La Cure Gourmande Madelines

I look like a delicious yellow submarine

The Attraction

Who doesn't love a good Madeline? Let's try one at the "local" bakery 

The Review:
I'm usually reluctant to review snacks that are so "local". Local may not be quite the right word as there are several La Cure Gourmande stories internationally in places like Asia, Europe and the UAE, but local in the sense that there is only one store currently in the US, but I figure with so many readers internationally, it would be OK.

Madelines are delicious. In case you never had one, they are these French sponge cakes. Well, just go here to find out more. To oversimplify, they are sort of like a less coarse cornbread, but lighter or like a small pound cake. Well, anyway, there's a place not too far from where I work (La Cure Gourmande) that offers a wide-variety of Madelines, from caramel, to pistachio with apricot filling, to chocolate, but for the sake of this review, I'm focusing on the original...even though those others sound tasty as well.

Cornbread anyone? 

What's neat about the way La Cure Gourmande presents their Madelines is that they are in these glass partitioned bins (see here), which makes them so accessible and tempting to grab a basket-full of each flavor. It also makes them seem not that expensive, when in actuality, they were $1.50 a piece. One won't break the bank, but 5 of these will get you a lunch somewhere. OK, so I may have grabbed a basket-full myself, but that's not the point.

The signature "Madeline" shell shape

When you first open the wrapper on one of these Madelines, you can smell some of that sweetness and butter richness inviting you to take a bite. In my hand, they feel spongy and moist. All good things. I flip the cookie over to see the signature shell shape these are know for. All systems go, only thing left to do is take a bite. I indulge and the bite is soft, just like a piece of cake. The flavor is much the same as the smell; sweet and buttery, but within reason. I can see why Madelines are so popular now.


The Sweet:
Moist, flavorful and light.

The Bitter:
They are Madelines! It's hard to mess this up. Even when it's not great, it's usually still pretty good.

I told you I look like cornbread

Conclusion:
Even though I said I'm focusing in on the original Madeline from La Cure Gourmande, the real draw there are the various flavor variations of their Madelines. Their interpretation of the Madeline is true to form, so as that for a base to draw from, I can only imagine the other flavors they offer will be tasty as well.  With that in mind, be sure to either avoid picking up a basket, as it will quickly get filled or just embrace your inner-foodie and ask if they have shopping carts, cause a basket ain't going to do it.

Video of the Week

I can barely ride a bicycle straight, forget a unicycle in the sky!

This is more like a magic trick. After watching these guys juggle, ride a unicycle and just hang from an old smoke stack, I bet I can make you hands sweat. I'm not sure why these guys would do this. I have yet to be this bored in my life.



Galletas Puig Delicias Maria y Chocolate

This almost looks religious to me for some reason

The Attraction

What's better than free souvenir snacks from a foreign land? 

The Review:
In this week's case, a coworker brought back goodies from the land of Venezuela. The snack name translates to, "Maria and Chocolate Delights". How can anyone not love a snack with a name like that? The question I had immediately is what the heck is a "Maria"? More on that later...

I open the package to find something that looks like 2 giant chocolate coins. Well, at least one side of it. As you flip it over, you can see that the other side is a cookie or biscuit. I will say this, they are not cheap based on the size of this cookie. They are roughly the circumference of a top of a soda-pop can...and there are 2 of these in the package. (internal chubby fat kid giggles, which in turn triggers external chubby adult to giggle)

I pray to the chocolate gods

I take a bite and there is a nice resistance in the chew. The biscuit isn't too dry or crumbly and the chocolate isn't too sweet or overwhelming. It somehow strikes the right balance where each side makes an appearance, but doesn't overstay their welcome, unlike your cousins from out West with the baby that won't stop crying. It manages to do this sweet flavor dance in your mouth where you don't feel like it's too much or too little of either side. It leaves a clean finish without that overly chocolaty aftertaste.

After a few more bites, I decide to do some research and find out that "Maria" is the name of Galletas Puig's biscuit product sans chocolate. Oh, now it all makes sense! Maria y Chocolate! 

Let's flip for it. Call it, chocolate or biscuit?

The Sweet:
Generous sized cookie / biscuit with just the right amount of both

The Bitter:
Stop me if you've heard this one before, but I'm pretty sure this is covered snack ground

Conclusion:
These are good cookies. I can't knock them for that, however they somehow seem very familiar. Like I've seen other variations of this milk biscuit / chocolate combo before. Was it these Petit Ecolier cookies or was it the Digestive Cookies with Chocolate? I can't recall if the flavor hit just the right balance like these Maria y Chocolate cookies, but what I will say is if you can't get the others in your area, these are worth a try. Do they carry the guilt and the fun reputation of other snacks? Probably not and even though that's part of the excitement of consuming snacks, taste is critical too. That is something Maria y Chocolate gets just right.

Video of the Week

Maybe I'll just wait for the next one...

On any given workday, one of the things that annoy me is how crowded the subway can be on my commute to and from work. Well, "crowed" is relative in my case and I also take for granted that I'm in a temperature controlled modern train that was made within the last 50 years. All options the folks in Mumbai don't have. Oh, and by the way, if you are a woman and don't like to get groped on the way to said job, you have to pile into a designated car just for women.....suddenly I feel a lot better about my commute now. 





