Nature Valley Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares

Last week, I reviewed Nature Valley's granola bar product line, including both chewy and crunchy granola bars, protein bars, and granola thins.  None were real winners.

So why did I try more products from Nature Valley?  Because I discovered their soft baked oatmeal squares.  I loved the sound of the soft baked oatmeal squares, basically like oatmeal cookies in a slightly different form factor, with a name that makes it seem totally acceptable for breakfast.  Cookies for breakfast?  Yes!  They even have a drizzle on top.  Come on, how could you not want to try them?

But, I still went in with fairly low expectations since I don't tend to really like bar-type snacks, which may be surprising given how many reviews of them I do.  Luckily for me, these are certainly not like granola bars, or sports bars.  They are their own thing.

The soft-baked squares are available in 4 varieties: banana bread and dark chocolate, cinnamon brown sugar, blueberry, and peanut butter.

And ... they are good!  Just as advertised, they are very soft.  I was most shocked by how much flavor each variety I tried had.  The heartiness of a nice bowl of oatmeal is there, just in a more convenient form.  While sweet, the sugar content isn't that high, making them totally reasonable choices for a quick grab and go breakfast.  (For real, I'm not just making up excuses for cookies for breakfast!)  If I need a breakfast on the run again, I'd certainly consider these.

Nature Valley also makes regular oatmeal in two forms: one where you add water to a traditional vessel and then top it was extra granola, and "Bistro Cups" that go with a Keurig.  I'm not exactly sure what it is you brew in the Keurig exactly, but this sounds potentially fascinating.  They aren't really just marketing this to have you warm the water in your Keurig, right?

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Square.

The peanut butter version is made from whole grain oats and peanut butter flavored chips with a peanut butter flavored drizzle on top.  Mmm, drizzle.

The peanut butter flavor was incredibly strong.  They weren't messing around here.  I really appreciated that.  The bar itself tasted like peanut butter, but it was the extra drizzle that pushed it over the top.  I let mine get a bit warm in the sun, and the drizzle turned sorta into a glaze.  You could almost say it was like an adult version of a toaster strudel :)

My favorite of the varieties I tried.

Cinnamon Brown Sugar.

I also tried the other variety, cinnamon brown sugar.  This one is made with the same oat base, with brown sugar and cinnamon mixed in, and topped with a molasses drizzle.

This one was also pretty good.  Again, nice and soft.  And very flavorful, just in a different way.

It tasted like a traditional bowl of oatmeal.  Or at least, how I always have my oatmeal, as I always add both brown sugar and cinnamon.   Those flavors came through loud and clear.  The molasses drizzle added a little extra touch of sweetness, and precisely mirrored the drizzle of maple syrup that I always put on top of my oatmeal.  Seriously, if you could transform my oatmeal into a bar, this would be it (although, I'd probably have some chopped up nuts and raisins too).

I preferred the peanut butter version, but I wouldn't say no to eating another one of these.

Update:  I got another.  The cinnamon flavor was good again, and I liked the sweetness from the brown sugar.  So, flavor-wise, it was a winner.  But it wasn't really "soft" this time.  Sure, it was softer than a standard granola bar, but it was very dry and crumbly.  I wanted it to be more like a muffin, or more like the soft-baked Belvita.  I did like the heartiness from the oats.

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Taro Milk Tea from Cocoa Cafe

Yesterday, I reviewed my mediocre horchata from Toma, and mentioned that sometimes I get a bit obsessed with certain items of food, or particular drinks.  I start craving them all the time, and need to try as many different versions of the item as possible.  Horchata has been a recent obsession, but taro milk tea, has been my other, for much longer.  If I see it on a menu, I am incapable of resisting.  If the weather gets remotely nice out, I start craving taro milk tea, even more than ice cream.

So when the weather recently got nice, I started seeking out new sources of taro milk tea.  Sure, I've tried a number of different options in the city, but I feel silly having Quickly as my favorite thus far, so I wanted to try to find a more respectable option.  Cocoa Cafe is a recent addition to the city, so I decided to check it out.

I ordered through eat24, via the mobile Paypal app, when I was two blocks away.  My drink was just being finished off right as I walked in the door.  Perfect timing.  Ordering through the app was easy, as was the pickup.  Technology wins at this one.

