This was my second most favorite canned soup. My number one favorite is the old school Chunky Chicken Noodle soup, but they changed their manufacturing contractor years ago and I do not like the current version. The older version had flat noodles, sliced mushrooms, and a thick broth. Today’s version has twisted noodles, no mushrooms, and a very watery broth. It looks and tastes the same as several other brands of chicken noodle soup. Since it is no longer available, Beef Barley is my favorite soup by default.

I remember when Chunky canned soup was $1.99 at the market. The regular price now at Albertsons is $3.49. Sometimes you can get it cheaper when it is on sale or you find coupons, but $3.50 feels expensive for a can of soup, even if you really like it. Fortunately, I found it on Amazon. I bought a dozen a month ago for ~$23, and just reordered two dozen at ~$27/dozen. I usually pour the contents into a plastic bowl and microwave for three minutes. In fact, the can label only gives microwave heating instructions, as if no one uses a stove and pot anymore.

Oddly, Campbell’s website does not include any information on this product. It does have all the other Chunky soup varieties I see at the market. I had to get the nutritional information from the actual label:

	Per Serving	Per Container (2 servings)
Calories	150	310
Total Fat	2g	3.5g
Saturated Fat	0.5g	1.5g
Trans Fat	0g	0g
Cholesterol	15mg	30mg
Sodium	790mg	1710mg
Total Carb.	23g	50g
Dietary Fiber	4g	9g
Total Sugar	4g	9g
Added Sugars	1g	2g
Protein	9g	20g
Vitamin D	0mcg	0mcg
Calcium	30mg	60mg
Iron	1.3mg	2.9mg
Potassium	350mg	780mg

First, the math is a bit wonky. There seems to be two plus a bit servings in each can, but the ratios are not very consistent. There may be even a typo for the Total Fat line. Anyway, the most worrying item is the high sodium content of around 74% DV (but it tastes so good!) and a decent amount of potassium. The carbohydrate content is about 18% DV and 10% DV for cholesterol. I should only eat half a can and pair it with a salad.

After returning from our Europe trip and testing positive for COVID, I found myself trying out grocery delivery for the first time. I have several apps, including Albertsons and Instacart, but decided to try Amazon fresh since I have a Prime account and the physical store is not too far away in Irvine Marketplace. Since “free delivery” was offered on orders > $35, my first order was about $40. That was on June 24. Since then, I have made three more orders, with the most recent being delivered about two hours ago.

Initially I thought the prices would be much higher than if I shopped in person, but the prices on Amazon fresh are competitive with what I find at the local Albertsons. I am still not sure about relative product availability, but I was able to find most items I was looking for. Since delivery is usually after two hours, I have not had issues with frozen or refrigerated goods. I usually tip 10% of the order for the driver so costs may be slightly higher overall, but justifiable. I still go to Albertsons regularly since stuff like soda and bulkier items are not great with delivery. Maybe I will start alternative weeks between online and real-life grocery shopping.

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Hmm, with the Omicron BA.5 COVID variant case count increasing, grocery shopping online also seems a bit less risky of getting infected again. Since the driver sends a notification when he/she is about to arrive, I have been opening up the garage for them so they do not have to navigate the walkway to my front door.

Do not panic! This is not a K-Pop post.

Several weeks ago, my sister needed to pick-up her mother-in-law and my niece from LAX. They were coming inbound from Florida. Since I was still at work, we decided to meet somewhere and get dinner, and I can go home afterwards while she waited for the flight to arrive.

There are lots of Asian restaurants in Gardena, and we ended up going to a Korean tofu place called Lee’s Tofu on the corner of Western Avenue and Redondo Beach Blvd. My sister really wanted the soon tofu so I ordered a dolsot bibimbap (stone pot rice bowl) instead. I was good but the sauce was quite spicy. It was also a bit pricy, and we spent close to $40 for two people. Probably could have used a bit more meat too.

Since my parents moved out, I have had to cook for myself more. They still come over weekly and bring cooked food, take-out, and groceries. During the past two months, I have also been eating one or two meals during my two days at work, but now that I am staying home, I need to find more food options.

