Sara Lee Deep Dish Blueberry Apple Crumble

Taste

Surprisingly, this crumble from staple Sara Lee was really good! Not as good as home made of course, but for a supermarket fridge everyday category, it stands out. The crumble was very crunchy, if a little tasteless, but the filling was beautiful. Not too sweet, just wet enough, and with satisfying bits of melted apple.

Rating - 7

Look

You pop the whole thing in the oven and heat until golden brown. How successful you are in getting that golden colour is really up to you. The purple filling inside looks really good though.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

800g for $3.50, bargain!

Rating - 2

Swiss Points - 11.5

Ingredients

wheat flour, blueberries (17%), apple (17%), sugar, vegetable fats and oils, water, thickeners, dextrose, whey powder, salt, lemon juice, baking soda, dough conditioner, vegetable gum, mineral salt

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Fisho Spice Mix Seasoned and Roasted Fish

Taste

I got these goodies from Fisho in Thailand. There are w categories of flavour: Thai Delight

• Spicy Shrimp Paste - the hottest of them all, with a pungent shrimp taste that was not unpleasant
• Stir-Fried Crab Meat with Pepper - tastes very similar to the shrimp, a bit less hot and without the shrimp taste

Japanese Delight

• Unagi Teriyaki - also spicy, but with a bit of sweetness as well. It’s also less fishy than the Thai stuff, but still very satisfying
• Soy Sauce Wasabi - I was actually surprised that this was not hot, but quite sweet. It’s quite satisfying really

Rating - 8

Look

They are individually packaged, so each one is a bite sized snack. The picture on the front depicts the flavour and is quite cool.

Rating - 3

C-factor

60g worth of 4g individual packages for measly dollars, but only if you bought it in Thailand!

Rating - 2

Swiss Points - 13

Ingredients

Spicy Shrimp Paste

surimi, wheat flour, seasoning, chilli powder, dried shrimp

Stir-Fried Crab Meat with Pepper

surimi, wheat flour, seasoning, chilli powder, black pepper

Unagi Teriyaki

surimi, wheat flour, seasoning, soy sauce, chilli powder

Soy Sauce Wasabi

surimi, wheat flour, seasoning, soy sauce, chilli powder, seaweed, wasabi

Available At

Asian grocers

RealFoods Corn Thins

Taste

I think these are quite nice, for crispbreads anyway. By that I mean the thing actually has taste… but it was still very dry. I tried the cracked pepper & lemon from the RealFoods range, and the hit of pepper is really appreciated. I think this would pair quite nicely with a sharp cheese or some smoked salmon.

Rating - 5.5

Look

It’s actually more yellow than normal, and is dusted with black pepper. Mine contained about 3 thin slices, wrapped in foil, which made it easy to take out as a snack.

Rating - 2

C-factor

I got my 22g 4 slice pack for free, but they average around $2.50 at the supermarket

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - 8.5

Ingredients

maize (98%), sunflower oil, sea salt, black pepper, natural lemon extract

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Weight Watchers Lemon Delight Steamed Pudding

Taste

It was a little dry, so make sure you dig deep to the bottom of the cup for the quite delicious lemon sauce to go with the quite light and satisfying pudding.

Rating - 5.5

Look

Remove the foil and pop straight into the microwave. Heat for about 30 seconds and serve. It’s dead easy really.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

2x 90g for around $3.50

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 8.5

Ingredients

water, wheat flour, sugar syrup, sugar, polydextrose, butter, egg powders, lemon peel (2%), lemon juice (1.5%), milk solids, cream powder, emulsifiers, maize thickener, acidity regulators, raising agent, thickeners, flavours, preservatives, salt, sweetener, colour

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Vinamit Mixed Fruit Chips

Taste

These are a nice change to normal chips, especially if you’d always wished for sweet chips. Although they are quite oily, they sure are addictive (and very crunchy). Each fruit flavour is quite different.

• banana - very much like the normal banana chip, except much sweeter
• jackfruit
- these are very sweet, but with a sour tang
• pineapple - super sweet with a strong pineapple taste
• yam - more like your normal French flies, but sweet
• taro - the least sweet of the lot, fried taro, yum!

Rating - 7

Look

Like most Asian snacks, this one is beautifully packaged. The fruit look very colourful, vibrant and inviting - no idea how much food colouring went into it though.

