Mediterra Bars

I've reviewed a lot of snack bars by now.  Many make claims of their nutrition benefits, show off that they are non-GMO, high protein, low glycemic, gluten-free, etc.  I usually read these materials, roll my eyes, think to myself, "another healthy nutrition bar, yay", try the products, and generally dislike them.  It takes a lot for me to do a second taste, or even find a snack bar company unique at this point.

But ... Mediterra did indeed catch my interest.  At first, their material looks the same as all the others.  All natural ingredients, nutrient-rich foods, good fiber from nuts and seeds, yadda yadda yadda.  They take a slightly more focused spin, zeroing in on the Mediteranean diet specifically (hence, the name, Mediterra).  Incorporating the Mediteranean diet staples, grains, fruits, and vegetables, into a nutrition bar is a bit different though.  Nuts and seeds, fruits, sure, but, vegetables?  Sundried tomatoes?  Leafy greens?

But they did.  In bar form.

They have two product lines, Savory Nutrition Bars and Yogurt & Oat Nutrition Bars.  The former are the ones that sound ... interesting at least.  Kale, Pomegranate, Quinoa, & Almond.  Bell Peppers & Green Olives.  Sundried Tomato & Basil.  Black Olives & Walnuts.  These are just a few of the offerings.  Sure, not crazy combinations of ingredients, but, in a bar?  Savory bars just don't really exist like this.

The base for the Savory Nutrition Bars is pea crisps, made with pea protein, which is actually my favorite these days, and amaranth puffs.  They use brown rice syrup for sweetness, cashew butter to bind.  And, yup, they have vegetables in them.  Green peppers and chives are also in the Black Olives & Walnuts flavor.

I wasn't ever able to find the Savory Nutrition Bars though, so I have only tried the Yogurt & Oat bars, far more tame.

I was only able to find the Yogurt and Oat Nutrition bars, but I'm still pretty intrigued by the savory ones ...

Yogurt and Oat Nutrition Bars

Mediterra also makes more mainstream, sweeter bars, with gluten-free oats as the base, sweetened with brown rice syrup and honey, coated in "yogurt".  They look like traditional grain based bars with yogurt dip.  These bars also have rather suspicious sounding "Soy Nuggets" as an ingredient, made from rice starch coated soy protein isolate.  Sigh.  They were doing so good with the pea protein the savory bars!

Yogurt & Oat Nutrition bars get their Mediterranean kick via the fruit and nut add-ins, like Fig & Almond, Lemon & Walnut, Cherry & Pistachio.

Apricot & Pistachio.

"Did you know Mediterraneans have incorporated a balance of apricots, pistachios, and oats into their daily diet for generations? We’ve drizzled them with honey; sprinkled raisins, figs, and sunflower seeds; and added a layer flavored with yogurt to bring you a delicious gourmet nutrition bar. Just a little taste of the Mediterranean Diet’s infinite wisdom—made to enjoy on the go."

The Apricot & Pistachio bar was ... not bad.  Almost good.

The apricot flavor was great, plenty of bits of dried apricot (and raisins and date paste mixed in too).  The base wasn't what I expected, not a standard granola bar of any sort, not crunchy, not chewy, just, really different.  It was very dense, presumably from the biding agents, and all the ingredients were more ground than you'd expect, no whole flakes of oats.

However, the bar was pretty bitter, even with the added sweeteners and fruits.  The pistachios I expect added some of the bitterness, but there is also sunflower seeds and flax, which I suspect added most of the bitterness.

Apricot & Pistachio: Side View.

Here you can see the "yogurt" coating.  It only covered one side of the bar, and was really quite thin.  I couldn't taste any yogurt when I was eating the bar, as the apricot and seed flavors overwhelmed.  I say "yogurt" because the first two ingredients of it are sugar and palm kernel oil, followed by dry milk and yogurt powder.  There was nothing actually yogurty about this.

So, overall, great dried apricot flavor, but, too bitter, and definitely didn't deliver in the coating department either.

Funnel Cake, Santa Cruz Boardwalk

A walk along the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk is filled with an array of tempting, horrible-for-you, extremely overpriced, carnival fare.  Garlic fries or sweet potato fries.  Chips-on-a-stick with a DIY seasoning station!  Deep fried veggies, hot dogs, cheese, Oreos, Twinkies, even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  Caramel corn, or caramel apples.  Perfect looking soft serve cones with chocolate dip.  Dippin' Dots.  Even Dole Whip!

