(tiny) Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies

At $1 a bag at the local grocer, I couldn't resist.  After eating these small cookies, I wish I had bought 2 more bags.  These are tasty!  They have a buttery gourmet taste that far exceeds those other peasant brand cookies (Ahoy and Amos-- I'm looking at you).  

Oreo O's from South Korea!

I'm so fortunate and blessed to be doing this review.  I never thought I would see this day.  Thanks to eBay seller bug5366 for selling these here in the USA (even though these are imported from South Korea)!  I was able to relive my childhood by having a bowl of these.  Last time I had them was probably in middle school around 2003.  Let's break this down:




















As you can see, this is one box of the stuff but it has 2 sides.  One written in English (nice touch) and one in Korean.  The box has a shiny plastic surface unlike here in America where the cereal boxes have more of a matte finish.  Inside the box, the cereal is in an aluminum foil bag that includes a sticker acting like a piece of tape to help seal the bag after each use.  But how does it taste?

The cereal may look a tad different and has fewer marshmallows than I remember.  As far as taste though, I was taken back to a decade ago when times were simpler (in a way) and these babies still graced store shelves here in the USA.  The taste of these is still 98%- 99% to what I remember and I remember them well!  I was so happy that these have the same exact flavor of what I recall.  I still have hope they will come back to the States despite companies' disagreements and I can buy all I can eat.  I'm not giving these a rating because it's not a new item, just a nostalgic one.  However if you haven't tried these, they are worth a shot.  The foods you eat as a kid stay with your soul!

Naked Chicken Chalupa Taco Bell

Okay so I stumbled upon this new gem last weekend.  I rolled up to the local KFC/Taco Bell hungrier than hail haha and saw the poster for the new "Naked Chicken Chalupa"... needless to say I was intrigued.  Ok so my first thought was "is this a new healthy chalupa, or why is it called 'naked'?"  How wrong I was!

Thanks to video food review on KBD Productions on Youtube, I found that this in fact is a chalupa with all the fixings (including some kind of spicy avocado ranch sauce) inside a chalupa shell that is actually a folded fried chicken patty  MIND BLOWN...!   The chalupa is excellent, sort of small but will fill you up since the shell is made completely of chicken.  I give you my rating:

Taquería Don Lalo (Newland, NC)

There's a new small taco joint in town called Taquería Don Lalo (Cash Only as it says on the door).  The town of Newland, NC was needing a Mexican restaurant since the closest one is the next town over about 15 minutes away.  So if you want tacos, this restaurant delivers.

Taco de tripa con cilantro y cebollas

The first time trying this place was around August 2016 (it has been closed every time I drive by now, possibly closed for the winter?).  However, trying these tacos, I was very pleased!  You can order tacos a la carte as well as mix and match the meats, toppings, and type of tortilla.  I recommend ordering a variety so you can try many at once.  They also provided homemade salsa and sour cream in plastic cups (however the next 2 times I ordered from here, the put a very different salsa, which didn't taste homemade, in a tied up plastic bag).

Chicken Tacos

I got the taco de tripa (tripe taco) and chicken tacos.  I had never tried tripe and I enjoyed it!  They even cook it to whatever crispiness you desire.  If you don't know what tripe is, try it before you look it up.  Honestly, it tasted better than I expected.  The cilantro and onions on the taco plus the salsa and sour cream made me wish I had ordered more!  The service is a different story.

The owners have their kids, who speak good English, helping out.  You can tell they are new to this so you may want to cut them some slack but make sure they don't accidentally overcharge you.  The dining area is also small but I've never seen the place packed.  When you call the number (which is a cell phone number), it may ring a few times before you get an answer.  I actually had them call me twice the night after I ate there.  On the second call I answered it and no one spoke.  To this day I have no idea why they called me.  Yes my number is in your cell phone from when I ordered that day, so why wouldn't you expect that to be a customer before thinking "ay quien es este número no lo sé, voy a llamarlo ahora..." jajajaja.  I digress.

Anyway, I don't go there regularly due to the inconsistency but I would definitely return when I get a mood for tacos.  If you like heavier Mexican dishes, still with your usual the next town over.  If you like something lighter but tasty for lunch, go for the Taquería Don Lalo at least once!