Rating - 2

C-factor

500g for 35600 VND. i.e. around $2.60 AUD. Well, it’s expensive for food from Vietnam but if you buy it in Aust it costs around $5.

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 10.5

Ingredients

fruit (banana, jackfruit, pineapple, yam, taro), vegetable oil

Available At

Asian grocers

Royal Mochi

Taste

Ever since my trip to Japan, I’ve been on the lookout for some good mochi. There were a pack of 30, each with a chewy but not sticky and thick outer, which I didn’t prefer as much as the soft, just made texture. I guess they have to compensate there for preservation reasons. The filling on the other hand, were wonderful and no complaints there. In fact, some of it, especially the green tea, is better than the Japanese ones!

These came in 5 different flavours:

• green tea - fabulous flavour, with a dusting of green tea on top. Not too sweet and you can actually taste tea!
• sesame - a strong hit of the sesame goodness, and looks spectacular too with the black and white sesame seed coating
• peanut - unlike peanut butter, not too sweet and balanced just right, and with a dusting of peanuts on top
• red bean - one of the more disappointing offering as I was expecting a lot more, but still good, just not as good as the others
• taro - the most boring tasting of the lot.

Rating - 7

Look

Each sat in its own paper backing, which sat on an individual plastic compartment, which was wrapped in plastic, then put in a box, then another paper bag is provided for you to carry it, so all very Japanese with the amount of packaging it uses. The 5 different mochis are distinctly different in looks. They all look so special, with some coated on top and some not, and all a different colour too! If it’s not for the environment this is heaven!

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

900g for $7, to which you get 30 pieces of mochi. It’s not a bad price at all really!

Rating - 2

Swiss Points - 11.5

Ingredients

glutinous, sugar, maltose, peanut, sesame, red-bean, taro, green tea

Available At

Asian grocers

Kuranda Health Bars

Taste

I picked up these delectable health bars from Kuranda at the Gluten Free Gourmet Expo. The 3 flavours were:Cashews & Almonds, Macadamia & Hazelnut and Pecan & Pistachio. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t really taste the difference between the 3 bars, but that’s not a bad thing as I really like the taste of them. Fresh nuts with great quality grain – and best of all, not too hard and not too sweet, it’s just right really! Why do all the Gluten Free food taste so much better!

Rating - 8

Look

Better than the supermarket variety. There are real pieces of nuts present. All of this presented in different colour wrapping so you can tell the flavours apart.

Rating - 2

C-factor

3 45g bars for $5 as a special for the show. A good price for these good quality bars.

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 13

Ingredients

peanuts, sunflower seeds, nuts (type depends on product), sesame seeds, honey, pepitas, puffed rice, rice syrup

Available At

Health food stores

Lotus Brand Tapioca Chips

Taste

They are a bit oily, even for chips. However, the texture and flavour are certainly superior to normal chips. They are thicker, and has a slight chilli taste. The chips also has a bit of sweetness to it.

Rating - 7.5

Look

Exciting, a bit deeper than normal chips, these have a golden tint with a hint of burnt brown on the edges. The packaging is slightly upper class too.

Rating - 2

C-factor

275g for $2, is an ok price to pay.

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - 10.5

Ingredients

tapioca, salt, cooking oil, chilli

Available At

Asian grocers

Aji Ichiban Dried Mango

Taste

Aji Ichiban is very popular in Asia, with several stores selling dried goods and lollies. One of my favourites is definitely the mango. They are juicy, chewy but not hard, although they are artificially sweetened.

Rating - 7.5

Look

I love Asian packaging, this comes in a resealable bag. The mangos are projected by a plastic tray. The mangos are very orange compared to the ones here, and I don't think they are artificially sweetened...

Rating - 2

C-factor

500g packs are quite expensive. Luckily I usually get them as presents!

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - 10.5

Ingredients

mango, sugar, preservative

Available At

Asian countries

Dried Black Beans

Taste

These were like one of the weirdest thing I've had in Japan. It's basically a bean that's been cooked then dried as far as I can tell. The outer skin is black and crunchy, but the inside is kinda like eating bean paste. It has a natural sweetness rather than being very sweet.

Rating - 8

Look

Like all things from Japan, the look is superb. Each bean is like an individual cracked egg, with little lines running along. The packaging is very cute, a white rice paper looking pouch contains these little beauties. The writing is all in Japanese so I don't know what they are saying either!

