Super Eats High Protein Puffs

Super Eats.  Makers of high protein, reduced carb puffs.  Snack food of ... champions?

I will fully admit that even though I love trying all kinds of snacks, I had ... essentially zero hope for these products.  But hey, given my munchy tendencies, if I could find a snack food that was healthier, had protein, and tasted good, it was worth a try, right? 

"A serving of Puffs contains 8 grams of complete protein, <1g of sugar, and 25-50% fewer carbs than most chips & puffs, making it the perfect vegan snack for an active lifestyle."

Oh yeah, they are gluten-free and vegan too, even though they boast flavors like "jalapeño cheddar".   Like I said, little hope.

But ... the variety I tried was quite good, and I'd love to get my hands on some other flavors, like the

High Protein Vegan Puffs - White Cheddar.

"Finally a healthy puff snack! Vegan, Non-GMO, Gluten Free, Kosher and with 8g of Protein. Only 11g of net carbs. 0g of sugar. A classically delicious, cheesy, crunchy Puff."

I took a bite of my first puff with apprehension.

Well, huh.  It wasn't bad.  Wasn't bad at all.  Great crispy factor, but also, fairly light and fluffy.  It really was much like other puff snacks.

And the flavor?  Yup, it tasted like white cheddar, even though vegan.  Not that most commercial cheddar puffs are made with real cheese anyway .... 

Ok, so what is in these things?  The base is the "Supereats protein blend", thankfully not made with whey protein (which my body dislikes), but rather, pea protein and ... sacha incha protein.  Pea protein I'm familiar with, and I'm generally a fan (when used in drinks at least), but sacha inchi?  Next step: learn what this is.  Turns out to be a shrub from Peru, high in protein, omega-3, omega-6, omega-9, vitamin E, and more.  Sounds like a good thing? There is also lentil flour, sorghum flour, and rice flour to round it out.

The seasoning, which I really did like, uses nutritional yeast to achieve the "cheesy" nature, and garlic powder, onion powder, and mustard seed to round it out.

Overall, actually pretty crave-able.  Good form factor, great crunch, nice flavor.  And ... uh ... the protein really is a nice side benefit!

Cookies from Mrs. Fields

Update Review, May 2019

I've reviewed basic Mrs. Fields cookies before, so I won't intro this beyond reminding you that I think they are basically fine cookies, but not remarkable.  And I'm not much of a cookie girl anyway.  You are likely familiar with Mrs. Fields anyway, if you've walked through a mall food court and smelt fresh cookies.

Someone in my office ordered a customized cookie cake for a baby shower.   Mrs. Field's dubs these "Cookie Cakes", but I'd really call them a pie ...

Anyway, they are basically just giant thick chocolate chip cookies, decorated with icing.

Big Cookie Cake (obviously not complete). $39.99.

"Our freshly baked custom cookie cake is the perfect gift to show your loved ones how much they really mean to you. Add a personal touch to a party favorite with a custom cookie cake from Mrs. Fields® . You can customize the message and icing color to create a cookie cake that's perfect for whatever occasion you're preparing for. Your personalized cookie cake can be delivered to you or straight to the door of a loved one for a scrumptious surprise. Shop our variety of round cookie cake flavors and create the ultimate treat to celebrate in a big way. Moist and chewy, our colossal cookie cakes are made with real butter, whole eggs, and pure vanilla. Eat your cookie cake with a fork or your fingers, on plates, napkins, or right out of the box. Any way you slice it, our Big Cookie Cakes are still first in flavor."

Our cookie cake was half blue and white frosted, half pink and white frosted, and read, "It's a boy!".

The cookie was basically just a thick chocolate chip cookie.  Decently soft, better when warmed up in the oven to make it softer and the chocolate melty.  A fairly good cookie base, and plenty of chocolate chips.  Above average chocolate chip cookie, but not remarkable.

The frosting was just sweet, no distinct flavor. I thought it was funny everyone went for the pink section, as it really did all taste the same.  Very sweet, but this wasn't a bad thing.  I may have intentionally selected a chunk with the most.  And volunteered to take any extra.

Overall, something different than a standard cake, and if your guest of honor really likes cookies, definitely a more interesting offering.  Best warm, better a la mode.

