Sahale Snacks - Sing Buri Cashews

Sahale Snacks is a brand of nut blends that's been around since January 2004. They offer unique blends of seasonings and spices unlike what you see in other brands.

I found this bag of "Sing Buri Cashews" at my local BevMo! store.

I was quite sold on the package photo, depicting what looked like cashews with a sticky sweet glaze, chunks of red chiles, and sesame seeds. It totally screamed out "asian zing".

So I picked up a bag of this stuff along with a six pack of Deschutes Inversion IPA.

I sat myself down in the backyard patio, tore open the bag of cashews, and popped the cap on the IPA.

My first disappointment with the cashews came when I found there was no such sticky sweet glaze as depicted on the bag. My second disappointment came when I sniffed the bag and found it to smell exactly like plain old cashews.

I mean, the back of the bag actually says, "...aromatic blend reminiscent of a great Thai dish". Well, I found no such Thai aroma.

And very little such Thai taste. I did actually taste some seasoning to this, but it's very light. I kinda wondered if maybe I picked up a bad bag or something. For the most part, all I'm tasting here are just cashews. The only burst of additional flavor came when I bit into the chunks of pineapple.

I thought the Deschutes Inversion IPA was good, however.




Sahale Snacks makes six different nut blends in all...

• Dauphine - Inspired by French Provincial cuisine, this blend features walnuts, blueberries, bananas and coconut flakes, lightly sweetened, and seasoned with lavender and white pepper



• Ksar - An exotic, piquant combination of pistachios and pepitas, sweetened by figs and honey, finished with a peppery kick of Moroccan harissa.



• Sing Buri - Lemongrass, soy glazed cashews, pineapple, peanuts, and sesame seeds lightly dusted with mild chinese chili make up this exceptional, aromatic blend reminiscent of a great Thai dish.



• Socorro - Flavors forged in the southwestern sun... chipotle, cumin, and cilantro accent this unusual fusion of macadamia, hazelnuts, mango and papaya.



• Soledad - A delectable snacking experience, influenced by the Mediterranean, featuring almonds, flax seeds, and tender dates, tickled with balsamic vinegar and cayenne.



• Valdosta - A sumptuous departure from everyday snack food, made with black peppered pecans and sweet cranberries, evoking a unique taste of the American south.

I could have totally misunderstood the point of these nut blends, perhaps they're not supposed to have a strong flavor. But I think the photo on the package misrepresents the actual product inside. Perhaps it would be better to have a windowed package so that the product can sell itself.

Visit Sahale Snacks online at: http://www.sahalesnacks.com

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Snack Patrol - Cheese Jerky

The words "cheese jerky" might conjure up images of hardened, chewy cheese, but in fact it's just soft and smooth mozzarella string cheese, but with bits of beef jerky mixed in.

The novel new cheese snack is produced by Snack Patrol, a business based out of Glendale, WI. It's headed up Ross Segel, the guy who came up with the idea, and perfected it after several attempts.

The perfection is in reference to a manufacturing process that allows him to incorporate the beef jerky bits but while maintaining the string cheese's stringiness. Apparently, previous attempts resulted in the string cheese breaking up into bits.

The resulting product is a 93% cheese, 7% beef jerky combination.

Ross sent me samples of his product, which included his "Original" and "Black pepper" varieties. Sure enough, I did find the taste of beef jerky in this cheese in both varieties, but I got a stronger flavor in the Peppered. The Peppered is actually pretty darn good.

In fact, it might be worth shredding this stuff up and making macaroni cheese out of it. Or even topping it on popcorn.

And yes, I was still able to pull off strings with this stuff, though the strings still tended to break off when I hit upon a beef jerky bit. You'll need to pull off thicker strings. Or, just bite off chunks instead.

But it's pretty good cheese too. Ross says he gets the cheese from a local artisan cheese maker.


Right now, sticks of Cheese Jerky are available in convenience stores throughout the upper Mid-West. It doesn't look like you can buy them online yet, but considering it's something that needs to be kept refrigerated, it might be problematic to ship this stuff out to consumers.

Anyways, I wrote a more detailed review on my Beef Jerky Blog...
http://www.bestbeefjerky.org/2009/02/snack-patrol-cheese-jerky.html

Otherwise, visit Cheese Jerky online at:
http://www.getsnackpatrol.com/

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Buffalo Bills Long Shots Beef Sticks

Meat snacks have been my favorite snack food for a long time, as evidenced by my Beef Jerky review blog. So as I've been writing that blog, beef jerky companies have sent me lots of free jerky to write about, and in addition, beef sticks.

