The Boston Globe : The Taste Kitchen
Ladling out a winning tomato soup
By Debra Samuels | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT MAY 27, 2014 Foods stir memories, and tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich may just be the most dynamic comfort food for many Americans. With school ending, summer coming, and hopes for minimal cooking in the months ahead, we tasted half of the classic lunch duo: ready-to-heat cream …
Read moreCommercial gefilte fish replaces Jewish grandmothers’
By Debra Samuels | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT APRIL 08, 2014 Mention gefilte fish to anyone who is Jewish, and some will smile, others cringe. This Eastern European specialty is an acquired taste. But it is also a memory trigger from Friday night Sabbath dinners and Passover holidays. Gefilte fish are dense oval balls made with varying amounts of …
Read moreVeggie chips, from garden-variety to great
TASTE KITCHEN Veggie chips, from garden-variety to great By Debra Samuels | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT FEBRUARY 25, 2014 Crunch, crunch, crunch was the only sound you could hear from a group of seven tasters as they munched their way through six brands of vegetable chips. There were chips that look like slices of carrot or sweet …
Read moreOutmuscling the applesauce competition
TASTE KITCHEN By Debra Samuels | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Applesauce is the Swiss Army knife of comfort foods. Often baby’s first food, it pairs well with pork chops and poultry, is a nutritious snack, and a simple taste that’s appealing when you’re under the weather. We tasted seven commercially prepared brands of unsweetened applesauce with 13 …
Read moreA snack cake taste-off
BOSTON GLOBE By Debra Samuels | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER 01, 2013 WATERTOWN — Let’s get this part out of the way: Those familiar single-serving snack cakes like Twinkies and Devil Dogs aren’t going to win any nutrition awards. They typically contain dozens of ingredients, with things like partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, palm oil, artificial flavorings, …
Read moreRaising the bar for frozen fruit treats
By Debra Samuels | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT AUGUST 27, 2013 DEBRA SAMUELS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE A good quality frozen fruit bar is a refreshing and low-fat snack and the world has discovered this. On a steamy summer afternoon, nine tasters were delighted to sample seven brands of frozen strawberry fruit bars, ranging in hue …
Read moreLooking for a pearl among small tomatoes
By Debra Samuels | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT MARCH 05, 2013 There are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes, fruits that are native to the New World. Though we associate many tomato dishes with European cuisines, the bright red rounds were brought to Europe after the Spanish explorers found them in the Americas. A dispute over pricing …
Read moreTasters evaluate 7 brands of canned light tuna
Whether tuna is raw in sushi and sashimi, grilled as a steak, or scooped from a can, the fish is awash in controversy. Overfishing, mercury levels, and dolphins caught in nets meant for tuna account for this. Where once a tuna sandwich for lunch was a routine event, we no longer eat canned tuna …
Read more6 Alternatives to the p in pb&j
Since peanut butter, long America’s favorite lunchbox spread, has been banned from many schools because of allergies, alternatives have stepped in to fill the void.
Read moreA taste test of whole wheat bread loaves
We sat down with seven brands of 100 percent whole wheat bread, ranging from the artisanal looking Nashoba Brook, squared-off dense Iggy’s, to airy Wonder Bread. It was hard to think of these as the same species, yet they are all entirely whole wheat.
Read moreBento:Build a Better Lunch
Debra Samuels, bestselling author, food writer and cooking instructor, wants to give the American lunchbox a makeover. In the chapter on “bento,” the traditional Japanese lunch box, in her upcoming book, My Japanese Table, Debra encourages the use of color, texture and taste to create healthier and more visually appealing meals.
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