Original Review, Jan 2013

To celebrate National Cookie Month, Mrs. Fields was giving away free cookies.  I've never had their cookies before, but I do like my sweets (and freebies), so I went to check it out.

Then a few days later at work, someone received a box of Nibblers (their tiny little cookies).  They were clearly not as fresh as cookies at the shop, and I wouldn't have ever known they were from the same merchant, if it wasn't for the labels.  I was not a fan, as I like soft cookies, and the Nibblers were very hard.

I'm glad I got to try Mrs. Fields, as the fresh baked cookies always smell so good when I walk by in the mall, but I don't really have any desire to have them again.

3" White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie. $1.99.

For free cookie day, I could pick any cookie.  Since I had no idea what they were known for in particular, I asked the woman serving me which cookie was her favorite, and went with her recommendation.

It was a decent cookie.  Soft style, which I like.  The white chocolate was basically just sweet, but a little creamy.  The nuts added a nice crunch.  The dough was nice and buttery.

Nothing extraordinary, but a good enough cookie.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nibbler.  6 for $3.99.

I expected this to be a little mini version of the larger size cookie I'd had with the same name, but honestly, it really didn't seem remotely the same.  Unlike the soft larger version, it was hard.  I didn't find any macadamia in mine.  And the white chocolate chips were just kinda there.  And the base wasn't buttery.  My favorite of the Nibblers, but I wouldn't get again.

Peanut Butter Nibbler.

Like all of the nibblers, another hard style cookie.  Some subtle peanut butter flavor, but not very good at all.  Least favorite.

Cinnamon Sugar Nibbler.

I don't really care for snickerdoodles that much, but I tried it anyway.  Another fairly crispy cookie, not much flavor to it.  A snickerdoodle really needs the base cookie to be good, and this wasn't.  The cinnamon and sugar coating was nice enough.  Second to last favorite.

Triple Chocolate Nibbler.

 Chocolate cookie base, with both white and chocolate chips.  Another hard cookie, not my style.

Debra's Special (aka, oatmeal raisin nut) Nibbler.

Another crispy not good cookie.  The nuts were a nice addition to oatmeal raisin, but the cookie didn't really have much flavor, and honestly, I didn't detect the oatmeal.  The raisins were all clustered to one side.

Semi-Sweet Chocolate Nibbler.

This was a totally generic chocolate chip cookie.  Not very buttery, not very sweet, chocolate pretty standard.  It wasn't crispy, but it wasn't soft.  Definitely not my sort of cookie.

Skool Restaurant

Skool opened in San Francisco several years ago, in the Dogpatch.  It was on my radar early on, a seafood focused restaurant, with exciting menus.  I remember being pretty interested in the menu, and it got positive reviews.  I honestly have no idea why I never visited.

And, well, I still haven't visited.  But they are open for lunch Tues-Fri, brunch on weekends, and dinner Tues-Sun.  The menus continue to sound great.

So, I finally tried their cuisine, in a fairly non-standard way, for this type of establishment: delivery!  Yup, they offer delivery  via Caviar, and sometimes ... well, I just make ridiculous decisions.  Like ordering ... delivery uni flan from Skool.

Ridiculous only because uni clearly isn't your average delivery item, not because it wasn't a success.  I was quite pleased with the whole experience.

As you know, I'm a sucker for custards, like panna cotta or creme brûlée, savory or sweet.  I went through quite the phase of seeking out savory custards (remember the asparagus panna cotta from The Village Pub or the English pea and green garlic panna cotta from Radius? Or the foie gras custard parfait at Cyrus, the foie gras panna cotta at The Fifth Floor, or the foie gras creme brûlée at The Village Pub?)

But in particular, I love uni, so I went for uni custards all over the place as well, like the uni creme brûlée from Quince, the signature version from Lot 7, the uni flan from Fifth Floor , the uni chawanmushi at Alexander's and Commonwealth, etc. 

I've had a fair number of uni puddings, it turns out.

So I still can't tell you anything about dining at Skool, or about much of their menu, but the uni flan?  Delivered?  Totally works.

Uni Flan. $16.

"Light Sea Urchin Flan / Ikura / Fresh Uni / Fleur de Sel."

