Waffling Leftovers: Mac and Cheese

Update Review, June 2017

Mac and cheese was one of the earlier dishes that I learned to waffle.  I've written about it before, always to quasi-mixed success.  You can read about my previous adventures first, if you wish.  It always seemed mac and cheese should waffle wonderfully, but, alas, so often I had problems with structural integrity, and found I needed to experiment with different crusting methods.

Mac and Cheese Transformation!

This time however, I had amazing success.  Waffle perfection.  One of my best wafflings to date!

The Original: Mushroom Mac and Cheese.

The original dish was fancy mac and cheese, made with little pasta shells, a slew of different cheeses (cheddar, pepper jack, parmesan), plenty of cream (manufacturing cream no less), and mushrooms.

It was insanely good mac and cheese, perfectly creamy and gooey inside, really fantastic flavor from the fancy cheeses, and perfectly crispy top.  I loved it, and saved plenty.

The Leftovers: Solid Chunk, Mushrooms Removed.

The next day, I ate some cold for lunch.  I was lazy.  I wasn't into the mushrooms, so I removed them.

The day after that, I pulled out what was left, and it had degraded a bit.  Kinda dried out, a solid mass.  I didn't want it cold.

I was feeling really lazy again, so I picked the waffle iron as my reheating method because it would be easier than traditional re-heating, which can be tricky with mac and cheese as it separates if you don't go low and slow, and add a bit more liquid.

Sizzling Away.

It had been a while since I tried waffling leftover mac and cheese, and, I seemingly forgot everything I had taught myself.  I'll be honest, I was feeling *really* lazy, so I didn't read my own notes, that say pretty clearly, "I definitely recommend crusting".

So I just threw in my unappealing lump of mac and cheese into the 350° waffle iron, and let it go.

I soon could hear sizzling sounds, so I peeked in, and was amazed that the lid lifted easily, and the mac looked like ... well, a waffle!  Woah, this was working!

Result: Waffled Mac & Cheese Perfection.

I let it go just a bit longer to crisp up, and extracted it with no problem.

The waffle mac held together perfectly, without any crusting.  I'm not sure why I always needed it before.

The outside was super crispy, and I loved the cheesy bits on the edges.  Inside was moist and creamy.

This was delicious, and I shared a bite with Ojan, who is sick of me waffling everything at this point, and he agreed it was better than his portion, which he reheated traditionally.  I wonder if there was something different about the ratio of cheese, cream, and pasta that made this more successful than other attempts?

Original Review, March 2016

Hopefully by now you know the deal.  I love to take leftovers and re-heat them in a non-traditional way: my waffle iron.  Hence, my "Waffling Leftovers" series was born, where each week I ask the question, "Will it waffle?", when referring to some kind of basic leftover.

After last week's quasi-success with the chorizo wrapped pesto pasta and my earlier success with leftover lasagna, it was time to take on another pasta dish, this one, a classic: mac and cheese.

Will it waffle?  Yes, but, like the pesto pasta, it takes a little finesse, requiring some kind of crusting, the right size chunk, and, the right temperature to start.  I don't have the photo evidence of my first few attempts, but, I assure you, they had no structural integrity and were quite the mess.  Here we have my subsequent attempts, and eventual, success.

Corn Flakes + Mac and Cheese.

Ingredients:

1. Leftover mac and cheese (thick slab, cold, and solid)
2. Cornflakes (crushed)

You need to start with a thick, cold brick of leftover mac and cheese.  Too thin of a slice, and it falls apart.  Start with it warm, or even room temperature, and it falls apart.

So, do not do as pictured above!  Instead, take a huge slab of the most unappealing solid mass of mac and cheese, and go from there.  Believe me.  I tried many other ways, and, they all fail.

Crusted "patty".