I never created a blog just for beef sticks, and didn't really want to mix them into my beef jerky blog, so I've been writing about them here on Junk Food Blog.

These "Long Shots" are from Buffalo Bills, a meat snack brand based out of Lebanon, PA.

Beef sticks seem to take up the "dark side" of meat snacks compared to beef jerky, which the industry has managed to paint in a healthier light as being low fat, and low carb. But beef sticks are like sausage, where you love to eat them, but don't want to know what goes in 'em.

Part of the bad rap that beef sticks, in my opinion, comes from the God-awful Slim Jims. How that brand ever got to be #1 in the beef stick market is beyond me. Honestly, they're like chewing wads of toilet paper, but with a meaty flavor.

These "Long Shots" from Buffalo Bills are perhaps the closest thing they have to a Slim Jim in that they're a the same thin and long shape, and they seem to have a similar "toilet paper" chewing texture, except I think Buffalo Bills has managed to shred the toilet paper into a finer pulp for easier chewing.

And these are beef sticks, not meat sticks, in that they only use cattle carcass.


Buffalo Bills offers several varieties of beef sticks, in fact I reviewed their "Extra Smokies" on this blog, and found those to be very good. Very meaty, very smoky, with some slight chocolatey notes, and chews very similarly to hard salami. If you're looking for a good beef stick, try those.

But if you're someone who just really likes Slim Jims, then you might want to check out these Long Shots, I think they're a tad better than Slim Jims.

Otherwise, get those Extra Smokies instead.

Visit Buffalo Bills online at: http://www.choochoorsnacks.com/

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Pastrami Burgers at The Hat

Ask a Southern Californian where to get the best pastrami, and chances are likely they'll say "The Hat".

The Hat is a small chain of restaurants in SoCal that got started in 1951. I'm told their Alhambra location was the first, and I think their Lake Forest location is the newest.

Yesterday, I went to their Pasadena location.

One thing the The Hat is known for is large portions. Order a pastrami sandwich, or a pastrami burger, or get the chili fries, and more than likely you won't have room for much more.

If you order a side of fries, they take a brown bag about the size of a lunch bag, and fill it up. After eating your sandwich, you'll maybe only have room for a three of four pieces of french fries. The same is true when you order onion rings.

If you get about four of you going to The Hat, then only order ONE side of fries, and split it. That's what we did yesterday, and we still could not finish off the fries.







Visit The Hat online, and try their Pastrami Burger:
http://www.thehat.com/

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Macaroni Cheese Burrito

Hungry after spending the whole morning implementing a new template for Junk Food Blog, I wandered over to the kitchen to see what looked good in the refrigerator.

I found a tupperware container full of my wife's homemade macaroni cheese.

But I also happened to see the bag of flour tortillas.

And that's when my left-brain kicked in, and thought, "Oh yeah, macaroni cheese burritos".

Add to that a sprinkling of my favorite hot sauce, and I had myself some lunch...








Nuke the finished product for about 30 seconds, or until the tortilla is soft and warm, and indulge!

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Twisted Grandma Pretzels

Twisted Grandma is a brand of flavored pretzels, offered by a company of the same name, based out of Aurora, CO.

As the story goes, there was a crazy grandma who lived up in Eveleth, MN who always did everything different, starting with her spiked hair, and her tattooed toe. But she had apparently had an awesome recipe for pretzels.

And so became the basis for this line of salted and seasoned flour snack.

The company was nice enough to send me a sample bag of their "Buttery Garlic Goodness", and sure enough they do have a buttery smoothness, and garlicky goodness. Combined with some salty and onion flavors, they don't really need to be dipped into anything. All you need is a cold beer.



They also offer them in "Get's Hot Mild" and "Get's Hot Spicy".

Buy them online: http://www.twistedgrandma.com/

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Are Junk Foodies Destined to be Single?

Bloggers Rita Mauceri and Elycia Rubin, who write a food blog for Yahoo, suggest that one of the reasons why some "guys" remain single is because they have poor social skills at the dining table...

Do you... eat like a caveman? Utensils are there for a reason -- so you can eat like a gentleman. Shoveling food into your mouth is not something you should subject your date to. Same goes for talking while chewing. Not only is it unpleasant to watch at a time when your job is to be easy on the eyes, it's a red flag that says you're a little short on self-awareness -- an important characteristic in a mate.

I disagree.

First, they assume that all women have superior dining skills.

Second, they don't understand what men are doing.

Men have spent years and years growing up as boys being pestered by their mothers to keep their elbows off the table, to use their forks, wipe their mouths, don't talk while chewing, etc. Do you think they want to be pestered for the rest of their lives by their wives as well?

