Here To Eat: Ace Eats America 10 Plates at a Time

Price: $2.59
Rating: *** / *****

Finals at uni(yes! British slang is awesome) are officially FINISHED. I can not describe the relief obtained with the freedom from that purgatory that they call higher education. I did a little jig in the elevator after the last one was done, much to the dismay and bemusement of the people around me.

Never again will I have to explain the intricacies of phonemes, morphemes, graphemes, and any other -eme word that they decide to make up to confuse me. Never again will I have to consider the advantages of mythril weapons in an era when farming was considered normal and not hickish. At least until the cycle is started again in a few weeks.

So there is some time to be had now. I can play World of Warcraft for 50 hours straight, but I think I'll pass for now. I used my time to go down to the local Trader Joe's and check out their wares. Trader Joe's is a pretty small store compared to supermarkets, but it has so many interesting items that you'll probably stop everywhere lest you miss something cool. I ended up buying a lot more than what I had originally planned. Since my life is now consumed by food and I can not eat without thinking that I need my camera, I bought a lot of things to review. Wow, a day out of school and already my syntax has gone to hell. Run on sentences, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Trader Joe's has more cheese than a romance novel, so I decided to pick some up. I noticed that there was some packaged pasta next to it, so I looked through their assortment until I found one that caught my eye. The ravioli seemed fresh enough and wasn't frozen, so it those had that working in its favor. From the outside, it looks that it can liven up quite a bit after a quick dip in boiling water.

From the outside, that is. The end result is less than spectacular. Since the filling was describe as mushroom and cheese, I was expecting something that was at least somewhat creamy. The mushroom, however, was roughly chopped and there was no trace of cheese flavor or texture to be found. The filling resembled ground beef. That's probably the way they tried to make it, but it just doesn't turn out very well. To make things worse, the pasta is slightly tough and a tad chewy. I know I didn't overcook or undercook it(I tasted it and left some in to see if it would soften up) so I can only assume that it just isn't a tender pasta. It isn't very smooth either, the outer layer is somewhat rough.

Despite my disappointment, the ravioli is decent when eaten with a sauce. The flavor, while a little bland, is not offensive and goes well with other flavors. I added a touch of olive oil, parmesan cheese, herbs, and red pepper flakes. Just don't expect a great meal. The Olive Garden's portabella mushroom ravioli in the cheese sauce is worlds better and just crushes it in term of texture and creaminess, so if you liked that you'll probably be disappointed by the Trader Joe's version. Say what you will about chain restaurants, but it's all food to me. And besides, you can pretend to be like those people from the Olive Garden commercials and laugh through your ENTIRE meal. Don't forget to bring your token light-skinned black friend and leave out other minorities!

Posted by Anthony Nguyen on Saturday, December 16, 2006 at 12:59 PM | Permalink