If you recall, I’ve reviewed a Clif Mojo bar before- the peanut butter pretzel flavor. You may also recall that while I didn’t hate it, I definitely didn’t think I’d purchase one again. Well lo and behold I went and did just that when I stumbled upon this delightful looking white chocolate macadamia flavor.

I love white chocolate, and macadamia nuts. What could go wrong?

Let’s start with the stats. 190 calories with 11 grams of sugar and 8 grams of protein. All well and good here.

The ingredient list is mostly organic with very few funky ingredients to complain about.

Appearance: Chunky with puffed rice, pretzel bits, macadamia pieces, and white chocolate chunks all held together by a shiny colorless glaze. One side of the bar has more pretzel pieces while the other seems to have all the white chocolate chunks.

Texture: Everything has a very satisfying crunch to it from the crackling puffed rice to the crisp pretzel bits. The nuts and chocolate pieces have a similar oily smoothness and density that feels good as they give way under the strength of your bite.

Taste: There is a very surprising saltiness right from the start. It’s not like individual salt crystals dissolving on your tongue either, but more of an all over saltiness as if the bar was painted with saltwater. It’s jarring at first, the acrid iodine flavor washed over everything makes your jaw tingle just under the ears like you’ve bitten into a lemon.

It’s great when you bite into a white chocolate chip and the saltiness combines with the sweet to make one cohesive flavor, but since the distribution of ingredients isn’t homogenous, some bites are a mouthful of sweet chocolate while others are just an unpleasant saltlick.

As for the macadamias, they’re barely noticeable. There is a faint nuttiness in the back of your throat if you’re looking for it, but really it’s not a huge part of the overall flavor of the bar.

Overall, while I didn’t hate it I didn’t really “get it” either. The pretzel bits seemed out of place entirely and the saltwater flavor was just impossible to get past. I would have liked this better if the nuts were salted rather than the binder and if the whole thing were better distributed so that most bites will have a bit of everything in them.

I’m really just not feeling this whole “put pretzels in everything” business that Clif Mojo has going on, so this product line as a whole is probably just not for me. And I can’t for the life of me figure out what is giving the entire bar that bathed in saltwater taste when there doesn’t seem to be a colossal amount of sodium in it.

Also….where my macadamias at!?!? What a tease.

What is your favorite nut? (I’m a cashew and hazelnut fan myself.)

November 30, 2011 Alayna Discussion 10 comments

After all the homey comfort food we’ve been eating for the last week, Jeff and I were both craving a totally different sort of comfort food – Chinese.

If you’re familiar with Atlanta, then you know that Buford highway is the place to go for “ethnic” restaurants. There’s tons of great Korean barbecue, Vietnamese pho and bahn mi, slow-roasted Mexican pork in hand made corn tortillas, and of course some awesome Chinese offerings that go far beyond the general take out fare.

Cafe 101 is easily our favorite Chinese place. It’s a quirky little round building with sort of a clamshell roof, you can’t miss it.

The walls are absolutely covered in magazine clippings and ceiling is a bit like a cathedral.

We started with some hot jasmine tea to warm up from the cold weather we’ve gotten hit with this week. Floral and soothing like chamomile.

And we’re always given these little starter dishes of spicy cucumbers that have been only lightly pickled and a type of seaweed that I’m completely unsure of the name of.

And here’s where we proceeded to order entirely too much food, starting with some pork dumplings and some hot and sour soup.

The dumplings were so soft and flavorful and the soup was full of tingly pepper that clings to the back of your throat.

We were both dying for mapo dofu, a crazy-spicy dish of tofu in a chili-heavy sauce. It was so good! The tofu actually had a distinct bean flavor that is sometimes missing from commercially-made tofus, and the sauce was the kind of spicy that makes you sweat and pant like a puppy.

We also got the duck buns, crispy-skinned duck on hot steamed buns with sour plum sauce and green onion. They actually brought all the fixins to the table and assembled the duck buns right in front of us.

I love this type of Chinese steamed bread, it’s so pillowy like a marshmallow. The duck was pretty fatty and I ended up picking off the larger hunks of fat, but it was still amazing.

As if we weren’t about to explode already, the server brought us a few slices of fragrant Chinese melon for a dessert and palate cleanser. Cool and crisp.

We took a ton of food home and had it for lunch the next day. Mmmm, mapo dofu for lunch.

Cafe 101 is kind of a special place for me. I remember the day we got our wedding rings in the mail. Jeff and I agreed to meet at Cafe 101 for lunch and to see our rings for the first time, but they were closed when we got there. We ended up going to another Chinese place in the area yet for the longest time I completely forgot that that happened and was convinced that we’d saw them at Cafe 101 for the first time. So now that place is kind of tangled up in that memory and for some reason means more to me than the restaurant we actually ended up at.

Do you have a restaurant that is special to you for no real reason?

November 29, 2011 Alayna Discussion 10 comments

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Our leftovers are officially gone, sad.

This year we had a Thanksgiving lunch with Jeff’s family. So happy that Jeff comes from a family of good cooks. Everything was delicious!

I made entirely too much food. I always do that, even at home.

My contribution this year was bacon buttermilk mashed potatoes. Not the least bit healthy, but so so so good!

Bacon buttermilk mashed potatoes

A decadent side dish of creamy buttermilk mashed potatoes with crispy bacon bits.

Ingredients

• 15 medium-sized yukon gold potatoes
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 8 to 10 strips of bacon
• salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Directions

1. Peel and chop potatoes and boil until tender. Drain and add to the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. In a medium saucepan, slowly heat buttermilk and butter until melted and warm but not boiling.
3. Pour melted butter and buttermilk over potatoes and mix slowly until incorporated.
4. Add in sour cream and mix through, add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Bake bacon on a wire rack over a baking sheet at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or until crisp.
6. Chop bacon and stir into potatoes.
7. Transfer to a baking dish if you will need to reheat it before serving.

I loaded up on a little bit of everything and definitely went back for seconds.

My favorites are always the sweet potato casserole and the stuffing. I’ve actually never had stuffing that was cooked inside the bird, I think that’s called dressing anyway.

Afterwards, we headed to his aunt Jill and uncle Allen’s house for dessert. There was pecan pie, almond pound cake, and a gorgeous tiramisu cake. (Jill, you rocked this one, that mascarpone frosting was so incredible!)

Jeff and I just finished a huge hunk of that cake last night over more video games and a growler of beer. Hooray for Sunday sales passing in Decatur!

And now, it’s that time of year where I frantically try to complete all of our holiday shopping in a few short weeks because I meant to start months ago but never got around to it. I don’t mess with that whole Black Friday business either, I hate malls.

Making any headway on your holiday shopping?

November 28, 2011 Alayna Discussion 5 comments