A few weeks ago So Good wrote about the introduction of marijuana ice cream in California. Continuing the trend of marijuana laced foods and beverages, a Colorado company hasintroduced a line of 8 different soda flavors called “Dixie Elixirs” with added marijuana/THC.
According to its website the sodas are available in:
12-ounce recyclable bottles in seven refreshing flavors: lemonade, sweet tea, pink lemonade, strawberry, orange, grape and root beer
Also available in extra-strength 1-ounce watermelon and spearmint “dew drop” bottles
They list an 800-number and an e-mail for you to place orders – but not so fast kiddos, you have to have a valid medical marijuana prescription in order to buy some.
Eons ago, some dude, who probably really, really, really liked chocolate had an idea: why waste time EATING cocoa beans and EATING chocolate when there is a much quicker delivery mechanism for your chocolate fix? He was referring of course, to liquid. Sure liquids compared to food got a bad rep after the TSA stopped letting you take more than 3 oz through security (yet I recently walked through security with a giant box of crackers and 10 granola bars). But I say TSA, schmee-S-A. Last I checked, people still love liquids, and a recent survey of my friends shows that 100% of them drink some kind of liquid multiple times a day.
So now we must ask: chocolate lovers, do you prefer your liquid chocolate to be hot or cold? Yes, it’s the battle of liquid chocolates, chocolate milk vs. hot chocolate. Whichever you choose, you must drink a glassful (10 oz) of it EVERY DAY for the rest of your life. Whichever you don’t choose, you can NEVER drink again. And yes, your chocolate milk must always be imbibed cold, while your hot chocolate must (duh) always be imbibed while hot/warm. You can use any kind of hot chocolate mix or recipe you’d like. You can buy any brand of chocolate milk that you want, but it MUST be actual chocolate milk of the whole or 2% variety, and no drinking a chocolate “beverage” like Yoo-Hoo.
Choose wisely, and share in the comments why you voted the way you did.
Option #1: Drink a glass of chocolate milk everyday, never have hot chocolate again.
Option #2: Drink a glass of hot chocolate everyday, never have chocolate milk again.
Continuing my travels in the Caribbean on my JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet pass, I left sunny Santo Domingo, DR to head to Puerto Rico. Landing in San Juan, I was to spend one night there before heading to El Yunque National Forest for a few nights stay in a cabin atop the mountains of the rainforest (more on that experience in my next post about Puerto Rico).
(My home for three nights in El Yunque rainforest)
With one night in San Juan and several in the middle of the jungle, I ate quite differently in each place. After landing and checking into my hotel, I headed into the Old San Juan neighborhood to grab dinner. I had no specific location in mind, instead I wandered the streets looking for a restaurant bustling with activity. After about 15 minutes of wandering, I stumbled across Restaurante Raices. With a line out the door and a 45 minute wait for a table at 10 pm, I had a feeling the place must be good. While some of the décor seemed to indicate they catered to tourists at the nearby hotels, the abundance of locals in line and milling about outside led me to believe the food quality was topnotch. I was not disappointed. As I was traveling alone, I was able to eschew the long line and grab a seat for dinner at the bar.
My first order of business was to get a stiff drink after a long day of traveling, and I opted for a Pina Colada. As I watched the bartender make my drink, I noticed she used Bacardi 151 instead of standard rum. Let me tell you folks, when your bartender uses Bacardi 151 in your frozen drink, everyone wins. Bacardi wins, the bartender wins, and you as the imbiber of that cocktail? You most definitely win.
As a starter, I ordered crema de platano (creamed plantain soup). If I haven’t mentioned this already, I F-ing LOVE plantains. Love ‘em. In any form possible. This was my first foray into plantain soup, but the chef nailed the flavors. Just the right creaminess and just the right touch of Cilantro.
For the main course I opted for the mashed green plantains stuffed with chimichurri style skirt steak. Loved the presentation!
Overall a fantastic meal. If you’re looking for a tasty meal in a place with a lively atmosphere and a fun and playful presentation of the food, I definitely recommend Restaurante Raices.
Last week I wrote about some of the traditional Dominican food I ate while in Santo Domingo. On my last night I went to a well-regarded restaurant in the colonial zone called La Residence. Featuring a menu with Mediterranean, Spanish and Dominican influences, prepared by a French trained chef, La Residence presents an eclectic mix of dishes. The setting for the restaurant is a very quiet, dimly lit (which didn’t help my photos) open air courtyard.
I elected to go with the Menu Del Chef, which provides you a three-course meal for around $12 -$15 American. A great deal considering many of the regular entrees are more than $20 on their own. The meal began with a palate cleansing tuna tartar and avocado mousse:
My first course was a presse of zucchini curry with goat cheese and piquello tapenade. Yum. Of course you add goat cheese to just about anything and my reaction will be “yum.”
“Going Green” is all the rage these days and SunChips thought it would lock down some sweet PR and good press when it unveiled a new 100% biodegradable bag.
If you haven’t heard, Frito-Lay, makers of SunChips announced in 2009 that by 2010 all its bags would be 100% biodegradable. The company got a lot of great PR and media coverage, drawing accolades from environmental groups and bloggers.
There was just one problem: the bag was loud as fuck. How loud? It was estimated that when individuals were eating chips out of the bag it created noise up to 95 decibels, or about 5 decibels louder than what experts warn you to avoid in order to prevent hearing loss. SunChips was suddenly looking at tens of thousands of online consumers angry about how disruptive the bag was when they tried to eat their SunChips in class, late at night etc. A Facebook group titled “SORRY BUT I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIPS BAG” has attracted over 50,000 members.
