Food In Real Life

Announcement: Rate Foods With Me!

One of the most common themes in the comments on Food In Real Life is people disagreeing with the ratings I give the foods’ looks: “There’s no way that’s a 4, it’s more like a 2.” “That should be a 4, not a 3.” “Can you even count to 5?”

This weekend, I added a reader rating system to the site so you can all participate in rating the appearances of the foods. (These extra ratings won’t replace mine; they’ll be in addition.)

Since there’s no food in this post to rate, take a look at Saturday’s disgusting Hormel Compleats post for an example. Just click the “Rate This Food’s Looks” link and then click on whichever star you’d rate the food as. (If you’d rate it 3 out of 5, click on the 3rd star.) After you rate it, the page will refresh and show the new average rating for the food from all users.

What do you think of this feature? Can you think of any ways to make it better?

T.G.I. Friday’s Turkey & Bacon Melt Quesadillas

Looks: I would love to see how they were able to take the picture for the packaging. It’s not possible that they even used the same quesadillas that they put in the box, because they don’t come out looking anything like the ad. There isn’t as much filling, the tortillas are much flimsier, and I’m not certain that all of the ingredients shown coming out of the quesadilla are even in there. 1.5 out of 5

Taste: Even though they don’t look like the quesadillas on the box, I think you’ll agree with me that they still look tasty, in an “it’s-really-late-and-i’m-starving-oh-don’t-these-look-good” kind of way. They were pretty good: cheesy filling, meaty pieces of chicken, and soft tortillas. I couldn’t taste any bacon, and the cheese was slightly greasy (which might have been from the MIA bacon), but not too bad overall. 3.5 out of 5

Hormel Compleats Roast Beef with Gravy

Looks: Nothing about the way this looks makes me want to eat it. The gravy is translucent (not thick like on the cover), yet there’s so much of it that you can’t see through it to the potatoes below. The potatoes appear to be a single solid mass, rather than fluffy mounds, and the roast beef slab lurks near the surface like the carcass of a dead Loch Ness monster. None of these things are depicted on the box. 1.5 out of 5

Taste: Craptacular. Even with all that gravy, the beef is so dry that I needed to continually drink bottles of water while I chewed it to avoid dehydration. The potatoes are nasty (closer to modeling clay than vegetable), and the gravy wouldn’t stick to them. I managed three bites of this “Compleat” meal before throwing it away – I didn’t feel comfortable feeding it to my dog. I suppose I should have known it would be terrible; it’s roast beef that you store in your pantry… That’s just not right. 0 out of 5

Walgreens Truffle Cookies

Stef Cirillo sent in this set of snapshots: (Try saying that five times fast.)

Looks: Well, the picture on the box is a cartoon, but I guess the cookies pretty much look like that. The added hilarity is that the cartoon is “enlarged to show texture.” Of the … box? The bitten cookie in real life looks nothing like the cartoon cookie, as I found it difficult to distinguish the caramel from the chocolate. 2 out of 5

Taste: Oh my god these cookies are amazingly delicious. None of the flavors are distinct in themselves, but meld into a delicious, choco-caramelly cookie delight. There’s even a hint of saltiness to offset the sweetness. The cookies are crunchy, the chocolate and caramel gooey. It took a considerable amount of self-control to make these last the three days I had them. Totally exceeded expectations. 5 out 5

Don’t be shy about disagreeing with anything or everything Stef wrote. I know you’re not timid when it’s me doing the commentary. 🙂