You can grab yourself a free scoop of the Dazs's Vanilla Honey Bee flavor ice cream today between 4 and 8 p.m. at participating Häagen-Dazs locations. Find the nearest location here, but call ahead to check if your local shop is in on the free scoopage.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 3, 2008 at 8:00 AM
When you're dieting, real treats are important. How do I define a real treat? Something that makes your eyes grow big as plates when you peel or unwrap it. Something crazy good that doesn't break the bank calorie-wise (less than 200 calories) and that doesn't send you into a guilt-induced food coma. Something creamy, crunchy, and delicious (for me it's something that's also chocolaty). Something substantial enough to savor through a full half-inning of the new baseball season.
A sweet-and-spicy though not very juicy Golden Nugget Mandarin orange, my current favorite citrus fruit, is delicious, wonderful even, but it's not a treat. A perfectly ripe banana with lots of light brown speckles on its skin is a beautiful thing, but it's not a treat. A small bag of lower fat baked potato chips doesn't qualify as a treat either, because although they might be perfectly fine, they're not the real thing, and I know exactly what I'm missing in every pleasant but not great bite.
Until last week I had never found a treat that fit all my criteria, until a plain white box was delivered to our door at Serious Eats that was literally the answer to my prayers.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 17, 2007 at 8:40 AM
From left: Häagen-Dazs's pomegranate ice cream bar and the one from Sheer Bliss.
It's the Ice Cream Bar Fights coming to you from Serious Eats world headquarters. Today's battle is between two heavyweights:
In the near corner, weighing 3 ounces and measuring 3 3/8 inches tall, 2 inches wide, and 7/8 inches thick, from Oakland, California., Häagen-Dazs Pomegranate Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Bar.
In the far corner, weighing 3 ounces and measuring 3 1/4 inches tall, 2 inches wide, and 7/8 inches thick, from Hallandale, Florida, Sheer Bliss Pomegranate Bar Dipped in Rich Dark Chocolate.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 3, 2007 at 9:00 AM
The San Francisco Chronicle food section tasted eight lemon sorbets on Wednesday in search of that perfect sweet-tart ratio, smoothness, acidity, and real lemon flavor. What they found is not pretty: "Too much sweetness, off textures and strange, artificial-seeming flavors ... at least in the opinions of our five tasters."
The national brand that fared best was Häagen-Dazs (72 points out of 100). Häagen-Dazs finished second to Draeger's Sorbet Classico (78), an upscale Bay Area store brand. Ciao Bella (45) finished a distant third.
Sharon's Sorbet, a national brand I root for because it's still independently owned and operated, totally tanked. On the Chronicle's one to 100 scale, it received an 11. Ouch!
The Chronicle's tasting inspired me to do my own mini-tasting featuring Häagen-Dazs, Sharon's, and Ciao Bella.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 17, 2007 at 7:40 AM
Everyone has their own version of a Food Sur-Thrival Kit, a small group of reasonably priced go-to foods that we try to keep around at all times, so that no matter how bedraggled we feel when we get home, we can whip up a pleasure-inducing, satisfying meal in 20 minutes or less at any time on any day of the year. You not only survive on these foods, you thrive on them. Hence the name.
Here's my Food Sur-Thrival Kit.
- Kossar's bialys: (fresh or sliced and frozen) A toasted bialy is just one of life's greatest and simplest eating pleasures. It supplies my daily requirement of crispness and crunchiness. Once the bialy is toasted, I melt a slice of Kraft Deli Deluxe American cheese (see below) on each half—perfecto!
- Kraft Deli Deluxe American slices: They're tangy, they taste like cheese (not cheese food), they're already sliced, and they don't have that shine that suggests they were made in a factory on another planet
- Pre-cooked Penne or Fusilli: If they pre- or par-cook pasta in good Italian restaurants we can, too. I prefer Barilla, but I sometimes have difficulty finding its penne and fusilli.
- Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano: I know the food police are going to arrest me for not grating my own, but so be it. I can live with that
- Nueske's bacon: It's smoky, it's sweet, it's porky. What more could you want out of a food? Makes anything you do with the rest of the kit better
- Allan Benton's bacon: It's in the same class as Nueske's and is a little cheaper, but it's mostly available by mail
- Patsy's or Rao's marinara sauce: I know these two brands cost a couple of bucks more than Prego, but they actually taste like sauce you would make yourself if you had the time
- Häagen-Dazs Raspberry Sorbet and Vanilla Yogurt Bar: 100 calories of fruity, sweet, creamy deliciousness
What's in your Food Sur-Thrival Kit?
Posted by Ed Levine, March 21, 2007 at 2:33 PM
One of the perks of working at Serious Eats world headquarters is that every once in awhile people stop by with food.
A couple of months ago a few folks from Häagen-Dazs stopped by asking us to sample their new Reserve line. They even brought along an oenophile to help us understand just what it was we were going to taste. He was a good guy, but we don't need a wine geek to tell us what's good when it comes to ice cream.
And these flavors were seriously good: Hawaiian Lehua Honey and Sweet Cream, which was kissed with just enough sweet honey flavor, Toasted Coconut Sesame Brittle, which tasted like a good version of one of those desserts you get at a Middle Eastern restaurant, and Pomegranate and Dark Chocolate Bar, which had a mysterious winey flavor (maybe that's why the wine geek came along), were all mighty fine.
We did wish the pomegranate dark chocolate bars had a more pronounced pomegranate flavor. These ice creams cost a buck or two more than regular Häagen-Dazs flavors, but we thought they were worth it. Now the folks at Häagen-Dazs headquarters are giving us enough Reserve ice cream so that ten other Serious Eaters can try these new flavors as well. And because the Häagen-Dazs folks are willing to share the wealth, each of those ten Serious Eaters will be able designate three friends to receive their own shipments of the Reserve flavors. Think of it as a the Häagen-Dazs Reserve Chain Letter, only it's a box of ice cream instead.
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Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 15, 2007 at 9:53 AM
The top ten entries for this year's Häagen-Dazs Flavor Search have been decided and they are: Zinfully Chocolate, Lilikoi Butter with Macadamia Nuts, Lemon Pudding Cake, Ginger Cashew Crunch, Coffee Cake Crumble, Coco y Cacao, Caramelized Pear & Toasted Pecan, Cafe Mocha Biscotti Crunch, Blueberry Belgian Waffle, and Bittersweet Chocolate Pistachio. Vote for your favorite now—the winner will be revealed on March 18th.
(Our Megnut clued me in on the awesomeness of 2006 winner Sticky Toffee Pudding, which did so well as a limited edition that it's now joined the regular flavor rotation and is available in stores. It's my current favorite ice cream!)
[via The Grinder]