But when I was there a few weeks ago, I walked past it all.  I had my eyes on a different prize: funnel cake.

Funnel Cake Stand. 

While most items are offered at multiple stands, funnel cake is only available in one location, midway down the boardwalk.  The stand sells only two items, funnel cake and shakes.

Funnel cakes come in only 4 styles: Original (just powdered sugar), Chocolate Strawberry (with strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce), Oreo Sundae (with oreo crumble, whipped cream, caramel, and ice cream), or, Apple Pie (with seasoned apples, whipped cream, caramel, and ice cream).

Now, an aside.  I grew up with fried dough, rather than funnel cake, and it never came with these sorts of toppings.  It came buttered, and then you added powdered sugar, regular sugar, or cinnamon sugar via shakers yourself.  Sometimes the fancy places had bavarian cream you could have plopped on top.  But whipped cream, ice cream, and all these fruit toppings?  No.  That is not what you put on fried dough!  But I like all those things, and Yelp reviews rave about the Apple Pie funnel cake in particular.  So we got it.

Unfortunately, our funnel cake was awful.  Even though I didn't like the funnel cake at Great America either, at least that one had yummy soft serve and toppings.  This one ... had nothing redeeming about it.

Apple Pie Funnel Cake. $10.99.

"Cinnamon sugar, seasoned apples, whipped cream, caramel, & a scoop of ice cream."

I watched our apple pie funnel cake being assembled with wide eyes.

Yes, there was a funnel cake in there ... somewhere.

It did start with a funnel cake, not freshly made to order, just plucked from a rack, lukewarm.  Minus one point, funnel cake, and fried dough, should be made to order!

Next, it was sprinkled with powdered sugar.  In retrospect, this move made me laugh, as, um, there was so much other stuff piled on top, and it was all sweet, that the powdered sugar was entirely lost.  Why bother?

Next came cinnamon sugar, again from a shaker, again totally lost in this craziness, particularly given the seasoning on the apples.

And then ... the "seasoned apples".  Mounds and mounds of apples in sweet goo.  Seasoned goo, I suppose.  They weren't too mushy, but that is about all they had going for them.  Another diner commented that they were like McDonald's, but, honestly, even McDonald's has better apple pie filling than this.  The apples completely ruined this funnel cake, and, they covered the entire thing.

Next up was whipped cream, generic, from a can, around the outer edge.  A generous application of this too.  But why have just whipped cream, when you can have ice cream too?  It also came with a scoop of generic hard serve vanilla ice cream in the center.  Both these elements were highly mediocre, but at least quasi helped cut the sweet from the apple goo?

And then, to top it all off?  Caramel from a squirt bottle.  It was entirely unnecessary, given all the apple goo.  This thing was too sweet as it was.

It *did* look good, in a way.  It was nicely assembled.  But ... it was not good.

The funnel cake itself wasn't hot and fresh.  But honestly, it barely mattered.  I couldn't really get to the funnel cake.  I tried to take just from the edges, but, it was impossible.  You did not get to taste the funnel cake in any way, no matter how hard you tried.

I really did not like this, although I consumed far more of it than I expected.  I think I *wanted* to find something redeeming in it so badly.  Maybe if I had gotten a plain one I could have at least enjoyed the funnel cake?  Clearly, I do not recommend this.  The $10.99 price is high, but, it also was insanely large, and 4 of us did not finish it.

Waffling Leftovers: Lasagna

Well, this is a bit odd. I was looking through my blog archives, and discovered that I had an unpublished review about waffling lasagna.  I was confused, because, well, I had a memory of publishing a review about waffling lasagna, and it was a great success.  And this post was not really a strong success story.

It turns out, I had the idea to waffle lasagna long ago.  I wrote it up, in January 2015.  It didn't work. And then, a year later, I tried it again, entirely forgetting about my unsuccessful experiment (which, is a good thing, since, the second time, it worked great).

I'm publishing this "update", of an old review, just for completeness. It turns out, lasagna doesn't always waffle great, which, to be honest, surprises me (although my technique was different both times).   So, I guess, your milage my vary?

Old Review, from January, 2015 ...