Graeter's® Hand Crafted French Pot® Ice Cream

I first noticed this ice cream near the Ben & Jerry's section at the local supermarket.  With the $5+ price I hardly gave it another look...until I saw how it was made on "Unwrapped 2.0" on one of the food channels.  Folks, this ice cream ain't messing around.

Basically, this ice cream has all good, clean, wholesome ingredients (like what you find in Ben & Jerry's).  Also the ice cream is hand crafted in small batches using a "French Pot" (not sure of the complete process, look it up!).  Most amazingly however, is that each container is filled by hand! No machine, just a person with what looks like a small metal paddle packs each pint.  Seeing all this piqued my interest, so I had to go get some.

The flavor of this ice cream was spot on!  Nothing about it was unpleasant (except the $5+ price, but well worth it I must say).  One cool thing about the chocolate chips is that at the factory a huge block of high quality chocolate is busted up by hand and the chips go in the ice cream.  So one minute you may find a small piece, but the next minute you may unearth a huge rock of chocolate.  This adds the element of surprise.

I look forward to my next pint as more and more flavors become available (hopefully in my area at least).  If you can swallow the $5 price tag, then this frozen treat is a must!  Check out their website and their coverage on Unwrapped 2.0.

New Miyoshi Japanese Cuisine

This is a local Japanese/Chinese Restaurant that used to be called "Miyoshi" when it had different owners.  Back then you got sweet carrots and a small salad with every entrée.  Now (to my knowledge) it has the same owners as another restaurant in the neighboring city; the menu is almost identical.

I haven't been too crazy about the Japanese food from this place, and the Chinese food is no better.  I tried the orange chicken dish and the chicken had thick crust, dark meat,  and tiny orange peels which made it bitter.  Fast forward to a month ago, I decided to order some Japanese from here for lunch one day.  However, this time I was surprised by how good it was!

A colleague of mine decided to try this place, and placed his order the same time I did.  We then went together to pick it up.  He did have a mishap with the workers misunderstanding what size shrimp sauce he wanted.  They actually thought he wanted 3 of the big cups of shrimp sauce...and charged him for them, even though he traded them out for the small cups.  Oh well, we got back to our workplace to wolf down our victuals.

Hibachi Steak

Cream Cheese Wontons

This food was very good and much better than the last few times I had it.  The cream cheese wontons were fried almost perfectly.  There was nothing I disliked about this dish!  I was able to get 2 meals out of my order too!  My colleague let me try one of his pieces of sesame chicken and that too was pretty good.  I will definitely be going back for my Asian cuisine craving fixes.  As for my rating:

Hardee's Classic Double Cheeseburger

After hearing about this burger and seeing the pictures, I decided I had to try one.  Since I have never tried an In-N-Out burger with the special sauce, I figured this would be a way to get close to seeing how it tasted.  At my local Hardee's location, I ordered the Hardee's Classic and asked for one slice of cheese.  Thankfully the employee who took my order obliged and I got my burger as requested.  Just like some food reviewers don't like pickles, or onions, or tomatoes ("red rings of death"), or lettuce ("crunchy water"), which are all fine to me, I myself am not a fan of the yellow squares of processed plastic.  However, I figured one piece would be necessary and enough to get the total experience.

The burger is simple, yet tasty.  It has two patties, two slices of cheese (or in my case, one), lettuce, and tomato.  However, the star of this star burger is the special sauce (thousand island-ish) with grilled onions on top.  Upon tasting this, my first bite forced the sauce and onions up through the middle of the top bun and into my nostrils. Yum.  So I had to clean my face before proceeding to enjoy this still enjoyable burger.  I was able to finish it with no further incidents, with some fries and some sweet tea.  I recommend a soda with this burger.

As for a rating for this burger, first of all, I would definitely get it again.  A rating scale based on 5 doesn't really describe this burger.  So out of 100, I give it an 85.  It would get a 90 grade, if the top bun didn't fail.  Another thought is that Carl's Jr. evidently has had this same exact burger, but from a video food review I watched it was obvious that the burger had a better quality bun. This is what my version desperately needed.  Otherwise, the burger was delicious and I will be buying another one before it goes away.