Ok, first, let's just acknowledge that the plating for delivery obviously isn't like what they serve in the restaurant, where it comes in a cute little jar.  But really, this wasn't bad looking.

And the taste?  Yup, uni-liscious!  You could taste the uni quite clearly in the flan, a creamy smooth pudding, that I think had suffered a bit in transit, some of it spreading out into the base of the container, and the top part remaining a bit more firm.  Still, the flavor and texture were good, even if it clearly would be better chilled.

In addition to the uni-forward flan, was two full lobes of fresh uni, which seemed good quality, although they were a darker color than is more common.  It hit all the uni notes I was looking for.

The rest of the dish was made up of ikura (standard ikura, great little pops of flavor and salty component), a slice of radish, and some kind of micro herb garnish.  It looks like a drizzle of olive oil was probably applied too.

Overall, this was a good execution of an uni flan, perhaps not the best one ever, but certainly solid and worthy.  I enjoyed it, and the $16 price was quite reasonable.

Sliced Cucumbers (sub for crostini).

The flan normally comes with crostini to spread it up, but I don't really like filling up with bread, and I knew from reviews that it was just generic hard random bread, so I asked them to sub something else, hoping for lotus chips, taro chips, shrimp chips, anything like that.

I got ... sliced cucumbers.  Fresh cucumber, which is fine, but clearly not something I was excited for. I used nori wraps instead, which worked really well, and it was kinda fun to make my own little bite sized wraps.  (Ok, so I ate at least half of it just by the spoonful, like luxurious pudding ... but once I was ready to experiment, seaweed wraps worked nicely).

Points to Skool for reading my instructions though, and coming up with an alternative, which doesn't always happen with delivery.

Plaza Premium Lounge, MEL

This is a short lounge review, as I cruised through the Plaza Premium Lounge *very* briefly just to check it out, in and out in under 5 minutes.  I had access to the Qantas First Class lounge via my generous seatmate, so I only stopped in the Plaza Premium Lounge to see it, for future reference.  And nibble a few things, for you dear readers.

The lounge is pretty basic, seating generic, food line up generic.  The lounge shares bathrooms, showers, and catering with the American Express lounge adjacent to it., and is located in the general lounge area alongside most of the other airline lounges.

If you have no other lounge access, this could be a fine home base, but it lacked all personality.

Dining Area.

Simple seating in the dining area, and simple light brown seats for lounging too.   The color scheme throughout was drab.  It felt like being in a basement.

Beer, Wine, Coffee, Tea. 

Alcoholic drinks and coffee are made by a staff member behind a counter, tea was self-serve, as were the biscuits to go with.

Soda Fountain.

Other drinks include a self-serve soda fountain with basic Coke products.

Spa Waters.

And an impressive water lineup.

Pumpkin Risotto, Spaghetti Meatballs.

Food is a small buffet, with hot dishes in steam pans.

I tried the pumpkin risotto.

Yeah, I don't know why I tried it.  I think I wanted comfort food.  It was just mush, mush that had been sitting in a hot pan for likely a while, all crusted on top.  It did have big chunks of pumpkin though.

The spaghetti and meatballs looked even worse than the risotto, really really dried out, so I didn't try it.

The other hot dishes were rice, chicken tagine, and minestrone soup.  I didn't touch any of them either.

Beef Sliders, Vegetarian Fajitas.

Uh ... these weren't really beef sliders.  Or at least, not what I expect beef sliders to be.  I took one out of curiosity.

A stale roll, shredded beef, and bbq sauce on top?  Tons of bbq sauce, really generic, and not a flavor I liked.

Did not like this.

Bread.

Sliced bread, rolls, spreads.

Moving on.

Cold Cuts, Cheeses, German Potato Salad, Asian Noodle Salad, Mixed Greens Salad, Cake.

I have a soft spot in my heart for potato salad from salad bars and delis (or macaroni salad!), so I tried the German potato salad.

There was nothing special about this, not particularly good.  Not creamy, not my style.

Popcorn, Candy.

I was happy to see the jars though, filled with gummy candies (yes!) and popcorn (eh, I love popcorn but this was boring.  The buttered popcorn in Qantas lounges was much better!).