Hungry Mode

Food ramblings, amateur cooking attempts, and questionable writing

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Harrison from The Pop Shop Review

The Harrison is described as “Jack cheese, grilled chicken, and garlicky sun-dried tomato aïoli on crusty ciabatta”. It is a tangy chicken grilled cheese sandwich that just works in perfect harmony. From the crusty bread that isn’t too tough but just enough to give it the crisp that is the perfect opposite compliment to the soft thick cheese melted in there. The sandwich is not spicy but has a nice tang to its melt in your mouth bites.

Strongest Flavor: That aioli sauce! So good!

Weakest Flavor: Nothing

Final Verdict: A

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Cupcake Shake from The Pop Shop Review

So when you think cupcake what comes to mind? For me its a vanilla cake bottom with some kind of icing usually done up to look more glamorous than it actually tastes. The Cupcake shake at the Pop Shop translates what a cupcake is better than my description. The shake has a kind of birthday cake flavor vibe to it as cake is broken up throughout the shake’s vanilla ice cream. It is a delicious thing.

That whipped cream you see at the top? It is actually a big glob of icing covered in sprinkles. This provides a genuine cupcake combination with the ice cream cake mix down below. The only downside is there is a lot of icing and if you don’t have a strong stomach for that amount of pure sugar you will be hurting later. You won’t regret it though.

Strongest Flavor: Cake + Vanilla ice cream

Weakest Flavor: Sprinkles, pretty but tasteless

Final Verdict: A

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Oreo Cookie Shake Review

It is hard to screw up a milkshake and luckily this one isn’t one of the few. The Oreo Cookie shake at the Pop Shop is a basic vanilla shake with chocolate syrup drizzled throughout with whipped cream sitting on top covered in crushed cookies. Basic doesn’t mean bad though as the shake is delicious it just doesn’t go in scary territory or have many exciting components to it.

Final Verdict: B

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Taco Bell AM Crunchwrap Review

Taco Bell breakfast sounded horrible until you remember that breakfast burritos have been a thing for awhile and they are completely delicious. Taco Bell like most fast food is a you get what you pay for affair and it shouldn’t be shocking that the entire package here doesn’t look terribly appetizing. Fortunately the potato in the burrito really saves the item from being a complete wash. The eggs are bland, the sausage tastes like nothing, and the cheese is not enough to keep it together. At least they didn’t use nacho cheese.

The AM Crunchwrap shows that Taco Bell breakfast is just a bad idea. Instead of being a combination of ingredients that tastes good and makes you feel bad about yourself, it comes off as hospital food having Mexican breakfast. The entire thing is completely bland and best served to those recovering instead of those looking for a delicious way to start your day. 

Strongest Flavor: The potato

Weakest Flavor: The sausage

Final Verdict: F

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Your Own Private Idaho from The Pop Shop Review

Your Own Private Idaho is described by the Pop Shop as “A Huge double heap of our shoestring hash browns covered with melted Cheddar and topped with two eggs sunny-side up served with choice of toast”. I like the Pop Shop but it is a busy place no matter when you visit. So I’m not going to hold it against them that I asked for white toast and got mullti-grain (gross). The real focus is the eggs and hash browns. The hash browns were cooked nicely not too raw or burned. The cheese really makes every bite melt in your mouth. Cutting the sunny-side up egg and letting it run through the cheesey hash browns is really heavenly.

I would order this again in a heartbeat. The elements of the dish were cooked well and together they were perfection. Again my only issue was the toast error.

Strongest Flavor: That perfect sunny side up egg

Weakest Flavor: That toast 

Final Verdict: B

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Cotton Candy Ice Cream Review

Ignore the tacky receipt I forgot to move but the ice cream at September Farm Cheese looks like something out of a movie set. The flavors are all pretty vibrant and delicious sounding so after lots of indecision my girlfriend and I shared this bright and colorful cotton candy ice cream. You would expect looking at this picture that it would be a very flavorful ice cream but it really isn’t. I had to remind myself that cotton candy by nature is just pretty colored sugar that tastes like nothing. That is exactly what this is, which I guess could be kind of unsettling.

This is one of those cases where it is an appetite to your eye only. By definition it has no flavor and the disappointment that this is spot on is a weird conundrum. It should be what it is but you really really want more.

