing words, I have to say the garlic sauce is better than the marinara dipping sauce, which has very little flavor at all. As I mentioned earlier, I like DiGiorno’s pizza sauce, so I’m disappointed their marinara sauce is dull.

If there’s one positive thing I could say about the sauces, it would be that each packet has a lot of sauce. When other eater weren’t looking, I was not only stealing their pepperoni, I was also double, triple, and quadruple dipping into both sauces. And despite all of that unsanitary dipping, there was still a lot of sauce left.

The DiGiorno Pizza Dipping Strips is a good idea, although an old idea, but the sauces bring everything down. I do like the idea of pull apart pieces and would like to see DiGiorno do that with their regular round pizzas.

I would also like to see DiGiorno’s combine pizza with cinnamon sticks, much like Pizza Hut does with their $10 Dinner Box. Oh wait, it’s already happened.

Pizza Hut did it!

(Nutrition Facts – 2 dipping strips – 360 calories, 140 calories from fat, 16 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat*, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 880 milligrams of sodium, 39 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein. Marinara Sauce – 2 Tbsp. – 20 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 125 milligrams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein. Garlic Sauce – 2 Tbsp. – 60 calories, 7 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 300 milligrams of sodium, 1 gram of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 0 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.)

*uses partially hydrogenated oil

Item: DiGiorno Three Meat Pizza Pizza Dipping Strips
Price: $6.99
Size: 34.2 ounces
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Pizza is good. Pizza in strip form is easier to eat than pizza slice form. Stealing pepperoni. THREE MEATS! Lots of dipping sauce. Pizza is easy to prepare.
Cons: Garlic sauce isn’t very garlicy. Marinara sauce is bland. Would’ve liked more pepperoni. Having your pepperoni stolen. Getting caught double, triple, or quadruple dipping. Copying Pizza Hut.

REVIEW: Ruffles Smokehouse Style BBQ Potato Chips

Drew

Ruffles Smokehouse Style BBQ Potato Chips

Over the last year and change, my family has gotten used to the fact that when we go to the grocery store, at some point I’m going to veer off to search a random aisle for new products to review. Sometimes there’s nothing, but last week turned up a variety of options to choose from. That is, until I came across Ruffles Smokehouse Style BBQ chips… then there was no choice at all. Railroads in Monopoly don’t get purchased as quickly as I bought that bag.
 
The fact is, I love ribs, and I used to have a favorite rib joint that my in-laws introduced me to. (Not the only reason they’re the best in-laws in the world, but certainly top three.) This place had more styles of ribs than you can imagine — baby back, St. Louis style spare ribs, Bourbon Street, South Carolina honey, Cajun, Texas beef short ribs, sesame garlic — and they were all excellent. Worth every inch of the 15 mile drive. But then last year they suddenly closed when the government bought out the land they were situated on, with no plans to reopen elsewhere. Damn the Man!

So I’ve been deprived of good ribs for over a year now. New Year’s Eve came and went without our traditional feast, and it hurt. And when it’s been that long, well… sometimes anything even vaguely associated with what you’re missing starts to look good. Veronica Mars may be gone forever, but Kristen Bell’s latest romantic comedy can’t be that bad, right? (Right?) I knew no potato chip could ever replace our departed rib joint, but like a lonely man in Amsterdam, I was easy prey for the chips’ siren call. Part of that is the packaging, which prominently displays a succulent, well-seasoned rack of ribs, but the rest is my innate suggestibility, because apparently some tiny part of me truly believed there were actual ribs in there. (P.S.- There are not.)

Ruffles Smokehouse Style BBQ Potato Chips Closeup

Still, that doesn’t mean the product is doomed to failure. As you might expect, opening the package wafts a strong smell toward your nostrils. Even after having consumed most of the bag, there’s still a noticeable but not overpowering scent. It’s a slightly spicy aroma, though you’d never mistake it for the smell from an actual order of ribs. (Shame, because I would absolutely buy rib-scented air freshener, and you know you would too.) Appearance-wise, they just look like regular Ruffles that someone has coated in typical barbecue chip spices. I’m considering writing to Ruffles and suggesting they include one actual cow bone in every bag, because you just like to have something to gnaw on when you’re done eating, you know? But that’s another story.