The shop is tiny, with a single table and a few stools along a bar in the window.  Along with assorted milk teas/slushies/smoothies, they also sell sandwiches during the day, and bagels in the morning.  They also have an impressive line up of packaged beverages (including tons from VitaSoy) and a slew of different chips, which, I guess makes sense given that they are largely a sandwich shop.

But, I had eyes for only one thing: the taro milk tea, with tapioca of course!

Taro Milk Tea with Tapioca. $3.50.

Milk teas were available in a host of flavors, but of course, I went for the taro, always my favorite.  One size only, $3, but you could add tapioca or jellies for an additional $0.50, which of course I did. I'm pretty predictable with my milk tea order, and add tapioca every time (although I did veer off and order the slush at Quickly once, and added taro pudding instead of tapioca another time at Quickly).

The tapioca were large and black, really well executed, not too firm, not too soft, and they didn't clump up at all.  Much better than the far too soft ones from Little Garden.  Perhaps the best tapioca I've encountered so far.  The amount also seemed just right, enough to get one in most sips, but not overwhelming.  Again, well done!

The milk tea itself was sweet, but not too sweet.  Ojan took one sip and said it was too sweet, but I enjoyed it.  It was creamy, but not too creamy.  Much better in both of these elements than the one from Quickly that was both too creamy and too sweet, although every other time I've gotten it from Quickly, it has been perfect.  However, the taro flavor just wasn't there.  Yes, it was a lovely shade of purple, but I didn't taste taro.  Clearly made with flavored powder, not real taro like the one from Miss Saigon.   And given how my stomach felt after, clearly authentic, made with non dairy substitute.  Whoops.

It wasn't served in a classic bubble tea cup with the plastic wrap over the top, but rather with a regular lid, but it of course did come with a large straw to suck up my boba.

Price was higher than Quickly, but about on par from any restaurant, perhaps a tiny bit high for the location and casual nature of the shop.

Overall, decently done, and I'd get another if I were in the area, and I'd probably try out some of their other add-in options too.

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Horchata from Toma

I know I said after my last visit that I wouldn't return to Toma.  But ... I've been on a horchata kick lately.  Sometimes, I get really into a particular item of food, or drink in this case, and must try it in as many places as possible.  My other recent similar obsession has been with bubble tea.  I think I get really into refreshing drinks once the weather warms up!

So I went back to Toma, and this time, I skipped the food entirely.  The horchata was better than the tacos, the chips, and the salsa.

Horchata.  $3.26.

This was ... ok.  I actually drank it all.  But it wasn't great.

A bit watery and thin, not much spicing.  I question if it actually had cinnamon in it.  As I walked, I kept passing by coffee shops, and I wanted to sneak in and add cinnamon.  But it did at least taste like rice, and was slightly sweet.  Far better than the Horchata from Nick's.

The $3.26 price was high for a drink like this, compared to the $2 version at Nick's.  I would not get again, and honestly, I won't go back to Toma, for real this time.

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Chuao Chocolatier

I know I've had chocolate from Chuao before.  But, I absolutely can't find my tasting notes anywhere.  So sadly, I have just one review here, but it is a fun one.

Chuao describes themselves as "pioneering 'fusion chocolate' through a commitment to creating unusual, unexpected and delicious flavors using their secret blend of premium chocolate and fresh natural ingredients."

They make bon bons, chocolate bars, and mini-bars, in really intriguing varieties.  They nailed the "unusual" and "unexpected"bit of their tagline.  Sure, they do make ones with fairly standard fillings like nuts, caramels, or the ever trendy bacon.  But they get far more interesting than that.  For example, the crunch in the "Salted Chocolate Crunch Bon Bon" comes from toasted panko breadcrumbs, and the filling is an olive oil ganache.  It is finished with a sprinkle of sea salt.  To spice things up, the "Firecracker Truffle" doesn't just have a chipotle caramel fudge filling, it also has popping candy.  There is another one with goat cheese, pears, and a black peppercorn buttercream.  The one I really want to try is the "Pop corn pop bar", with puffed whole grains, toasted corn chips, and popping candy.  How ridiculous does that sound?