Strongest Flavor: Sugar

Weakest Flavor: Flavor

Final Verdict: D

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Pear Butter Review

Went to September Farm Cheese with my girlfriend and they have lots of great samples of cheese, dips, and even something like Pear Butter. Well I liked it enough to buy some and here is why. The Pear Butter is a jelly consistency but it doesn’t have the issues a lot of jellies can have (see Apple Jelly). It has the sweet taste of pear without being too sweet or offensive to people that don’t even enjoy pears (I used to love them as a kid but I’ve cooled extremely).

If you like Apple Butter which you likely have had give Pear Butter a shot, its a less tart version of that. 

Strongest Flavor: Sweet Pears

Weakest Flavor: N/A

Final Verdict: B

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Fried Oreos from Richman’s Ice Cream Company Review

My girlfriend and I ended up down in Brigantine New Jersey for a day trip to the beach there and wanted Ice Cream before we made our way back. We had ice cream that was delicious but I had to try the fried oreo. I’ve never gotten a chance to so why not this time?

Going to be honest I have grown tired of powdered sugar over the years and this is no exception. The actual Fried Oreos were delicious. You really can taste that chocolate center but you can pretend the cream doesn’t exist because it just makes everything else sweeter. The rest of the little fried dough balls essentially tasted like funnel cake.

So this isn’t a knock against these but I’m not big on funnel cake. Its an ok sweet that I’ll have once a year but not something I’m knocking people over to get my hands on. The Fried Oreo falls in that exact category even though the oreo was the highlight. 

Strongest Flavor: Fried Dough

Weakest Flavor: Powdered sugar, yeah I know I’m a horrible person

Final Verdict: B

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Shaq Soda Vanilla Cream Review

The Day 711 got these in I happened to be there and even got my find on the food blog Impulsive Buy. I also bought a Vanilla Cream Soda and dear god what a mistake that was. I used to drink a lot of soda, not so much these days so I can tell you the appeal is that sugary sweet bubbling taste. It should have a good smell, a good taste, and a good after taste to really be worth the poison your ingesting. Shaq Soda isn’t any of these. It lacks a smell, it tastes like a watered down flat soda and it has a wretched aftertaste on par with a wet dog.

Shaq Soda would lose a taste contest to dollar store sodas. It is a pretty abysmal excuse for a soda that if it succeeds, hopefully not, will solely be based off of the Shaq name. I like the branding but man oh man its like drinking a Shaq freethrow, no way in hell it hits the basket.

Strongest Flavor: Disappointment, Water

Weakest Flavor: Vanilla Cream Soda

Final Verdict: F

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The Pop Shop's Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake

It looks heavenly and tastes pretty damn good too but this milkshake has a bit of an issue. It’s not that its a chocolate peanut butter mix but its full of peanuts at the bottom. It is a strange decision and only slightly takes away from the shake. Just slightly. Otherwise it’s very good with the right texture you want in your milkshake. A lot of milkshakes are just too thick and its like they threw solid blocks of ice cream in a cup. This nailed the smooth flavor, and man did it nail presentation.

Strongest Flavor: Chocolate

Weakest Flavor: Weird sunken peanuts at the bottom

Final Verdict: C

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The Pop Shop's Breakfast Burger Review

Back in the Summer my girlfriend and I went to The Pop Shop in nearby Collingswood NJ. We had been wanting to go for some time and finally did one evening. The place had a great look to it and was extremely packed but in a good way, lively crowd for sure. I should have gotten a shot of the menu cause it is huge! The breakfast burger is on white toast with american cheese, bacon, fried onions, hash browns, and a fried egg. It’s a whopper of a sandwich and if you are into burgers, breakfast, and mountains of sandwiches this is the item for you.

The Breakfast burger was everything I wanted. I always feel I can order a meal and there is something flat out missing or questionable but it wasn’t the case here. Not for those who aren’t in a serious relationship with breakfast.

Strongest Flavor: Fried Egg it was a standout, Hash browns a close second

Weakest Flavor: Bacon was sadly a little weak

Final Verdict: B

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The Schmitter Sandwich Review

In the summer I made it to one Phillies game and I dropped some money on the Schmitter, it always is a great idea. The Schmitter is the Phillies ballpark’s signature item (each ballpark usually has one). The sandwich is an amalgamation of several sandwiches into one, or at least that’s what you tell yourself as you suffer from your heart attack. The thing has a freaking diagram to tell you it has lots of cheese, meat and a sauce I can only assume is made up of every sauce on the planet.

A Must have anytime you go to a Phillies game. The Sandwich can be your entire calorie intake for the day most likely and it’s extremely satisfying. If you don’t like strong sauces though that borderline on Mustard/Horse radish levels of strength then the sandwich may not be for you.

