Rise Protein Bars

Blah, blah, blah, another healthy protein bar, made with natural ingredients, yadda yadda.

"Rise Bar: The Best Plant-Based, Vegan & Whey Protein Bars."

Yup, Rise Bar is another one in this genre.  I don't love bars, but they are handy to have in my bag for when I am out and about and need a snack on the go.  I try many, many brands, always looking for more good options, often trying them when given out in swag bags at different fitness events around town.  I'm not sure where I picked up a few Rise bars, likely at something like that.

Rise makes two main product lines, "energy" bars and "the simplest protein bar".  Rise bars all use a foundation of nuts as the base (protein, antioxidants, etc), are sweetened with honey (natural, yadda yadda), and use whey isolate to up the protein levels.  They of course have tempting named options like "Snicker Doodle" or "Mint Chip".  Some are vegan all are gluten-free.

Energy Bars

Blueberry Coconut.

"Antioxidant rich blueberries and delicious, healthful coconut fill this bar and give it a unique and tasty flavor combination."

The first bar I tried was an energy bar.  I almost liked it.

The crispy bits of amaranth were nice for crunch.  I liked the flavor from the blueberries, the coconut, the almonds.  I tolerated the raisins.  The flavors and textures of all these components worked for me.

But.  Sigh.  Dates.  I don't like the taste of dates.  And this was very date forward.

So close to being tasty.

**+.

The Simplest Protein Bar

Sunflower Cinnamon.

"This nut-free 5 ingredient bar tastes as delicious as it sounds! Made with sunflower butter, cinnamon and a hint of vanilla with 15g of hunger satisfying, pea protein. 100% plant-based."

Next I tried a protein bar.

This is another product I almost liked.  And yes, only 5 ingredients: two of which are just cinnamon and vanilla.  Sunflower butter, coconut nectar, and pea protein round it out.

I took one look at the bar, and laughed, thinking I'd likely spit it out.  I mean really, it looked awful.

But the aroma was enticing.  I smelt ... fresh cinnamon rolls.

I bit in.  Yup, the texture was as bad as it looked.  A strange dense puck, that had broken in half in the wrapper.  Nothing great going on texture-wise.

The flavor wasn't bad though.  Nice cinnamon and vanilla.  Decent sweetness, not fake tasting.  Really interesting flavor from the sunflower actually, and nothing funky about it.  It really was almost good.

I can't say I want more of these, but, it surprised me, and I wonder if other flavors that are more to my liking could actually be enjoyable.

***.

Oleana, Cambridge

Another business trip.  Another absolutely packed itinerary of mostly work, but also, of course, some group dining.  Because, bonding.  And yup, another set of notes meticulously taken, ambitious plans of writing up my review as soon as I had a free moment, and ... trip over, time elapsed, notes lost.  Sigh.

So here I have yet another mostly only photo review, of a HUGE group dining feast at the highly recommended Oleana, a modern Mediterranean restaurant in Cambridge.

I do remember being a bit put off at the start.  Since we had a large group, a standard set menu was required, but the server never asked about allergies (and I have a severe one, and yup, it was on the menu), nor did they ask about any dietary restrictions (we had vegetarians, a vegan, and one gluten-free, and there were no vegetarian nor vegan main dishes).  I guess we were expected to just deal with it, and eat what we could?

The pacing of the meal never felt right, some courses coming on top of each other, others taking agonizingly long.  Oleana just didn't seem that well organized to handle large groups, which was a surprise, given that they seemed to specialized in family style dining.

Part of our Feast!

Due to our large group size, we had a set menu.  It consisted of 12+ courses, a ridiculous feast.  It was way, way, way too much food, even for our hungry table.

I was a bit heartbroken when I read the menu we'd be having.  I knew that Oleana mostly serves a different style of cuisine than I tend to like, as Mediterranean isn't really my thing (its too ... uh ... healthy? Not enough butter and cheese!), and many ingredients I don't care for, but, the regular menu had some items I was looking forward to nonetheless.  And ... our set menu had none those items, instead, it was a mix of their very classic signature dishes.  

I still tried to keep an open mind, and approach the meal as a forced excuse outside my comfort zone, and, I trusted that people love this restaurant so much, that perhaps I'd finally find a preparation of lamb, feta, olives, carrots, yogurts, beets, tahini, etc that I liked?  I tried it all.  And overall?  Meh.  Just not really my thing.

Menu for the Day.