Even worse, consumers were voting with their pocketbooks. Sales of SunChips have declined every single month since the new bags were introduced and overall sales are down a whopping 11% in the past year. With SunChips bottom line getting battered and bruised, the brand made the decision last week to go back to the old packaging while the company explored ways to make a less noisy biodegradable bag.
SunChips is by no means the first brand to face a backlash over new, more environmentally friendly packaging. In 2008, Coke introduced re-designed caps for its plastic bottles that were “more green” by utilizing less plastic. Despite thousands of complaints by consumers that the new caps slice the skin on their hands or are more difficult to open, Coke has shown no signs of going back to the old cap design, even though these complaints continue to this day.
Now I don’t begrudge SunChips for ditching the new environmentally friendly bags. SunChips is a business. If its consumers are upset and are reacting by buying fewer and fewer bags of the product, there is a responsibility to its customers, employees and shareholders to take action to reverse this trend. This does, however, present an interesting situation. SunChips is (very publicly, I might add) switching to packaging that is WORSE for the environment than what is currently being used.
Is anyone aware of any other company, in this age of “going green”, that has made a conscious decision to switch to packaging that is WORSE for the environment? Has any consumer packaged goods company ever made such a well-publicized business decision of ANY kind that is so blatantly and obviously anti-green and anti-environment? Does SunChips deserve praise for listening to consumers and trying to reverse declining sales? Or does it deserve condemnation for folding like a cheap suit in the face of online rabble-rousers, leading to a business decision that will by anyone’s estimation actually HURT the environment? What say you So Good readers?
Since its creation in 1987, Dippin’ Dots have been dubbed “the ice cream of the future.” Which, given that it is 23 years old, means the future is now. Give me my laser gun and let me teleport somewhere already! Despite Dippin’ Dots losing its patent in 2007, there are plenty of imitators out there and the technique and idea behind these little frozen bits of ice cream very much lives on.
With this video starring mixologist Mike Yen of Nine-Ten in La Jolla, we may be looking at the booze/mixed drinks of the future. Watch as Mike uses liquid nitrogen to make a Dippin’ Dots version of a classic white russian cocktail. Hey, if we can make marijuana ice cream, why not nitrogen frozen cocktails? For those of you wondering, yes, this creation absolutely has booze in it. The extreme cold temperatures of liquid nitrogen allows the alcohol within the mixture to freeze.
Thanks to loyal So Good reader Hannah for the tip.
Earlier this year, Subway unveiled a new breakfast menu across more than 25,000 stores featuring 5 different breakfast sandwiches. With the recent addition of the new “Sunrise Subway Melt” the menu now features 6 breakfast sandwiches, which, like regular Subway sandwiches, you can customize with dozens of different condiments and toppings.
A few days ago, to help promote the new breakfast menu, Subway announced that for a limited time it was extending its $5 footlong deal to include breakfast sandwiches. Subway has gotten a lot of mileage, press, good buzz and most importantly, increased sales out of its $5 footlong deals. But this latest offer begs a question that must be asked: A footlong breakfast sandwich? Really? Who eats a footlong sandwich at breakfast?
Now if you’re anything like me, morning is a time of struggle and grumpiness. Often times I don’t eat any breakfast or I simply drink a giant bottle of Gatorade. When I’m trying to eat healthier I push myself to eat breakfast, usually opting for cereal with berries, oatmeal or yogurt and granola. But don’t get me wrong, I love a good, greasy breakfast sandwich with egg and either sausage or bacon, especially when I’m hungover. But breakfast sandwiches are typically served on bagels or english muffins, and those round shaped bread choices are inherently self-limiting in terms of the size your sandwich can actually be. Frankly, it’s the perfect size, always providing just the right amount of sustenance for your aching morning stomach.
Now I’m actually a fan of Subway. It was my first real job as a kid, and after a few years of working there, I know that if they are well-run and receive fresh produce everyday, you can get a pretty high quality sandwich. Yes the deli meat they use is pretty budget, but the meatballs and chicken breast are tasty, the bread is baked in store and even with mediocre meat, a mound of fresh veggies can go a long way. Maybe it’s because my appetite has slowed as I get older, or maybe it’s because I load my sandwiches with every veggie possible, but even when I’m really hungry for lunch or dinner, a 6-inch sub and some chips will suffice. I can almost never eat a full footlong in one sitting, usually saving the other half for the next day. But keep in mind, this is for LUNCH or DINNER.
A footlong sandwich for breakfast? Ugh. A six-inch sub is already slightly bigger than your average breakfast sandwich. That’s a lot of egg and meat and cheese. Can you really imagine sitting down at your desk at 8:30 am and just crushing an entire FOOT of greasy breakfast meat? Who are you? Why did you skip dinner last night? Why do you have a death wish? Why are you capable of eating so close to the hour you emerged from your bed? What is your DEAL?
So Good readers – any thoughts on the new Subway breakfast menu for those who have tried it? Any opinions on eating a full footlong sandwich for breakfast? Could you do it? Would you want to? Do breakfast sandwiches even keep well in the fridge? Do you think you could go back for the other half later in the day?
"So Good has the lowdown on anything that’s happening in the world of food media. He’s the guy who broke the LeBron James/Papa Johns scandal." - Endless Simmer
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