Booze also seems to be an theme, providing the inspiration for flavors like one with Napa Valley Cabernet, a margarita flavor complete with tequila, or a mojito.   They also offer chocolate pairing suggestions, based on your beverage of choice: red wine, white white, sparkling, or even whisky.

The product line is rounded out by drinking chocolates, chocolate barks, and chocolate covered orange or ginger slices, or, if you are in the San Diego area, they also operate a couple cafes with gelato and pastries too.

The name comes from Chuao, the chocolate producing region in Venezuela, where the founders are from, but the company is actually located in Southern California, hence the cafes there.

As I said, I know I've tried their chocolate in the past, and found it memorable, but I can't find the notes from other tastings.  I'll gladly try it again another time though!

Potato Chip Choco Pod.

In addition to full size chocolate bars, Chuao also makes mini-bars, dubbed choco pods.  These are really the perfect size.  Bigger than a bite, very satisfying, but not guilt inducing.

The potato chip bar is described by "crisp kettle cooked potato chips and a hint of sea salt, mix and mingle in milk chocolate."

I somewhat expected this to be a chocolate covered potato chip.  I'm not sure why, I guess due to the shape when I felt it inside the wrapper?  So I was surprised when I bit in to find a chocolate bar with little bits of potato chip inside instead.  Once I knew what to expect, I continued on in my tasting.

The milk chocolate was smooth and creamy, high quality.  The chip bits provided a nice crunch.  It reminded me of the Krackle bars I used to love when I was younger.  But I'm not sure I would have known it was potato chip.  The best part was the finish, very salty.  In exactly the same way that you don't want to put down a bag of potato chips, you don't want to put this down.  It is a good thing it came in choco pod size, not a full bar :)

They nailed the creamy quality milk chocolate base, and satisfying crunch, and the salt level in this one.  I enjoyed it, and I'd love to try more of their varieties.

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FIT CRUNCH™ Baked Bars

For the past few weeks, I've been reviewing snack bars, in my never ending quest to find ones I like.  I've tried all sorts of granola bars, including standard Quaker brand or fancy Awesome Bars.  I've tried nut based bars, like last week's KIND bars.  And occasionally, I even try protein, or nutrition focused bars.  Those are usually even worse than the others.  The offerings from LUNA all sound amazing, but I really do not like the flavors or textures.  Probars are the best I've been able to find in this category so far.

This week, I tried the FIT CRUNCH™ Baked Bars, described as, "The Ultimate Whey Protein Isolate Gourmet Bar".  Yes, for real.  I'm not sure how big of a market "Whey Protein Isolate Gourmet Bars" is, but these are apparently the ultimate.  I almost really laughed out loud when I read their marketing.

I laughed inside even more when I saw the box featured Chef Robert Irvine predominantly on front, bulging muscles fully flexed.  You'll recognize him from several programs on Food Network.

Protein bars are usually the biggest offenders in the snack bar market, with awful fake tastes from the substances used to keep the sugar content down, strange textures from whatever boosts up their protein levels, and quite often, they leave my stomach feeling queasy.  You might ask why I even keep trying these things, when I tend to actually hate them, but ... if I could find one I like, it is really useful to have an easy high protein snack in your purse!

So, back to our Ultimate Whey Protein Isolate Gourmet bars.  What exactly are they?  The bars have 6 layers, featuring a soft cookie layer, a creamy layer, and a crunchy layer.  They are baked, which they say makes them more like homemade cookies rather than commercial bars, even though they have long shelf lives.  They use whey protein isolate to provide 16g of protein per snack size bar, and even though they are chocolate coated, they have only 3g of sugar.  This all sounds great, but many bars boost fantastic nutritional stats and taste awful.  I don't care if it is good for me, if I don't want to actually eat it  This is where Robert Irvine comes in, providing the tasty aspect.  

Or, so they claim.  To say I was skeptical is an understatement.  How many actually tasty protein bars have you had?

The bars come in two sizes, snack size or meal size.  The meal size are about twice the size of the snack size, providing 30g of protein compared to the 16g of the snack size.  Unlike most brands with a large array of flavors, they make only two: peanut butter or cookies and cream.