The set menu was waiting for us on the table.  The 12 dishes were arranged into a grouping of 3 cold meze, another 3 meze (2 hot), 2 entrees, 2 sides, and 2 desserts.  Note that these were not choices, e.g., it wasn't a choice between lamb or fish for the entree, rather, we all received full portions of each item.  It was way, way, way too much food, which everyone commented on before we were even halfway through.

The lineup read:

Family-Style Meze 

• Whipped Feta / Sweet and Hot Peppers.
• Kalamata Olive / Carrots, Za’atar.
• Cacik / Spring Peas, Cucumber, Spinach, Garlic Yogurt, Mint.

• Spinach Falafel / Tahini Sauce, Beet Yogurt, Cress.
• Farm Lettuce / Cucumber, Melon, Sungolds, Shanklish, Lemon Vinaigrette.
• Basturma Dumplings / Yellow Tomato, Fig, Arugula.

Family-Style Entree

• Hake / Spicy Red Pepper Chraimeh Sauce, Broccolini, Phyllo Chip.
• Lamb Borek / Syrian Spiced Lentils, Garlic Scape Pesto, Plum.
• Flattened Potatoes / Lemon, Oregano.
• Dark Leafy Greens with Toum.

Family-Style Dessert

• Baked Alaska / Coconut Ice Cream and Passion Fruit Caramel. 
• Turkish-Style Profiteroles / Brown Butter Crème, Sesame Caramel, Cashew and Halva.

Drinks

We all started with interesting cocktails, before moving on to wine with the main meal.  The cocktails were nice pairings with the mezze in particular.

The Isla. $12.

"Bitter Orange & Herbs, Cocchi Americano, Angostura, Mint."

I remember thinking the cocktail was the best part of the meal.

Meze

Meze is the heart of the menu at Oleana.  From the extensive meze lineup on the regular menu (21 items!), I really wanted to try four of them: the octopus saganaki, the moussaka, the Sultan's delight, and the kohlrabi tian.  There were a few others I was interested in as second choices as well.  

Our selection contained one of my second tier choices (basturma dumplings), but none of the ones I really wanted, and the other 5 were all things I had no interest in.

Complimentary Bread.

All tables start with complimentary bread, a spiced, spongy, focaccia like bread.

My companions immediately regretted filling up on any of this, given how much was to come.

Oil.

The bread came with a decent quality olive oil for dipping.

Cacik / Spring Peas, Cucumber, Spinach, Garlic Yogurt, Mint.

Kalamata Olive / Carrots, Za’atar.

Whipped Feta / Sweet and Hot Peppers.

Spinach Falafel / Tahini Sauce, Beet Yogurt, Cress.

Farm Lettuce / Cucumber, Melon, Sungolds, Shanklish, Lemon Vinaigrette.

Basturma Dumplings / Yellow Tomato, Fig, Arugula.

Entrees

Entrees fared a bit better, we were given two.  The regular menu has 6 options, I was interested in either of the fish preparations, so I was happy to see one of them.  Our other forced selection was the one I really didn't want (lamb).  Vegetarians and vegans had no main dish on the set menu, and mostly just filled up on mezze.

Lamb Borek / Syrian Spiced Lentils, Garlic Scape Pesto, Plum.

Hake / Spicy Red Pepper Chraimeh Sauce, Broccolini, Phyllo Chip.

Sides

The regular menu has only 2 side dishes, and we received them both.  These I could care less about, neither interesting in any way.

Dark Leafy Greens with Toum.

I didn't taste the garlic in the toum, the only thing I thought might be interesting here.

 Flattened Potatoes / Lemon, Oregano.

Dessert

And finally, dessert.  My favorite course. 

The menu has 6 options, one of which I really, really wanted to try (palace bread), and a few others that sounded interesting (trilece with sorrece grainte and pistachio cream, a sun butter ice cream sundae), plus a signature baked alaska and the least interesting sounding option, profiteroles.  Of course, the ones I wanted were not selected for us.

 Turkish-Style Profiteroles / Brown Butter Crème, Sesame Caramel, Cashew and Halva.

Baked Alaska / Coconut Ice Cream and Passion Fruit Caramel.

Galleries Business Class Lounge, Terminal 5 Heathrow.

