Tag: Misc Foods

Today’s review is all about helping my fellow rice-eating Asian brothers and sisters with keepin’ it real.

Are you the only Asian in your town and every time you’re at a party the only starch available is either potatoes, pasta, or bread?

Sure, you’ll scoop some mashed potatoes on your plate, but deep down, you really wish those potatoes were the OTHER white starch. You also don’t want to shovel those potatoes in your mouth, because your rice farming ancestors are probably watching you and waiting to see if you keep it real.

Sometimes your non-Asian friends will make Uncle Ben’s rice to accommodate you, thinking rice is rice, and on the outside you’re appreciative, but in the inside, you know that Uncle Ben’s rice will not suffice. It’s just not the same.

Then sometimes some drunk dude at the party will ask you if you can introduce him to some Asian chicks because he heard they were “tight” and will “love me long time.” Then another person will ask if you know karate, judo, kung fu, or any other of the Asian martial arts. Someone will ask you if you’re related to Jackie Chan and you’ll say you’re not, then correct them by saying your last name is Chen, not Chan.

Then some random woman will come up to you and say that she really enjoyed reading The Joy Luck Club and the movie version made her cry. Then some REALLY drunk dude will want you to apologize for Pearl Harbor. Someone else will ask you if you can solve a math problem for them.

Then an older woman will want to know if Calgon detergent really is an “ancient Chinese secret.” Some creepy guy will quietly ask you where he could get his hands on some “Japanese monster tentacle sex cartoons.” Another person will talk with you about how much they love their Toyota Camry. Then another drunk person will wonder how comfortable those “thongs” are that sumo wrestlers wear.

I can’t help my fellow Asians with any of the situations described in the last three paragraphs, but I can assist them with making their rice farming ancestors proud of them for keepin’ it real with the Shirakiku Microwavable Rice.

Each container contains 7.05 ounces of rice, which is enough for two meals, unless you’re a sumo wrestler, then it’s an appetizer. It also contains 318 calories, 71 grams of carbs, 0.4 grams of fiber, and 5.6 grams of protein. The rice itself was very good, it was fluffy and sticky, just like the way I prefer my cotton candy, but not too fluffy and sticky, just like the way I prefer my strippers.

It was also surprisingly better tasting than anything I’ve ever made in a normal rice cooker, which either says a lot about this product’s quality or says a lot about how much my rice cooking abilities suck.

The best part of the Shirakiku Microwavable Rice is the fact that it’s really quick and easy to prepare. Just pull back the lid a little and then heat it in the microwave for about one minute. If you’re old school or afraid the microwave’s radiation will mess with your DNA, you can also prepare it on a stove top by heating the container in boiling water for about 14 minutes.

Well I hope today’s review will help my fellow Asians get out of a rice-less situation with ease. Sure, carrying a container of Shirakiku Microwavable Rice in your purse or jacket pocket is a pain the ass since the container is about an inch thick, four inches wide, and eight inches long, but just think of the smiles you’ll receive from your rice picking ancestors when you meet them after you die.

Item: Shirakiku Microwavable Rice
Price: $1.39
Purchased at: Uwajimaya – Seattle
Rating: 10 out of 10
Pros: Quick and easy to prepare. Better than the rice I cook. Fluffy and sticky. No need to add water. 5.6 grams of protein. Enough rice for two meals, unless you’re a sumo wrestler. Keepin’ it real.
Cons: Pricey if you compare it to a 20-pound bag of rice, which goes on sale for $5-$6. Not for people on the Atkins Diet. Packaging isn’t very compact.

Over the years, I have learned an important lesson: When alcohol and silicone are taken away from something, they instantly lose their fun factor.

For example, a party at the Playboy Mansion wouldn’t be any fun without alcohol and silicone. Strip clubs would be less enjoyable minus alcohol and silicone. Finally, Anna Nicole Smith would be less fun and harder to parody without alcohol and silicone.

