Monday, October 31, 2011

Maimon's Readymade Belgian Waffles

מימונס וופל בלגי

As I mentioned in my Quick Update post the other day, there were a few items I had read press-releases about weeks ago but I simply could not find them in any supermarket I went to. The Tzuriel Pear Goat-Milk Yogurt I reviewed yesterday was one such product. Then there were two Maimon products that I was waiting for. I finally found them this week. One is a Readymade Belgian Waffles and the second is a Pancake Mix .

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Tzuriel's Goat-Milk Pear Yogurt

יוגורט עיזים אזס - צוריאל

A few months ago in my reviewed Tzuriel's Mildly Sweetened Whole Goats-Milk Yogurt I mentioned that they also had a few goat-milk yogurts with added fruits but I never did try those yogurts. Now Tzuriel has added a new fruit flavored goat-milk yogurt to that line. This time its pear flavored.

I actually had a hard time finding it in any of my local supermarkets but when I finally found it there was only one on the shelf but that’s all I needed in order to try it.


Sunday, October 23, 2011

Quick Update


As you may have noticed I have not posted a new review in quite some time. This was not a planned hiatus and I would have loved to have written blog posts in the past few weeks. It was not either Holiday related, on my end. There were plenty of days between the Holidays that I could have and would have posted a review. The issue was I simply did not find new products to review.

source
I don’t know if the major companies stopped putting out new products because of the Holiday season or if maybe it has to do with the ongoing boycotts that started here in Israel this summer with the "cottage cheese boycott" continued with the Shufersal and Tnuva boycotts, and goes on with threats of further boycotts, on big local companies like Telma and Osem.

Maybe the companies are reluctant to debut new products when they don’t think the public will be willing to give them a try. I have no idea what the reason is I just know that I read very few press releases and found nothing new on the store shelves worth trying.

There were a few items I did read press releases about but I simply could not find them in any of the supermarkets I shop in. I even checked other supermarkets in a different city but the items were nowhere to be found.

As soon as I find something new, interesting or exciting to taste I will be very happy to get back to my regular posting schedule.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

PriGat's Fresh Squeezed Red Orange Juice

 סחוט תפוז אדום פריגת
Update: This Fresh Squeezed Red Orange Juice, along with the 100% Fresh Squeezed Pomegranate Juice from PriGat Won a Product of the Year Awards 2013 in the drinks categorize. 
 
PriGat has a new limited edition fresh squeezed orange juice on the market. It's made with of blood-oranges and they named it "Squeezed Red Orange".

According to the press release, blood-oranges were very popular here in Israel some 63 years ago but then slowly disappeared from the local fields. About 5 years ago PriGat decided to plant a blood-orange orchard in Emek Chefer specifically for this new product. Their long wait is over and the Squeezed Red Orange Juice is finally in the store refrigerators. Because of the limited amount of fruit they have in the orchards this drink is not going to be a permanent product but only a limited edition juice.   

At first I thought it tasted a little watered down but maybe I didn’t shake it up enough before I poured my first glass because the second time I tasted it I thought it was much more flavorful and tangy than I had originally thought. Still, it wasn't overly tangy, like I was expecting it to be, but it was a little more "sour" than a "classic" orange juice, with maybe a touch in the direction of a red grapefruit juice.

Given that the blood-oranges Prigat used for this drink are of the Moro variety I was anticipating more of a sweeter orange taste with hint of raspberry but I didn’t really notice that. I did think it had a little "kick" to it and was somewhat "spicy". Maybe if I was comparing it to other blood-orange juices I would've picked up on the different notes and I would have tasted the raspberry 
but never having tasted a blood-orange juice before I didn't notice the touch of raspberry or the "sweetness" I was expecting.
That's not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but I was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t as "unique" or "special" as I was expecting it to be. Not to mention that I actually prefer my orange juice with a little more of dominant orange taste to it. 

