Oct 09 2012

Kashi soft cereal bars – blackberry graham

Some time ago, I reviewed the cherry vanilla flavour of the Kashi soft cereal bars. Those same “Tasty Little Chewy” bars, as Kashi refers to them, come in a couple other flavours as well (strawberry and blackberry graham). I decided to try a box of the blackberry graham variety, since they sounded a bit more unusual than just your standard strawberry:

Kashi - Tasty Little Chewy soft cereal bar - blackberry graham

Like the cherry vanilla flavour, these bars are 35g, and have 3g of fat (none of which saturate). They do, however, have 10 more calories than the cherry vanilla flavour, so if you are VERY strictly counting calories, that might make a difference (but if 10 calories breaks you, you might need to re-examine your eating regimen :razz:). Anyway, these bars are also very good and fairly filling despite their small size. Unlike the cherry vanilla ones, though, they have a texture that I don’t find as appealing. At first, I didn’t notice it, but after having a couple bites, I picked up on a slightly gritty consistency–likely from the graham in the crust. In terms of flavour, I like the blackberry, but didn’t find it to be as strong as it could have been. Also, it lacked the nuance of faint vanilla in the background, which is one of the elements that I really enjoyed about the others.

Overall, if you really enjoy blackberries, you might want to try this variety. Otherwise, I would recommend the cherry vanilla flavour over this one.

Cheers,
Zach

Oct 08 2012

Saffron Indian restaurant – Saint Louis, MO

Now that I am back in Saint Louis, I have been trying a bunch of different restaurants than the ones that I had frequented when I lived here before. Seeing as Indian food is one of my favourites, I have been to several different places in the area in search of good ones. There are a few really outstanding Indian restaurants in the greater Saint Louis area, and they are all great for different reasons. In particular, there are several Indian places on Manchester Road near motorway 270. One such place is Saffron.

Saffron, like many of the others in the area, offers a lunch buffet throughout the week, and on the weekends. A friend of mine and I decided to try it on Sunday afternoon, and we were pleased with it overall. They had many of the “traditional” Americanised Indian dishes (like Chicken Tikka Masala, and curry chicken), but also had a few lesser-known items on the menu. For instance, one of my favourite sides–which is traditionally eaten as a breakfast food–is idly (or idli). They are wonderful with some of the sweeter chutneys like Tamarind/Date or coconut.

Saffron Indian Restaurant - Saint Louis, MO
Click to enlarge

Though they had idlis, I didn’t find them to be all that appealing due to their rough texture. I’m used to idly having a very doughy texture, and being very soft (almost squishy). These were more porous and firm. Not to say that they were bad; they were just different than I was used to. One very nice aspect of the buffet was that they offered plenty of fresh fruits, which are lovely when eating some spicier dishes. This is one of the few Indian buffets that I’ve seen with fresh fruit readily available, and would be one of the reasons to go back.

Overall, whilst not my favourite Indian buffet around, Saffron is definitely worth a visit. As everyone’s tastes and preferences are different, you may find that you really enjoy it. If you do, great; if you don’t, keep trying until you find the place that you love. 🙂

Cheers,
Zach

Oct 05 2012

Disney Nature – African Cats review

Several months ago, Amazon had a “Deal of the Day” for the four-pack of Disney Nature’s films, which included the Blu-Rays for Earth, Oceans, Crimson Wing, and African Cats. At the time I didn’t have a Blu-Ray player–heck, I didn’t own a television–but I thought that the price was far too good to pass. Now that I have a television and Blu-Ray player, I decided to use African Cats as the first viewing, and I was completely blown away!

Disney Nature - African Cats

The picture quality (commonly known as PQ on fora about Blu-Ray and AV equipment) was absolutely incredibly on this release from Disney Nature. The audio quality is not really something that I can adequately judge, as I am just using the built-in speakers on the television. Though they are decent enough, I’ll leave audio quality reviews to those with appropriate sound systems.

African Cats, which is narrated by the fantastic Samuel L. Jackson, follows two different cat families–a pride of lions, and a family of cheetahs. The portion revolving around the lions focuses on a particular pride led by Fang, and their constant territorial battle against Kali and his sons for the land that they call home. The other consecutive storyline follows Sita, a single mother of five cubs, and their struggle to survive in an environment where threats are present at every turn.

Like the other offerings from Disney Nature, African Cats tries to balance information and entertainment value, and I think that it does so quite nicely. There are informative narrative blurbs, panoramic views of the savannah, cute shots of the cheetah cubs play-fighting with one another, and some scenes that tug at the heartstrings as Layla (the mother figure of the lion pride) recognises that her health is quickly fading. Overall, I found this film to be one of the best yet from Disney Nature. Though there are some violent scenes, they are to be expected in a documentary about wildlife, and should not deter you from watching it with the family.

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Cheers,
Zach