3143

Bacon?

I spotted some Manager’s Special bacon at Kroger and grabbed it, I’m fine with parceling it out and freezing it so that it never gets too old, but when I got it home I saw this:

image
image707×943 61 KB

Now I’m about the last guy to be squeamish or picky about things past their sell-by (this wasn’t, had 3 days to go) but black spots on pork? That was a bit more than I could handwave away. BUT, it turns out it’s perfectly fine:

TIL

3144

It may be fine but I couldn’t eat it. Of course YMMV.

3145
3146

I’m actually trying out CookUnity right now. It’s another pre-cooked meal service. Comes out to just under $12 per meal when you order 6 at a time. It basically tastes like you went to a nice restaurant… the night before, and are reheating the leftovers. Really, not bad at all.

3147

I woke up angry at the food units.

One of the best lines I’ve read in a while.

Also, regarding this:

This meal came with a packet of soy-free soy sauce

What are you even eating at that point?

3148

Sauce?

3149

But will it get you sauced?

3150

A lot of Asians like this stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Maggi-Seasoning-6-7fl-oz-200ml/dp/B0000E2PX6

It’s a soy free (uses wheat protein, instead) flavoring sauce. It’s used a lot like soy sauce, but has a different flavor profile that, to me at least, has more umami going on than standard soy sauce.

3151

Yep it’s basically the same thing as soy sauce, hydrolyzed (fermented) wheat instead of soybeans. Vegetarian boullion cubes etc are made the same way.

3152

You got a nice laugh from me. Well done.

3153

I’ve been curious about that stuff for a while, thanks for giving a description I can imagine. Now I need to pick up a bottle next time I’m at H-mart.

3154

Note that you can find Maggi that is made in China, Germany, or France/Switzerland. Most folks think the quality is also in the order I ranked. The cost definitely scales that way. For me, the German one is “good enough” and I rarely pay for the French/Swiss stuff.

It’s great stuff on sunny side eggs—that’s what I would trying it on first.

3155

How long do these meals last? IE: are they frozen and you can take weeks to eat them or are the fresh and you need to eat them all in a week or so?

3156

They’re fresh and you need to eat them in the next week.

Last night I had pad krapow with basil (ground spiced meat salad) with a sunny-side up egg on top. I was really interested to see how this worked and somehow it did-- the egg was not overcooked after reheating and the yolk still mostly molten. Meat was extremely flavorful and the reheated rice was tasty too.

I’m on my second order now and starting to figure out which items to order. Basically you want those with a 4.3 rating or higher, and certain items are problematic. For example, their roasted brussels sprouts are delicious, really well-roasted at high temperature, but they come out mushy when reheated, not toothsome in the center. So avoid them, but bok choy and rice come out fine.

Also you don’t want to order more than two seafood dishes as you obviously need to eat those right away. That said, their fish comes out excellent reheated, I haven’t had an overcooked piece of fish yet. Salmon is excellent. Shrimp are unfortunately another story. Nothing has been inedible, far from it, but the shrimpies were definitely chewy.

So in summary, portion-controlled, reasonably priced, healthy meals that range from nothing special to pretty dang tasty.

3157

This is supposed to last for a week? I would not reheat week old rice.

3158

It’s not completely cooked when they deliver it, just mostly. The jasmine rice with the pad krapow came out fine; the top was a bit crunchy but I enjoyed that. In contrast the rice with my Thieboudienne (a senegalese fish dish) was a bit dried out on top and gummy underneath, as it had been cooked more thoroughly in the tomatoey broth.

I wouldn’t think reheated fish would be remotely edible either, but every piece of fish I’ve had so far has been fine. Somehow they managed to make that fried egg reheatable too, I don’t know what sorcery they used.

I have a $40 discount referral code if anyone’s interested, but I’m not trying to advertise the service, just saying I think it’s pretty good so far. These codes are easy to find for obvious reasons so feel frere to google and use someone else’s. If you want mine PM me, not posting it in public to emphasize that I’m not on top of a crazy food delivery pyramid scheme.

3159

image

3160

Is it still technically food if it’s gone under intense heat and pressure for 5 months?

3161

Finally a use for ranch dressing.

3162

That’s why you get salad dressing from the cold case by the produce rather than off the shelf.