The PC Insider's guide

[CaliPoutine]

Its that time of the year again!! Time for the PC Insider's guide .

Like most of us Eg members, I think homemade is better. However, there is a time and a place for convenience foods.( like when you're in the middle of a kitchen remodel or you live in a tiny town with no decent restaurants). Last year, I was surprised at how good some of the new products were. I really loved the Manuka honey.

So this morning I bought 2 kinds of the All Butter cookies, Dulce De Leche( from Argentina), a box of the die cut pasta and a package of the Thai Spring Rolls.

I'll review the products here as we consume them.

What have you bought? What do you want to try? What do you think?

[Bueno]

Its that time of the year again!!  Time for the PC Insider's guide .

Like most of us Eg members, I think homemade is better.  However, there is a time and a place for convenience foods.( like when you're in the middle of a kitchen remodel or you live in a tiny town with no decent restaurants).  Last year, I was surprised at how good some of the new products were.  I really loved the Manuka honey. 

So this morning I bought 2 kinds of the All Butter cookies, Dulce De Leche( from Argentina), a box of the die cut pasta and a package of the Thai Spring Rolls.

I'll review the products here as we consume them.

What have you bought?  What do you want to try?  What do you think?

←

The Dulce de Leche is very tasty -- but what Dulce de Leche isn't? It's just as good as the kind you make yourself by simmering a can of sweetened condensed milk for a number of hours. Which is great, I suppose -- if you're short on time. But I do 12 cans at a time overnight and give it away as gifts. Dulce de Leche on the cheap, baby.

It's tasty, though.

[GlorifiedRice]

Wait! I always thought Presidents Choice was just another "Store Brand" for Safeway/Genuardi's, like Giant of Pa has Finast brand and Acme now has Essensia...

I thought all grocers switched to a gourmet sounding name for their "store brands" to get away from the substandard or no-frills stigma of the ACME or Genuardi's or Pathmark branded merch that started in the late 70s early 80s with the Pathmark "No Frills" brand

Am I wrong or am I missing out on some great food?

Wait. Im right, look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_brand

[prasantrin]

Wait! I always thought Presidents Choice was just another "Store Brand" for Safeway/Genuardi's, like Giant of Pa has Finast brand and Acme now has Essensia...

I thought all grocers switched to a gourmet sounding name for their "store brands" to get away from the substandard or no-frills stigma of the ACME or Genuardi's or Pathmark branded merch that started in the late 70s early 80s with the Pathmark "No Frills" brand

Am I wrong or am I missing out on some great food?

Wait. Im right, look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_brand

←

PC is the brand produced by Superstore/Dominion. Safeway makes Safeway Selects (or something like that).

No-name brands are very different from brands like PC or Safeway Selects. The latter are much better quality, and are designed to compete with national brands. This is unlike no-name brands which are designed to be cheaper, generally poorer quality versions of national brands. One way you can tell the difference is packagine--no-name brands usually only have two colours (maybe three) and are very simple, with no photography or illustrations. This is done to help cut costs.

Edited November 11, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[Bueno]

Some more recent PC products I've tasted lately that came to mind have been:

Nicoise olives -- nicely jarred, and very tasty. A great alternative to the "olive bars" found in many grocery stores (I don't trust them).

Buffalo Wing & Blue Cheese Chips -- my favourite by far of the 4 new "gourmet" flavours recently released. Really powerful Buffalo wing flavour, with a noticable hit of blue cheese. Good balance. A very good chip!

Double Chocolate Crunch cereal -- A not-too-sweet chocolate granola-esque type cereal. Sophisticated and delicious!

Serrano Style Ham -- The best of the lot! A less-refined version of prosciuttion. Sorta like prosciutto's cousin from the country. Porkier, saltier, even a bit sweeter. Heavier yeast aroma. Nothing like real jamon serrano, but for a PC product, pretty darn good!

[Bueno]

Wait! I always thought Presidents Choice was just another "Store Brand" for Safeway/Genuardi's, like Giant of Pa has Finast brand and Acme now has Essensia...

I thought all grocers switched to a gourmet sounding name for their "store brands" to get away from the substandard or no-frills stigma of the ACME or Genuardi's or Pathmark branded merch that started in the late 70s early 80s with the Pathmark "No Frills" brand

Am I wrong or am I missing out on some great food?

Wait. Im right, look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_brand

←

They've revamped their image and gone far more upscale in the last few years with many quality 'gourmet' offerings.

prasantrin - President's Choice is a Loblaws brand.

Edited November 11, 2007 by Bueno (log)

[GlorifiedRice]

Someone in my area has Presidents Choice cause Ive seen it here.

I just checked my Genuardis website and they dont have it so now Im wracking my brain trying to figure out where I saw it...

[prasantrin]

prasantrin - President's Choice is a Loblaws brand.

←

That's what I thought and first wrote, but when I went to the Superstore website, it only mentioned Superstore and Dominion, so I edited it out to say Dominion instead of Loblaw's. The Loblaw's website mentions all the stores, including those two.

[CaliPoutine]

Its also carried at No Frills.

I tried the All-in-one butter cookie today. Its a peanut butter/choc. chip/oatmeal/pecan/coconut cookie. I'm impressed that its made with butter, but it still tastes like a store bought cookie. I've realized that I just dont like crunchy cookies, I'm more about the soft and chewy.