I read online that the frozen lasagna from Stouffer’s is pretty good, so I bought a few to try. They are available everywhere; at the local Albertsons, they are $3.49 for the single serving size.

I have eaten about three of these now. I do not eat lasagna that much, but to my unrefined palate, they are pretty tasty. You can either heat them up in the oven or the microwave. For my first taste, I tried using my new toaster oven. However, I think the oven is too small, and the container was too close to the heating element. I likely need a bigger oven to even out the heat. The toaster oven basically melted the container, even though I followed the instructions.

Here is the nutritional information. Not great, but not too bad either. Maybe a bit too much sodium.

Ugh. I tested my blood sugar this morning and it was 350! How did that happen? I ate some leftovers plus some soup for dinner and had a can of soda and some “healthy” chips before going to sleep. The chips had no sugar and very little carbs so I could not figure out what happened. Then I looked at the soda can again, and I had purchased the regular soda instead of the sugar-free version. I must be getting old since this is the third time I have done this.

In my defense, the shelves are confusing at my local Albertsons. I ended up buying Dr. Pepper Cherry when I thought I was getting the Zero version. There is regular Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper Zero, and then various flavors like cherry and cream soda. Anyway, I drank two cans yesterday instead on one, and each can has 42 grams of added sugar. No wonder my blood sugar spiked up so high. I would hate to see what the number was right after finishing the second can.

My dad just asked me to order a pizza for dinner. Evidently, they burnt something earlier, so we need to order out. Being Super Bowl Sunday, I thought the wait would be well over an hour, but the restaurant said 40 minutes. Since the third quarter just ended, I guess everyone got their pizzas for the watch parties already.

I went out earlier today to eat lunch with a friend. We would meet up often before the pandemic and we usually get pho. Since he is way out in the South Bay, we tried to find a place that was near the middle. My Vietnamese coworker recommended Phoholic in Stanton, so we met up there at 11:30 am.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, there was a huge line outside the restaurant. Since I am still leery of crowds, we decided to eat elsewhere. The restaurant is located inside Rodeo 39 Public Market, which is like an indoor open market with lots of food options. It was less crowded than Phoholic, but some eateries did have lines. We ended up at Kra Z Kai’s BBQ, which was a La0-style BBQ place. Since I am still worried about my blood sugar, I just got a chicken salad. My friend did get BBQ chicken with sticky rice to be more authentic. The salad was just okay. There was a lot of chicken and romaine lettuce, but the flavor of the chicken was bland. The dressing, however, was very salty and vinegary, so I mostly tasted the dressing. My friend said the BBQ chicken was pretty good.

Due to its location, there were many Asians at the market/food court. I thought there was still a mask mandate in California for restaurants, but about one-third of the people were not wearing masks. The clientele also trended young, and the entire place felt like it was trying hard to be trendy. Rodel 39 was about 25 minutes from my house. If I lived closer, maybe I would go back to try out more places, but as is, it is too far for a regular destination. Maybe if the pho was really really good…

After getting some not-so-great-tasting Evolve protein shakes from Costco, I decided to try another brand. So far, I have tried Nepro (for dialysis patients), Ensure, Premier Protein, Muscle Milk, and of course Evolve. Taste-wise, the best so far was Ensure and Premier Protein. Since I am running low(ish) on the Evolve protein shakes, I checked out Costco and Amazon again for other options. This time, the least expensive option was Atkins. With only seven grams of carbs and no added sugar, these seemed like an okay choice.

I bought twelve bottles of chocolate and twelve bottles of strawberry from Amazon. The price was about $16 for each 12-pack so ~$1.33 each. I just tried the strawberry this morning, and it tasted worse than the Nepro I drank while on dialysis. There is a heavy medicine taste. I am unsure why that is the case. Is there a protein source that tastes terrible but must be added to all these shakes?

I also finally looked online for some reviews. It seems that nutritionists like the plant-based protein shakes. Evolve was not on any lists but many had OWYN brand. These shakes are expensive, selling for ~$3.50/bottle on their own website for the Pro Elite version. Costco does have the same product for $1.67/bottle (18 for $30) so maybe I will try this next. Hopefully, it does not have the same weird veggie taste.