Process:

1. Crush cornflakes.
2. Coat mac and cheese in crusted cornflakes.
3. WAFFLE (aka, insert into waffle iron).

I tried a number of techniques, but I definitely recommend crusting.  I used crushed cornflakes, but I'm sure breadcrumbs would also work.  Without the crust, it didn't get quite as crispy on the outside, and broke apart easily.

Waffled Jumble.

This version started with the mac and cheese pictured above (you know, where I tell you not to do that?  This is why).  It wasn't thick enough, or chilled enough.

It got beautifully crispy on the outside, but had no structural integrity, and totally fell apart.  Tasty, but it was basically just like regular mac and cheese, with a few more crunchy bits than normal.

 Success! Leftover Mac and Cheese with Cornflake Crust Waffle.

This version used a thick solid mass.  It held together perfectly.  It stayed creamy and moist on the inside, crispy on the outside.  Totally delicious, and a complete success.

Both Ojan and I agreed that this is better than just reheating mac and cheese in any other way (toaster oven, microwave, stovetop, mixing in fresh milk or cheese, etc).

Next time, I think I'd also do a cheese sauce to drizzle over it, like a fondue-syrup!

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Samosorn Thai, Sydney

Samosorn Thai is a "thai local food hall", located on the side of the food court in one of the Westfield malls in Sydney.  It is a spinoff of the ever popular Chat Thai chain, which I've visited many times over the years for their fascinating desserts.

Just like with most of my visits to Chat Thai, I went to Samosorn just to pick up a dessert to go, but I did take in the atmosphere.

Setting

Samosorn is adjacent to the food court, but, off to a side, so it is able to have its own decor and distinctive area.

Register.

Samosorn is more casual than the Chat Thai locations, as there is no formal table service.  All orders are taken at a register, and you are given a number and can go sit at any open table.  Food is brought to the tables as it is ready.

The registers also have a few packaged desserts to grab.

Tables.

The full menu is on display above the little stations, as it is supposed to look like street food stalls, even though you order at the register, not at the stalls.  There is not a lot of space, and tables were snatched up as soon as they were free.  I was lucky I was planning to take my food to go anyway.

Food

My visit was on a very hot afternoon, and I had my eyes set on one thing only: a refreshing dessert.  I placed my order to go, and stepped off to the side to wait.

After about 10 minutes, and no sign of dessert, I asked someone if I was supposed to be waiting somewhere else.  She asked, "oh, do you want it now?"  Confused, I said yes?  A few minutes later, it was brought over, in a big bowl ... to eat there.  I explained that I had ordered takeaway.  She came back soon later with it packaged up.  I'm really not sure what I did wrong in the ordering process ...

Many of the desserts on the menu were the same as ones I had tried at Chat Thai, so I selected the only one I hadn't yet tried that also had ice as an ingredient, since I wanted something refreshing.

Ruam Mit. $6.

"An assortment of jellies, candied seeds and pandan noodles in an aromatic coconut syrup with shaved ice."

In some ways, the ruam mit was similar to the Lodt Chong Nahm Kati I had from Chat Thai, with a coconut milk base, shaved ice, and pandan noodles.  The pandan noodles were soft and kinda fun to slurp up.  The milk base was very sweet, but not too sweet.  The ice made it refreshing.

But instead of black glutinous rice and taro, I was supposed to have "jellies" and "candied seeds".  I did not really have those things, but that doesn't mean I didn't have interesting other things floating along with the pandan noodles ...

Ruam Mit: Inside.

What did I have inside, along with those light green pandan noodles?

Pink noodles, that were exactly the same size and texture as the pandan noodles.  I'm not sure what flavor they were supposed to be.

And then, slices of an orange fruit, I believe jackfruit?  This was similiar to the orange fruit I had in the khao dtom nahm woon, also from Chat Thai, before.  I really liked these.

And last, the pink balls, which I'm pretty sure were tapioca coated water chestnuts, just like I had in the Tup Tim Grob, except these were actually good.  They were crisp and crunchy, with a slightly soft exterior.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this.  It was refreshing on a hot day, sweet but not totally insanely sweet, and full of interesting ingredients of assorted textures.  I did still sorta wish it had jellies and candied seeds as described though, but as always, I didn't necessarily expect the dessert to match the description, this was a Chat Thai establishment after all ...