Lay's Szechuan Chicken

Here they go again...

The Attraction

Lay's has been doing this new flavor thang for awhile...and I've been buying it hook, line and sinker

The Review:
Part of the fun of these new flavor experiment is waiting to see what new and interesting flavors Lays releases. In this wave, one of the flavors they release is Chinese Szechuan Chicken, along with Indian Tikka Masala and Brazilian Picanha and Greek Tzaziki. Being that I've had my fair share of Chinese food in my day, I was curious as to what exactly Szechuan anything taste like in snack form.

As I tear open into the bag, I can smell some "spice" emanating from the bag. One thing I do know about Szechuan cuisine is that is it very aromatic and has many strong flavors. It is anything but bland. So far, so good.

Who knew all those spices
had so many different colors?

I dip my hand in and pull out a chip. I take a good look at a chip and I see the various colored spices in the chip. OK, it looks and smells legit, but what does it taste like? I take a big bite and immediately a wave of flavors comes flying at me; pepper, salt, some five-spice? and I swear even some MSG. At first, it almost taste like potato chips that have been sprinkled directly with the flavor packs that you get with your packages of instant noodles (ramen), but after a few seconds, the flavor deviates and never quite hits that exact level of saltiness, but rather it leaves you with a spicy finish. As for the chicken component...what chicken component? I only even mention it because it's in the flavor name, but otherwise, it's completely meaningless.

This piece looks like an upside-down taco

The Sweet:
It's a new flavor, which always means the potential for something exciting

The Bitter:
In this case it's booooorrring. It's a new flavor, but really nothing to write home about.

Conclusion:
I'll always support Lays and their great idea to release new and experimental flavors. It just so happens that this flavor, Chinese Szechuan Chicken, falls flat. I'm not even totally sure it taste like anything "Szechuan" to me. Either way, it doesn't strike enough of a cord to make me want to add this into my snack rotation.

Video of the Week

"Hey Ma, my tattoo not only says something
about who I am, but I can also play video games with it"

 

Ever see people with those temporary metallic tattoos? Well imagine one day being able to use those types of tattoos to control things like a video game or use it to show your mood or even better yet, store information on it! Well, the folks over at Duoskin are working on it.





Crown Churroz

I'm waiting for a Spanish interpretation of Tteokbokki 

The Attraction

A Korean interpretation of a "Spanish" snack. You got to try it, no?

The Review:
I wasn't looking for a churro snack when I was walking down the snack aisle at my local Korean grocery, but there it was front and center. Mixed it with all these other snacks that offer Korean flavors, there was this snack that stood up and proclaimed, "I'm not like those other snacks. My origins are from Spain!" Based on the packaging, the manufacturer went out of their way to really drive that point across, even going as far as using Spain's national colors. How could I not review this for my legions (does more than 2 readers count as legions?) of adoring fans in sneakasnack world?

They look like a long uncut version
of  Bissli Pizza

I peel open the bag and the essence of sweet cinnamon comes drifting out of the package. The smell is familiar, but how many delicious snacks smell like sweet cinnamon? I stick my hand in and pull out a "mini churro" looking "Churroz". Visually, the makers of Churros, Crown, has done a good job of capturing it's physical likeness. I take a bite and the initial crunch tells me the first difference between this snack and the real deal; "Real churros don't crunch like this!" Churros (the real snack, not this product being reviewed) sometimes does have a crunch on the outside from being fried, but then it has a softer texture beyond that. I know its a lot to ask for from a prepackaged snack, but it's one of my favorite characteristics of a real churro.

Flavor-wise, it taste very similiar to the fried snack it tries to emulate. Actually it reminds me of a cereal here in the states, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. As I pickup a few more to snack on, it dawn on me that not only does it taste like that cereal, but it tastes like another Korean snack I've reviewed not too long ago, Haitai's Sindangdong Tteaokbokki, sans the heat and red coloring. The crunch and sweetness are very similiar. Even the shapes aren't too off either.

If only it was like a churro...more

The Sweet:
Cinnamon, sugar...even when it's bad, how bad is it really?

The Bitter:
Doesn't bring anything new to the crowded snack arena

Conclusion:
Starting with a foundation of sugar and cinnamon is a pretty strong base to start with, but it's where you take it from there that really determines how strong of an impression that snack makes, especially when you already have a proven formula like churros to model your product after. Although Crown's Churroz captures a big part of the taste of what it's like to eat the real thing, where it takes a steep dip in that experience is it's choice to go with a crunchy texture. Part of the joy for me of eating a real churro is that soft, chewy texture. It's such a big missing component for me in this snack that it makes me want the real thing more....and isn't the whole point of a snack like this is to fill that snack gap, not make you long for the genuine item more?

Video of the Week

And the best burger goes to....

Well....technically, it's not really a video. It's more of a great chart The Chicago Tribune put together rating the best burger from various burger chains around the States. It even calculates how fancy or not fancy the burger is. I know what I'm having for lunch this week.