But when you actually taste one, it’s hard to get past the fact that it tastes like: a barbecue chip. No less and not much more. There’s perhaps some minor variation from your “average” barbecue chip — these just might be a shade smoother with not quite as much sharp aftertaste, and at times I thought I detected a hint of smokiness — but then again, maybe not. It would take a more discerning palate than mine to draw a clear distinction between these and any other BBQ chips you’ve eaten. Naming them “smokehouse style” is a good marketing tool, as is the picture of ribs on the bag, but a more honest name might’ve been “Basically Just Some Barbecue Chips (with ridges).” Now I happen to like barbecue chips, so that’s not the end of the world. But if you entertained a vague hope that these would in some way approximate a true rib-eating experience, well… sorry that you’re as naive or desperate as me.

In the end, it’s as true of rib joints as it is of life: something great, once lost, can never be recaptured. You can wander around New Jersey all you want (and I have), you’re never going to find Wellsville. But of course, you never really expected to — your brain knew all along what your heart won’t accept. So you can either content yourself with the journey and your ridged barbecue chips, or you can keep looking for another fantastic rib shack. Me, I’m going to continue the search. But in the meantime, Ruffles Smokehouse Style BBQ flavored potato chips are an unremarkable but steadfast companion to have along for the ride. 

(Nutrition Facts – 1 oz/about 11 chips – 160 calories, 90 calories from fat, 10 grams of total fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 2.5 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 5 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 210 milligrams of potassium, 15 grams of total carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 2 grams of sugars, and 2 grams of protein.)

Item: Ruffles Smokehouse Style BBQ Potato Chips
Price: $4.29
Size: 9 ounces
Purchased at: Giant
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Ridged for your pleasure. Tantalizing packaging. Smell is appealing but not overly spicy. Rib-scented air freshener. As far as BBQ chips go, they’re pretty good ones. Obscure Pete & Pete references for the mf’ing WIN.
Cons: Be honest, they’re just barbecue chips. The government stealing the rib man’s land. Deceptive packaging. Hard to tell if they’re actually any smokier than any other barbecue chip. Why is Kristen Bell not out there solving crimes? That’s a lot of calories and fat per chip.

NEWS: Ben & Jerry’s Releases New Flavors and Greek Frozen Yogurt

Marvo 9 Comments

Ben & Jerry's truck

Update: Click here to read our Ben & Jerry’s Greek Frozen Yogurt review

On Second Scoop recently discovered some of Ben & Jerry’s new flavors at his local grocery store.

The first flavor, Chocolate Therapy, isn’t new new, it debuted in 2005 as a limited batch and it’s been available at Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops for years, but it’s back in pint form. The concoction is made up of chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookies and swirls of chocolate pudding ice cream. The second flavor, Chocolate Nougat Crunch, is definitely new new and it consists of sweet cream ice cream with fudge covered wafer cookies and a chocolate nougat swirl.

Ben & Jerry’s also released a line of Greek Frozen Yogurt and Junk Food Guy reviewed the Strawberry Shortcake flavor, which is strawberry Greek frozen yogurt with shortbread pieces mixed in. In the review, he also mentions other flavors available at his local Giant store, like Raspberry Chocolate and Blueberry Graham Cracker.

According to this post on Houston on the Cheap, Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop are replacing their frozen yogurt with the new Greek frozen yogurt line. The flavors include Vanilla, Raspberry Fudge Chunk, Blackberry Vanilla Graham Cracker, and Banana Peanut Butter.

While the two ice cream flavors are nice, I’m excited about the Ben & Jerry’s Greek Frozen Yogurt line, especially the Banana Peanut Butter flavor. Oh, if only Elvis was alive today, I’m sure he would also be excited about the Banana Peanut Butter flavor.

Image via flickr user lsiegert / CC BY 2.0

NEWS: Get Your Spoons and Gym Memberships Ready For This Year’s Limited Edition Häagen-Dazs Flavors

Marvo 1 Comment

05.Signs.Chinatown.WDC.3feb06

I believe Ben & Jerry’s fun flavor names make them perfectly fine to eat straight out of the container in my underwear. But when it comes to eating Häagen-Dazs’ sophisticated flavors, I feel it’s necessary to serve them in glass bowls with pants on. And this year’s Limited Edition Häagen-Dazs flavors are no different.

From now until the end of the year, you’ll be able to enjoy the following four new Limited Edition Häagen-Dazs flavors:

Coconut Macaroon (available from February to September) is made up of soft, chewy coconut macaroon cookies folded into coconut ice cream. Junk Food Guy has a review of them.

