Lisa's Cafe

This resto is most definitely my favorite in Palmyra, PA. It's been around for like 10 or 15 years now and it's not a chain, so you know it's decent. Whenever family visits we go there because we know there's something for everyone to enjoy -- they have a good variety, and nothing is really bad.

I like the corn nuggets a lot, they are a classic. I also like the stromboli and the chef salad is huge and meaty. I got the garlic pasta recently, and it was tasty and just the right size, and then their pizza slices have a lot of topping options and they put the sauce over the cheese which I like for some reason. Anyway, it's solid! And eating in is usually quiet with good service, even though they are rarely empty. It's a good atmosphere and cute inside.

Chicken Cheese Steak Stromboli: As a teen, I always got this without peppers and onions, and it was really good (duh, it's cheesy bread). My grandma always got the same thing, too! But I decided to try it with all the fixins since I am now an adult. It was still good, but honestly, not as good. I think I'm gonna try a different as-is boli next! 7/10

Meat and Cheese Stromboli: Well, I tried this one next! It had all the right properties: meat, cheese, mustard, no onions. But there was SO MUCH ham, and not enough salami/mustard, maybe? It wasn't quite what I dreamed of, even though it was still good. And a small one is also very filling, which I appreciate. Maybe time to leave the boli fields.... 6/10

Regular Stromboli: This is the same as Meat and Cheese Stromboli, but with mushrooms, peppers and onions, and I asked for no peppers and onions, but they didn't do it (wah). So I picked them off which was annoying, but after so doing, the proportions were much tastier than the meat and cheese one, and I don't think it's all down to the few mushrooms in there, but anyway, it was really good! Nice salami/cheese/mustard/crust distribution. Very oily and made me heartburny, but, delicious. 7/10

Overall
Cost: 6.5/10 (standard, but not bad)
Taste: 8/10

Premium Chocolatiers Signature Truffle Collection

So, my mom got me this truffle collection for Christmas, which was very sweet. It is nut free, egg free, gluten free, vegan, and milk free. Unfortunately, I only care about one of those restrictions, and I think the taste really suffers because of the lack of milk and egg. Another issue is that they made me feel quite itchy and sick after just one, which I soon realized is because they DO contain a lot of soy protein and sunflower oil. D'oh. So, if you are like me and just have a nut allergy, I do not recommend these truffles. However, if you have a milk allergy or multiple ones, then at least you have an option for a truffle variety which is still classy!

Individual Opines:

 "Milk" Fudge: Tastes very generic!
 Coffee: Not very coffee-y! Probably my least favorite, which is strange since I like coffee a lot.
 Grand Marnier: The prettiest one, although I could use more orange flavor. It's decent, though.
 Raspberry: Maybe my second favorite, the raspberry flavor is nice and refreshing.
Salted Caramel: Probably my favorite one, though still not as caramelly as I would want! The salt on top is a nice touch.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (for truffles, they aren't that expensive)
Taste: 5/10

CyliK music : A Non-Food Review

I'm making a one time exception in this blog to review something that isn't food! On the one hand, there's no peanuts involved. On the other hand, it's good music. CyliK is a very new electronic artist, just burst onto the scene! Only a few tracks posted so far, but they're all winners. Good study music, good background music, good chilling out music, driving music, all that stuff. My favorite track is posted below, but check out Cylik.com for the rest and for info about how to download or follow them on facebook etc.


Overall
Cost: 9/10
Taste: 9/10

J says: great stuff, 9/10

Perkins Restaurant

This is a very old-people restaurant, which makes it a comforting place to go. Relaxing, low-pressure diner with lots of breakfast, lunch and dinner options. I always enjoy it, even though they kind of rush you out of there sometimes.

Turkey Dinner: Very comforting. Stuffing, turkey, and a tiny bit of cranberry sauce (and apparently a roll, sometimes). Get with corn and mashed potatoes and you're in the thanksgiving spirit!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Chewy Chips Ahoy - Gooey Caramel

False advertising!! This is not GOOEY!! Won these for being trivia losers, which is nice. They really taste just like regular chewy chips ahoy, which are OK, but not amazing -- very very processed tasting. You bite this in half, and it does not goo out! It is like a solid piece of cookie. You can hardly taste the caramel, honestly. I don't know what's going on with this. Maybe I should have tried microwaving them, or something.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (usually on sale)
Taste: 5/10

Lay's Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese Chips

Damn, these were a little disappointing (especially after those BLT ones were so good). Did not taste especially like Bacon or Mac and Cheese. Just cheddar powder flavored, really. Maybe a tiny hint of smokeyness if you're really looking. As a chip, they're average, but not bad -- like a cheddar chip (like those Ruffles ones that are in vending machines across America). But as a new flavor, it let me down. It let us all down.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10


J says: What a disappointment. 5/10

Chobani Greek Yogurt with Oats (Apple Cinnamon)

It's been a while since I had a yogurt, so I decided to try this one out. I like the regular apple cinnamon chobani, but I did not like this one as much. Too many oats! Too grainy! Too lumpy! Not enough apple! And so on. It was quite filling, though, and it didn't taste bad, it just didn't taste good. I would much rather have a regular yogurt, this one kind of felt like a punishment. But it was filling and relatively healthy (good fibre, protes, etc). So, I tepidly recommend it if you like yogurt and whole-grain oats, but I probably won't buy again.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10