Here comes your spoiler: the one I tried was unexpectedly delicious.  Not only was it better than any other protein bar I've tried, I actually felt like I was being treated to a candy bar.  The textures were great (more on that below), the flavor wasn't bad, and I was honestly shocked.  I only tried one of the two varieties, but if I encounter the other, I'll certainly try it out.  And I'd gladly eat another of these, and I'd enjoy it more than a Snickers bar.

Peanut Butter Whey Protein Fit Crunch Bar.

My skepticism continued as I opened my bar.  The wrapper was twice as long as the bar.  I felt a bit cheated, but this was the smaller snack size, and it was big enough.

Described as "a vanilla cookie core layered with peanut butter, fresh peanuts, high protein chocolate, chocolate crisps and top-layered with a creamy chocolate and peanut butter drizzle."

Just as described, the bar was covered in milk chocolate, a thin layer, and drizzled with the peanut butter drizzle.  I couldn't really taste the drizzle, but it made it pretty.

Peanut Butter Whey Protein Fit Crunch Bar: Inside.

I broke the bar in half to reveal the contents.  I wanted to find all 6 layers!  I think they count the peanut butter drizzle and the chocolate each as a layer.

The base was what they consider the vanilla cookie core, I'm assuming it is where all the whey protein was.  I expected it to be chalky and gross like all other protein bars, but instead, it was a bit chewy, indeed soft, and not gross.  I wouldn't call it a fresh baked cookie, but, it worked.

On top of that was a similarly thick layer of peanut butter cream.  It was creamy, tasted like, well, peanut butter, and complimented the chewier cookie layer.

On top of that was chunks of peanuts, which added a bit of crunch, and more peanut flavor.

The final layer, right under the chocolate, was a thin layer of chocolate crunchies, which provided even more crunch.

This bar got a lot right.  First, chocolate and peanut butter, clearly a delicious combination.  But with so many of these bars, they taste fake, or the protein compounds mask the other flavors.  That didn't happen here.  You could really taste the peanut butter in particular.  They say it was "made with the PB connoisseur in mind", and, it shows.

The textures were also right, another area where protein bars usually fall down.  You had soft, chewy cookie, creamy peanut butter, and crunchy nuts and crispies.

It really was enjoyable, honestly, just like a candy bar.  But one you don't need to feel remotely guilty about eating.  A winner.

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Beer Battered Onion Rings from Phat Philly

Last time I reviewed Phat Philly, it was for their delicious cheddar beer fries.  You'd think that this time, I'd actually review their signature item, the cheesesteak?  But, you'd be wrong.  I went back, but this time, to try their other fried side dish: onion rings!

I'm really not sure why, but I've been craving onion rings.  And since I was impressed with their fries, I decided to give the rings a chance.

Since I've reviewed Phat Philly before, I won't go into the details much, except to again call out the very friendly staff.  The menu listed the onion rings as coming with either ranch or bbq sauce, and I was unsure of which I wanted, and didn't specify either when I ordered.  The woman taking my order said, "with ranch?" And I replied, "I'm not sure!  Is that the one you'd recommend?"  She smiled, and just said she'd give me both.  Yay!  No decision required.

I also took advantage of the beautiful sunny day and choose to sit at one of their cute picnic tables on the sidewalk, rather than inside.  I was a bit wary of this in the past, as the location is right on 24th between Mission and Valencia, not exactly sidewalk territory that you want to hang out on.  But it was so sunny!  My suspicions about it being a less-than-stellar choice were confirmed within seconds of sitting down.  I was quickly joined by a woman who kept calling me "sister", and started asking me for all sorts of things.

Once my food arrived, I shared a few rings with her, and she went on her way.  But, just something to keep in mind if you want to enjoy the outside seating at Phat Philly.

Beer Battered Onion Rings, Ranch, BBQ.  $4.50.

The onion rings, just like my fries on my first visit, were made to order.  I heard the cook immediate drop them into the fryer after I ordered, and appreciated the sound of the sizzling oil.  I was really looking forward to these!

The rings were obviously fresh.  The breading wasn't too thick, it was oily, but not in a gross way.  It was very crispy.  I didn't taste the beer in the batter, which I didn't mind, as I don't actually like beer.  The rings came in a variety of diameters, although were uniform in their width.  I like having contrasting thin and think ones, since the thick ones can have a much stronger onion flavor, while the thin ones are usually crispier.  But anyway.

