nutella truck tour!

i heard the nutella truck was in town and thought i would check it out!

     i had read that it was going to be at K-days, which i was not going to, but then i saw it - on the overpass OUTSIDE the gate to get in!  So, yipiee!  Free nutella!  and yes that grey background is the sky which was kind of miserable and did spit on me a bit.

      the food truck had 2 options a belgian waffle or a fresh fruit skewer (2 bananas & 2 strawberries) both with nutella of course!  and while i love fruit (though i do not do bananas) ..belgian waffle with nutella is what brought me here to begin with.  YUM!

    it was nice and warm and ooey and gooey.  And that is not all!  I also got a free nutella "spife" - that's a spoon/knife, like a spork but deadlier!  They also had one of those claw game things?  where you try and grab a prize - i did not win.  The prizes were 'empty' nutella jars filled with things.. i think they had things like bubbles and fold up frizbees and things of that nature.   I also got my very own jar label with my name printed on it, how fun!

New Fruit - Granadilla

     New fruit! the granadilla or the Passiflora Lingularis which is a type of passionfruit, or in the same family as the passion fruit?  one of those things!

     I have seen them in the fruit store before, but they are always rather expensive.  So, when i saw them on sale for $1 i grabbed one up right away and was super excited!  I have only ever had a passion fruit (a purple passion fruit) once and it was really yummy!  Passion fruit is not a common flavour up here in the cold north.
    

     This fruit is so pretty too!  It has a lovely hard orange outer shell with little spots.  It is larger than the purple passion fruits that i have seen, a bit bigger than fist size maybe?  (but i might have small fists)  Wikipedia says: "The fruit is between 6.5 and 8 cm long and between 5.1 and 7 cm in diameter."  (that is abut 2.5 to 3 inches long and 2 to 2.75 inches in diameter).
    After cutting it open it looked like this:

     Lots of little edible black seeds covered in a sweet translucent flesh.  I do not know how to describe the flavour, but it tasted yum!  I do remember that it tasted somewhat different than the purple passion fruit that I had before, but the flavour was similar.  It was very sweet and fruity!  And the seeds were crunchy and not at all bitter or unpleasant.  I know some people will eat pomegranate seeds along with the fruit around them, but i do not like that at all. 

    I pulled out the seeds into a bowl so that i could eat them while watching some tv and it reviled a pleasant surprise!

     The inside was covered in tiny little tentacles!  Like some sort of strange sea anemone or something!  Fruit anemone!  Fun stuff!
 

gardein - crispy Pocket Meal stuffed with Kale, Barley and Sun Dried Tomates

     Well!  Finally posting about the final pocket meal from gardein!  I actually got this ages ago & when i just looked it up on the web site, they are now calling it a crispy chick'n with veggies, which is actually somewhat more accurate.

     This pocket meal is quite a bit different than the other 2 they offer.  This one is sold individually, so it is a bit larger.  It had a bit more of a complex cooking procedure, if you want to call having to flip it half way complex.  Microwave on med for 80 sec, flip and microwave again for 80 seconds, then let rest 2 min.  Or,  bake in the toaster oven for 12, flip again for 12 and then let rest 3 min.  (and you can broil each side for 3min for extra crispiness)  I microwaved mine, i think i did a min each side and then it was good, just a little hole with not too much ooziness.

      So, the pocket itself is an oval shaped thing with a 'crispy' outer layer.  I say 'crispy' in brackets because, well, i guess the layer is crispy and tasty enough, but it is super thin and falls off really easily (mine did anyway).  I found the crispy layer to not be a feature of the product because of this, so i thought it was kind of strange.

   i cut the thing open and pulled out the insides to have a look!

     The first three vegetable ingredients are spinach, kale and onion.  It also contains brown and wild rice as well as pearl barley, all of which were obviously visible.  and finally some sundried tomatoes.  plus a bunch of other ingredients to make up the sauce.
     So, then when i shoved all the stuff back in and finally tasted the thing is when i got my surprise!  I had noticed that it had a fairly thick soft outer shell, but figured it would be some sort of spongy weird breading.. you never know!  But!  it is made from their fake chicken product!  Surprise!  Not at all what i was expecting!

    So all this rice-y veggie saucy stuff is surrounded by a thick pocket of chicken and coated with a thin layer of crispy breading!  I thought the sauce tasted somewhat similar to that of the italian pockets, if that helps any.  I think the name is a bit misleading: crispy pocket meal stuffed with kale, barley and sundried tomatoes.  The crispy layer pretty much just fell off, and the thick layer of chick'ny stuff made it pretty soft and juicy not crispy.  Plus, if i want to get picky, it is stuffed with kale, barley and sundried tomatoes, but it has more spinach and rice in it than kale and barley.  The name 'crispy chick'n with veggies' is much more suiting.
     Overall, i think it was just too meat-y for me.  I love gardein's chick'n products! (especially the tenders & the bbq wings, which i can not find here anymore!)  but this was just too much for me.  I think i needed some breading or more rice or some grains or something like that to offset it.  I think my favourite of the 3 pocket meals is the italian sausage one!  I have a similar problem with the pulled porkless, too meaty!  but both are good!
my post about the BBQ Pulled Porkless Pocket Meals and the Italian Sausage, Roasted Red Pepper & Spinach Pocket Meals