A guy behaving just as he would normally behave, is a filter. If a woman can overlook his disgusting habits, and focus on the things that they love about him, then she passes the first test. Maybe she's has potential.

If not, there are other fish in the sea.

Remember gals, a date is not a one-sided affair where you get to decide the outcome. He's also trying to figure out if you're worth the endless trips to the hair and nail salon his paychecks are going to be supporting.

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What Do Guys Eat?

Everytime I go to a grocery store, I see a product somewhere billing itself as being "manly".

Take the "Hungry Man" TV Dinners for example. While a hungry man would eat just about anything, the portions you get wouldn't satisfy most hungry men here in the United States.

I remember in my teen years, being such a voracious-eater with a never-ending metabolism, I'd eat two TV dinners at a time. My mom started buying the Hungry Man dinners for me, except one was never enough, and two was always too much.

AskMen Magazine has a set of recipes out now called "Manly Meals" with stuff like "Manly Con Carne", "XXX Ribs", and "Man-Sized Meatballs".

I think those recipes are great, except most guys don't want to cook for themselves. I'd see myself e-mailing that link to my wife and asking her to make it for me. Look at a pride of lions. The male never hunts for himself, he makes his females do it for him. It's good to be king.

So lately, the fast food market has recognized that with larger burgers, using higher grades of meat. You've got the sirloin burgers from Jack in the box, the angus burgers from McDonald's, and my favorite, the Six Dollar series from Carl's Jr. The only problem is that I have to drive there to get my food, or pay the extra bucks to have a delivery service fetch it for me.

I also have this aversion to things that tell me what guys like to eat. "Manly Con Carne" for example, might taste good, but what makes it manly for me? Why would I believe that particular chili con carne is much more suitable for "real guys"?

I'm not a reader of Ask Men Magazine, but if you want to ask this particular man, just give me some meat, cheese, bacon, jalapenos, hot sauce, guacamole, and keep it coming. I can pretty happy with that, especially if you bring it to me hot, and ready to eat.

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Buffalo Bills Extra Smokey Beef Sticks

If you haven't already tried these Extra Smokey Beef Sticks from Buffalo Bills, you might wanna. They're are indeed "extra" smokey.

They have a great smokey flavor to them, and a somewhat spicy flavor as well, though I don't see anything in the ingredients list suggesting anything spicy. This even has some slight chocolatey notes to it, perhaps indicating something roasted, I dunno.

Unlike other meat sticks, these are very meaty. I mean, it's almost like eating a stick of salami, where you can see the meat fibers pulling away as you bite off a piece. In fact, this has a rather dry taste to it, kinda like salami.


My only "beef" with these beef sticks is they're rather salty. They're not too bad in the first several bites, but when you towards the end, the salt wears me down. I need some swigs of drink, and about 10 minutes of rest, before attacking another stick.

But mind you, these are beef sticks for real beef stick lovers. They're extra thick, the same width as a wine bottle cork, and about five inches in length. They might actually make a great cure for a hangover.

Comparison

I brought a bag of these beef sticks to a get-together that my friends and I attended last weekend. It was at the Long Shadow Ranch Winery in Temecula, where they have a "bonfire" every Saturday night. Another friend brought several sticks of Slim Jims in a variety of flavors.

I handed out these Buffalo Bills, and people thought they were pretty good.

But when they sampled the Slim Jims, they about ralphed. No one else could finish their Slim Jim samples. One guy said it was eating "meat flavored toilet paper". I mean, it actually did feel as if you were eating a chunk of toilet paper (not that I know from experience, mind you).

After the Slim Jims, my friends really loved the Buffalo Bills.

Funny how the best things in life are not readily available. The worst stuff is always easily found at a convenience store, but the better stuff you have to order online. It's just one of those things.

Get your Buffalo Bills Extra Smokeys here...

http://www.choochoorsnacks.com/

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Man Has Eaten 23,000 Big Macs

Don Gorske, the man who claims to have eaten 23,000 McDonald's Big Macs since 1972, could very well be the nagging thorn in the side of health food proponents...

A 54-year-old man says his obsessive-compulsive disorder drove him to eat 23,000 Big Macs in 36 years. Fifty-four-year-old Don Gorske says he hit the milestone last month, continuing a pleasurable obsession that began May 17, 1972 when he got his first car.

http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880908073

That works out to an average of two Big Macs every day.

The article goes on to say that's he physically fit.

That's good news for all of us, because it tells us it's possible to live at least 54 years eating nothing but Big Macs, and only Big Macs.