The BBQ sauce was thin style, pretty standard, and just not remarkable.  It wasn't bad, but it didn't really add much to the rings.

The ranch on the other hand was clearly the winning choice.  It had a bit of tang, lots of herbs.  Better than your average ranch.  Cooling and creamy.  Yes, it is a little gross to dip deep fried oil soaked things into ranch but ... come on, sometimes, you gotta live it up.  And live it up I did.

Near the end, I started combining the bbq and the ranch, and that was even better, a bit zesty.  I could imagine adding any of their slew of hot sauces to the ranch to amp it up as well.  I'm glad I was able to sample both sauces, as I was leaning towards BBQ if I had to pick just one.

Unlike the fries, the rings come in only one size, $4.50 for a basket.  This was a fine price, and a generous serving.  Probably more appropriate to share with someone with a cheesesteak, or, if you are like me and just craving some fried food, a perfectly acceptable large-ish snack alone.

I enjoyed my onion rings, but I wouldn't call them the sort of thing you have to seek out.  If you are in the mood for rings, by all means, get them, but I'd pick the cheddar beer fries over the rings.

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First Class Dining Aboard American Airlines

I'm going backwards just a bit in time here, back to November, when I had to fly from Boston to San Francisco, after a recruiting trip.  I managed to actually find a decently priced flight on American Airlines, First Class, if I was willing to stop in Dallas on the way.  I normally always just fly direct on JetBlue or Virgin America, economy class, but the flight times weren't great, and I wanted to experiment with the tradeoff of a layover.

My flight was broken into two segments, Boston to Dallas, then Dallas to San Francisco.  My second flight did get slightly delayed, but otherwise, I was happy with my choice.  My seats were much larger than I would have had in economy class on the other airlines obviously, and although the connection did increase the total travel time, the onboard experience was so nice that I didn't mind.  I had wifi on both segments, and the flight attendants took great care of me.  Overall, quite pleasant!

Since this blog is about food, rather than in-flight services however, I'll focus on that instead :)  The first flight was lunch service, which was fairly limited: a choice of a cold salad or a single hot entree, and cookies for dessert.  And the food on that flight was really mediocre.  But the next flight was a full dinner service: appetizer, choice of hot entrees (which I could reserve online before the flight), side salad, hot rolls, and ice cream!

It was certainly the best dinner I've had on a domestic flight, and even better than some of the business class meals I've had internationally.  It put Virgin America's first class dinner service to shame.

BOS-DFW: Lunch Service

Warmish Mixed Nuts.

I remember being really impressed the first time I flew business or first class on American.  They served warm nuts!  This was incredible novel to me.  However, on both legs of my trip this time around, the nuts were barely lukewarm.  I was in the very front on the first leg, and the back on the second, and it didn't seem to make a difference.  Disappointing.

The nut mix consisted of mostly almonds and cashews.  My first batch also had one pistachio, my second had two.  My second batch also had two broken chunks of pecans.  Clearly, they know the cost of different nuts.  The nuts were lightly salted, but otherwise, completely flavorless and unremarkable.  I guess the novelty of nuts other than packaged peanuts has worn off.

Lunch: Buffalo Chicken Salad.

My choice of entrees was incredibly disappointing.  Literally, chicken or ... chicken.  Sigh.  My options were a hot entree of chicken with mashed potatoes and corn or a buffalo chicken salad.  I figured at least with the salad there would be something for me to eat other than the chicken.  If you read my blog, you know that I quite literally never like chicken.  Well, unless it is chicken liver :)

The salad was described as "fresh greens with Buffalo chicken, blue cheese, carrots, celery, cucumbers and ranch dressing".  It also came with a roll and a pat of butter on the side.

The roll was better than I expected, a swirl rye roll, with plentiful caraway seeds.  Not a nice fresh roll or anything, but served warm, and actually had some flavor.  The butter was just butter.

The salad on the other hand was pretty bad.  The "fresh greens" did consist of a good mix of assorted greens, including baby spinach, romaine, even a few pieces of frisee.  But they were not remotely fresh and crisp, but rather limp and turning brown around the edges.  Even bagged salad is better than this.