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Delta Sky Club, SFO

Most of my travel has either been domestic with JetBlue or Virgin America (main cabin or first class), or international with OneWorld partners (like British Airways, Qantas, or Cathay Pacific (business class and first class).  However, this year, when I lost my status, I decided to take this opportunity to explore other airlines and options.

And thus, I flew on Delta for the first time ever, on a quick connection from SFO to LAX (before heading to Sydney on Virgin Australia ... stay tuned!)  Because I was flying international business class, this gave me access to the Delta Sky Club in SFO.

I don't have comparison points with other domestic Sky Clubs, but it was clean, modern, and well designed.  It was also barely occupied, likely because it is member's access only (aka, my First Class domestic ticket would not have given me access).

Setting

Vacant Entry Way.

Check-in for the lounge is located on the same floor as the gates, but the lounge is upstairs.  Once up there, there is another check in desk that wasn't staffed, and lots of vacant open space.  It felt a bit strange walking into such a deserted area.

Window Seating.

The open area along the windows was light filled and quite bright, with standard round tables and more comfortable arm chairs.  I was surprised that very few people choose this area, as it had all the views.

High Tables.

I choose to camp out at a high table so I could just stand (I'd be sitting enough soon!), but there were also individual work stations that seemed to be the most popular seating, which is funny, as this area was relatively dark and not welcoming.

Outlets were plentiful, even built into the high tables.

Local artwork hung on the walls.

Bar.

A fairly long bar has both complimentary basic drinks and a premium menu, plus food you could order (and pay for).

Bathroom.

The bathroom was particularly stunning, with red countertops and Malin + Goetz hand soap and lotion.  Showers were also available, which you could sign up for at the check in desk.  I imagine they were stunning as well, but I didn't investigate.

Food & Drink

The food lineup is buffet style, fairly basic, with some things to nibble on and a handful of hot options.

I wasn't really needing food while I was there, so I only nibbled on a few things, so, unfortunately, I can't tell you much about food quality.

I did appreciate that everything was well labelled and constantly refilled.

Snack mixes: ranch pretzel mix, unlabelled snack mix, roasted tomato popcorn.

Snack mixes are my favorite part of airline lounges, even when they are generally stale and not very good.  You know how much I love snacks!  I'm just a muncher, what can I say?

The ranch pretzel mix was mostly just seasoned assorted shapes of thin pretzels, with a few corn chips.  It was fine, but, I'm not really one for pretzels.

The tomato flavored popcorn tasted like plain popcorn to me, but, at least it wasn't stale.

The final mix was not labelled, and seemed to have all sorts of things in it.  Pretzels, corn chips, almonds, peanuts ...  It was salty and seasoned in some way.  Decent enough I guess, but I didn't find myself getting addicted to it in the way I do with American Airlines Admiral's Club snacks.

Cheese, Salad, Crudite, Dips.

Next up came some little cubes of assorted cheese, base for salad, and some veggies to dip, and hummus, caesar, and ranch dressing.

I didn't try these, but they seemed popular.

 Salads.

Next up was more veggies to dip/make salads with (cherry tomatoes and broccoli), and 3 prepared salads.

The options were Greek chicken and cucumber salad, Mediterranean bulgar and veggie salad, and ramen salad with kale and edamame.

I tried the ramen one.  It was ... ok, the noodles were not too mushy, but there wasn't much flavor to it.

Chicken Pho Base.

A novel unique element of the Delta line up was a Pho station, with bowls ready for the broth to be added.  There were plenty of instructions to ensure that people understood what this was all about.

Chicken pho broth, veggie chili, toppings.

The broth was next to a pot of veggie chili, and both had assorted toppings, like crunchy corn chips and shredded cheese.  And crispy french fried onions, which I was thrilled to see.  I didn't want the soup or chili, I just like fried onions!