What I liked most about the drink is the vibrant color the juice has. If I was hosting a party and wanted this color drink for one reason or another I think it would be fun to have this as an option, but on a regular basis I don’t think it's special enough to splurge and pay 13.00 NIS for a 1 liter bottle when regular PriGat orange juice or red grapefruit juice can be found at a fraction of that price.

PriGat's Squeezed Red Orange Juice is made of 100% natural red (blood) oranges and has no added sugar and no preservatives. Blood-oranges are known to be high in anti oxidants.       

Bottom Line: I like that PriGat planted blood-orange orchards and is trying to reintroduce this fruit that was popular here when the modern State of Israel was first born. Maybe as the orchard grows and PriGat has more fruit they can lower the price of the juice. Although this Squeezed Red Orange Juice was somewhat unique in the end I didn’t think it was unique enough to warrant its high price.

1 liter Bottle – 13.00 NIS

Kosher Parve Badatz

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

This weeks Haveil Havalim Blog Carnival
 is up early on Liberty's Spirit Blog

Monday, October 3, 2011

Strauss's Lettuce Based "Salads in a Bowl"

Strauss has two new lettuce based "salads in a bowl" on the market. The One they are calling a Caesar Salad is made up of romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, flavored croutons and a "classic" Caesar salad dressing. The second salad Strauss named a Garden Vegetable Salad. That has romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, shredded red cabbage, sliced radishes, whole cherry tomatoes and an herb flavored dressing. These "individual portion salads" also come with a disposable fork, knife and napkin that are wrapped in a little plastic bag.
 
שטראוס לקטי סלט טריים באריזות אישיות

I was out and about the other day running from appointment to appointment when one meeting lasted much longer than anticipated. I realized I wouldn't have time to stop off at home to eat lunch. I was in the mood for a salad but didn’t want to pay "café prices" for a quick bite. Then I remembered reading a press release about Strauss's new "Salads in a Bowl". I wasn’t going to review this product because aside from the fact that the concept isn't new and Strauss has ready-made salads in a bag on the market for a really long time, if and when I buy pre-washed lettuce salads it's cheaper to buy the bag and not the ones that come in a bowl with dressing and "extras". So when I read the press-release I though anyone who's interested in pre-made salads must've tasted Strauss "bagged" versions by now. But at that moment standing in the supermarket trying to decide what to grab and eat and not be late to my next meeting the Strauss "Salad in a Bowl" seemed like the perfect solution.

I thought the Caesar salad looked really boring and decided to get the garden salad instead.
As with almost any Strauss lettuce based salads I have ever tasted, the vegetables in this Garden Salad were fresh and crispy.

Most of the lettuce was cut fairly roughly, leaving a lot of big pieces. At times I found it a bit challenging to get them onto the somewhat flimsy fork you get in the bowl, but in the end I somehow did manage to eat them too.

I actually really liked the big chunky sliced radishes. I always forget to add radishes to my salads so I was glad to have them in the mix.

To me the dressing seemed to taste like a honey mustard vinaigrette with added herbs. As I mentioned in my review of Osem's Silan (DateSyrup) Vinaigrette, I'm not a huge fan of honey mustard vinaigrettes. That having been said, I don’t think there was anything wrong with the dressing, but if I had an option I would've preferred something else.

Seeing as it wasn’t my dressing of choice I didn’t actually pour all the dressing into the bowl. Still it seemed to be a fairly generous amount of dressing for the 265 gram salad I had.
I was happy that I was able to reclose the bowl and the top stayed on securely. It made it very easy to take the left over salad home to be enjoyed later that day.
 
Bottom Line: I was glad to have the option to buy a fresh salad that was convenient to eat "on the go" at a fraction of the price it would cost to get the same thing at a café. According to the press release Strauss plans to add more salads to this Salad in a Bowl "line". I wouldn’t mind if they added a packet of seeds or nuts to the bowl, like they have in some of their salad bags. It would also be nice if eventually they would have a dressing option that's actually my dressing of choice.

265 grams salad in a bowl – 10.99 – 13.50

Kosher Rabbinate Eshkol Region



Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Is now up on Esser Agaroth's Blog