When I bought the Fried Chicken Bowl from Albertsons, I also bought this too:

After sitting in the freezer for a few weeks, I finally microwaved it and ate it for lunch yesterday. The taste was surprisingly decent. I grew up liking the canned Dinty Moore beef stew, even though it was probably unhealthy to eat. The cooking/heating instructions worked well and there was enough for a small lunch. However, once again, the marketing and packaging photos lie. Here is a photo from the website:

First, the bowl was really shallow. There is probably less than 1/3 of the food amount implied by the photo above. Secondly, I could count 7-8 pieces of beef. That makes sense since this was a “beef” bowl. Imagine my disappointment when in real life, there was only two pieces of beef. Everything else that looked like meat was actually a piece of potato. Again, the taste was fine, but I did not know I was buying a vegetable stew.

It is even worse if you look at the back of the box. You cannot say “meat matters” when there is barely any meat in your beef stew. Shame!

Having said that, I would buy again if the entrée was on sale. I am too lazy to make a table for nutritional information today; it is available online. Basically it has too much salt, but the rest is fine.

I had a large stash of Premier Protein shakes in various flavors: chocolate, café latte, and strawberries & cream. They tasted fine and I was drinking almost one per day for a quick breakfast. The only worrisome item was the high calcium content (650 mg or 50% DV) since my calcium level were borderline high. Well, my supply ran out last week so I was looking to order some more. I am pretty agnostic on the actual brand, and more concerned with the nutritional content and price.

I checked my local supermarket, Amazon, and Costco, and there was not anything on sale. Most shakes were selling for about $2 per bottle. I finally came across this at costco.com. Right now, it is $27.49 for 18 bottles, but it was only $21.99 at the time so I bought two boxes. I was a bit concerned that I have never tasted the brand before but most shakes taste about the same in the past.

I received the shipment via UPS yesterday and I already drank two bottles. The flavor is definitely not similar to the Premier Protein or Ensure. Evolve is advertised as a plant-based protein shake, and I think I can taste the difference. It is not my favorite, but that the price of being cheap. I think I will go back to Premier Protein next time it is on sale at Costco. First I have to finish all 36 bottles of the veggie shake.

Nutritional comparison between Premier Protein and Evolve:

Nutritional Item	Evolve Double Chocolate	Premier Protein Chocolate
Serving size	330mL	11 fl.oz
Calories	140	160
Total fat	2.5g	3g
Cholesterol	0mg	20mg
Sodium	350mg	180mg
Total carbs	17g	5g
Total sugars	4g	1g
Protein	20g	30g
Calcium	200mg	650mg
Iron	4.5mg	2.5mg
Potassium	230mg	320mg

Some minor differences. Is that due to the “plant-based” protein? What is the source of other protein shakes if not plants? Animals? Also, Premier Protein website has a huge list of other minerals and vitamins in their shakes whereas there appears to be no other information for Evolve on their website. The nutritional information listed is the exact same as found on the actual shake packaging. Does that mean Evolve does not have additional nutrients?

Boston Market was a restaurant chain that offered semi-fast food service where you can order meals with carved meats and sides. They were pretty popular at one point, but I am unsure if there are still any stores remaining. Hmm, there appears to be 344 stores remaining across America. The ones that were close to where I live are closed though.

On my last trip to the supermarket, I found these Boston Market frozen entrees. The bowls were two for $5 so I bought two to try. I had the Fried Chicken Bowl just now for lunch. I was too lazy to type out the nutritional information so I just took a screenshot:

I bought this meal because the nutritional content was not too bad. There is a bit too much sodium, but that is typically true for all commercially prepped food. The carbohydrate and sugar content was pretty low so I am hoping that it will not spike my blood sugar. Since there is quite a bit of potatoes, I was concerned about the potassium content. Unfortunately, that information is not listed on the package. As for taste, it is about a 3 out of 5. Because the instructions said to mix the ingredients during microwaving, all the food flavors were mixed together. There was bacon in the mashed potatoes and it overwhelmed the taste of just about everything else. The chicken was okay, but you could not tell that it was “fried” due to microwave cooking. If the price is still $2.50, I would probably buy it again.

