I remember back when I was a university student in Japan for a year abroad. I was pining for macaroni and cheese, which was impossible to find anywhere. I found a jar of this Ragu cheddar sauce and mixed it with pasta and ... was extremely disappointed. There was absolutely no flavor. I gave it one more shot, thinking I had just undercooked the pasta or not drained it enough or something, but no. It was just awful sauce.
Fast forward to my wheatless state. I had been purchasing cases and cases of Annie's delightfully delicious macaroni and cheese--deluxe--which was the bestest macaroni and cheese EVER, and I was not about to give up eating macaroni and cheese for something like a wheat intolerance. So I went back to Old Cheesy and hoped I could make it edible.
I read around on the internet and found some people discussing how to add flavor to it. So I poured some of it in a bowl, added salt and pepper, and then some grated cheese. Microwaved it. And put pasta in it. And it was surprisingly edible.
See, here's the thing: Ragu needs to think about upgrading their Double Cheddar to maybe Triple or Quadruple Cheddar, because there is no %@#a&ing cheddar in this sauce. If this is DOUBLE, then maybe quadruple or quintuple would make something with some actual flavor. When I buy a jar of something, I want to use it straight from the jar. I don't want to have cheese on hand to add to cheese sauce. Because that defeats the purpose of buying a sauce. I could make my own sauce.
What is up with all these bland, lackluster cheese sauces? Come on, guys. I checked just to make sure that Tostitos and Ragu were not in cahoots, but Tostitos is Pepsi and Ragu is Unilever.
Do not buy this sauce unless you are either really desperate or else want to add your own special touch to the sauce. It is not worth it. It's simply bad by itself. The alfredo sauce isn't much better, as I recall. There just HAS to be a better cheese sauce out there you can use on pasta or chicken or whatever. Has to be. HAS TO BE!!
Showing posts with label bad cheese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad cheese. Show all posts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Tostitos Salsa Con Queso Medium
That's a big jar. Cheez.
If there's one thing Japan is not quite clear on, it's Mexican food. Not even Tex-Mex style Mexican food. In the mind of Japan, Mexican food = "tacos." Not even ONE taco. It's always plural. "Tacos." There's also Okinawan "taco rice," which people either don't know is pseudo-Mexican food or don't know is Okinawan.
Oh sure, there are a few Mexican restaurants here and there. There are some El Torito outlets about and a few independent restaurants. But what I miss are nachos. Not just nachos, but nachos with neon orange cheese goo. I found a couple of jars and cans of goo, but they were either not very good or contained ingredients I couldn't eat.
I turned to my friends at Foreign Buyers Club to see what they had. They didn't have much. A giant tub of something that would be impossible to store. Six jars of Mrs. Renfro's, which either was not very good (according to someone on the internet) or fine (wishful thinking). And Tostitos brand. I know Tostitos brand is edible for people like me, and it was something I'm sure I'd had in the past and was edible enough. It would do.
I bought some salt-free tortilla chips and waited for my jars of cheesiness to arrive at my door.
Now, the Tostitos cheese goo isn't terrible. It's just not very good either. (Desperate times call for desperate measures.)
I don't generally prefer medium heat, but that was the only one available. And it was delightfully medium. It isn't too spicy and it isn't unspicy. So that's accurate. And there sure is salsa in there to make it salsa con queso. There are bits of peppers and things that you can see and eat and everything. Great. But I have a slight quibble with the queso part. Yes, it looks like cheese. And it tastes almost like cheese too. But very watered down cheese. When I want orange goo I want a thick, rich, cheddar cheese flavor. This has a mild, bland, timid cheese flavor that seems to want to avoid upstaging the salsa element, but didn't realize that the salsa was going to be about 10 minutes late. Whoops.
So what else can I say about Tostitos's salsa con queso? It does the job, I guess. I didn't have much of a choice. It went well with my salt-free tortilla chips (as well as bland cheese product can) and it won't make me ill, at least from a wheat/gluten standpoint. But if you can choose something else I would definitely recommend it. Tostitos should be a last resort or a next-to-last resort. If you can't eat gluten, it's a safe choice, but surely something else must be safe too. Perhaps you could add a little cheese to it and make it taste more like what it's supposed to be. Like I had to do with the Ragu cheese sauce.
If there's one thing Japan is not quite clear on, it's Mexican food. Not even Tex-Mex style Mexican food. In the mind of Japan, Mexican food = "tacos." Not even ONE taco. It's always plural. "Tacos." There's also Okinawan "taco rice," which people either don't know is pseudo-Mexican food or don't know is Okinawan.
Oh sure, there are a few Mexican restaurants here and there. There are some El Torito outlets about and a few independent restaurants. But what I miss are nachos. Not just nachos, but nachos with neon orange cheese goo. I found a couple of jars and cans of goo, but they were either not very good or contained ingredients I couldn't eat.
I turned to my friends at Foreign Buyers Club to see what they had. They didn't have much. A giant tub of something that would be impossible to store. Six jars of Mrs. Renfro's, which either was not very good (according to someone on the internet) or fine (wishful thinking). And Tostitos brand. I know Tostitos brand is edible for people like me, and it was something I'm sure I'd had in the past and was edible enough. It would do.
I bought some salt-free tortilla chips and waited for my jars of cheesiness to arrive at my door.
Now, the Tostitos cheese goo isn't terrible. It's just not very good either. (Desperate times call for desperate measures.)
I don't generally prefer medium heat, but that was the only one available. And it was delightfully medium. It isn't too spicy and it isn't unspicy. So that's accurate. And there sure is salsa in there to make it salsa con queso. There are bits of peppers and things that you can see and eat and everything. Great. But I have a slight quibble with the queso part. Yes, it looks like cheese. And it tastes almost like cheese too. But very watered down cheese. When I want orange goo I want a thick, rich, cheddar cheese flavor. This has a mild, bland, timid cheese flavor that seems to want to avoid upstaging the salsa element, but didn't realize that the salsa was going to be about 10 minutes late. Whoops.
So what else can I say about Tostitos's salsa con queso? It does the job, I guess. I didn't have much of a choice. It went well with my salt-free tortilla chips (as well as bland cheese product can) and it won't make me ill, at least from a wheat/gluten standpoint. But if you can choose something else I would definitely recommend it. Tostitos should be a last resort or a next-to-last resort. If you can't eat gluten, it's a safe choice, but surely something else must be safe too. Perhaps you could add a little cheese to it and make it taste more like what it's supposed to be. Like I had to do with the Ragu cheese sauce.
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