Text 17416, 77 rader
Skriven 2007-06-29 18:42:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Big Lots & tastes 743
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For some reason, we're drawn to Big Lots when we get together,
and this time we managed to hit two in two days. Here are some
more tastes, some from there, some from the Price Cutter, and
some from the inexhaustible Sacerdotal larder.

Florida's Natural Au'some Fruit Juice Nuggets blueberry 66% juice
- got these on Lynn's strong recommendation and wasn't thrilled -
first, they aren't artificially colored; the coloring is provided
by purple carrot and is nowhere near blue enough, and the taste
is largely provided by other fruit (the first two ingredients are
pear puree and pear juice), so the blueberriness is way down there.
Finally, the texture is somewhat granular, which we attribute to
the pears as well.

Tried a sip of Lynnie's Milky Way milk (I don't know who makes it)
- it's regular chocolate malted milk, though somewhat sweeter,
with caramel flavoring. Put me in mind of the Flavia Milky Way
flavor packets with which US Airways encourages one to adulterate
its club's otherwise characterless coffee (I use French roast decaf).

Kool-Aid Berry Blue - the quintessential blue drink. I ODed on
one about 6-oz plastic bottle. Stereotypical blue raspberryish
artificial flavor; surprisingly, a good balance of acid and sweet.

Some Russian brand of garlic shoots, name started with an O, but
my Cyrillic isn't very good - tasty tender pickled scapes, subtle
garlic taste, not too much vinegar. Liked them and had several.

Mt. Olive pickled okra - okay: good okra taste countered by a lot
of harsh vinegar. Somewhat tough. Somewhat spicy. Very slimy - we
got the giggles as we were generally unable to get each okra out
of the jar without dropping it at least once.

Princess pickled asparagus - better than average; muted vegetable
taste but not too sour. Surprisingly spicy.

Denise brand fried pork skins - these weren't puffed the way
chicharrones are but rather thin tangly strips that tasted decent
but were nearly rock-hard. Difficult to chew, and when one managed
to bite off a piece, it shattered into pebbles in the mouth with a
loud snap. Then of course further mastication caused sounds as of
a cement mixer in one's head. I think these would have done well
recooked in some way - I suggested a soy sauce bath.

Nissin chicken chow mein - decent noodles, large portion, tasted
like teriyaki sauce on noodles. I wasn't too impressed, but this
was certainly tons better than

Fantastic World Foods green onion miso tofu ramen which, whose noodles,
when reconstituted, had no taste other than what the plastic container
provided. The little bits of tofu were soft and squishy but tasted ok.
Lynnie gave up on this stuff and fed most of it to her birds and
chucked the rest.

Armour cajun-style Vienna sausage - your ordinary bland soft sausage
in a spicy-looking but actually nearly tasteless sauce in which Dave
detected some paprika and I found nothing. Most of these went to Zim
the dog, who responded to the honor by wolfing them down with gusto.

I'd brought a small tin of pig head pate to try, but we really
didn't get the opportunity, as there was always far too much
else to eat, so Dave threatens to bring it to the picnic next month.

By the time we had our snacks and watched A Man for All Seasons and
St. Louis Blues, it was time to go to the bus depot for the last
bus. Springfield at this hour is only ten minutes away, so we spent
some time seeing the sights of town, which were not impressive.

The bus loaded a bit late, and after a bumpy ride during which I
could get no work at all done, we landed at South Station about
11:40; luckily my subway connections were good, and I got back to
the apartment with two trains to spare.


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