Common to all pre-packaged food, the photo on the box does not necessarily match the actual content. Here is the pretty picture on the website:

And here it is after cooking in my 1200 watt microwave:

Definitely not the same. It is also a bit overcooked, even though I took 30 seconds off the cooking time. The bowl was pretty shallow so you are not getting a huge bowl of mashed potatoes implied by the website photo. There was a lot of chicken though. Typically companies skimp on the meat protein part of the meal, but this was pretty filling. I did buy another different Boston Market frozen enteée so I will have to try it later.

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As a comparison, check out the nutritional information for their Sweet and Sour Chicken entrée. There is a lot more carbs and added sugar.

35 grams of sugar! That is ~70% of % daily value and will definitely require more insulin.

Slightly off topic but during a phone conversation with a Korean friend Monday night, she mentioned she just joined Weee!, an online Asian grocery store. My mom also orders regularly from Weee! as well. She also said she ordered some crazy expensive grapes so I had to go look. $43 for 600 grams or $32.50/pound. I think most of the cost is the refrigerated air shipping from Korea, especially when there are barely any flights between Korea and the US. Anyway, my friend received the grapes last night and said they were just so so. She actually likes the bulk Costco grapes better. Looking from the photo, it appears to be about $1/grape.

Other stuff on Weee! is priced more reasonably.

Speaking of not getting a Costco hot dog, I had this for lunch when I got home. It has been sitting in our garage refrigerator for about a month, so I decided to eat it before letting it sit for another month. If you have never heard of P.F. Chang’s, it is a high-end Chinese restaurant chain. Their website says they have 217 locations in the US, with the most in California, Florida, and New York. I have eaten at the Irvine and the Newport Beach locations, and the food is definitely Americanized and quite expensive. It does not mean the food tastes bad or anything, but you will not confuse the flavor with more authentic restaurants, like Sam Woo for example. P.F. Chang’s is more like a fine-dining Panda Express.

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I do not know when P.F. Chang’s started their Home Menu line, but I guess it is the frozen entree version of their restaurant dishes. It is either going to taste like a typical frozen entrée, or taste like the restaurant original, which is hardly a complement. I do not remember the actual food in the restaurant, so I cannot really compare flavors. The only think I recall is that all the wait staff were white (i.e., no Asians).

Back to the frozen Pad Thai. Here is what it looked like coming out of the microwave:

I do not typically have high expectations for frozen entrées, but this was not inexpensive. It is currently “on sale” at Albertsons for $4.79, but the regular price is $5.99. For six dollars, at least use something better than a flimsy paper bowl. All that aside, the taste was not that great. In fact, it was too spicy for me so all I tasted was the spiciness, and nothing else. The box rated it as two peppers. Maybe they were using an authentic Thai spiciness scale so one pepper would have been too much for me. Perhaps someone else would like the taste better. There were a lot of ingredients, and at least I could feel the different textures while eating. Too bad I could not really taste any of it.

Also, I followed the heating instructions closely. The box said heat for 4 to 5 1/2 minutes, which is a huge range for a 1100 watt microwave. I heated for 3 1/2 minutes, checked the temperature with a probe thermometer (110°F), then added another minute. Instructions said the target temperature was at least 165°F, but it was up to 190°F after 4 1/2 minutes in my microwave. The result was that the needles were somewhat harder and chewier than what I expected. Maybe my crazy microwave overcooked the entrée. I did managed to eat the entire bowl, and my mouth was burning for about 30 minutes. I have also tried their frozen Chicken Mini Egg Rolls and there were just meh as well. Based on the mediocre taste and expensive price, most likely I will not buy frozen entrées from P.F. Chang’s in the future. Sticking with my $10 for 3 roasted turkey from Marie Calendars. 🍗

Nutritional information if anyone is interested. Salty and too much added sugar.