Marie Callender's Meatball & Sausage Marinara

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

My hotel room here in Toms River NJ has a microwave, so I bought the Marie Callender's Meatball & Sausage Marinara when it's on sale at $1.99 at Shop Rite.  I had been to Marie Callender's restaurant a few times in California and I generally liked the food there but this was my first time buying the brand's frozen dinner.  The portion was great but unfortunately the sausage and meatballs tasted very foul and stinky.  I don't want to know what kind of meat and what quality of meat was used to make this pasta.  It was so awful that I had to spit it out.  I tried 2 bites and I had to toss the entire dinner plate away.  The pasta itself tasted tolerable even though it was too salty for me.  But the meat was the worst I had ever tasted.  I'm not sure if it's just this particular box, or the meat that was used to make this kind of cheap frozen dinner just generally tasted like this.  I will not buy this ever again. But then I think this frozen dinner will be great for a Halloween Dinner Party.  It will be fun to serve this at a dining room that is decorated with spooky stuff and lighting.  I would like to film the entire dinner party and register every guests' facial expression when they take their first bite into this foul and stinky suspicious meat.

Notes From Our Editors:  Share your frozen dinner experience with us and we will send you a box of gourmet Chocolate Truffles if we decide to publish your review here.  For submission guidelines, please click here to connect with us.

Pumpkin Cream Cupcake

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

I can really feel the fall season now that I'm back to New Jersey because of work.  The weather is really chilly today so I want to get the familiar comfort cake.  I'm glad that there is a Barnes & Noble in this area because I really love bookstores and the coffee shop inside Barnes & Noble.  I like that I can have the baked goods that I usually enjoy wherever I am in the USA.  I have the pumpkin cream cupcake today and it's pretty comforting to my sweet tooth.  I like the Barnes & Noble here in Bricks NJ because it's a lot less crowded and there is just  so much more seating.  Back in my town in Los Angeles, the Barnes and Nobles is always jam packed with Asian students and kids and their moms.  It was hard to get a table at the coffee shop there.  Here at Brick NJ, it's just so much nicer that I can literally sit anywhere I want to enjoy my latte and my cupcake.  It's so spacious here because there are so much fewer visitors. I love the quiet and peace at this bookstore. The parking lot is so big and it has so many empty parking spaces.  Back in my hometown in Los Angeles, I had to circle around and around to park my car every time I went to Barnes & Noble (meaning weekends).  I really enjoy such stress free parking. I'm beginning to see the good in this part of New Jersey.

Restaurant: Barnes & Noble 

Address: 44 Brick Plaza, Brick NJ 08723

Tel:  (732) 255-6600

Treat Your Favorite Trick Or Treaters With Spooky Spider Chocolate Truffles

We love Halloween because we love seeing all the cute trick and treaters at our doors.  We usually stock up with really cheap candies from Costco to give away.  This year, we would like to upgrade our treating by giving our most favorite treaters the luxurious chocolate truffles.  A box of 5 pieces costs $10.00 but our most favorite trick and treaters certainly deserve this splurge.

If you have tried  these chocolate truffles, we encourage you to share your review exclusively with us.  If your review is selected to be featured here, we would send you a gourmet food gift card. For instructions on sending us your review, please click here to contact our editors.

The Spectacular Halloween Cake

For those talented home bakers out there who love to bake,  Halloween is really a great time to show off your cake making grandeur. With festive cake toppers and cupcake decoration rings for only $4.99, passionate home bakers can easily whip up a really impressive Halloween cake.  If you have used these cake toppers to decorate your cake, we encourage you to share your cake's photo with us in here.  If your Halloween cake is selected to be featured here, we would send you a gourmet food gift card.  For instructions on sending us your cake's photo, please click here to contact  our editors.

Serve Delicious Brain Jello This Halloween

Halloween won't be fun without a ghoulish meal. This brain gelatin mold will turn the ordinary Jello into a crowd pleasing Halloween treat. $5.98 per mold.

Cantonese Style Kung Pao Shrimp

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

I love Chinese food but if I have to pick my favorite among all Chinese regional cuisines, I have to pick the Cantonese cuisine.  Kung Pao Shrimp is basically on every Chinese restaurant's menu in America.  Yet Kung Pao Shrimp just tastes very different in every Chinese restaurant I visit.  I prefer the less saucy and less spicy kind of Kung Pao Shrimp that is rendered by the Cantonese chefs.  Kung Pao Shrimp is a variation of  the Kung Pao Chicken in China's  Szechuan cuisine.   The best Kung Pao Shrimp I ever had was in one of the side street diners in Hong Kong years ago when my parents first took me there for a summer trip.  It was the first time I ever had Kung Pao anything, and I will never forget the thrill of it. I was sitting at a table on a packed street with no air-conditioning but I had a blast and I consider that dinner to be one of the best I ever had.  I could see the chefs cooking on their roaring fire on one side of the street and then waiters fishing out live lobsters and fishes from the fish tanks on the other side of the street.  As a little kid, I was so mesmerized by the bustle and hustle of the cooking action.  I was totally hypnotized by all kinds of delicious smell floating in the air.  Back then I could care less about the name of the dish.  All I knew was I felt that  I had the best food in my life at the time (for my very short existence of only 8 years in this world).

Since then, I have been trying to find the same great Kung Pao Shrimp in America.  While I haven't yet found the Kung Pao Shrimp that tasted as good as the one I had during the summer trip in Hong Kong, I am lucky enough to find Kung Pao Shrimp that is decent. Even though Kung Pao shrimp is supposed to be a Szechuan dish, but I always feel that Cantonese Chinese restaurants produce better Kung Pao Shrimp than  the Szechuan restaurants.  To my own palette,  Cantonese chefs' rendition of Kung Pao Shrimp has just the right seasoning that is neither too hot nor too sweet.  The shrimp is also not drowned in sweet brown sauce like the ones produced by many American Szechuan restaurants.  I don't like Chinese stir fries that are too saucy.  I have to admit though I had never been to any Szechuan restaurant outside the USA.  May be I will be equally in love with the Kung Pao Shrimp produced by the more authentic Szechuan restaurants.

Until then, I feel fortunate to be living just a short drive away from  a Cantonese restaurant that serves decent Kung Pao Shrimp at $7.95 during lunch hours.

Restaurant: PV Palace
Address: 2166 Pacific Coast Hwy, Lomita, CA 90717
Phone:(310) 326-3228 Hours: Friday 10:00 am – 9:30 pm