FoodIRL: A Progress Report

I’ve been posting a daily food comparisons to Food In Real Life for 50 days now, and a few people have asked me, “Chris, aren’t you going to run out of food in your house to post to your blog?” To those naysayers, I simply show the following picture:

Part of our pantry

This is one of three shelving units in our basement pantry, stocked to the brim with pre-packaged food just waiting to be compared to its packaging. (Keen-eyed observers will notice 18 boxes of pop-tarts on the third shelf; you just never know when a mega-craving will hit you.) And these are just the dry goods – I haven’t even taken a picture of our freezer yet.

To those nay-sayers who will say, “Chris, are you just posting this picture in an attempt to get out of writing a full-fledged review for today?” I say, don’t you have better things to do than to keep asking me questions?

Readers: feel free to leave a comment requesting a food to be IRL’d. Odds are I have it on hand, and if I don’t, well, you can tell I’m not shy at the grocery store.

20 Comments

  1. Carol says:

    I’d like to see a review of the Wanchai Ferry frozen Chinese food.

  2. Melody says:

    I’d like you to try and rate an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat). I still have some from Hurricane Ike, actually, if you don’t have any, and I think I can send one to you.

  3. Jen says:

    Dude, either you’re ready for the next natural disaster, or you’re justthisclose to becoming a hoarder…!

  4. Blurgle says:

    I was going to ask the same thing. I’m not knocking the blog owner, everybody has the right to eat what they want, but I think he/she has eaten more processed food in the month I’ve been following this than I’ve eaten in 25 years. Some of these things I didn’t even know existed.

  5. hollynoel says:

    If you have more of the Trail Mix Crunch cereal behind the one shown, I know someone who would be grateful to have it. Especially since they can’t find it in their town. How are those infants graduates things you have on the second shelf? The fruit strips of that brand are really good.

  6. segfault says:

    Wow… How large is your family? Your stockpile looks well-organized. How do you ensure you use stuff before it goes stale?

  7. rabi says:

    I want to see some amy’s stuff on here.

  8. Grissino says:

    I just want to thank you for your work! It’s very funny to see the differences! Thanks!

  9. Ashton says:

    Haha that’s great. It looks exactly like what I keep in my kitchen, except the storage area is open shelving rather than built pantry furniture! Thank god for the teachings of my grandma – buy more than you need this time and you’ll never be without.

  10. Annapolitan says:

    The second I saw your supply, I thought “Mormon.” I’m glad someone else asked.

    To answer your question: Mormons are obligated to stockpile nonperishable food items to get them through unexpected lean times (loss of job, etc.), but also because they believe in the end times where calamities will prevent them from being able to find food.

  11. Becky says:

    Do you eat ANY fresh food?! Everything is either frozen, dried or preserved in some way!
    Well, I hope that the food keeps you preserved long enough to write another blog entry……..love this site.

  12. FoodIRL says:

    Thanks!

  13. FoodIRL says:

    Just an average hoarder I guess. Do Mormons keep large food stocks on hand? I wasn’t aware of that.

  14. Name says:

    Hey,

    I just wanted to say I love your site, and it probably makes me more excited to see a new item on your blog than any other of my RSS feeds. So.. Thank you!

  15. GingyNorth says:

    I’ll be there, if there’s yarn. I can clothe us.

  16. Name goes here... says:

    I’m going to your house when the zombie apocalypse comes. With my guns, and your food, we can last a few years till it passes

  17. Eating The Road says:

    Nice stash you’ve got yourself there. I’m curious as to what you think of those Golden Oreo Crème Cakesters there. Also…Synder’s are top-notch but you’ve got to get the Honey Mustard and Onion Pretzel Pieces variety…so good.

    Ler’s see the fridge/freezer!

  18. orchid64 says:

    I don’t think you can “run out” of stuff to show. After all, you always have to buy food and can try new things.

    One interesting thing about food in real life is that, in Japan (where I currently reside), the food often looks pretty much the same on the packaging as it does in real life. I think they tend to dress it up less than photographers in the U.S.

  19. wringz says:

    Are you Mormon? or just your run of the mill food hoarder?

  20. Julia says:

    Ahaha, this reminds me of when I was a kid…
    My paranoid dad had us have a stash in the basement– a whole wall full of boxed and canned food and bottled water and juice– for what he called the “Saddam Stash”, in case war broke out and we got stuck in our house for months.
    As I recall, we had some pretty well-fed mice in our house, but we never used most of the food down there.

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