American Grown Sweet and Juicy Comice Pears

The sweet good pears are worth buying again again. It's pear season and we again went to Trader Joe's to buy  Harry & David's pear gift boxes, not to send as gifts, but for ourselves to eat. The price this year is $6.99 per box vs  $5.99 when we first tried them last year..  These are Comice pears grown in Medford, Oregon. and they are all good this time around.  They were very sweet, juicy and delicious. We loved the creamy texture. These pears were so good we will keep buying them whenever we see them at Trader Joe's.  

Vietnamese Beef Stew Rice Noodle Soup (Phở/ Mì Bò Kho)

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

This is so far the one and only good Asian restaurant in Toms River, Manchester, Brick, Point Pleasant, in Ocean County New Jersey.  I personally like this place better than the sushi place I visited. At this point, I had already given up in looking for more Asian restaurants since I have no desire in driving through the rest of the county far far away from my hotel.  I also don't have the will or the patience to drive to New York City or Philadelphia just for Asian food.  I am very thankful that there is this one Vietnamese restaurant in the area for me to go back again and again to eat. I just hope that this restaurant can make it here in this area, because I have been here long enough to observe that the demographics in this area have very different standards and taste about food.  

As long as I am here in this area, I want to support this only one place that serves decent Asian food. Besides, I really enjoy the Stew Beef Noodle Soup ($9.45) here. The beef is really tasty and the broth is addictively delicious. The noodle on the menu is supposed to be egg noodle.  But I always substitute with rice noodle because rice noodle is more like the Pho thing and I am here for the Pho.  This noodle soup reminds me of my home town Los Angeles.  I am always homesick for California whenever I am working here in this area and this familiar noodle soup reminds me of the comfort food I often had in California.

Restaurant: Vietnamese Cuisine
Address: 1222 Rte. 166, Toms River, NJ 08753
Tel: 732-349-7777

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Dinner Rolls That I Will Never Buy Again!

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

This bag of dinner rolls is the exact reason why I avoided buying baked goods in the mainstream American grocery stores.  These rolls were just awful to me because I am used to much fresher and tastier buns and breads from the Asian bakeries.  After having the really good rolls at a Dim Sum restaurant, these dinner rolls from Ralph just tasted like crap to me.  I know I can't compare the two since they are different like apples and oranges.  But still, I just can't eat the dinner rolls from Ralph anymore.  I tried and I wanted very much to hold onto them. But I just didn't see how these rolls would be any better if only I stored them another day when they tasted so awful on the first day I bought them from the grocery store.  I struggled to eat one roll on the first night I bought it, and then I just tossed the rest into trash.  It was a huge waste of money, and it made me feel so bad and guilty, since I was raised by parents and grandparents who had once lived through years of near-death starvation and extreme poverty. I hate trashing food, because every time I did, I could picture my parents and grandparents starving and suffering.  But I just couldn't bring myself to eat these lousy rolls.

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Winner Announcement: Free Book Giveaway Julia Child Biography: Dearie

We had only one participant for the above free book giveaway. The winner for the above free book giveaway is: Carol.  We had already shipped the book to the winner. Please continue to follow us for our upcoming free cookbooks giveaway.

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.

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