Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

You can get coupons for LUVO here. Before I get to my review of two LUVO frozen entrees, I need to start with the disclosure that I'm an investor in LUVO -- all the way from a few years ago when they were just raising capital in Canada to launch the idea. Now they are all over the US, and you can even buy bulk packs of LUVO online from Amazon (shipping to US addresses). They launched last year in Canada at classy supermarkets (Whole Foods!) for the health-conscious demographic, and LUVO is even more widely distributed now in stores like Urban Fare, IGA, and even Superstore . I chose to get it from Whole Foods at Cambie and 8th because it was close to where my friend and co-eater in this investigation lived. Each pack was $7.99, and you can save $0.10 off your transaction if you bring your own bag (or you can donate it to charity (probably one of theirs, like the Whole Planet Foundation or what not) -- they ask at the till and handle it for you). Clearly if you buy thing...

Picked up a packet of Nuvo Gourmet Brie-Osh - Pecans and Caramel from Superstore. I've bought brie before, but my mom never fooled around with doing anything "fancy" with it, possibly because she didn't know how. So I got this in the hopes that she'd get the idea and maybe try it on her own. Pecans on top (as in the picture) NOT included. Bread is sweet and looks basically baked for you. On the inside, it is a cake of brie sitting on a tasty-sweet mixture of pecans and caramel. It's so basic you might as well not buy this and just use whatever you have at home. That was my MISTAKE NUMBER 1. MISTAKE NUMBER 2 was following the baking instructions. After the indicated 30 minutes at 250°F on "Bake" in my toaster oven, the cheese still hadn't melted in the least and was still cool when I cut it in half. I turned my oven on Toast at 250°F and left it in there for an additional 30 minutes. Cheese still only barely melted (see picture of two ha...

The promotional images for Haldiram's Punjabi Samosa  make it look almost freshly made. Since we all know from pictures of burgers from burger chains that ad copy is probably not the same as the real thing, it really comes down to taste. The pictures below are from a 460 gram box purchased yesterday, stamped as Packed on Oct-2014 and Best Before Mr-2016. Obvious differences between the promotional pictures are: Appearance of the wrap: I baked mine and in the picture I had cut them open to re-heat on a Cuisinart Griddler Thickness of the wrap: At least twice as thick as in the picture, but there is still a good amount of filling. Colour and texture of the filling: (if you stop to think about it, obviously frozen = eventually looks different) Nowhere near the fresh yellow potato colour. Leathery peas. Potato mix is a ground mush. Not the same number of colourful peas -- and, to be honest, I wouldn't have liked too many peas, but it sure makes for a more colourful a...