10 cookies per 250gram package for 2.49

[CaliPoutine]

You can read about President's Choice here.

[Pam R]

Loblaws, Superstore, No Frills, Extra Foods, Fortinos, The Real Canadian Wholesale Club and Dominion (who knew?) are all part of the company (Extra Foods in Manitoba is like No Frills in Ontario, so there may be other names in other provinces.)

They do have some really good PC products. A couple of my favourites are a sparkling Orange or Lemon drink (like Orangina), and they make some damn good cookies.

[Marlene]

I swear by their all butter puff pastry, and their chocolate for baking isn't to be sneezed at either.

[Pam R]

I forgot about the puff. And their filo/phyllo dough (along with Sobey's Our Compliments brand) is some of the best stuff I've used.

[Marlene]

And they have Normandy style butter. Something I can't get anywhere else. I like their Tuscan Olive oil too.

[eskay]

PC products are also sold at valu-mart and Zehrs around here (SW ontario). All the same loblaws family, I guess.

I like a lot of the PC products, but there's some that just aren't great--I haven't had much luck with their breakfast cereals, for example (their raisin bran has too many raisins! And the copycat cheerios taste like chemicals). And I'm a compulsive label reader, so I've noticed that their products sometimes tend to have more 'not-food' ingredients than the national brands. But there's still a bunch of their products that I regularly buy: orange juice concentrate, double strength laundry detergent (the bottle is half the size! ). Oh, and I bought some of their organic green tea bags because they were on sale and I have a bad habit of buying lots of different kind of tea, and I'm pretty hooked--I think I've gone through half the box in a week.

I actually saw the dulche de leche in a display this morning and almost picked some up, but decided against it. Barely. I want to try making my own first.

Marlene, what is this Normandy style butter you speak of? Why haven't I noticed it. Too bad I just bought butter...I'd better get baking and use it up

[prasantrin]

I like their sour cream&onion ripple chips. I'm quite certain that they are manufactured by the company that used to make Hostess chips. They were the best sour cream&onion chips (other than O'Ryans, which was also made by Hostess), and the PC ones taste much the same--except they could add a bit more the flavouring to make them tastier.

I also like their oatmeal cookies. I like crispy cookies. The chocolate chip ones are OK, but I'm not a big fan of chocolate chip cookies.

That's pretty much all we ever buy of PC products, and we rarely even buy those.

Edited November 11, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[Marlene]

Marlene, what is this Normandy style butter you speak of?  Why haven't I noticed it.  Too bad I just bought butter...I'd better get baking and use it up

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I used the last of the unsalted yesterday, but this is the salted one. I believe the unsalted package is silver. I'll double check as I need to get to the Superstore today sometime.

I also like the PC plum sauce.

[eskay]

Thanks a lot, I'll keep my eye out.

[dianem]

Loblaws, Superstore, No Frills, Extra Foods, Fortinos, The Real Canadian Wholesale Club and Dominion (who knew?) are all part of the company .

You didn't know because it isn't true. Dominion is part of A&P, along with Food Basics and Ultramart.

d.

[Pam R]

Loblaws, Superstore, No Frills, Extra Foods, Fortinos, The Real Canadian Wholesale Club and Dominion (who knew?) are all part of the company .

You didn't know because it isn't true. Dominion is part of A&P, along with Food Basics and Ultramart.

d.

←

I remember when we used to have Dominion stores in Winnipeg, and I assumed they were a different company. But according to the website, the Dominions in Atlantic Canada are part of the company.

This Wiki entry also lists it as part of the company:

In Newfoundland, Dominion is the primary brand name of the major-market supermarkets of Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest food retailer, which uses that brand name under licence.

Edited November 11, 2007 by Pam R (log)

[CaliPoutine]

Here are a few of the things I bought.

Bronze die cut pasta. I'm going to make a lasagna soup with this.

these chips were good.

[Bueno]

Seriously -- try the Buffalo Wing chips. They're killer. The BBQ, while fine, don't hold a candle.

[eskay]

Loblaws, Superstore, No Frills, Extra Foods, Fortinos, The Real Canadian Wholesale Club and Dominion (who knew?) are all part of the company .

You didn't know because it isn't true. Dominion is part of A&P, along with Food Basics and Ultramart.

d.

←

I remember when we used to have Dominion stores in Winnipeg, and I assumed they were a different company. But according to the website, the Dominions in Atlantic Canada are part of the company.

This Wiki entry also lists it as part of the company:

In Newfoundland, Dominion is the primary brand name of the major-market supermarkets of Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest food retailer, which uses that brand name under licence.

←

There are two Dominions: the Newfoundland-based one, which is part of Loblaws, and the Ontario-based one, which is part of A&P.

[Pookie]

I love the Sweet and Salty Granola bars. They are almost exactly the same as the nature valley bars but at least a buck cheaper. Plus they have cashew!!!

I want to try those chips!

[prasantrin]

Loblaws, Superstore, No Frills, Extra Foods, Fortinos, The Real Canadian Wholesale Club and Dominion (who knew?) are all part of the company .

You didn't know because it isn't true. Dominion is part of A&P, along with Food Basics and Ultramart.

d.

←

If you look at the Superstore website, you'll see at the bottom of that site that Superstore goes by the name Dominion in Atlantic Canada.

Edited November 11, 2007 by prasantrin (log)