Cappuccino Lay's Potato Chips

New flavors! Exciting stuff! OK, so these are very interesting. It's a hard thing to make a chip flavored like a drink....these don't taste a ton like coffee, really, more like sugar and cinnamon. And a little potato chip. It's not bad, in my opinion. A nice sweet snack. Like Taco Bell's Cinnamon Twists! So I don't hate it, but I wouldn't want it "on the reg" either -- it's not much of a snack food.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10


J says: Ew. 4/10

Bacon Ritz Crackers

These are interesting because they are crackers flavored like bacon. Everyone likes bacon, but not necessarily everyone will like these Bacon Ritz. They are "OK". They do taste like bacon, which is what we hope for, but they aren't really better than a regular Ritz Cracker (which are admittedly quite good). They have a little bit of a smoky flavor, which I don't like. I think J liked them, though.

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 6/10

Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread Chips

New Lay's Flavors excite me greatly, even though their basic chip tastes like cat litter to me. I loved their BLT chip (it really tasted like a BLT!) and so I was curious about these. I like garlic bread, and these did taste a lot like garlic bread, but it turns out that a garlic bread chip is not something the world needs. I would much rather have garlic bread, and ultimately I couldn't eat more than a few of these.






Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 4/10

J says: they did what they set out to do. 6/10

Jack Link's Sweet & Hot Beef Jerky

As was pointed out to me, this is some salty jerky. I mean, all jerky is salty. But dang.

Anyway, other than that, this is decent. Not too fatty or whatever. And it tastes good. I thought "hmm, sweet and hot? sounds bad!" but it ISN'T bad. It's a nice meat flavor, definitely not sweet in a weird way. Not too hot either, unless I don't have any water and I'm stuck in class and it's like "oh man, this is hot after all; it burns; it burns."

Anyway this was on sale so I'm happy with it.



Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Mediterranean Grille

This is a fairly new resto for Newark's Main Street. And it's mostly nut free! Furthermore, they're very friendly and knowledgable. Noice. I've always enjoyed it; even though the food isn't amazing, it's never BAD either.

Chicken Marsalla: Really good. Big portions, and the linguini is oily as fuck (but in a good way).

Chicken Souvlaki Sandwich: Good sauce, good meat, good veggies. Good side options. I enjoy this food.

Pork Souvlaki: Kebobs! I could take it or leave it, but a healthy option is good, and the side of rice is very nice.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

7-11

I just don't like it. However, they're always open, and the price is right. So it's tough.

Coffee: coffee is bad.
Cappuccino: Sweet. Bad. (French Vanilla, anyway).
Hot dog: Oh my god, hot dog is bad!! But also kinda good. Put some ketchup on that.



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Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 4/10

Chips Ahoy Ice Cream Creations

What a strange and beautiful thing. Really, I got these because they sounded disgusting, and also, were 1.50$ each. What a world. Anyway, I got one of each. Here we go.

Dulce de Leche: These are solid. They are the only non-chewy ones! Tastes like a regular sugar cookie, which is nice.

Mint Chocolate Chip: These are chocolate cookies, which I don't really like, but the mint choco chips are good green joy nuggets. Not terrible but I wouldn't seek them out.

Mocha Chunk: If you like coffee, these are good. Because they taste like little coffee chips inside of a boring-ass chips ahoy cookie.

Root Beer Float: It sounds bad. And you know what? It is bad. It's terrible. It tastes a little bit like root beer. And a little bit like somebody spilled root beer on your cookie. Sweet Jesus.

All in all, some of these are OK. But for like 300 calories a cookie or something? ? ? Please.

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 5/10

Corner Bistro

Whew, it's been a while since I made a non-backdated post in here! I've been slacking. Anyway, I've gone to this resto twice now, and I really like it. It's "casual fare with a french-american flare"; a little pricy for casual fare but actually not bad considering how good this place is. The inside is nice; there's a bar/café area at the front and then a small dining room in the back with lots of booths. (I love booths, so sue me). The menu is small, but reasonably safe for nut purposes, and they give you nice little breads. Oh, they also give you macadamia cookies at the end, so don't eat those. Ask not to get those. Burn those. Decent beer selection, also.

I got the duck once; it was very tender and came with some weirdo veggies and I think a blue corn muffin? Irrelevant, because the duck was good. But not super filling, I think?

Then I got the short rib, which was very filling. Also tender, in a nice (sweetish?) sauce. Came with potatoes and green beans. (sad but true story: I initially wrote "patates and green bean-os", but then I changed it. am I drunk-blogging?!) good.

Anyway, this place is nice. A good ```romantic'''' atmosphere, sure (I may be biased on this point), but also would be a nice place to go with your parents or something for a nice meal. I recommend it to you.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Knorr Pasta Sides - Creamy Garlic Shells

This is a classic member of the Lipton noodle packet line! Like Parmesan and Cheddar Broccoli, it hasn't changed much over the last 10 years. Perhaps because it's a solid pasta side. It has a very strong flavor (creamy garlic is an accurate description), so I only crave it a few times a year, but it always hits the spot. This one actually IS good as a side, in small portions it is much more manageable. I like to throw in a few frozen broccos/cauliflowers to temper the extreme creamy garlic taste. It's very rich.




Overall:
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 7/10