A co-worker put the idea of waffling my lasagna into my head, I actually didn't consider this myself, which is a bit shocking.

It worked, but, I wouldn't do it again, lasagna is one item that reheats just as good as it is originally, if not better, so there is no need to try to improve on it.

Before: Leftover Lasagna

I started with cold, solid chunks of lasagna.  Not very appealing.

Uncooked.

I decided to separate the layers, and create a lasagna sandwich, to make sure I had mostly noodles for the outside layers, with the cheese and filling inside, to prevent too much sticking or falling apart.

Almost Ready!

The sizzling sounds were promising, but when I opened the lid after a few minutes it was a horrible mess; it separated in the middle, and the top and bottom both stuck to the waffle iron lid.  I knew from my pizza experiments though that the secret is just to wait longer, and when I checked a few minutes later, as pictured about, it was almost ready.

One issue though, the pool of oil surrounding it wasn't exactly appealing ...

Finished!

The end result was about what I expected.  The noodle layer outside got super crispy.  The cheese and filling were melty inside, and crispy in the bits that oozed out.

This *should* have been absolutely amazing right?  The best part of lasagna is the crunchy edge pieces, and this was lots of crunchy.  But it turns out, I just prefer basic ooey gooey lasagna.  Don't get me wrong, this was good, and a success, but this is one item that I'll stick with the classic reheating technique.  I think one issue was the oil that all ran out.  While this version was perhaps "healthier" than standard reheated lasagna since the oil was removed, it turns out, that is what makes the cheese so delicious.  I wonder if I needed to use a lower temperature setting to prevent the separation?  Or try to seal the cheese in more?  Although I liked the cheesy bits than ran out ...

Original Review, February 2016

As I mentioned in my Waffling Leftovers introductory post, I'm quasi obsessed with taking leftovers and putting them into my waffle iron as the reheating technique.  Some are successes, some are not.  Either way, it is always fun.

But this one, is a success story.  If you are a "crispy edge" lover of lasagna, I highly recommend waffling your leftover lasagna!

The Original: Butternut Squash & Sage Lasagna (right).

One Friday evening, my group at work had an amazing lasagna prepared for us for "Comfort Foods Friday".

The pasta was layered with roasted butternut squash slices, it was seasoned beautifully with sage and thyme, the entire thing just screamed "fall!"  There were soft cloves of crazy flavorful confit garlic.  And then of course, the decadence: creamy mascarpone, Point Reyes blue cheese, and mozzarella.

It was delicious, and I loved the crispy bits along the exterior the most.

Leftover Lasagna.

There was a lot left over.  I gleefully packed some up to take home and eat over the weekend.  Lasagna always keeps well, and often, even tastes better the next day.  And it did.  Saturday night, I had a slice heated up traditionally, in the oven.

But I couldn't step thinking about the crispy edges.  And I know one way to maximize crispy bits ... waffling!

So Sunday night, into the waffle iron it went.

Halfway Done ...

After a few minutes, I opened the waffle maker to check on it.  Uh-oh.  It was stuck to both the top and bottom grills, and separated in the middle where the butternut squash slices were.

But my experience has taught me one thing when waffling: if it is sticking, just, let it go longer.  This *usually* is the answer (unless of course you end up burning it).

Victory!

A few more minutes, and I opened the waffle iron up again.  This time, it slid out easily.

So, the answer to the burning question: Will it waffle?

Yes!

It worked just as I expected.  The noodles on top and bottom came out perfectly crispy.  Inside stayed moist.  Some cheese ran out, which turned into crispy bits of fried cheese.

Total and complete success, and there is nothing I would change.

City Baking Co. @ Caffe Bianco

Caffe Bianco is a cafe in the Financial District in SF that I desperately want to like.

It is a bit of a fixture on Sutter Street, located in a historic building, and has been in operation since the early 1980s.  It has elegant, old school decor.  You can tell the staff have been working there forever, the owner included, who is always around the front keeping an eye on things.

But, the thing is?  They aren't very friendly.  It is not welcoming, to those who aren't their regulars.  No warm welcome.  Barely any words spoken to me, actually.  Their regulars are treated remarkably differently from the rest of us though.  The woman in line behind me was spotted by the sandwich maker while we were still in line, and she leaned over to ask her if she wanted her regular, and it was ready before she even got to the register to order in the first place.  Same thing with a guy a few people back, the barista saw him, said, "Americano for ya?", and he had an Americano in hand before I even ordered.  This is fine, I get it.

