Friendly's Ice Cream Cake Sundae Cup

These little Friendly's ice creams are so good for portion control! I think they're ultimately cheaper than a pint, too, which is great. Anyway, the flavor is good - like a little ice cream cake in a cup, almost! It has chocolate and vanilla ice cream, confetti sprinkles on top, and a significant layer of those chocolate crumbly bits (like cookies 'n cream oreo pieces, but all jammed together, which is better than interspersed thru ice cream). I do wish there was more of an icing/frosting flavor component, which is my favorite part of ice cream cake, but otherwise I really like this.


Overall
Cost: 8/10 (1$)
Taste: 8/10

Ciderboys La Vida Sangria

Another sangria flavored cider that doesn't actually contain any wine or grape bits at all! Then again, Ciderboys did the service of actually listing the ingredients on the bottle, so I can't be mad at them. The bottle art isn't as stylin' as the Angry Orchard take on Sangr-ider, and the color of the drink isn't as pretty, but I actually think I slightly prefer this one to Angry O's. It basically tastes like juice, or a nice apple cider, but better than a default hard apple cider. Less "ow this hurts my teeth" feeling, more "is this Kool Aid? Am I drunk now?" feeling.





Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

Q says: Tastes like fruit punch, 7/10

P.F. Chang's

Chinese restaurant? On THIS blog? It's more likely than you think! I love Chinese food, and I've tried pretty much every frozen option I can, most of which are gross. Sadly that includes the PF Chang frozen meals. But I've heard from various allergy blogs and websites that P.F. Changs the resto is actually good about nut allergies, keeps the nuts segregated and only puts on at the end, and will use separate pans and stuff. So I found my lil courage and went to check it out (Epi-Pen in hand of course). It was true: I led with my allergies, and the waiter gave me a print out of everything without tree nuts & peanuts in it (which was a decently big selection). I'm not sure how much he told the chef or if that info is automatically transferred to the order, but I felt pretty safe. Also they have a big drink menu and I got a drink to calm me down, hehe. So, we ordered a few things:

Sangria: This was the drink, it was small and quite alcoholic, but with a cherry and strawberry and orange slice and it was good. 8/10

Sweet and Sour Chicken: This was OK, I don't LOVE breaded chicken but I wanted to mix it up. The sauce was good, the chicken itself was good, the pineapple and peppers were OK. 7/10

White rice: a normal side of white rice. Good to have. 6/10

Beef and Broccoli: I'd rather have chicken and broc, but this was better than I thought it would be. The beef tasted almost like BBQ spare ribs, it was a little sweet/spicy and the texture was nice and tender. Broc was fine. 8/10

Pork fried rice: Really nice, although not quite like my platonic ideal of fried rice. There was egg in it, which was cool, and the pork bits were big but good. Also a strong ginger taste, some carrot and some bean sprouts. Overall nice. 7/10

I will definitely go back if I find a willing partner! I love Chinese food and I know this isn't "authentic" (and it definitely isn't as good as my little girlhood chinese takeout past) but it was really great to have those flavors in a restaurant setting. I hope I can get some carrot/mushroom/bamboo/baby corn/sauce type entree and maybe lo mein with no peas in the future. :)

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (Pricy but not CRAZY)
Taste: 8/10
Fear factor: 6/10

Q says: It was pretty good, 7/10

Not Your Father's Mountain Ale - Citrus Brew

I haven't tried much new food lately, so I figured I'd enjoy this refreshing alcoholic beverage. Bad news! It's not refreshing! I like Mountain Dew and I like alcohol (who doesn't!) but I somehow think that mixing vodka + the dew would taste better than this, and be less sugary too. Do I just hate non-coffee sweet drinks? Maybe. But this is really sweet and I don't like it. It also has what I suppose is a citrus-y tang, but it's not a pleasant fresh lime flavor, more of an old processed lemon scented cleanser flavor. My boyf likes this but maybe he has a tongue injury. Just get some Mike's Hard Lemonade if you don't want a beer.




Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 4/10

Terra Blues

I like Terra's spicy sweet potato chips, and the color of these makes them pretty  badass for a chip - but to be honest, I don't think I like blue potatoes, even though the color is very cool. They taste more like dirt and less like oily salt, which is what I truly want in a chip (even though these do have salt on them). They have a good crunch and of course clean ingredients, but the taste just isn't there for me. They were almost vaguely reminiscent of beet chips (of which I am NOT a fan!). If you love the "root" in "root vegetable", you might love these.




Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 4/10

Wise Cheez Doodles - Extra Cheesy

I have a bit of a bias against Wise snacks, simply because they are always very cheap in my grocery store. It shouldn't be true that cheap=bad, but it often IS true, so I was anxious. Actually these were quite good, though. Definitely better than Cheetos, and maybe even better than, like, an Utz cheese curl. The texture is good, and there's a lot of very orange powder, which is actually "extra cheesy" and not just cheesy! I liked it, it was a classic "snack" food and the packaging is actually appealing if I get over my cheapness bias. Yum.




Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 7/10

Aunt Jemima's Original Lite Syrup

Can't have waffles without syrup! This was good. You know, I always debate getting actual maple syrup, which tastes way better but also costs like 11$ for the smallest container. I can never rationalize it to myself so I always end up with Auntie J's or Mrs. B's and I think I'll hate it, but then I realise that I grew up with this stuff and I like it just fine (even though it gets really sticky and I feel like a big sticky garbage can afterwards). It was quite sweet, but that's to be expected in a syrup. It did the job. We can't complain.





Overall
Cost: 6/10 (About 3.50$)
Taste: 6/10