Recently, I found a product that debunks the lesson I learned, the Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray. Not only does it not have any alcohol or silicone, which it proudly boasts on its packaging, it also doesn’t have any calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates, and cholesterol.

With none of that in the Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray, you’re probably asking yourself, how can it be any fun?

Well with the right people, items and body parts, it can be hella fun.

For example, did you see the episode of Family Guy when the employees of Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory had a competition at their company picnic to see who could catch a greased-up deaf guy? You can recreate this thanks to the Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray.

Just get a bunch of your friends. Find a place with a lot of open space, like a city park, state university campus, or cemetery. Then have everyone draw straws. The one with the shortest straw has to strip down to their skivvies and be sprayed all over with the Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray. Give that person a 30 second head start and some earplugs, then you folks can have yourself some greasy giggly fun.

Oh yeah, just a warning. Do not play this game in the middle of the day, unless you plan to eat your friend once you capture them and they’ve had time to cook in midday sun.

Do you have plastic sheets, a significant other, and did you run out of sensual massage oil?

If you said yes to all three, you can use the Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray in your foreplay activities. Just spray it on body parts and then rub, stroke, lick, and/or tickle. I sprayed some on my body and it felt kind of good once I got used to the butter scent. I also made a video of me rubbing it on, which you can view here (Quicktime required).

Oh yeah, another warning. Do not use the cooking spray as a lubricant for condoms and please remember to dispose of plastic sheets when done with sweet, sweet lovemaking.

Now if you’re really crazy and want to have some real fun, you can use the Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray to cook things or add some light butter flavor to foods like popcorn.

Usually, I use a tablespoon of butter when making an omelette, but the other morning I used the Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray to make a turkey, cheese, and broccoli omelette. I really couldn’t taste the butter flavor from the cooking spray, but it did prevent my eggs from sticking to the pan.

Like its greasy distant spraying cousin, WD-40, the Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray has a lot of fun uses, but you just have to find them. Although WD-40 totally sucks as a sensual massage oil.

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Item: Mazola Pure Butter Cooking Spray
Price: $3.00 (on sale)
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 3 out of 5
Pros: Hella fun. No fat. No cholesterol. No sodium. No carbs. No calories. Can add a light buttery flavor to popcorn. Aluminum can is strokeable. Not just for cooking, it’s like WD-40. Possible massage oil replacement.
Cons: A Playboy Mansion party without alcohol and silicone. Too light of a buttery taste. Might’ve been more fun with alcohol and silicone.

MARVO: Today, I’m here with Mother Nature to discuss the Grapple, which is an apple that tastes like a grape. So Mother Nature, what do you think of this Grapple?

MOTHER NATURE: First off, are you pronouncing it right? Shouldn’t it be “gr-apple,” like I grappled you to the ground and beat your little punk ass.

MARVO: Well on the packaging, it’s printed as “gra-pple,” like you’re saying the words “gray” and “pull.”

MOTHER NATURE: Whatever, little man. Let me just say that I don’t believe in these man-made hybrid fruits. It’s kind of fucked up if you ask me, because it’s not the way mother fuckin’ Mother Nature intended it. So how do they make these mother fuckin’ Grapples?

MARVO: Well they take a Fuji apple and soak it in a Concord grape concentrate. The process doesn’t add any extra calories or sugars to the apple and it doesn’t alter the texture of it either. With the Grapples I’ve tried, they have a strong Welch’s grape juice kind of smell, but unfortunately it doesn’t have a grape taste that is as equally as strong. Despite that, they are pretty good. Pretty impressive, eh?

MOTHER NATURE: Should I be impressed with the fact that someone created a mother fuckin’ apple that tastes like a mother fuckin’ grape? Come on, I’m mother fuckin’ Mother Nature, bitch. I don’t need to soak an apple in grape concentrate to make a Grapple, all I have to do is just snap my fingers to make one. Want a Grapple?

MARVO: Um, sure. So snapping your fingers is all you need to do?

MOTHER NATURE: Damn straight, because I’m mother fuckin’ Mother Nature. Ya heard.

