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Supertaster
Italian Chefs Won’t WeepBertolli frozen meals and Natural Brew microbrewed sodasWhat's new? What's great? What's weird? Our columnist samples offerings from supermarket aisles and fast-food menus. |
By: Unilever
I Paid: $6.99 for a 24-ounce bag (prices may vary by region)
Bertolli’s Oven Bake Meals get four out of five points for marketing because the ads are memorable and vivid, not because they’re admirable or credible. They depict small, dignified restaurants run by passionate Italian chefs who are getting absolutely crushed under the heels of the Unilever corporation’s frozen Italian dinners. The chefs cry out in frustrated anguish, practically dissolving into tears as Bertolli steals their customers and snuffs out their livelihoods.
Ads notwithstanding, a taste test of two of the meals reveals food that shouldn’t scare anyone, let alone someone who can cook. The Stuffed Shells in Scampi Sauce is a bit too fishy-tasting, the pasta almost gluey and overly robust, the cheese too mild. It’s not a total disaster—the herb flavors are pronounced and pleasant, as is the touch of white wine flavor. The Tri-Color Four Cheese Ravioli suffers from the classic “four cheese” problem, which is that you can generally suss out the Parm and mozz by taste, and the ricotta by texture, but it’s not really as much of a full-court press as you would hope. That said, the entrée has a nice crunchy bread-and-cheese topping that browns well and ravioli that are more delicate than the Stuffed Shells, and it delivers a real comfort-food feel.
Natural Brew Hand Crafted Outrageous Ginger Ale and Draft Root Beer
By: The J.M. Smucker Company
I Paid: $5.19 for four 12-ounce bottles (prices may vary by region)
Natural Brew’s microbrew approach to soda is reflected not just in its fancy bottles and carefully written marketing spiel, but also in its relatively crisp and clean flavors. Most ginger ales and root beers taste like flavored syrup diluted by carbonated water; this stuff actually tastes like the result of brewing, with a more complicated and subtle result.
“A complex flavor of sweet birch, licorice root, sarsaparilla, cinnamon, clove … and wintergreen.” That’s the description on the bottle of Natural Brew Hand Crafted Draft Root Beer, as seductive a sentence about soda as has ever been written. Licorice and cinnamon are definitely there. To a large extent, you have to take the company’s word on the sweet birch; sarsaparilla can be detected around the edges, and clove is definitely the backbone of this stuff. Lingering on the palate: wintergreen. Fair enough. Bloggers have carped about the soda lacking actual root beer flavor, and that’s a valid point—the complexity of this beverage entertains even as it undermines (or redefines?) what we expect from something putting itself in the root beer category. But Natural Brew’s Draft Root Beer is refreshing and intriguing.
The Outrageous Ginger Ale describes itself as “a brew of Jamaican ginger and Chinese ginger root creating a crisp ginger flavor.” So what kind of flavor can we expect while drinking it? Possibly … ginger? Sure enough, although it lacks any of the bracing sharpness that you might expect from its name. It is not, in fact, outrageous.
I really like Real Brew's gingerale -- I find it a nice balance between the totally non-gingery and sickly sweet products put out by the major soft drink companies, and the more pungent (yet often still sickly sweet) stuff imported from the West Indies. I like the extra-pungent stuff, but only in very small quantities, while I find Real Brew to be quaffable without damaging my sinuses.
Reed Extra Ginger Beer does it for me. Love it.
Milder is the Regular formula. The extra has a RED cap.
So for the sake of convenience I'm supposed to eat Italian food made by a chemical corporation? Ummmm no.
REALLY America?! Is it so difficult boil pasta for 8 minutes toss it with some shrimp, fresh basil, garlic and olive oil. Maybe some tomato for color. I've been making "Italian" food since I was 16 without "prepackaged "help. What is this world becoming?
Can you people please stop acting so shocked and dismayed that others cook and eat prepackaged food? Maybe some people don't have the skill level, time or interest to do things the way you prefer. Maybe there are others who would look down their noses at you for eating prepackaged meats, breads, cookies, candy bars, etc., rather than making and/or cooking your own (and we all have eaten prepackaged food). Also, the whole point of this column is to reveiw company-made foods, so what, exactly, were you expecting?
Yeah, really, mwliechty.
Last night, I made cilantro shrimp. I simmered the shrimp shells and tails with water, parsley, half a lemon, and some salt and pepper to make shrimp stock. In another pan, I sauteed butter and flour for a roux, then I added finely diced onion, celery and garlic until they wilted, then I added the shrimp broth and a handful of chopped cilantro. I simmered the cleaned shrimp in the sauce until they were cooked (about 4 minutes) and served it over rice. It took a total of about 15 minutes from start to finish, but to someone who doesn't know how or doesn't like to cook, this would be interminably long and difficult.