Spiced Caramel Biscuit (available from February to December) consists of cinnamon biscuit crumbles blended into caramel ice cream.

Vanilla Bean Espresso (available from February to December) combines espresso with vanilla ice cream, but you probably knew that by reading its name.

Salted Caramel Truffle (available from February to December) brings together sweet-cream ice cream, salted caramel ribbons, and chocolatey truffles.

All Häagen-Dazs Limited Edition flavors are available in their specially labeled purple containers that aren’t quite a pint. If you can’t find them at the supermarket, they’re also available at Häagen-Dazs shops.

Image via flickr user ElvertBarnes / CC BY 2.0

REVIEW: Kellogg’s Eggo Wafflers Brown Sugar Cinnamon Roll

Jasper 6 Comments

Kellogg's Eggo Brown Sugar Cinnamon Roll Wafflers

Eggo owns over 70 percent of the US frozen waffle market. Instead of sitting back and basking in their successes, the Eggo product development team has kept the pedal to the metal, releasing what feels like dozens of new varieties and seasonal flavors in recent years. The guy in charge of naming new items, however, has really gotten lazy. The latest product is called the Eggo Waffler, and I just can’t imagine how they settled on that name. Doing some vague political messaging in an election year would be stupid. Stealing the synonym for a waffle iron is just confusing. Maybe some additional one-letter-away product names are coming down the pipeline, and Kellogg’s is just preparing us for Wafflez for Tweens, the mutant comic book tie-in WaffleX, and Waffl’d, Ashton Kutcher’s new cooking/prank show.

In any case, it’s a shame this product is so poorly named, because the Waffler is the best thing to happen to Eggos this decade (well, second best – being name-dropped in a Childish Gambino rap last year certainly ups the brand’s cred). I tried the Brown Sugar Cinnamon Roll variety, and it was really tasty. The box promises “Packed with flavor – no syrup needed,” and I think Kellogg’s delivered pretty well.

Kellogg's Eggo Brown Sugar Cinnamon Roll Wafflers Difference

The Wafflers come in sets of two which are connected by a perforated edge and, combined, are similar in size to a regular Eggo waffle. I suppose making them rectangular allows for easier holding and transporting, so if Kellogg’s is hoping to emphasize the added convenience of these Eggos, I guess the new shape helps.

Kellogg's Eggo Brown Sugar Cinnamon Roll Wafflers Closeup

The delicious scent of cinnamon rolls was very noticeable both pre- and post-toasting. Upon taking a bite, I found the Wafflers to be filled with cinnamon flavor (you can see specks all across the surface) as well as a solid amount of sweetness. It certainly wasn’t as sugary as an actual cinnamon roll, but I didn’t feel the need to add any syrup at all. Since my original tasting, I’ve had some Wafflers with strawberries and made McGriddle-style breakfast sandwiches. These Wafflers have clearly become my frozen waffles of choice, but if you have a major sweet tooth, I can imagine you finding them a little bit lacking in sweetness.

One wild card factor definitely worth mentioning: the sugar is cooked into these Eggos, but they’re not sticky in any noticeable way. The shape of the Wafflers might add relatively little convenience, but no syrup and a non-sticky product makes for a quick, mess-free eating experience. It’s perfect for serially tardy kids who always need to eat breakfast on the way to the bus stop, as well as for drunken adults who occasionally wake up with their half-eaten drunk food lying next to them in bed. In short, I could’ve used some Eggo Wafflers for the last twenty years of my life. Ignore the stupid name – go pick some up today!

(Nutrition Facts – 2 waffles/4 waffle bars – 250 calories, 80 calories from fat, 9 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 510 milligrams of sodium, 55 milligrams of potassium, 40 less than 1 gram of fiber, 16 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein, and a bunch of vitamins and minerals)

Item: Kellogg’s Eggo Wafflers Brown Sugar Cinnamon Roll
Price: $3.29
Size: 16 Wafflers (8 waffles)
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pros: Smells great. Lots of cinnamon flavor and just the right amount of sweetness (for me, at least). Not sticky + no need for syrup = mess-free eating. The new shape might add to the convenience. That waffle line by Childish Gambino is dope.
Cons: Probably not sweet enough for everyone. Stupid name. I would watch Waffl’d. Always being late as a kid. Always eating drunk food as an adult.