(Mother Nature snaps her fingers and a Grapple appears)

MOTHER NATURE: Booyah! There’s a mother fuckin’ Grapple for yo’ ass! Did I just blow your mind, like I’m mother fuckin’ Mindfreak, yo! You humans are crazy, using genetic engineering and cross-pollination to form new “species,” but all I have to do is just snap my fingers, like I’m in a doo-wop group. Because why?

MARVO: Um, because you’re mother fuckin’ Mother Nature?

MOTHER NATURE: That’s right, little man. You want a strawloupe?

MARVO: What’s a strawloupe and what’s doo-wop?

(Mother Nature snaps her fingers and a strawloupe appears)

MOTHER NATURE: A strawloupe! A strawberry that tastes like a cantaloupe, bitch. Try it or else I’ll make lightning strike yo’ ass.

(Marvo tries the strawloupe)

MARVO: Hey! This is pretty good, Mother Nature.

MOTHER NATURE: Damn right it’s good, because I’m mother fuckin’ Mother Nature. You better recognize. It’s the way that Mother Nature intended it, bitch. How about a pearch? It’s a peach that tastes like a pear. Or a mangorange? It’s a orange that tastes like a mango. Or how about a banagerine? It’s a tangerine that tastes like a banana. I can do this all mother fuckin’ day, yo!

MARVO: Um, this is all fine and dandy, but can I get a few more Grapples, because they’re kind of expensive at five bucks for a four-pack.

MOTHER NATURE: Five bucks for four? Damn, that’s expensive. Thank goodness I’m mother fuckin’ Mother Nature and I can make Grapples with a snap of my fingers, because I couldn’t afford this shit on a regular basis. My name ain’t Bill Gates.

(Editor’s Note: Thanks to Impulsive Buy reader Derrick for letting me know about Grapples. Now I must find his other suggestion, the Turducken.)

Item: Grapple
Price: $4.99 (4-pack)
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Pretty good. It’s a frickin’ apple that tastes like a grape. Totally smells like Welch’s grape juice. NOT genetically engineered. Mother Nature’s power to make new fruits and to strike my ass with lightning.
Cons: Grape taste is not as strong as its grape smell. Kind of expensive for just four apples. Mother Nature’s dropping of excessive F-bombs. Pissing off Mother Nature. Trying to pronounce Grapple. Mother Nature’s reference to doo-wop. Mother Nature is a bitch.

The Delta Airlines Snack Pack I recently received on my five-hour red-eye flight to San Francisco was much like the flight itself…nothing really exciting.

My flight consisted of thin, blue blankets, a lot of empty seats, cute 30-something female flight attendants, and Big Momma’s House 2 as the in-flight movie.

My snack pack consisted of a shortbread cookie, buttermilk and herb crackers, a box of raisins, and a small container of spreadable Havarti cheese.

The shortbread cookie was like the thin, blue blanket that greeted me when I got to my seat. Both could’ve been thicker. The thin blanket did nothing to help keep me warm, while the thin shortbread cookie did nothing to help keep me nourished. The cookie lacked the butteriness that most good shortbread cookies have.

It was also dry, like a Jay Leno monologue. However, the cookie did come in a nice design much like Danish cookies. Too bad its taste was passive, much like Danish people.

The buttermilk and herb crackers were like the empty seats on my flight, because there were plenty of them and they all were a little small. Each cracker reminded me of a tiny piece of Italian garlic bread. I tried it plain, but it definitely tasted better with the Havarti cheese that also came in the Delta Airlines Snack Pack.

The raisins were like the cute 30-something female flight attendants because they both had wrinkles (although they were very slight around the eyes of the female flight attendants), they are sweet, they are probably both delicious, and I’d like to take some home with me. The box of SunMaid raisins was the “fun-sized” one and it was definitely the healthiest part of the snack pack.

Finally, the small container of spreadable Havarti cheese was like the movie Big Momma’s House 2. I would never spend eight dollars for a tub of Havarti cheese at the grocery store or spend eight dollars to watch Big Momma’s House 2 at a movie theater.