Veggie Fried Rice.

 Next up was fried rice, two trays of the same thing.

Dark Chocolate Espresso Brownies.

The first dessert was brownies (using quality Guittard chocolate).

Chocolate Chunk and Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Fruit.

There were also jars of cookies and individually wrapped fruit.

Coffee Station.

The coffee station is Starbucks branded with drip coffee and a machine.  Decaf is offered in both.

I tried the drip decaf and it was only lukewarm.

The toppings were particularly impressive, several types of syrups (including pumpkin spice, because, November), chocolate powder, and mini marshmallows.

Tea.

Tea was from Harvey and Sons, a decent selection, but no rooibos

Assorted sweeteners and honey were on offer.

Infused Water, Iced Tea, Water.

I appreciated the sparkling water tap, except that I wanted a bottle of water to bring out the door with me.  Lemons were provided as well.

Other soft drinks were available at the bar, but, alas, no cans or bottles there either.

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9 Bar

9 Bar is a snack bar manufacturer from the UK, producing bars based on their "super-seed" base, of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and hemp seeds.  They make 4 different product lines.

The "Original Lift" series I believe is the first line they made, and includes mix-ins like cashews, almonds, brazil nuts, and pumpkin.  Slightly more interesting is the "Carob Hit" line, again with a super-seed base, obviously carob, and other mix-ins like flax, pumpkin, apricots, dates, and chia.  I'm not quite sure what is breakfasty about the "Breakfast Boost" range, but these include dried fruits (apricot, strawberry, raspberry, raisins) and oats in the base.  I guess oats are for breakfast?  The most exciting line is "Cocoa Kick", available in 4 flavors: hazelnut, coconut, raspberry, and cashew, all of which have a super-seed base, cocoa mixed in, and a chocolate layer on top.  I went for the raspberry.

Cocoa Kick: Raspberry.

"The super-seed goodness of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and hemp combined with indulgent cocoa and tangy raspberry with a delicious chocolate-flavoured topping."

I almost liked this bar.

The layer of chocolate on top was dark chocolate and seemed to be decent quality.  It was thick and generous, and didn't leave me wanting for more.  The seed mix had cocoa mixed in as well, so, this delivered in the chocolately department, I did indeed get my "cocoa kick".

The raspberry flavor went well with the chocolate, but, I really didn't care for the raspberry seeds.  I have this problem with raspberries and blackberries, I just can't stand the seeds when I eat the fruits, and here there was tons of raspberry seeds mixed in.  That was off-putting to me.

But finally, I just didn't like the flavor of the seed mix, predominantly sunflower seeds.  A bit bitter, and just not a taste I like.

So, not the bar for me.  If you like seeds (both sunflower AND raspberry), then perhaps this is the bar for you.

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Travelin' Tuesday: New York

As I've done with most major cities I travel to, such as Paris, Munich, Boston, New Hampshire, Lisbon, Tokyo, Sydney and London, I like to write a master post of my coverage of the city.

My ventures to New York were entirely too brief, so, this isn't a very impressive listing, but I'll add to it over time.

Supermoon Bakehouse.

Bakeries

• Glorious soft serve and cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar.
• Donut Plant donuts.  'nuff said.
• Instragram worthy creations, both sweet and savory, from Supermoon Bakehouse.
• Empire Cake: close to my office, and, I kinda love their cake.
• Yes, I finally got the DKA from Dominique Ansel Kitchen.



Soft Swerve.

Ice Cream / Dessert Shops

• Soft Swerve. ZOMG, the best soft serve ever, and yes they have ube, and yes they have halo halo toppings.  Go now.  *** TOP JULIE PICK ***
• Seriously good soft serve from Big Gay Ice Cream. Worth the hype. *** TOP JULIE PICK ***
• Uninspired at Spot Dessert Bar.

Momofuku Noodle Bar.

