Whiskey Steak on a Diet

Published on Tuesday, January 29, 2008, by James Norton / Edit Post

What’s new? What’s great? What’s weird? Our columnist samples offerings from supermarket aisles and fast-food menus.

Whiskey Steak
on a Diet

Healthy Choice Café Steamers
Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers

By: Healthy Choice
Suggested Retail Price: $3.49

Taste: ****

Marketing: ****


James Norton edits the Upper Midwestern food journal Heavy Table. He's also the coauthor of a book on Wisconsin's master cheesemakers. For his Supertaster column, he samples offerings from supermarket aisles and fast-food menus. You can follow him on Twitter and fan him on Facebook. His wife, Becca Dilley, takes the photographs for Supertaster. She specializes in weddings and food photography, and is the coauthor of and photographer for the book on Wisconsin's master cheesemakers.

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POST A COMMENT |11 Comments

COMMENT

  • Agree that text could also be provided. Not that I ever smooze the net at work. :)

  • Thanks for the clarification, James. I, too, was curious about the grading scale.

    Even more, I'm curious to know the ingredients. I've found that so-called "healthy choices" may be lower in fat and higher in plant matter, but are usually packed to the gills with chemicals to compensate.

  • Confusion about the grading criteria is totally understandable. Here's the problem I deal with...

    If I went on an absolute, hard-wired, apples-to-oranges-to-kiwis-to-raw salmon 1-to-5 grading scale, almost every microwavable (or fast food) review I did would clock in at a 1 or 2. With Health Choice Cafe steamers, I'm grading them vis-a-vis other microwavable meals, and the fact that they had...+READ

    Confusion about the grading criteria is totally understandable. Here's the problem I deal with...

    If I went on an absolute, hard-wired, apples-to-oranges-to-kiwis-to-raw salmon 1-to-5 grading scale, almost every microwavable (or fast food) review I did would clock in at a 1 or 2. With Health Choice Cafe steamers, I'm grading them vis-a-vis other microwavable meals, and the fact that they had some non-negative flavor attributes and some concepts beyond "lasagna" or "chicken with cheesy sauce" is highly in their favor. It's one of the best microwavable meals I've had. It's most definitely NOT one of the best meal meals I've had.

    This is something I kind of wrestle with whenever I evaluate anything -- how much time to spend deconstructing the criteria that I'm using when I assign a rating.

    Totally legitimate point on your part, as a reader.-COLLAPSE

  • Wait, if the steak tastes "industrially processed" and the chicken is "very overdone", how does this get 4 out of 5 stars? You waxed poetic about the Italian gelato ("trance state") and it gets 5? I'm sorry if I missed an earlier article outlining grading criteria, but it's not very clear.

  • at least he chewed with his mouth closed ;)

  • Nice dining room

  • eff yes the dude and catastrophe!

  • Agree with those above re the need for text. Also, if you are going to do a video, please provide close up views of the food, otherwise I see no reason to show video

  • Text please!

  • I like you James Norton but I sort of agree with grish in that I would have loved some text as well. It's not that I don't like your videos: in fact I love your videos but I really enjoy your writing a lot more. Maybe you could do both like that Taco Bell one. And holy crap are those Healthy Choice things big. They were almost as big as your head!

  • With all due respect to the filmed beardo, this could have been presented just as well in a textual format.