sonic peach smoothie

This is prob one of those things that woulda been good to try first. But if you have to wait for it to be tried first, you wouldn’t get a blog item. Which is more important: A. a hot new blog item, or B. a lukewarm blog item w/ first-person testimony? I'm going with A. Sonic, which calls itself "one of the few drivein chains left in the U.S." carhops etc. has a peach smoothie, avail for a ltd time only (see? getting the word out ASAP is crucial) made w/ nonfat yogurt & "real" peaches (as opposed to artificial ones?) and providing 110% of yr daily calcium. The ingreds sound wholesome and sonic already has a good track record for bevs; its limeades, for ex, use real limes

NYCE buffet

today: too much news to eat. yet it's all so garbagey that none merits a main course. so we're going buffet style and hold the links pls:
1. Having caught wind of this crazy "gourmet-coffee" thing, Folgers has a new premium line. in folgers world, premium = FLAVORS. except flavors = opposite of premium. anyway, free samples of dreck like "caramel drizzle" & "vanilla biscotti" here if you dare
2. Winestyles - "a new and easy way to shop for wine" - takes Best Cellars' make-wine-EZ concept and dumbs it down further by putting wine in categories such as crisp fruity mellow rich & bold. no need to worry about labels! just walk in & say, "i'd like something rich". snicker. it's sweeping the burbs w/ branches open in FW, flower mound, southlake, grapevine, lewisville, etc and a jillion more set to open in the next 6 mths.
3. remember when McD made a big frigging deal about offering salads? which consisted of 5 chunks of honeydew & 3 walnuts. well McDonald's is now shrinking its "meal-size" fruit salad to "snack pack" size. pretty soon they'll have it down to an airplane-size bag of nuts. they so suck

Waltrina Stovall estate sale

Foodies & collector types should set aside some time this wkend (& next) for the estate sale of Waltrina Stovall, ex-dining critic/vintage columnist at the Dallas Morning News. Stovall, who remains alive, is a well-known collector of vintage memorabilia, w/ special emphasis on food-related items incl. prized glassware & pottery, aluminum trays, and the motherlode: a stash of 3,000+ cookbooks. An inveterate smoker, she also has a fascinating collex of ashtrays, lighters, & other incendiary gadgets. The sale's curated by Ralph Willard, one of Dallas’ best-known estate-sale gurus; for a sneak preview of the stuff, hit www.24-7estatesales.com

Aug 25-27, Sept 1-3 at 5614 Richmond Ave., off Greenville about 4 doors west of Dodie's. 214-826-2584

Olive Oil's Pizzeria: Richardson

back in 1999 - when dallas was still a pizza hellhole, pre fireside pies + campania + coal vines – Olive Oil’s Pizzeria in garland seemed pretty damned good. Owner Frankie Funaro comes from a pizza-making family outside Pittsburgh (PA), and makes his crust, a-chewy-and-flavorful-thing ('least that’s how it seemed back in 1999). He even makes the bread for the subs. toppings are above average - fresh spinach, not frozen – and some pizzas have alternative sauces such as pesto or garlic (instedda tomato). The only prob was location: waay out at 30 & Belt Line, a hike unless you live in mesquite. Now there’s a new, second Olive Oil’s Pizzeria in Richardson, 1 mile W of 75. hoo-rah. And the pizza thing just keeps on mushrooming

581 W. Campbell Rd. #129, Richardson 972-480-9555

Quaker breakfast cookies

as is visible in the adjoining photo, these droopy Quaker breakfast cookies don’t have much going on in the, how to put it, erection dept. but hey here’s a cookie for someone who likes ‘em xtrasoft & loaded w/ high-fructose corn syrup, currently being fingered for obesity in this country. There’s no way to fathom the thinking behind this thing. Maybe breakfast BAR sounded too healthy? It’s not even a great nutrition deal w/ 15% of various vitamins, 34 frigging carbs, & about 8,000 maltodextrins, modified wheat starches, propylene glycol diesters, etc etc etc. it’s depressing quaker even made this.