Restaurants

• Butter noodles of my dreams, at Momofuku Nishi. *** TOP JULIE PICK ***
• Flavorful, unique, but not amazing dishes from Momofuku Noodle Bar.
• Morimoto ... nothing amazing, but decent enough.

Luke's Lobster

Casual

• Noodles and delicious tea at Xi'an Famous Foods.
• My first, and likely only, visit to a Luke's Lobster.

JetBlue Mint Dining.

Flights

• JetBlue Mint 615, JFK-SFO, May 2017.  In which I was ruined for all future air travel.
• JetBlue Mint 1415, JFK-SFO, June 2018.

Lamb's Club.

Hotels / Hotel Restaurants

• Incredible, truly stunning, breakfast at The Lamb's Club. *** TOP JULIE PICK ***
• Very generous room service breakfast at 11 Howard.
• Renaissance New York Midtown Hotel Concierge Lounge. Mediocre food, the worst coffee ever.

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Salad from Munchery

Munchery continues to pivot and try to find the right balance of offerings to be successful.  I'm honestly fairly impressed at how much the company has transformed over the years.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go read any of my previous Munchery reviews, where I've reviewed everything from an impressive version of Heston Blumenthal's World-Famous Chocolate and Cauliflower Risotto, to their partnership with local Indian restaurant Dosa, to totally amazing stuffed shells I still drool over, to simple comfort foods like fish sticks and bacon wrapped meatloaf, to even a full Thanksgiving dinner, and much, much more.

Since my earlier reviews, Munchery added cooking kits for those who do want to do some prep, but no shopping, they've added children's meals to accommodate whole families (or smaller appetites), they've partnered with local juice shops, they've added better desserts and ceased making them in-house.  They've also really increased their healthy, trendy offerings, with numerous salads, poke bowls, and grain bowls.

Salads aren't usually that interesting to me, but, for some reason, I went through a phase of craving salads on weekend evenings.  Don't get me wrong, I wasn't really on a health kick, I also wanted a big slice of cheesecake and a chunk of cornbread with honey butter alongside, and I started my days with weekend brunch of pancakes, waffles, and the like, but, I kept finding myself strangely wanting salads in the evenings.

Luckily for me, Munchery was able to satisfy these cravings with numerous salads to pick from, both entree sized and side salads, nearly every day.  Oh, and they have fantastic desserts too (more on that soon), so, I could satisfy all my needs.  If you'd like to try it yourself, just use my referral code and get $20 off your first order!

Standard Munchery Packaging.

So finally I caved and ordered a salad from Munchery, not really sure what to expect in terms of quality for something where freshness and quality produce matter.  I was drawn in by a caesar (always a favorite of mine) that came with all sorts of interesting "Mexican" ingredients.

It came in standard Munchery packaging: compostable base, plastic lid, colorful labeling with instructions ("Pour dressing and croutons over salad and mix"), ingredients, and nutritional information (470 calories) clearly presented.

Munchery Photo.

The stock photo looked like a well rounded salad, and, actually, what I received it was decently represented, sans nice plating of course.  My salad had the same number of shrimp, although far, far fewer croutons and cherry tomatoes.  And, uh, my corn was green and seasoned.  But, not too far off?

Mexican Shrimp Caesar Salad: corn / cojita / tomatoes / pepitas / croutons. $12.95.

"A modern, south-of-the-border twist on the traditional Caesar salad. We put citrus-marinated shrimp over shredded romaine lettuce with corn, tomatoes, and diced red peppers. Add our ciabatta croutons, crumbled cotija cheese, toasted peptias, and chipotle-Caesar dressing for the final step and you're ready to dig into one fantastic salad."

The packaging was done thoughtfully.  Croutons were in their own little container so as not to get soggy, and the dressing too was on the side separately.  The other elements were arranged on top of the lettuce in different sections: roasted red peppers over in one corner, seasoned corn in another. shrimp in another, cojita and pepitas in the middle, etc.  For the most part, this worked well (the pepitas weren't crunchy anymore though, there weren't nearly enough croutons in that tiny container, and the shrimp were kinda slimy).

