Tasting Crio Bru Brewed Cacao

Saw an add for this and it sounded interesting. Crio Bru is similar to coffee, but instead of using coffee beans, it uses cacao beans. It's ground the same way and brewed the same way as coffee, but like all chocolate, it has almost no caffeine. Rather, the pick-me-up from chocolate, and this, comes from theobromine (and the sugar in most chocolate foods/drinks). 

Full disclosure: Not getting paid for this, didn't get any free product, I paid the full price for the full-sized bag and two sampler bags. Just thought it sounded interesting and that others might also find it so! 

I bought the Nicaragua medium roast, already ground. You can smell the cacao through the bag - I think there's a port in it similar to higher-end whole bean coffee. It looked like a pretty coarse grind. 

I brewed it per the package directions - 2 tbsp cacao per 8 oz cold water. Standard Black & Decker drop coffeemaker; of interest, they say to use a permanent gold filter rather than a paper one. It doesn't say why, but it says "no paper filters" repeatedly on the website. As it brewed, it filled my kitchen with the smell of chocolate. 

Normally I drink my coffee with no sugar and a little 1% milk. I decided that, to get the full experience, I needed to try this black, as I normally do, and with some sugar. 

Black: As I raised the cup to drink it, the chocolate aroma intensified but was never overwhelming. It's pretty bitter, a little more so than coffee. I could drink it this way, but not sure I could do my usual 1-1.5 full pots a day black. 

White: About the same; the bitterness wasn't really cut. 

Sweet: As you'd expect, it's not that far off from hot cocoa. The mouthfeel is different - since I use 1% milk, it's not nearly as thick and rich as most cocoas are. Much stronger aroma of cocoa than actual taste. 

The key question: how's it compare to caffeinated coffee? 

Cost: $14.95 for 10-oz bag. https://www.criobru.com 

Tasting Tapatio Extra Spicy Ramen Noodle Soup

Found this at my local grocery store and thought I'd give it a try. It comes in its own bowl. 3.7 oz of noodles in the bowl + a flavor packet. The package is labeled as "extra spicy" / "muy picante" / "sabor extra picante" and has a graphic of three chile peppers to denote "hottest". The directions were to fill to the fill line with room-temperature water, empty the flavor packet into the bowl and microwave for 3 minutes. Noodle texture was....OK. It's a soup so I didn't drain it.  

There wasn't a ton of flavor to it at all - nothing really discernable other than generic "protein". Spice-wise, initial impression was that it wasn't very spicy, but the heat gradually built a bit and had a nice linger to it. I did add some leftover rotisserie chicken to it and it was OK.

Nutritional details: 470 calories, 17g of fat, and 8g of protein. 1,760mg of sodium.

Verdict: OK, but probably not going to pay the $1.79 or so again. 

Taste: 6/10

Heat: 4/10

Easter 2021 Menu

The menu this year is a little less ambitious as most of the relatives have moved out of state. With that I'm doing a little more experimenting this year; based on what's caught my eye there's a lemon theme emerging. Here's what I'm making this year. 

Honey-glazed spiral-sliced ham from the store - heat & eat. 

Thyme-Roasted Rainbow Carrots recipe

Lemon-Roasted Asparagus recipe

Broccoli Slaw with Lemon Dressing recipe

Instant mashed potatoes (ran out of time)

Mini Ham 'n' Cheese Frittatas recipe

Caprese skewers. Ciliegene mozzarella ball, cherry tomato, basil leaf, balsamic vinegar glaze on a toothpick. 

Tasting the Paqui One Chip Challenge 2020

The setup. 

This is one of those things where, once it's done, you ask yourself, "Why did I do that?" It's also one of those things where everyone else asks you, "Why would anyone do that?" 

I like the spicy food challenges, so that's why I did it. It gives me bragging rights - if I had anyone to brag to who cared about such things. But at this point I did it because I bought the chips already and figured I better knock this out before the 2021 edition comes out. 

So. If you're not familiar with the One Chip Challenge (OCC), it's exactly that. You eat one chip and hold off as long as you can without drinking or eating anything. They suggest waiting an hour, but I have things to do so I set a goal of 3 minutes. 

The chip comes in a coffin-shaped box covered with warnings. Inside the box there is the chip in its own bag, some rules & expectations for the challenge itself, and a foldout that has a congratulatory message on one side and some more info about other Paqui chips on the other. It also includes a coupon good for a free bag of Paqui chips, any size/flavor, up to $5.99 (the retail cost of the OCC). 

The chip itself is a good-sized rounded wedge. It's a blue corn tortilla chip, and the powder coating is made of charcoal powder. This produces a very black chip with a terrible, awful, horrible taste in addition to the heat itself. The heat comes from Carolina Reaper betters and Sichuan peppercorns. I've found that despite the box and packaging, the OCCs tend to be broken upon opening and this one was no exception. 

The tasting. 