Touche! All you health food fanatics!

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Ole' Smokies Beef Sticks

Ah, the beef stick!

Where would the good ole U S of A be without it?

Where would fishing be without beef sticks? Where would truck driving be without them? What would the Boy Scouts be without them?

I managed to get myself some of these Ole' Smokies Beef Sticks, in this case the Jalapeno Cheese Beef Sticks. These things have pieces of jalapenoes in them making them good and spicy.

Seems like I have to have everything spicy now.

The cheese part was something I had to have at one point in my life, but now it's not important. Instead, it has to be spicy now. I prefer my burgers with jalapeno's on them now. I have to add hot sauce or salsa to my chili. I even sprinkle black pepper on my salads now (I never used to do that).

So I guess having these jalapeno beef sticks is only fitting.

These Ole' Smokies Beef Sticks are made by a company called "Choo Choo R Snacks". They make beef jerky as well, which I have had and found to be pretty good.


That green piece in the beef stick? That's a jalapeno chunk!

Do You Know What's in Them Things?

Every now and then someone warns me that I don't want to know what goes into a beef stick. The fact is that no one really knows what goes into much of the food they eat anyways. How many people buy stuff at an organic food store without reading the nutrition label? They just assume it's all good for them. That's called trust. It's what we all do, whether it's a beef stick or a package of soy jerky.

Most of humanity grew up on scraps. The impoverished folks have always had to settle for the cheaper cuts of meat. Pork ribs was something that was once considered scrap meat, handed off to the blacks, who found a way to barbecue them. And now, everyone wants barbecued pork ribs. Mexicans largely grew up on chorizos, which is the guts and entrails of pigs, ground up into sausage. Now, you can find chorizos on the menu at any upscale Mexican restaurant.

The beef stick is to American junk food as the apple pie is to American desserts, as sunflower seeds are to baseball.

As for those Ole' Smokies Beef Sticks, you can buy them online at Choo Choo R Snacks...

http://www.ccrsnacks.com/

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Beef Crumbles - Pre-Crumbled Ground Beef

Chatel Farms made the world just a little bit better, by making ground beef "pre-crumbled", with their "Beef Crumbles" product.

The process of thawing ground beef is eliminated, because you just sprinkle these flash-frozen "beef crumbles" into your frying pan. You no longer have to manually crumble it apart.

Makes you wonder how much we're dependent on technology.

In the future, people will say "You mean in those days ground beef came stuck together, and you had to thaw it out, cook it, and then manually crumble it apart?"

Beef Crumbles are now available in Super Wal-Marts nationwide.

Learn more about it here...

http://www.chatelfarms.com

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McDonald's and Gays

Good as You writes about McDonald's coming under fire (what tiny little fire it might be) from the American Family Association, because the company took action that made it appear as if they support gay rights...

...Mickey D's has become the latest American corporation to suffer at the baselessly extremist, rabidly anti-gay hands of Don Wildmon Inc. The McNugget company's "sin"? The refused to shun Vice President of Communications Richard Ellis for his decision to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).

Read on...

http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2008/07/exlcusive-afa-t.html

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What Happened to Bob's Big Boy?

Bob's Big Boy announced today that they've brought back the "Super Slim Jim", a ham, swiss sandwich, witht their "special sauce", on a grecian roll.

Here in Southern California, there are some Bob's Big Boy restaurants still around, but not many. There used to be just many Bob's as there were Denny's here in the Southland. But then one-by-one, they all went away.

I know just a few of them are still here.

There's one in Baker, CA, which took over the old "Bun Boy". But this Bob's is nothing like the old Bob's. You set foot in there, and it feels like a "fake Bob's". The Big Boy statue may be outside, but the restaurant doesn't have that genuine Bob's feel to it. About the only menu item that has carried over from those glory days is that "Big Boy" double decker burger.

My wife and I used to go to Bob's in Laguna Hills for their breakfast buffet. I always found their bacon to be the way I like it, soft and dripping with oil. Let that oil drip down over the hash browns. Their hash browns was also the way I liked it, soft.

I just got news that a Bob's Big Boy is coming to Temecula, CA, just about 20 minutes from my home. It's taking over the old Ritchie's Diner. I'm sure my wife will be setting up a new home-away-from-home in there.

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Win Free Beef Jerky for a Year

House of Jerky announced their video contest, where you can win free beef jerky for a year.

What you do is create a video saying how much you love House of Jerky's jerky, and upload it to their contest site...

http://youtube.com/group/houseofjerkycontest

The top two winners get the free chew.

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