Text 829, 63 rader
Skriven 2006-04-27 07:19:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: tastes 579
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One of the great things about going odd places is the
chance to try odd foods - and here where the toothbrush
was invented* the tastes are odd indeed:

Hot Wings flavored Fritos - somewhat vinegary-smelling
ordinary Fritos with a bit of a hot bite in the back of
the throat. The good thing is they're not too salty.
The bad thing is they're full of lactose.

Brach's Orchard Fresh white-chocolate coated almonds -
The good thing is that the white chocolate coating seems
to preserve the freshness and crispness of the nuts. The
not so good thing is that the coating is tasteless, which
is not such a bad thing either, given the alternatives.
The bad thing is that white chocolate is essentially just
a mixture of sugar, lactose, and saturated fat.

Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream, chocolate ice cream
with gooey marshmallow, caramel swirl & fudge fish - not
really typical of this region, but certainly one of the
least sophisticated of B&J's flavor's. Extremely sweet,
and the marshmallow fluff stuff was gooey as advertised
and tooth-achingly sugary. In my smallish sample I didn't
get any caramel, but I figure it would be as above. The
fish were also very sweet. The good thing: no artificial
anything; the bad things: everything else.

Berries & Cream Dr. Pepper (naturally & artificially flavored
raspberry & vanilla soda) - sort of like slightly adulterated
Dr. Pepper. The good thing is that it doesn't taste like
raspberry & vanilla soda. The bad thing is it's not nearly so
good as its parent; the worse thing is that it's full of caffeine.

* How can you tell that the toothbrush was invented in
Arkansas? Because otherwise it would be called the teethbrush.

So I went for the first time to shop at the revered Wal-Mart
No. 1, as it's 10 degrees F warmer than the forecasts available
when I packed, and I needed a couple of short-sleeve shirts
(which I may leave down here for when I come back to do concerts);
anyhow, there was a cotton one for $12 that looked okay, but my
friend Ella Lou wanted me to get this snazzy Hawaiianish shirt
made in China out of rayon (two strikes) - it was only $9, so
into the cart it went. The main reason I bring up Wal-Mart No. 1
is that we went looking at the meat department, where not only
are the prices high (probably 25% higher than in New England),
the beef has this cheery moist red artificial look about it,
which is explainable by the fact that the fine print on the
labels says "enhanced with 10% solution" (the percentage ranges
from 9 to 11, from what I've seen). I saw a nice chuck steak on
sale for $2-something a pound that didn't look enhanced, but
instead Ella picked up a pair of 12-oz ribeyes that looked as
close to plastic Japanese restaurant displays as I hope ever to
see, $7.49/lb. Produce prices are the highest I've ever seen
anyplace outside Japan and Finland. I think it's more of the
Southwest effect at work - you start off with slightly lower
prices than everyone else, and then when your market is assured
and/or the competition has been driven away, you jack the prices
up as high as possible.

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