Blogs : Food Media
Food Media CHOW's roundup of food-related news from blogs, newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, and film.
Frozen Favorites
As a food blog reader, I especially enjoy discovering communities of reviewers who are incredibly analytical about esoteric, “low-end” types of cuisine. Take diet-food-review blog IateApie, for example. On Tuesday, it posted the results of an informal reader poll on favorite frozen-food brands. The clear winner? Quarter-century-old stalwart Lean Cuisine, garnering almost 36 percent of the 844 votes, about 12.5 percentage points ahead of the more foodie-sanctioned, organ-i-licious brand Amy’s Kitchen (which came on the scene six years later).
The critics at HeatEatReview—a blog dedicated entirely to picking and panning frozen meals—aren’t as keen on Lean, as editor Abi’s snarky, funny review of the brand’s Sesame Chicken attests:
I learned [on the company website] that this is Lean Cuisine’s number one seller. I attribute this fact to the meal’s amazing imitation of take-out chinese food in a diet form. Also, it contains breading, which makes women on diets a little insane, even if the breading is soggy. Reading about 30 of the 193 reviews on Lean Cuisine’s website had me thinking that the eaters of these meals are not nearly as discriminating as the writers here on HeatEatReview.com. I would post some of their comments, but the egregious misuse of apostrophes had me twitching after a few pages.
Pa-pow! Clearly there’s a certain hierarchy of taste in this community, just as there is in the fine-dining and farm-fresh-cuisine worlds; Abi and her crew just happen to be dedicated to value as well as deliciousness. (Ousted Top Chef contestant Emily Sprissler might have done well to think about these things in last night’s episode and ditch her snobbery about cooking a dish for the TGI Friday’s menu.)
What about you—does frozen or “diet” food ever show up on your plate?
Posted by | Thursday, November 2, 2006 at 8:40am | 2 comments
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Only if it comes from Trader Joe's. I admit, the kid I was used to eat some Lean Cuisine ofr kids as a backlash to the uber-healthy phase my mom put us thorugh. I think the penguin mascot also helped, but eating hot microwaved "brownies" always disturbed me, much like those deep-refrigerated bread rolls you get on international flights.
I admit to occasionally eating, and enjoying, both the diet (Lean Cuisine) and the regular Stouffer's version of cheese manicotti. It actually tastes like there's real ricotta in there. More so for the non-diet version, though -- obviously.
And sometimes you really only have 10 minutes to both prepare and eat your meal.