Starbucks started to roll out its value meal breakfast pairings today.  $3.95 will get you a coffee and an egg sandwich, oatmeal, or coffee cake.  When bought together, the items will save customers $1.20.  The company has been plagued as being a premium coffee and food provider and the breakfast pairings is a strategy to break existing consumer perceptions.  Not too mention the stiff competition that it has been facing from McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.
The company is also doing a bit of menu manipulation to further emphasize bargain drinks …

Here’s your chance to try out Baskin Robbin’s new BRight Choices frozen treats line for free.  Just swing on by any Baskin Robbins between 11am and 10pm on Thursday, January 15th and present them your gym membership card.  The slow churned light ice cream contains 50% fewer calories and contains 20% less fat than an ordinary 2.5 oz serving of ice cream.  There’s also a sugar-free ice cream, a fat-free and dairy-free fruit sorbet, and a fat-free frozen yogurt.

I was at my friend John’s housewarming party in Brooklyn today.  He had the grill all fired up and the food was delicious.  There was one food item that caught my attention.  It was the purple yam, also known as the Okinawa Sweet Potato.  I was pretty sure it was of the Japanese variety because he roasted regular Japanese sweet potatoes as well.  You would think that I would have a natural aversion with something that has purple meat, but in fact, I couldn’t wait to eat one.  The best part …

Image via Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/hello_naomi/2210569000/in/set-72157603771581849/
What happened to the orange ghost, Clyde (Pokey)?
Weheartit via Fidgit

It’s about a hundred degrees in the New York and Jersey City area right now. Boon and I stepped out of the office for lunch at the cafe across the street and afterwards, we needed a way to battle the hot and humid weather. The prescription? The Mister Softee Ice Cream Truck of course. Armed with vanilla soft serve ice cream cones, we showed the weather who’s boss by ripping into the frozen delights. It was five minutes of ice cream bliss.

Boon delightfully awaits the …

Mochis are a popular confectionery treat in Japan. It’s a round glob of sweet glutenous rice paste that’s sticky and chewy. It can be eaten in a number of different ways, such as with with red bean paste and sesame paste. A variant of mochi, mochi ice cream can be found in many Asian supermarkets in the States and come in flavors such as green tea, taro, and red bean. Well, the Japanese have taken the mochi to the next level. By placing a slab …

I loved the SO Delicious brand of soy-based vanilla ice cream, but I recently discovered something better. I decided to give the Soy Dream brand a try after the SO Delicious brand was sold out. I ended up preferring the Soy Dream brand.
Feeling that I should give the SO Delicious a second chance, I later placed the two products head to head for a flavor and texture comparison.

Flavor – Soy Dream has a more natural vanilla flavor and doesn’t have this hint of aftertaste, I can’t make out …

Image: Kin
The sweet potato, or the yam as some call it, is often overlooked until the Thanksgiving season. If you’re looking to snack smart, try making baked sweet potato wedges. This vegetable is packed with vitamins and is a great alternative to eating potatoes as it ranks on the lower spectrum of the glycemic scale.
Baked Sweet Potato Wedges
Ingredients

2 – Sweet potatoes
2 – Teaspoons of oil
Salt
Pepper

Cut the potatoes into wedges, this can vary depending on the size of the sweet potato. Make sure you use a strong …

My Girl Scout cookies have finally arrived.   I usually don’t eat cookies, but since this is a fundraiser, I bought 3 boxes a few weeks ago.  Of the ten varieties to choose from, I bought the following:  Caramel deLites (aka Samoas), Shortbread (aka Trefoils), and new for 2008, Cinna-spins.  I’m not going to eat a lot of these, so I’ll just leave these out on the table at work.
Check this out, the carton of Cinna-spins cookies contains five-individual 100-calorie packs for those who are calorie conscious.  I’m not sure …

Regular and Green Tea Ice Cream Rolls

Images: Kin
One of the most popular appetizer items at my dad’s restaurant back in the day were the Peking Duck Rolls. I still remember how I used to make these in the kitchen. It was very simple to make. All that was needed was a piece of duck meat and skin, scallions, and plum or hoisin sauce, all wrapped in a flour crepe and microwaved at medium-high heat for about a minute. I was watching a cooking show and crepes …