As for the rest of the vegetables, the carrots were standard carrot shreds, flavorless, but a bit crispy at least.  The celery was small chunks, old looking, turning white around the edges.  Like the lettuce, clearly not fresh.  Really not good at all.  The blue cheese came in a few crumbles throughout, again, pretty flavorless.  How do they make blue cheese flavorless?

The ranch dressing was basic ranch.  Actually not offensive, served on the side.

As for the chicken ... it was coated in a fairly decent buffalo sauce.  It had some kick.

I managed to salvage a meal from the wimpy lettuce, with some spicy buffalo sauce scraped off the chicken, with ranch and carrots, but I wasn't very happy.  It made me again think about how absolutely amazing Virgin America's salads, like the tuna niçoise or arugula and roasted pear, have been, and those are just in Main Cabin!  Each time I've had them, I've been very impressed with the freshness and quality.

The other chicken option was a far more substantial meal - they had the same roll we did, but then a side salad, a full piece of chicken, and sides of potatoes and corn.  Not that I wanted that dish, but it seemed like the better "value", if you were going for that kind of thing.

Decaf Coffee: Instant.

After my meal, I wanted a coffee.  When I ordered it decaf, the server actually warned me that it was a powder.  Nescafé.  I still tried it.

It was fairly awful, but better than the instant Taster's Choice provided on Virgin America.  I will never take fresh brewed, even mediocre, decaf for granted again!

I appreciated it paired with my dessert, but otherwise, yeah, not good.  It made me desperately wish that I'd filled my travel mug with Dunkin' Donuts while still inside the airport.  Self-protip for next time!

White Chocolate Chip Cookie.

The first time I flew first class on American Airlines, I couldn't believe that they served warm cookies.  My mind was blown.  Even more amazing than warm nuts!  Obviously, cookies are always better when warm, but the real selling point was the aroma of the freshly baked cookies drifting through the cabin.  OMG.  So memorable.

I was thus of course delighted when I started to smell the cookies baking on this flight.  I knew good things were coming.

We had the choice of standard chocolate chip or white chocolate chip.  I decided to go for the white chocolate, as there was only one chocolate chip left, and it was clear the woman next to me really wanted it.

It was a good enough cookie.  Sweet and buttery.  A bit plain, since just white chocolate chips aren't that interesting.  But, it was soft and warm and fresh.  Are they the best cookies out there?  Of course not.  But they are hot!  They are soft!  I was happy.

DFW-SFO: Dinner Service

Shrimp cocktail, side salad, wheat roll, butternut squash gnocchi with sage cream sauce.

My next flight featured dinner service, rather than lunch.

The lunch meals seemed pretty wimpy to me, so I was happy to see that dinner was a much more substantial offering.  It was served all at once, but included an appetizer, salad, roll, and entree (well, and dessert, but that came later ...).

The appetizer was a simple shrimp cocktail, consisting of 4 shrimp, along with cocktail sauce and a wedge of lemon.  The shrimp weren't great, fairly limp, but they weren't rubbery, and they were cleaned properly.  The lemon wedge was very juicy, easy to squeeze over my shrimp.  The cocktail sauce fairly standard, I'd love it to have a bit more kick from some horseradish, but it wasn't bad.  Overall, this was fairly lackluster, but not bad exactly.

The side salad was strange.  It consisted of romaine lettuce and ... rice.  I get that the rice was there for some crunch perhaps, but I really didn't care for it at all.  The lettuce was about as unremarkable as in my lunch salad, although this time it was only romaine.  But, the real issue with the salad was the dressing, an italian vinaigrette, poured on my the flight attendant.  And by poured on, I really mean poured on.  She way, way, way over dressed this.  I couldn't really eat it.  I preferred the lunch option, as it had the dressing on the side at least.

For rolls, we had a choice of white or whole wheat topped with oatmeal.  I went for whole wheat. Again, like lunch, they were served warm, and really weren't bad.  Not good fresh rolls, but not bad.  I didn't really want it on its own, but dunked in the sauce from the gnocchi, I enjoyed it.