But my issues are with more with customer service when things went wrong.  I don't need a warm greeting, but, when you charge me $500 instead of $5, it shouldn't take 6, yes 6,  follow-ups to get it resolved.  And that wasn't my only mispayment issue.  They have tried to embrace technology, but ... don't know what they were doing.

The first problem was with Paypal.  They accept Paypal payment, which I used for my coffee and pastry.  My total was $5.  I was charged $500, which I saw happen before my eyes.  I told them immediately  However ... they had already submitted the payment to Paypal.  They didn't know how to undo, but said they'd get it sorted out.  Days, a week, two weeks went by without it getting reversed.  I called once during that time to explain what had happened and ask for a status update.  Nothing.  I finally went to Paypal customer service to get THEM to help.  They needed to talk to the merchant.  Still nothing.  I finally went back to the cafe, and stayed there until they called Paypal and fixed it.  It was ridiculous.  It wasn't like they just slightly overcharged me, $500 is VERY different from $5.

The next was with delivery.com.  Another time I ordered online in advance, on delivery.com, a pickup order.  I was in a rush, and had the time set for pickup so I could swing by to grab my order quickly.  It wasn't ready, and they had no record of it, even though I had my receipt from delivery.com.  delivery.com charged me.  I asked them to still fill my order, but they wanted more payment.  Sigh.

So, as cute as it is, in outward appearance, I don't think I'll be returning, even to try paying the traditional way.  It isn't worth it, when there are so many other places to visit instead.

The Setting

The building is a historic building from the early 1900s, the Chancery building.  The atmosphere is really cute, amazing really.

Curb Appeal.

From the street, Caffe Bianco looks quite regal, with lush plants in the windows, and even visible columns framing the door.  "Espresso & Fine Food", the sign welcomes.  It looks like a swanky place.

Ordering Counter.

Step inside to find a fairly classic cafe ordering setup, with baked goods on display, a sandwich/salad prep area, and espresso machine.  Bags of chips, whole fruit, and other grab and go items are available near the register where all orders are taken.

Downstairs Seating.

Seating on this level is a bit limited, but there is plenty more upstairs.  The curb appeal extends through this area, with more columns, more plants, faux marble tables, real wood chairs.

On the side is a station for sweeteners and milk for coffee.

Upstairs Seating.

Upstairs is even more seating, open and overlooking the downstairs.  Tables are bisto style.  It looks like a great place to spend time, slowly beginning your day over coffee an a newspaper.

The Food

Caffe Bianco serves breakfast all day (oatmeal, scrambled eggs, egg sandwiches), and offers up salads, sandwiches, and soups for lunch.  I however haven't investigated any of those things.  I've only opted for the baked goods, to go alongside my coffee.  They use City Baking Co. as the baked goods provider.

Many cafes around town carry products from City Baking, so I've tried a number of their offerings from time to time.  City Baking makes a large variety of baked goods, but most places only offer a very small selection, and somehow never seem to carry the goods I'm most interested in,(like Prima Cafe, which carried only the most boring varieties of muffins and scones, or Diller's, which always seemed to be out of better varieties ... if they ever have them).

I've never actually really cared for anything I've gotten from City Baking before, but also, I've never been able to pick something I really wanted at other establishments.  Cafe Bianco was the exception to this.  The spread was very impressive!  Tons of muffins, including crumb topped, or low fat, or even gluten-free.  Croissants, filled or plain, cinnamon rolls, danishes, bear claws, morning buns, etc, etc.

Finally!  I had my chance to try the items I was interested in, some of the more fun scone varieties.

City Baking Co. Apricot Scone.  $2.50.

“Filled with dried apricots and apricot preserve, this scone is then topped off with a brown sugar crumble.”

For some reason, I was really, really craving a scone.  It was funny, because Caffe Bianco had every single type of muffin that I wanted to try, but instead, I went for a scone, even when I've tried several of City Baking's scones before in the past, and didn't care for them them, like the dry, crumbly, flavorless, round berry one I got at Diller's.  Or the equally flavorless triangle shaped blueberry scone from Prima Cafe.  And Caffe Bianco had only one type available on this visit, not a flavor I'd normally pick.