The lettuce was the ingredient I was most worried about, and it was fine.  Fresh, crisp, not browned, not soggy.  Just standard romaine (not shredded as the menu said, but, regular chunks), and not quite enough of it (the ratio was just off here), but, the lettuce was fine.

I appreciated the concept behind the slew of toppings: little cubes of roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes, and seasoned corn, plus pepitas, cotija cheese, and of course, the croutons, but, in practice none worked out great.  I don't really like roasted red peppers, and the flavor of the corn was horrible.  I have no idea what the seasoning was that coated it, and in the photo online it showed regular, vibrant, yellow corn but mine was covered in something green.  This made me sad, since, I do love roasted corn.

The cotija was fine, a good cheese choice, and a nice amount of it.  I love pepitas and looked forward to the crunch they would add, but, they had softened considerably inside the salad, and didn't seem toasted as described.  Maybe they too should have been on the side?  The croutons were actually awesome, really crispy, really flavorful.  The menu description said they were "ciabatta croutons" but the ingredients listed "batard bread", so, uh, someone needs to at least figure out what country invented the bread they used.  The problem?  I had only 4 croutons.  The tiny little container that kept them separate fit exactly 4 croutons.  I wanted more.  Many more.  They were awesome.

The other little container contained the chipotle-caesar dressing, and it was pretty good.  Creamy, good amount of parmesan, and it actually had anchovy in it.  It also had some kick, presumably from the chipotle, and this is what helped make the salad "mexican".  I liked the dressing, and the amount provided was about right.

The shrimp I feared would be rubbery, slimy, not cleaned, fishy, or all of the above.  And ... the shrimp were fine.  My salad contained 7, just like the photo.  They were a little slimy, but, besides that, actually fine, cooked well, not fishy, and marinated nicely.

My salad also came with a lime wedge to drizzle over, a nice touch.

So, overall, it was fine, but it sounded better than it actually was.  Still, kudos for fresh lettuce, not nasty shrimp, and very good croutons.

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Bite Box Snacks, Germany

I'm a snacker.  I prefer to just munch on things continuously throughout the day, rather than eat big meals.  Or even if I do eat meals like a normal person, I still like to snack all evening.  Granted, this is probably a bad habit I should get out of sooner rather than later, but, alas, it provides me lots of material for review, as I'm constantly trying new snacks, particularly when I travel.

When I was in Munich visiting my office there, I of course did what I always do - I explored the snacks.  Their little microkitchens were stocked with products from Bite Box, a company that seems to specialize in individually packaged snack foods for offices.

Their product line is huge, ranging from sweet to savory, healthy to decadent, fruity to chocolatey, and everything in between.  This include all sorts of dried fruits, coated nuts, and trail mixes, savory crackers, sweet cookies, and chocolate coated nibbles.  The products names are an amusing mix of English and non-English, like "Mac Daddy" (macadamia nuts), "Coffee To Go" (dark chocolate covered espresso beans and cappuccino almonds), and "Waasssup?!" (wasabi peanut), alongside "Asien Rundfahrt" (Asian rice cracker mix), "Holzfäller" (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts), and "Kolbenresser"(corn nuts).

Since I didn't have Google translate built into my brain, for most of these, I tried them without knowing what they were, and only looked them up later.

I enjoyed my adventures into the unknown, and found a few I really liked.

Tasty Mixes

This category was called "Tasty Mixes", which, the best I could tell, just meant it was the least healthy and most sweet items, mostly made up of assorted types of cookies (ranging from biscotti to stoopwafels), and chocolate coated items.

Coffee to Go.

On my first day in Munich, I discovered these.  The English name gave me a clue that this might be caffeinated, which sounded good to me.