(They stopped selling this at Phillies games and the Phillies haven’t been good since)

Strongest Flavor:  That Sauce!

Weakest Flavor:  The Onions

Final Verdict: A

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Taco Bell's Grilled Stuft Nacho Review

Taco Bell’s new item they have come up with using the four or five ingredients they have in house is a stuffed nacho (Or STUFT Nacho). It’s pretty close on the outside to what it’s being marketed as but the inside is a different story. While I am lacking a picture the insides of the actual stuffed nacho is kinda disappointing. There isn’t much meat inside or at least it is overpowered by the incredibly bad tasting nacho cheese they use inside of it. The picture used in promotions is a lot better sounding than the actual product. I would have loved a meat filled nacho with the mozzarella cheese they use on tacos, and the pepper flakes they shown in the picture. Instead it’s a sloppy triangle of nacho cheese and meat that makes you regret forking over money to Taco Bell. Usually their limited time items are pretty good, not this one though.

The Stuft Nacho fails for me because it isn’t close to what was advertised and what you get is a revolting mix no one should suffer through. Nacho cheese is a tricky beast and it’s hard to tame if you don’t have something called a Nacho. Taco Bell tortillas are either soft, rock hard crumbling shells, or Dorito chips. None of them have the consistency you’d want with Nacho Cheese which is why their actual nachos are what you’d expect. Skip this mess of nacho cheese stuffed in a pressed tortilla.

Strongest Flavor: Nacho Cheese….ugh

Weakest Flavor: Pepper? I would have killed for any spice and I hate spicy food

Final Verdict: F

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Made: Chicken Cornbread Stuffing

So a couple weeks ago my mom suggested I make fried chicken but instead of a traditional breading to use the box of cornbread stuffing we had. It was an experiment that actually worked well. If you have ever done Shake N Bake the process of breading the chicken was pretty close to that. The breading gave the chicken a light spicy flavoring and a savory crunch so it was definitely a mission success. It would have been easier if our stove was perfectly level, it is far from it, so the cooking was somewhat challenging as the oil tried to eat me alive.

Cook Level: 3/5

Grade: B

For Next Time: I’m a fan of sauces and this could have really used one. Otherwise there isn’t much I’d do differently

Ingredients Used

Chicken

Cornbread Stuffing

1 Egg

Basic Recipe I kinda Just Winged

1. Used a rolling pin to grind up the Cornbread Stuffing because we don’t own any sort of mixer/blender

2. Cracked a single egg in a bowl to get that stuffing to stick

3.Dunked each chicken strip in the egg and then into the plastic bag filled with crumbs

4.Threw a few strips at a time in a pan with oil

5.Cooking time will vary, for me it was about ten minutes per batch

6.Enjoy

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Made Awhile Ago: Broccoli and Cheddar Soup (Panera copycat)

I’ll keep this one brief since I made this back in January of last year and no longer have the recipe I used, although I could probably google it easily. I love Panera’s Broccoli and Cheddar soup so I made this just as fattening if not more but oh so delicious copycat. It was nice and thick just like the Panera original and the only difference is mine had a lot more broccoli in it. One of my first successes on my journey through cooking, baking, and making.

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Made: PB&J With Banana

The classically simple, yet delicious Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich with the added deliciousness of banana. Not really much of a cooking effort but who can argue with that delicious taste?!

Cooking Effort: 1/5

Sandwich Grade: A

Ingredients

Lightly toasted white bread

Strawberry Jelly

Smooth Peanut Butter is a must

Banana

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Pineapple Vinegar Review

"Pineapple in the Vinegar makes it a sparkling fruit drink"

I was with my girlfriend and her uncle had bought this bizarre drink and the first thing I thought of was  this is something my friend Sometimefoodie would review. She tried it at first and thought it was revolting and well I felt quite differently. This drink is strangely delicious blend of I really have no clue since the product is only partially in English.

I couldn't taste the vinegar but instead a Pineapple flavored drink that didn't have the strong acidic burn that I so loathe about actual Pineapple juice.

Aside from flavor you gotta love the crazy pouch that is halfway between the design for a Capri Sun and a plastic canteen. The bright packaging catches the eye and they do a nice job of making you at least believe it will be delicious (my girlfriend was lured in at least).

If you can get past the Vinegar taste or rather if you can taste the actual juice and not have vinegar burn your mouth you are in for a treat

Strongest Flavor: Pineapple...

Weakest Flavor: N/A

Final Verdict: B