Rating - 2

C-factor

100g for a lot of money! Even in Japan these are expensive. I think they are like rare or hard to produce or something. Or maybe it's just the latest craze...

Rating - 0

Swiss Points - 10

Available At

Japan!

SunRice Thin Rice Cakes

Taste

I have never been a fan of SunRice's plain rice cakes, but the barbeque and chicken flavours aren't all bad. It's a bit like eating chips, only it's less crunchy. I am sure this stuff contains loads of salt and msg but I'm sure it's better than eating chips. I don't think you need to put anything else on them as they are basically coated with seasoning, perhaps to disguise the plain taste!

Rating - 5

Look

A very thin rice cakes. These came in an individual pack and is very convenient for a snack on the go, as I found out.

Rating - 2

C-factor

22g. I don't know how much it costs though.

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - 8

Ingredients

brown rice (min 81%), seasoning,vegetable oil, antioxidants

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Pringles

Taste

You know what they say about Pringles, "Once you pop, you can't stop", and I can't agree more. Recently there's been some sales, so we bought up big. Our stash included:

• Sour Cream & Onion - the most popular. This flavour made their name really. I find the new ones a bit too salty, but that flavour is addictive!
• Light Sour Cream & Onion - my favourite. Not as salty as the normal ones, but still has the flavour.
• Tomato & Mozzarella - which I haven't tried before but is excellent. Good balance of sweet and salty.
• Smokey Bacon - I can't taste smokiness and I can't taste bacon, but it was kinda salty and sweet too, and not too bad
• Salt & Vinegar - too salty and not enough vinegar, a pet hate of mine
• Light Greek Style Cheese with a touch of avocado oil - tastes pretty much like the light sour cream flavour, so it's ok. They must have very light touch as I couldn't taste any avocado flavouring at all.
• Light Spicy Thai with a touch of Coconut Oil - I love this one, it tastes very very different. You can taste the spice and the chilli, and even that touch of coconut. It's different and won't be do everyone's taste, but it reminds me of Asian style chips!

Rating - 7

Look

Well, the Pringles moustache man has had an update, and some of the colours have been refreshed, but otherwise it's the same old chips in a can that we've all come to love and everyone else has copied. And they should too. It's a great idea, and you can store the chips for later, if you ever get any left over that is...

Rating - 2

C-factor

R.R.P is $3.99 for a tin of 170g (160g for the lights - is that why they're less fattening?), which is quite a price to pay actually. That's why it's always so long between pops...

Rating - 0

Swiss Points - 9

Ingredients

Smokey Bacon

dehydrated potatoes, vegetable oil, corn flour, bacon flavour, wheat starch, maltodextrin, emulsifier

Spicy Thai

dehydrated potatoes, vegetable oil, wheat starch, maltodextrin, cornflour, spicy thai flavour (sugar, wheat bread, coconut oil (0.39%), flavour enhancers, paprika powder, citric acid, chilli extract, ginger extract, lemongrass extract, milk proteins, spices, flavourings, garlic oil), emulsifier, salt, rice flour

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Lotte Pepero Cracker

Taste

This was a copy of the Poare from Glico. I thought I would give this a try. The verdict? The outer shell was quite crunchy and sweet, but the filling was sub-standard. This doesn't taste like chocolate at all! They also didn't fill out the whole stick. It's not as good as the original but for the price, a good substitute.

Rating - 6

Look

The packaging doesn't look as cute but inside still contained two individually wrapped packs for portability.

Rating - 2

C-factor

50 g for $1 is a lot cheaper than its more glamorous big sis. Worth it.

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 9.5

Ingredients

wheat flour, sugar, salt, corn syrup, fructose, cocoa powder, palm oil

Available At

Asian grocers

Glico Pretz Shrimp Paste

Taste

Very salty but very addictive. They taste like prawn crackers really. Afterwards you have the taste of shrimp paste in your mouth...hmmm.... shrimp paste. See the Pretz ranking.

Rating - 7.5

Look

Yup, like the Pocky and Poare packaging. The red box had cute shrimps on it too!

Rating - 2

C-factor

65g for around $2.50, not too bad, but I would probably buy some chips for that price.