Update Reviews 2015-2016 Visits

Update Review, June 2016 Visit

During past visits to Heathrow, I've always cruised through the Galleries Business Class lounge, mostly out of curiosity.  On my first visit, I was with Emil, and had access to the Concorde Room, and on subsequent visits I had Gold status, so I was able to use the First Class lounge.  I haven't ever loved those lounges, but, they do both offer made to order food, so I've had little reason to spend any time in the buffet-only, crowded, noisy business lounge (except for when they used to have an ice cream freezer!)

However, I lost my Gold status, and on my recent visits, I had no choice.  Business lounge it was.  It was exactly as I remembered.  Crowded.  Noisy.  Not great.  As I passed by the F lounge, I had great envy, but, I just don't fly enough to earn Gold status myself.

On our way to Munich, we arrived around 2:30pm, and the lunch buffet was winding down.  I managed to grab some potato salad (er, mayo with some chunks of potato in it), some coleslaw (ok), and some actually fairly tasty pasta in a cream sauce with leeks.  I mentally queued up trying the baked beans and chili.  I didn't quite realize however that it was all going to vanish a few minutes later, so I only took a little, since we had just gotten off our flight and had breakfast after all.

When I returned around 3:15pm, the buffet was gone.  Doh.  In its place was finger sandwiches.  Double doh.  Turns out, at 3pm, the service moves from lunch to tea time.  On the plus side, tea time also means ... desserts!  During lunch, now that there is no ice cream freezer, the only sweets are the hard cookies near the coffee station, which is just absurd to me.  Where is the "real" dessert???!

I obviously needed to have both of the options available, even though I wasn't remotely hungry, and my body had no idea what time it was.

New York Sour Cherry Cake.

I started with the streusel topped tart cherry cake.  

The cake layer itself was dry and flavorless, but the cherries were juicy, tart, and plentiful, and the streusel topping generous.  It went very well with my coffee, as long as I mostly ignored the cake, and turned it into fruit crisp instead (of course, it really would have been excellent with some whipped cream or ice team!)  Perfectly edible.

***.

Flapjacks.

Next, the flapjack.  

I realize that I shouldn't really like flapjacks.  I don't really like cookies, and I don't really like granola bars, and flapjacks are sorta a hybrid of both.  Except, well, loaded with more butter and sugar.

This was a plain flapjack, no spicing, no mix-ins.  It was hard and crispy.  Again, you'd think I'd dislike it.  But, it was soooo sweet and buttery that I liked it.  Again, would be great with whipped cream to dunk it in.

***.

Both of the dessert items weren't amazing, don't get me wrong, but I was happy enough with both of them.

Snack Mix!

Near the self-service bars, there are also jars of snack mixes.  One is just broad beans (meh), the other dried fruit (meh), but the final called out to me, even though, at this point, I was stuffed (and, I think it was still only like 6am in my world).  I love snack mixes, and this one had a fun assortment of large crunchy corn nuts, smaller corn nuts, wasabi peas, and some kind of spicy rice crackers.  It was crunchy, well seasoned, and, I easily could have gorged on it all afternoon.

So, overall, the food was better than I expected.  The pasta, the snack mix, and the desserts were all sufficient, although, I suspect that you can get better food elsewhere in the terminal

Salad Bar.

On our way back to San Francisco, we took an afternoon flight, departing at 2:05pm, so we arrived in the lounge right at lunch time.  This time, I was able to try all the lunch food.

The salad bar had basic greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers, plus a few salad dressings and shredded cheese.  I didn't try any of that.

I did try the coleslaw and potato salad again, even though it was clear from just looking at them that they were exactly the same as on all my previous visits, and, I never liked them, just, too overdressed.

This time I also decided to try the other salad, a mix of cubed cooked beets, some other stuff, and pumpkin seeds.  It too was over dressed in a vinaigrette, and I don't actually really like beets, but, I wanted something with vegetables in it, and the acidity here did help cut the creamy dressings from the slaw and potato salad.

Still, I wouldn't recommend any of the salad offerings.

Hot Foods Buffet.

The hot foods bar was also exactly as on all my previous visits.

Although I don't like chicken, I decided to try the chicken curry, just to try the sauce, when a fresh batch was brought out when I was standing there.  It was mostly sauce anyway.  The flavor wasn't great, it wasn't creamy, it wasn't spicy.  Meh.

I also decided to try the beef chili, with crumbled ground beef and a few token beans.  It also didn't have much flavor going on, and I added cheese from the salad bar to make it sorta interesting, but, still, not much going on here.

Speaking of beans, there were also baked beans.  I tried them, and, again, just not very flavorful.