Given my jetlag, this was a welcome first find, dark chocolate covered espresso beans and white chocolate cappuccino covered almonds, both of which gave me a bit of uplift.

I really loved the almonds, the creamy coating was quite enjoyable, and they had a nice crunch.  The chocolate covered espresso beans were pretty standard, crunchy, bitter, fine.  A handful of each was a nice mix, but, I really preferred the cappuccino almonds on their own.

My favorite of everything I tried.

Ka Rammel.

These were adorable little mini stroopwafels.  Except, I don't really like stroopwafels, like the locally made ones I totally failed at using properly by Rip Van Wafels or the "Award Winning" version by Lady Walton.  But, I still tried these, hoping I'd finally find a stroopwafel I liked, as everyone else loves these things.

And?  Yup, just stroopwafels.  The cookie was sorta like a chewy graham cracker, and the filling was chewy caramel.  Nothing particularly interesting here.

Kokosnasen.

"Coconut Biscuits with Spelt Flour."

"Kokosnasen", aka, "Coconuts", were small little hard style coconut cookies.  I liked them far more than I expected, given that they were 1) cookies 2) made with spelt flour.  They were crunchy, but the coconut flavor was good, and I didn't taste spelt.  I didn't really want to eat them plain, but I made mini ice cream sandwiches out of them with some snickerdoodle ice cream, and they were great that way.

Ojan also almost liked them, but proclaimed that they were "like coconut macaroons, but, not as good".

Dried Fruit

The dried fruit category includes everything from single dried fruits (mango, apricots, pineapple) to mixes (strawberry and pineapple, apple and cranberry, raisins and bananas).  Some of these were quite tasty.

Strandperlen.

Many of the mixes had English names, but, alas, this one did not.  What was it?  I had no clue, besides that it seemed to be dehydrated fruits.

I easily identified the big chunks of dehydrated pineapple, and little chunks of apple, but I had no idea what the other objects were.  I kinda thought they were dehydrated figs, but, that didn't seem quite right.

When I looked it up online after, the ingredients said "Physalis".  That still didn't help me.  A few internet searches later, and I learned that I know them as Cape gooseberries, you know, the little yellow-orange tomato things with the strange wrapper around them?

Anyway, the apple chunks I didn't care for since I don't like apple, and I wished they didn't make up 50% of the mix.  I liked the size of the pineapple chunks, and they were pretty sweet.  But I loved the physalis.  Super crunchy, just the right amount of sweet.  I'd gladly just eat a big box of those.

Overall, a decent mix for fruit, and, the dehydration was nicely done, more enjoyable that standard dried fruit.

Pure Lime - Kiwischeiben.

Dried kiwi ... with lime?

I didn't like this.

The kiwi was super chewy, more like jerky than crunchy dried fruit.  That was fine actually, but what wasn't fine was the lime.  The result was crazy tart, way too tart for my liking.

Hearty

Bite Box dubs this category "Hearty", but I didn't think they were especially hearty, just, that they are savory.  Included in this range is asian rice cracker mixes, coated corn nuts, wasabi peanuts, and veggie chips, among a few others.  I tried several of the asian mixes, when I was looking for something not sweet.

Black Pepper.

Next I went for something savory, rice crackers, coated in soy sauce and black pepper.
The crackers were pretty standard rice crackers, crunchy, good to snack on.  The soy sauce was also pretty standard for asian style rice crackers.  But the black pepper gave it some kick.  I'm not sure I wanted that kind of kick, but, it was interesting at least.

Overall though, uh, a bit too peppery for me, not quite the flavor I was looking for.

Asien Rundfahrt.

The "Asien Rundfahrt", "Asian Tour", was another asian inspired rice cracker mix, this time with coated peanuts and seaweed elements mixed in.

It was a pretty standard mix of Asian rice crackers, most with a slightly sweet soy sauce coating.  I liked the coated peanuts the best, but, my "Tour" only included 2 in the box.

Overall, fine to munch on, but not particularly exciting.

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