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 10

Ingredients

wheat flour, vegetable oil, shortening, shrimp powder, sugar, garlic powder, yeast, table salt, oyster sauce, XO Jiang Sauce, spices

Available At

Asian Groceries

Glico Pocky Milk Flavour

Taste

I was surprised to find these Pocky that are made in Thailand and keen to see if they taste any different. Well, they taste pretty similar to other Pockys. For the uninitiated, Pockys are little bread sticks coated with all manners of toppings. They are the opposite of Poares. Where do these stand in terms of the taste test? Click here to find out.

Rating - 7.5

Look

They looked like all other Pocky packaging, except there was Thai writing on the box! This one had a white background with blue writing. The milk coating was more cream than white, but otherwise the packaging was the same as any other Pocky. There was only 1 package in this pack.

Rating - 2

C-factor

27.5 g for 80 cents, I wonder how much they would be if they were made in Japan?

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 11

Ingredients

wheat flour 42%, sugar, 20%, palm oil 14%, milk powder 10%, lactose 6%, margarine 4%, calcium 3%

Available At

Asian Groceries

Hawthorn Slice-square

Taste

You might be wondering, What on earth is a hawthorn? I have no idea myself. I have no idea of what a hawthorn actually looks like as I've only ever had hawthorn slice, which, to the uninitiated, is an orange-brown thin slice. It's an acquired taste from childhood I think. I haven't had one of these for ages. This one seems to be made for grown-ups, the slices thicker (better!) and bigger (better!) than the ones from childhood.

Rating - 6

Look

Hmmm, not very attractive, but the thin slices and packaging make it very easy to eat and transport.

Rating - 1

C-factor

200g, not sure how much though... Def marks for making a childhood treat appealing to grown ups!

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 8.5

Ingredients

fresh hawthorn 6%, water 29%, sugar

Available At

Asian Grocers

Sunbeam Apricot & Sultanas

Taste

I have to admit, I haven't had one of these snacks from Sunbeam before, as they are clearly aimed at kids' lunch boxes. They come in handy 37g packs. I guess they're a better choice than chocolates are something. In terms of taste.... the sultanas are pretty tiny and doesn't have that juicy bite to it. Apricots were slightly better but I think I prefer the whole ones.

Rating - 5

Look

It comes in this cute packet with dancing smiley sultana and apricot. The box is handy and resealable, and quite good for kids and big kids, as long as they have slim fingers.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

Good for when you want to feel like a kid and a handy snack to have on hand...dunno how much they cost though.

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 8

Ingredients

Australian sultanas, apricots, preservative, vegetable oil

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere.

RICS Hawaiian Crunch

Taste

I've never had Hawaiian crunch before, so I was curious. This was kinda like a peanut brittle, only with softer bits of popcorn in between and surprisingly good. They were right about the "crunch", it takes a bit of power to bite into one of these, but it was a satisfying sweet and crunchy snack.

Rating - 6.5

Look

We did get this from the warehouse, so no fancy packaging. The colour also looked very artificial, but you can see the peanuts and other things through the colour.

Rating - 0.5

C-factor

500g for $2 at the warehouse, what a bargain!

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 8.5

Ingredients

sugar, wheat, glucose syrup, peanuts 25%, popcorn, desiccated coconut, vegetable oil, butter (milk fat, water, salt), salt, sodium bicarbonate

Available At

RICS outlet
179-183 Parramatta Rd
Homebush 2140

You'll Love Coles Crumbed Fish Fillets

Taste

Surprisingly good. I have always steered away from packaged fish fillets, but because of this little incident, I gave it a try. We popped a few in the oven, and 15 mins later, out came these golden and crunchy fillets. Mind you, they weren't the tastiest fish I've ever had, but the topping was crunchy, the flesh firm and actually tasted of fish. The topping was a little oily, but this is processed food afterall.

Rating - 6.5

Look

I'm not a fan of the You'll love Coles packaging. I think having people on the cover look tacky, and the 1kg box is not resealable, and it was weak! After being in the freezer for awhile, the cardboard became weak and soggy.

Rating - 0

C-factor

1kg of fillets for 99 cents, you gotta love that. I think the normal price is about $6.99

Rating - 2

Swiss Points - 8.5

Ingredients

white fish joined fillet (51%), batter (water wheat flour, wheat starch, salt), breadcrumb (17%) (wheat flour, yeast, salt, emulsifier, flour treatment agent), canola oil, rice flour

Available At

Coles
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