Heck, I wouldn’t even spend the two dollars to get the headphones so I could watch it on the flight.

Besides, why would I spend eight dollars for Havarti cheese when I can spend 55 cents for the cheese in a Kraft Handi-Snacks Cheese and Crackers, which the Havarti tasted like.

Overall, the Delta Airlines Snack Pack was a decent potpourri of individually-packed goodness. It was definitely better and more substantial than the hard-to-open honey-roasted peanuts that were given to me on previous five-hour red-eye flights.

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Item: Delta Airlines Snack Pack
Price: FREE (Airfare not included)
Purchased at: Received free on Delta Airlines Flight 637
Rating: 3 out of 5
Pros: A potpourri of individually-packed goodness. Better than a hard-to-open pack of honey-roasted peanuts. Lots of empty seats on my flight.
Cons: Thin blanket and thin cookie. Cookie was dry. Spending two dollars for the headphones on a flight. Expensive sounding cheese didn’t taste expensive. Big Momma’s House 2.

There was a time in my life that I wanted to be an astronaut.

There was also another time in my life that I wanted to participate in the Vagina Monologues and express my love for vagina, but that’s for another review.

I didn’t want to become an astronaut for the thrill, glory, or large amounts of Tang, I wanted to become an astronaut because I thought being an astronaut would mean an endless supply of delicious freeze-dried ice cream.

If you’ve never had freeze-dried ice cream, it’s like eating chalk, except in Neapolitan flavors and you aren’t forced to ride in a short yellow bus to school, like you would if you ate chalk.

At night, I would go outside, lay on our driveway, stare at the thousands of stars in the sky, and imagine that I was in outer space and a part of the Mile High Club, which meant something totally different when I was ten years old.

To prepare myself to be an astronaut, I hung upside-down from the monkeybars to experience weightlessness, I jumped up and down on an exercise trampoline to simulate what jumping on the moon would be like, and had my body buried in sand at the beach to experience what g-forces felt like.

I also practiced my cool astronaut tag line if I landed on the moon, “Houston, I’m stepping on the cheese and I’ll cut it later,” which I thought at the time was waaay better than, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

However, my dream to become an astronaut ended when I learned that I could purchase packs of freeze-dried ice cream from a local museum for two dollars each and that my cool astronaut tag line was lame because the moon was less like cheese and more like the face of a pubescent boy whose balls have just dropped.

Since then, my taste for freeze-dried ice cream has been replaced by the freeze-dried marshmallows found in Lucky Charms and Count Chocula.

Recently, my freeze-dried food choices became slightly more expanded thanks to the Gerber Graduates Apple Mini Fruits, which are made from 100% real fruit, contain no preservatives, made for children 12 months or older, and make my hands look huge.

Each bag contains four servings of fruit. However, I don’t know if baby servings and adult servings are different. Even if they are, I got both bases covered, because like most babies, I enjoy sucking on a pacifier once in awhile, and like most adults, I’m potty trained and can watch Rated-R movies.

Just like M&Ms, the Gerber Graduates Apple Mini Fruits melt in your mouth and not in your hands. They have an apple taste, which they should since they’re made from real apples, but the apple flavor isn’t as strong as eating an actual ripe apple.

Or drinking apple juice.

Or eating applesauce.

Or sucking on an apple Jolly Rancher.

Or sucking on a bottle of apple schnapps.

Another thing about the Gerber Graduates Apple Mini Fruits, at 25 calories per serving, they could possibly help you lose weight and help make you as thin as Kate Moss, except without the cocaine use.

Item: Gerber Graduates Apple Mini Fruits
Purchase Price: $2.00 (on sale)
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Low calorie. Made from 100% real fruit. No preservatives. Comes in resealable bag. Freeze-dried ice cream. Melts in your mouth and not in your hands.
Cons: Light apple flavor. Small servings for adults. Never was able to use my astronaut tag line. Never joined the Mile High Club.