Convenience foods are not going away. The best you can do is find the ones that taste the best and are made with the highest quality ingredients with the fewest industrial products.
My question is what are they really selling? Prepackaged foods or their chemical compounds? What's next? Dinner By DuPont?
I'm not advocating home cooking every meal. I eat convenience foods as well. There are food-centric corporate entities that are not chemical firms that fulfill this demand. We just need more of them.
I have to agree with stricken. I read this column because I like James' style and always find it well-written and often humorous, but I'd probably only try about one in ten foods that he reviews here. While he does review some things that would likely be of interest to serious Chowhounders (e.g. the whiskey from his previous review, some nicer fare like the microbrewed sodas here), I find that there's a heavy emphasis on really awful prepackaged crap that's essentially a mess of chemicals and artificial flavours in which most Chowhounders would find very little appeal.
It would be cool if James shifted his reviews to better suit his target audience. For example, I'd love to see him pass the Pizza Hut *nauseated ick* up in lieu of, say, a comparison of a few balsamic vinegars.
I tasted the Bertolli bakes meat lasagna a few weeks ago and it was pretty good (better than any other frozen lasagna) but none of the other varieties sounded interesting.
I had a coupon for one, so I bought the Chicken Parm. 45 minutes to bake a frozen "convenience" food? There seems to be a real disconnect there. The food was fine (albeit the chicken quite small), and occasionally I need something quick to eat, but this doesn't fit the bill.
I had a coupon for one, so I bought the Chicken Parm. 45 minutes to bake a frozen "convenience" food? There seems to be a real disconnect there. The food was fine (albeit the chicken quite small), and occasionally I need something quick to eat, but this doesn't fit the bill.
Think you may be missing the point.. part of the Supertasters appeal is that he is trying stuff most of us would pass by in the supermarket, the scary processed over-marketed stuff. It's really about, do these products live up to the hype?
If I wanted to read about a guy testing fine balsamic vinagers I could check out any one of a bazillion food bloggers out there.
I just think it's insane that we have so many prepackaged versions of meals that it would take a person of normal intelligence 30minutes to prepare from scratch. As a pre-teen I began cooking because I simply didn't like what my mom would feed us - and I HATED cooking - so I don't think you have to enjoy cooking in order to feed yourself a good meal. I know that covenience foods aren't going away and people will continue to do what they do. I just think we should take personal responsibility for what we consume.
stricken - i don't disagree, but if you don' know what day you'll make it or have a chance to do nearly daily shopping, these things are ready in your freezer whenever you need them. i don't have any in mine (never tried them) but i did get sucked in to try some ming tsai pre packaged stuff at target and it was lousy - my from scratch is about as easy and way better. anyway - who hasn't had produce and seafood go bad because you didn't get to it on time? so while it's easy to make - and most people could be taught - it's not necessarily convenient to always have on hand.
jeters, perhaps we're all missing the point. Or has no one other than me noticed the Bertolli Oven Bake Meals ads on this website? Regardless of the review being tepid, we all considered the product and some of us even tried it. In other words, Big Chemical Corp invaded Chowhounds and has won this round.
It's not that I don't like Natural Brew's root beer and Ginger ale. It just that having been around the brand for a long time it can remember some of the OTHER flavors they used to have and which I LOVED. There was the Premium Draft Cola, proably the richest, fullest cola I ever tasted, light years better than the Ginseng cola they have in the line up now. If you have come across the new Cola Virgil's has just stated marketing it was a bit like that, but so much richer. There were also the two seasonal sodas Summer Brew (a sort of dry heavy lemon-lime) and Winter Brew (a spicy, cinnamon flavored drink that I can only describe as being "eggnog" flavored) I actually enjoyed both of these a lot as well as being amused by the fact that due to shipping issues I could only get Summer brew in the winter and could only get Winter Brew in the summer. both are, also no longer extant (there is a lemon lime in the product line but it is candy water compared to the Summer) The current ginger ale and rood beer are in my opinion alright but they are a little ordinary and uninteresting (or as the author Spider Robinson would put it "There ain't nothin' wrong with them, but there ain't enough right.)
I tried the four-cheese ravioli and thought it was fantastic! The crumbly bits on the top are a delight, but I added to them with a bit of Panko. I haven't tried Bertolli's other meals yet.