I skipped the baked potatoes, as, really, who wants a baked potato with no toppings?  I guess you could have taken some butter from the roll station, or some chili to dump on top?  I also skipped the rice.

The item I had my eye on of course was the pasta.  I had a tiny bite two weeks prior when flying to Munich, and really liked it.  However, when I arrived, both bays had very little left, and what was there was totally dried out and unappealing looking.  What happened to my creamy pasta??!

So, I waited around until a fresh batch was brought out, and, yup, it was totally different.  Super creamy, cheesy.  The pasta itself was ok, more cooked than I'd like, not al dente, but not total mush.  The sauce was decent.  Overall, decent.  The best of the options, but, really, nothing here was very good.  Did I mention I had F lounge envy?  Next time, I'd likely just go purchase food out in the terminal, I think the options out there are likely tastier.

September 2015 Visit: Breakfast

My stay this time was mostly in the First Class lounge (review coming soon!), but since there was still a little time left in breakfast service, I decided to cruise through the Business Lounge, just to compare, and mostly to see if they still had better pastries.

Business Class Lounge: Warm Baked Goods.

And … they did!  Yes, it was the same croissants, chocolate croissants, and raisin swirls (although much more abundant) as the First Class lounge, but here, they are kept under a heat lamp.  Why does business class get warm pastries, and first doesn’t?  This really makes no sense to me.

I decided to try the chocolate croissant at this point, because how do you resist a warm chocolate croissant?  It was better than the raisin swirl, mostly because it was warm, but it wasn’t anything special.  Not a flaky, layered croissant, not buttery, not fresh.  Mostly greasy.  But the warm chocolate was nice.

I also cruised around just to compare a bit.  They had the same fruit and yogurt, the same porridge, and a smaller selection of cereals (no granola nor muesli), compared to the First Class lounge.  So, come for warm pastries if you want, but, nothing else.

Original Review 2014

After venturing through the Galleries First lounge, I realized I still had time to do a little more lounge hoping, so I decided to downgrade further to check out the Business class lounge, located right above the Galleries First Class Lounge and the Concorde Room.  I was only able to visit during breakfast hours however, as my lunchtime trip was spent dining in the formal dining area of the Concorde room.

Just like when I entered the Galleries First lounge, I presented my boarding pass, was smiled at, and was reminded that I could use the Concorde room.  I felt in no way that they didn’t want me to use the other lounges, it really seemed like they genuinely wanted to make sure I was aware that I had other options.  I said that I just wanted to see the room, and was again encouraged to come and go as much as I liked.

It was fascinating to compare the two Galleries lounges.  While the Concorde Room and the Galleries First are clearly just totally different models of lounge, the Business lounge is really just a slimmed down version of the First lounge.  Except, it was absolutely packed, even though the lounge is massive, occupying the same floorspace of both the other lounges combined.

I’m sure the main terminal is more chaotic than this lounge, but it felt like night and day compared to the First lounges.  The space was huge, yet almost every seat was filled.  It was loud.  People were sprawled out everywhere.  This was not a relaxing, peaceful environment.

As a First Class customer, there is absolutely no reason to visit this lounge.  (Ok, not exactly true, there is one reason.  And I’ll get to that soon.  But spoiler: it involves ice cream!)

Seating area.

The seating was not quite as nice as the Galleries First lounge, in terms of comfort or aesthetics.

Cereal Station.

I laughed when I saw the cereal station.  It had exactly the same cereals as the First lounge, except, lacking the one choice that I enjoyed: the granola.

Warm Baked Goods.

And then I cried when I saw the baked goods.  The exact same offerings as the First lounge, minus the brioche buns, but here, they were kept under a heat lamp.  First class customers don’t get warm baked goods, and business class do?  Not fair.

Fruit, Yogurt.

The fruit and yogurt station was about the same in the two lounges, with a fruit yogurt and a plain greek yogurt.  I tried both, and they were fine, but not remarkable.

You might wonder why I’d even try yogurt, but, I've really enjoyed yogurt on a few occasions in Europe, as their full fat yogurt is just so much better than what we have in the US, and I was hoping for something like that.  Alas, no.

Porridge, Fruit.

There were also two large vats of porridge, with minimal toppings, only cinnamon and raisins.

