Taste Test - Garlic Bread Cheese

There are a ridiculous amounts of cheese varieties in the world and sometimes if you want to try something or get into a new thing in food, you go familiar with flavors and tastes you assume you would like. So it's obvious, if we're having pasta that I would try garlic bread cheese right, it solves two needs that go together, cheese and pasta, and garlic and pasta. All things considered, this is a simple choice, plus, this is a 'grilling' cheese, meant to be cooked up quickly and eaten warm.

This cheese was so simple even my wife tasted it with no hesitation and she is very wary of trying new things. First things first, instructions, open the package, heat and eat. Simple right? I chose to pan fry mine on all four sides. It comes out of the package with some of the cooking marks already on it but i was able to get some more with a medium heated pan and a minute or two on each side. The cheese itself if firm and has a great bite to it. It's actually almost exactly like a mozzarella with garlic infused into it. You get the mild mozzarella flavor and the saltiness added with the garlic flavor it's very good. If you like marinara sauce you can get a little dippage going on and boom, a great appetizer or side dish to give your dinner some flair.

I really liked this cheese, and would get it again especially to show off a little with a gathering or dinner party. It's also a domestic cheese, made in Wisconsin if you are concerned about that too.


Rating:4/5

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Taste Test - GrrChee Food Truck

I'm not really sure if this counts as a restaurant review or a taste test but whatever. A couple of weeks backI took the kids to The Gathering at Owings Mills Town Center which is one of a series of food truck meet ups during the summer on Friday evenings. It's cool I suggest everyone try it out and get to one. This time, the kids well, the boy, decided he wanted grilled cheese from this truck, he of course opted for a plain grilled cheese which was on Texas Toast, how boring right?

My daughter opted for a cheeseburger which was alright. She liked the meat and everything, but the burger itself was kind of a puck and once the toppings were added, made a big mess from how it was situated on the bun. I got the mac and cheese deluxe which is a crab cake topped with macaroni and cheese, monterey jack cheese on Texas Toast.

Let's break down some of the components, the mac and cheese was plain, and it's fine cause actually it's more of the idea than how it is executed with something like this. A more flavorful mac and cheese would have been good and it might have eliminated the need for any additional cheese to begin with, so anyone wanting to make something like this at home can take that into consideration. Now I've had several food truck crab cakes and while they all are good on crab meat, they aren't well balanced in flavor to me and this one isn't any exception. It was a bit salty and flat. For something like this you really want the taste of the crab to come out and be present with old bay or seasoning playing a supporting role and not drowning everything else out. The one thing I will say is that I dislike tomatoes so opted not to get one on my sandwich but I'm sure that the lightness and moisture would have diluted some of the saltiness I experienced.

Overall I am still excited about current food truck culture which is doing a lot to bring New American cuisine to the forefront. There are a lot of variables and not to be too critical but just a few subtle tweaks can take something from being good to being outstanding.



Rating: 3/5

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Taste Test - Wawa Cookie Dough Parfait

The last thing you probably need to get yourself started in the morning, or to go along with your salad at lunch is to get one of these calorie and sugar laden, decadent cookie dough parfaits from wawa. The good thing about that is I've done it so you don't have to, unless you really want to.

Buying this the cashier asked if I had already had one because they were selling but no one had come back for this, it was all first time trials. that leads me to think they did a great job coming up with and packaging this parfait to make it look ultra appealing. By itself the cookie dough was cool, slightly sweeter than I'd like it, especially being that you end up mixing it into a sweet chocolate pudding. The cookie dough could be a little 'sharper' so that there is some contrast.

The pudding fell a little flat as well. It wasn't a strong chocolate, but it was indeed creamy and milk chocolate smooth. It gets points for that but once it was mixed with the cookie dough, the chocolate chips don't really do anything and the entire parfait becomes just one note and boring. I like a lot of wawas products but this one didn't do it for me.




Rating: 1/5

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Places - RG's Barbecue Cafe

So I have seen groupons for RG's for month's now and never purchased but while looking to find a pie 5 I drove past and made a note to come back and give the place a try. The reviews have all seemed to be good and I love a good BBQ joint, I mean who doesn't?

First thing the spot is small, and I don't mind that and enjoy the old school menu but I couldn't get a good handle on what to order. I mean are there just ribs or could I get my favorite, brisket? It wasn't readily easy to read so in the end, pressed for time I ordered a Pit Turkey sandwich and the jalapeno mac and cheese. Pit Turkey is something I also enjoy around these parts so I wasn't to disappointed to end up ordering it.

The turkey itself was fine, nothing great, nothing bad. I liked the grilled bun and the sauce was fine. So it was a good start but I have to knock major points for the macaroni and cheese. The sauce was way too runny and it wasn't cheesy enough. It was more of a spicy soup with too much heat to it and no other flavors. The noodles were even bland, like they hadn't been boiled with any salt at all. It was just a flat flavor profile and I didn't enjoy it at all.

Overall, the mac and cheese left a spicy and bad taste in my mouth about RG's. Now I might give them another shot and try to get brisket and some greens which are my other go-to's for evaluating a joint like this but I'm not interested in rushing back at this point.




Rating: 2/5

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