This is not brand new but since quaker’s blog-savvy publicist sent these out to a bunch of food blogs, nyce joins impulsive buy in a joint post today. Synergy!

Chicago St. Pizza: McKinney

A gift for far-north fans of the Chicago-pizza thing: an offshoot Chicago St Pizza, opening in McKinney sept 1. the 1st branch in plano has earned the praise of sharp-eyed local experts, so mckinney-ites R lucky. (The chain headed north cuz that’s where owners Azir & Resmie Hani live.) DFW looks to be on the front end of a pizza explosion, w/ the fireside pies chain-lette expanding, plus 2 new chains coming to town in 2007: Garlic Jim's Famous Gourmet Pizza, a WA state outfit w/ "gourmet toppings" such as almond slivers or coconut (and why not, I say); and zpizza, kindof a CPK knockoff (and what better pizza to knock off, I say)

2414 W University Dr, Mckinney 972-548-7050

Quaker Steel Cut Oats

it's so great/annoying when big corps accustomed to making $$ on less than healthful prods hafto kowtow to public demand for healthier stuff. McD’s is the biggest example, tho the one that bugged me bigtime was ocean spray who kept making crappy sugar-loaded cranberry juice until Northland succeeded w/ an all-juice brand & ocean spray finally gave in and followed suit. quaker steel cut oats isn’t quite the same since its regular rolled oats are good 4 U. come to think of it, these new steel cut oats prob represent more an expansion by quaker into the yuppie foodie realm. Hm; that makes my whole thesis somewhat flawed. Oh well. but surely quaker is responding here to the encroachment of McCann’s, right? I mean, I’m not all wrong.

hershey's choc truffle kiss*

Haven’t visited kisses in a while (e.g., totally, willfully, arbitrarily skipped the special ed coconut-creme kiss) so let’s do Hershey a huge freaking favor w/ this puny blog item on their dark-choc choco truffle kiss. an ooey-gooey soft-centered version of their now-year-round solid dark-choc kiss. Dark choc wuz already a blooming flavor trend, but then a study decreed that its antioxidants make dark choc "good for you", and now it's off the hook, not so diff from the oat bran craze in the 90s. other pertinent examples: 1. How bout the fact that dark-choc M&Ms just got bumped up to the year-round team? 2. How bout carnation adding a new dark choc flavor to its instant-breakfast mix, which was a totally cool new product if you happened to be growing up in new England in the 70s.

*no links, sorry, back in the groove, blah blah blah

Back Yard Burgers

Having not actually tried the food at Back Yard Burgers it’d be unfair to pre-judge this burger chain which just opened its first local branch. But conclusions can be drawn from the raw data, yes? Thus: Anything that seems like a + will be hilited in blue; negatives will be red. The chain was formed in Mississippi in 1987. the standard is a 1/3-lb made w/ black angus beef. they offer a smaller 1/8-lb option. they have a handful of themed burgers such as the Hawaiian "dipped in Hawaiian sauce" and topped w/, among other things, grilled pineapple. plus a choice of fries: incl waffle, seasoned, or chili. Also chick-breast sandwiches, hot dogs, baked potatoes, salads, & cobbler. There’s 175 Back Yard Burgers in 20 states. Some people like them; some don’t.

10930 N Central Expwy (@ Royal). 214-361-8544

Ben & Jerry’s MilkShakes

Hm. Regard, if you will, the packaging on the new Ben & Jerry’s MilkShakes. Note the bottle's thick, stubby proportion. Its squat, flat cap. It seems – I dunno – familiar. So what lies inside this bottle? Why it’s a milky beverage. Hmf. Comes in three B&J ice-cream flavors: cherry Garcia (aka cherry), chunky monkey (aka banana), & choc fudge brownie (aka choc). And sold at grocery/conv stores. Coincidentally, this new line is part of a partnership between B&J and pepsi. The same pepsi that puts out Sbux' bottled frappuccino drinks. Howdya like that

*photo coincidentally has the same "shake it" slogan found on the B&J website