And speaking of that sauce.  Now for the star of the meal: the gnocchi.  The dish sounded great: "butternut squash gnocchi with sage cream sauce".  When I made my flight reservation, I was able to select my entree, and was delighted to see this option (the other choice was of course chicken, with risotto and spinach).  If I'd been out at any restaurant, I would have been very excited for this.  Gnocchi!  Squash!  Cream Sauce!

But, I was on a plane, and I knew it.  So, I didn't have any real expectations.  In fact, I didn't really think I'd eat much of it.  I had a bag of snacks with me in case.

When I saw the gnocchi, I still had no expectations.  The sauce wasn't really evenly covering the gnocchi.  The sauce looked like it was swimming in oil.  I was a bit sad, but still dug in.

To my delight, looks can be deceiving.  The dish was good.  Legitimately good.  Not just acceptable for being on an airplane, but actually good.  In particular, it was incredibly flavorful.

First, the gnocchi itself.  Large, fluffy, potato pillows, that were actually stuffed with pureed butternut squash as well.  I was not expecting the filling at all, I thought they were plain gnocchi, and that the squash was only the chunks also in the dish.  The flavor of the filling was wonderful, slightly spiced.  The texture of the gnocchi was good, soft potato outside, creamy filling.  Sure, I do like freshly pan seared gnocchi more, but this was very good for something on a plane.

The sauce, although it was oily, was also quite good.  A cream sauce, with plentiful sage to season it.  Just like the gnocchi filling, I was impressed with the seasoning.

The only component I didn't like were the chunks of squash.  Most were very overcooked, and just mushy.  Others were really stringy.  I love butternut squash, so kept trying more chunks, but eventually I gave up, as they were just not good, and were easily avoided.  There were enough other delicious parts to enjoy anyway.

This dish just screamed, "I'm a fall dish!"  It reminded me of all of my favorite parts of a Thanksgiving dinner, in one package.  See, I actually don't like turkey, at all.  So for me, Thanksgiving is all about mashed potatoes, squash, gravy, and stuffing.  And, I basically had that here.  The potato gnocchi was like mashed potatoes, the creamy sauce was like gravy, and the roll, which I didn't think was awesome on its own, was perfect for dunking into the sauce, like stuffing with gravy.  Maybe I'm stretching here, but that is really what it reminded me of!

So, I liked this.  It was good enough that I was sad when it was all gone, which shocked me, because originally the portion size looked quite large, as I'd just been chowing down on assorted snack mixes in the Admiral's Club, and my previous flight had served a late second lunch.  And I shocked myself further when I ate the entire roll, just as an excuse to keep soaking up the sauce.  Well done American Airlines!

Side note: A month later, at Christmastime, I had a similar sounding entree when flying first class on Virgin America.  It was not good.  So no, it isn't just the case that pasta dishes with squash always come out well on flights!

Vanilla ice cream with almond streusel.

After the decent dinner, I was pretty happy.  But of course, there was one thing I was REALLY looking forward to ... dessert!  I recalled one of my earliest American Airlines first class flights, from SFO to JFK.  On that flight, the dinner service concluded with ice cream sundaes.  With Ben & Jerry's ice cream, no less.  And, it was a sundae cart, with assorted toppings, including hot fudge and whipped cream.  Made to order.  I had never flown first class before, and that was my introduction to it.  I couldn't believe it.  I loved it.

So this time, I was a bit sad to see that there wasn't an ice cream cart.  I guess the sundaes are just on the longer flights?  But I was still given an ice cream option (or, a very sad looking fruit and crackers platter).  I obviously picked the ice cream.

I was eager to dig into my ice cream, but alas, it was frozen so solid that it would take a while before I could possibly even get a spoon into it.

I kept trying every few minutes, and at first, I thought it wasn't very good.  Just plain generic vanilla ice cream, topped with some rather burnt almonds.  No options for other toppings.  Sadness.  This was nothing like the ice cream sundae I remembered!

But, as it melted, it got much better.  Creamy.  With nice crunchy nuts.  But of course, I had to jazz it up a bit.  As my after dinner drink, I ordered cognac.  It was nice to sip the cognac, and then take a bite of ice cream, but somewhere along the way, I decided to pour a little over my ice cream.  I loved it that way!  Now my ice cream was boozy, which paired really well with the nuts.

This turned out to be a very satisfying, successful meal, something I never expected on my flight!

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