It's a crunchy chip, nice & thick. The charcoal powder has an off-putting smell and comes off pretty easily on the fingers, especially if you're an idiot like me and don't wear gloves. The heat hit pretty quickly, though not instantaneously. About 5 seconds in the heat was about as hot as it was going to get taste-wise. The pepper flavor quickly faded in favor of the Sichuan peppercorn and an odd, very nasty chemical taste. I know the intent is not to go for a rich cumin-y cilantro-y experience, but that was just vile. 

About 30 seconds in, my tongue started to physically hurt - almost like I'd bitten it, but much further back, about at the place where a pill might get stuck if you didn't drink enough water to wash it down. That pain lasted for about 5 minutes before fading. I wish the taste had been as prompt to go away - that was another 10 minutes or so. 

The aftermath. 

There really weren't any unpleasant after effects - maybe because I've significantly upped my hot sauce intake and spice levels of late. The memory of that taste has stuck with me, for sure, but otherwise no issues. I don't know what I'll do with the other 4 I have - maybe crush them up for a topping for chilaquiles or migas or something. They are too expensive to waste, but that taste....

Will I do it again? I think Paqui needs to do something with the flavor. Not sure if it was the charcoal, the Sichuan peppercorns, the combo, or something else, but this was just so terrible that I'm not sure I care to try them again absent some specific improvement. 

The video. 

Superbowl 55 Spread

The celebration is scaled way down this year - partly because of COVID-19 but mostly because two of my brothers moved away. Still doing a lot of food, but not as much and not so focused on snacky stuff. 

This year's Superbowl features the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. I picked a couple of things that are relatable to each city, but I'm not being super accurate. In the case of KC, I literally could not find a brisket from which to make burnt ends, so I took two swings at an alternative. First, I bought some pork "burnt ends". I've had them before, and they are good, but yeah. Second, I found a recipe for "Poor Man's Burnt Ends" that uses a chuck roast. 

For TB, they lay claim to the Cuban sandwich, but whatever it is they are calling that is something else because it includes mayo and salami. Mine will not. I'm also doing fish tacos and grouper sandwich sliders. 

The spread: 

Kansas City: 

"Poor Man's Burnt Ends" - recipe

Tampa Bay: 

Fish tacos - some grilled (baked actually), some fried, with my own crema from this recipe. 

Cuban sandwiches - recipe; I made my own mojo pork using this recipe. 

Neutral:

Bacon mac & cheese - no recipe, just plain macaroni, Ragu double cheddar cheese sauce, about a cup of sharp cheddar, and a package of precooked applewood smoked bacon. 

Dips: 

Amy's Cilantro Cream Dip (aka "green s**t") - recipe

Queso - c'mon. Velveeta, hamburger, salsa. 

Taos Chicken Salad

This is NOT an original recipe of mine - it came from a magazine at some point. I spent a few minutes tonight searching for a link to it and couldn't find it, so figured I'd retype it from my collection of "recipes I make all the time". 

Ingredients: 

• 3 flour or corn tortillas, cut into 1/4" wide strips
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
• 6 cups assorted bite sized salad greens
• 2 oranges, peeled and cut into segments
• 2 cups peeled jicama strips
• 1 can (15 1/2 oz) pinto or other beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup cubed red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions with tops
• Lime Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray tortilla strips lightly with cooking spray. Place in 15x10" jelly roll pan. Bake about 10 minutes or until browned and crispy, stirring occasionally. Cool to room temperature. 

2. Spray medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat until hot. Add chicken, and cook and stir about 15 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165 F and chicken is no longer pink in center. Remove from heat and refrigerate until chilled. (Note: I frequently just use all the meat off a small rotisserie chicken)

3. Combine greens, oranges, jicama, beans, bell pepper, celery and green onions in large bowl. Add chicken. Drizzle with Lime Vinaigrette and toss to coat. Serve immediately and garnish with tortilla strips. 

Lime Vinaigrette

Ingredients: 

3 tablespoons (tbsp) chopped fresh cilantro

3 tbsp plain low-fat yogurt

3 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp sugar

1 teaspoon (tsp) chili powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

Directions: 

1. Combine all ingredients in bowl; whisk to combine thoroughly. Refrigerate until ready to use; whisk before using. 

Tasting Paldo Namja Ramen

Today's tasting doesn't come off the Ramen Rater's lists; in fact, not really sure where I found out about this one. Decent-sized brick of noodles at 4.06 oz/115g, and comes with two packets - one of vegetables, and one of seasoning powder. The directions are to cook in 500cc of water "until tender"; I cooked them for 3 minutes and they were very good texture-wise. The directions didn't say to drain, so I didn't - I just added the packets and let them sit for a few minutes.  

The first impression of the flavor is salt, but it goes down pretty quickly to a solid if non-descript "meaty" flavor. The Ramen Rater thought they were pretty hot, but I'm not tasting any heat at all, to the point I'm thinking about adding some hot sauce to it as well as a protein add-in, this time roast turkey. 

Nutritional details: 480 calories, 14g of fat, and 10g of protein. 1,850(!) mg of sodium. 

Verdict: OK. Not amazing, not terrible, just...OK. I'll finish them but won't buy them again. 

Taste: 6/10

Heat: 3/10