The label at Caffe Bianco just said "whole wheat apricot scone", so I didn't have any indication that this would have any interesting components.  And yet I still went for it.  I really wanted a scone!

And, I'm glad I did.  This was actually quite delicious.

The top was covered in cinnamon and brown sugar, sweet and delicious, along with a scattering of oats.  It reminded me of a dessert crisp or crumble topping.  There was just the right amount of it, not as heavy of a layer as you'd get on a coffee cake, but plenty to sweeten up the entire thing.

Inside were plentiful little bits of dried apricot, cut up into a tiny size just right for adding a fun little chew here and there, but never being annoying to eat.  The layer of apricot preserves added a ton more flavor and moistness.

I'm not entirely sure what the base was, since City Baking didn't claim it to be anything special, but Caffe Bianco said it was whole wheat.  It didn't seem particularly wheat-y to me.

The scone itself wasn't quite the style I normally prefer, as it was a bit cakey.  A tiny bit more moist than I would normally go for in a scone, but still quite good.  It was a bit crumbly, but not enough to make a mess at all.  I think I'd prefer it just a tiny bit drier, with a bit more crumb.

This was nothing like any of the other scones I've had from City Baking, and I honestly can't believe that the same bakery produces these.  This one had so much flavor, from the apricot and from the topping.  It was sweet, but not too sweet.  Never a flavor I'd really think of choosing, but quite enjoyable in the end.  I'd get another, and now I am excited to try more City Baking products in the future!

The $2.50 price tag was right in line with what other cafes serve City Baking's scones for, and was fine for such a large scone.  And large it was; if you paired it with a cappuccino, you could easily split it with a friend for a nice snack.  Or, just devour it yourself, as I did.

City Baking Co Apricot Scone.  $3.75.

A few visits later, I couldn't resist getting the apricot scone again.

It looked pretty much the same, but, alas, it was quite different.

The topping was the same, a nice sprinkle of brown sugar and oats, not too heavy, adding a slight sweetness and fun texture.

The scone itself was nicely cooked, not too dry, not a single burnt edge to be found.  It had a great tang to it, plus a heartiness from the whole wheat.

This was all good.  As were the little bits of apricot inside the base, adding a pleasant chew and sweetness.  But, alas, there were no preserves in this scone!  I wonder if someone just forgot to fill it?  Literally, no preserves.  They had added so much before!

Overall, it was fine, although a bit boring.  If I had never known it was supposed to have the preserves, I probably would have just thought it was a healthy, not quite sweet or interesting enough scone.  But I knew better.  It was supposed to have preserves!

Sadness.

Also, Caffe Bianco increased their prices.  When I got the scone the first time, it was $2.50, a reasonable price.  This time, it was $3.75, a significant increase, and, I don't think City Baking products are remarkable enough to justify this price.

City Baking Co. Raspberry Almond Scone.  $2.50.

"Almonds and a sweet crumb topping give this raspberry-filled muffin the perfect finishing touch."

On my next visit, I had a very hard time resisting getting the apricot scone again.  It had been such a success, particularly compared to any of the other City Baking offerings.  But, I really love trying new things.  My other scone options were strawberry, or raspberry almond.  The strawberry scones looked exactly like the blueberry one I'd had at Prima Cafe, that is, very plain, with a few berries inside.  The raspberry at least had almonds on top, and, I recalled that I thought one thing missing from the blueberry scone was a topping.

The scone was again large, same somewhat cakey-style as the others, triangle shaped.  It had a decent crumble to it.  The base flavor was again very boring, I really wish they'd give it a tang of some sort.  Inside was raspberries, a bit seedy for my liking.  I like having jam with my scones, and the berries inside almost provided a similar experience as eating a scone with jam, but, there wasn't quite enough berries to go around.

The topping was the part I was most interested in, as the City Baking website says that "almonds and a sweet crumb topping give this ... the perfect finishing touch".  Precisely what I thought was lacking from the other City Baking berry scones.  The slivered almonds did give a good crunch, and there was a tiny bit of sweet topping, but I certainly wouldn't call it a "sweet crumb topping".  Still, better than nothing.

Overall, this scone was fine. It wasn't remarkable, and there isn't really a reason to get it again, unless I was really craving a scone and had no other options.  It would of course be much better if served warm, with jam, and obviously some clotted cream.