I felt compelled to try it.  I honestly have no idea why.  I think it just sounded really comforting to me.  And, indeed it was.  Probably my favorite of any of the breakfast items I had, in any of the lounges.  It was warm, it was creamy, and the oats were stone ground, rather than large flakes.  I loaded it up with dried fruit and cinnamon, and really quite enjoyed it.  I’m glad I tried it.

Next to the porridge was whole fruit, only apples and bananas.  In First, they also had oranges.  Again, just a reduced offering.

Bar, bar snacks.

The business lounge also had the same trio of snack mixes, along with a greatly reduced bar offering.  Still quite good, but lacking many of the better options of course.

Ice Cream Freezer.

At this point, you might still be wondering why I said there was one reason to visit this lounge.  Sure, the warm baked goods are better than the cold ones, but the baked goods weren’t very good to begin with, so that isn’t it.

The reason is: they have an ice cream freezer.  I quite enjoy ice cream, even at breakfast.

I also loved that when I walked into the lounge, there were actually signs pointing my way to it.  I'm clearly not alone in visiting the lounge for one reason.

The freezer was stocked with local Kelly's of Cornwall Cornish Ice Cream.  Sadly, they only had vanilla and chocolate, which initially deterred me.  The most boring flavors ever, particularly without any toppings.  Plus, it wasn’t even 10am, I’d been sampling my way through the lounges, I wasn't exactly hungry.  It was totally unreasonable to eat ice cream at this hour, right?  I almost walked away.

Makings for an affogato.

In fact, I did walk away.  I took exactly two steps, and found myself beside a coffee station.  A lightbulb went off in my head.  Vanilla ice cream.  Coffee.  Affogato.  YES.

I felt a bit ridiculous, but grabbed my little tub of ice cream, had the machine make me a coffee, and gleefully took a seat along the window looking down into the terminal.  Below me, people were scurrying about, stressed, dealing with security, and here I was, about to enjoy an affogato.  I was clearly doing it right.

The ice cream was creamy, very rich, yet super fluffy.  I actually think I would have even liked it plain, which is really saying something for vanilla ice cream.  But with my coffee, it was totally perfect.  I was so proud of myself.

Sure, I could be in the Concorde room, having eggs benedict made to order, like Emil.  Emil thought I was ridiculous for even going to the Business lounge, and I admit there really was no reason to go there.  Except, ice cream.  To be fair, I probably could have ordered it in the Concorde room, even if it wasn’t on a menu anywhere.  In retrospect, this was probably the same "Cornish ice cream" we had served with our desserts on our lunchtime visit to Concorde room.

But I was quite pleased with my discovery, I enjoyed it more than anything else in any of the lounges, and I’d totally do it again.

UpMarket @ Walgreens

What is the first thing you see when you enter the flagship Walgreens in San Francisco?  

It might be the baristas making chai lattes.  Or the folks freshly squeezing fruit and veggies for juices and smoothies.  Or maybe you notice the sushi, the bread from Acme bread, or the baked goods from Cafe Madeline. 

Latte, sample size.

To promote the opening, they had a bus driving around offering up samples of their juices, smoothies, froyo, and coffee drinks.  The latte wasn't bad, but Walgreens is definitely not where I'd ever go for a latte.  The coffee was decent, not burnt tasting or anything, but fairly unremarkable.  The froth was nicely done.

But I wasn't all that interested in the coffee.  I was there to check out something else.  The FROYO!  Yes, self-serve froyo bar with rotating flavors and tons of toppings.

Yes, at Walgreens.

Self-serve froyo.

The froyo station has 6 rotating flavors, including classic chocolate and vanilla, low-fat and non-fat options, and a sorbet.  I've tried several, but sadly, wasn't very impressed.

• Birthday Cake: Just sweet, no real flavor, not very creamy, meh.
• Cookies N Cream: Again just sweet, no real flavor, not very creamy, meh.
• Strawberry Sensation: Not the best strawberry flavor, a bit fake and medicinal tasting, not creamy.
• Tahitian Vanilla: Not much vanilla flavor, but creamy and great swirled with chocolate.  A regular choice for me, but sometimes it comes out icy.
• Triple Chocolate: Decent chocolate flavor, nice swirled with vanilla.  Pretty creamy. Another regular pick for me, but, like the vanilla, is sometimes icy.
• Tropical Sorbet: Icy, a bit tart, not bad, but clearly sorbet. 

And of course toppings.

The toppings bar is not huge, but sufficient.  

Dry toppings, fresh fruits, all fairly standard offerings.