NYTimes Articles on Food, Drink, Culinary Culture 2013–

[rotuts]

interesting.   

 

it would be fun to see a thread showing the various offerings  Box to Plate.

[kayb]

15 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

I follow a once a month or once a week cooking routine for many of my meals.

Sous vide has made it easier and more convenient in many ways.

 

Not quite the same thing, but I make a lot of entrees that seem to fall in the "can't make a little bit" category -- lasagna, spaghetti sauce, stew, vegetable soup, etc. -- with plans in advance to freeze portions for future meals. I found small aluminum trays with cardboard tops (convenient for writing on) that contain a perfect two servings for the two of us. I have a freezer full of such, and it's awfully convenient.

[Anna N]

Watch this space!

 After a few emails back-and-forth to clarify the details of the subscription which I did not want, I have placed an order for two meals for two people to be delivered next Thursday, April 14.  

[blue_dolphin]

Today, the NPR radio program On Point devoted time to a discussion related to this topic:  Tips to get cooking.  The show link has quite a few feedback comments and links to a few related articles, including the NYT article that started this thread.

 

One of the guests was co-founder of Pantry, a service in Brookline, Mass that sounds similar to Anna N's idea:

23 hours ago, Anna N said:

Just imagine this. You walk into your local supermarket and in addition to their well stocked salad bar you find a well-stocked meal bar. Pick up a recipe card or three walk around the bar grabbing ready to be cooked portion-controlled protein, vegetables, spices, etc.

 

Pantry is a bricks and mortar location where one can pick up a recipe and all the fixings.  Apparently, it's also possible to have one of the take-out delivery services like Grubhub deliver to your home. In the interview, she said the stores also sell pots, pans, knives, etc. that would be needed to prepare the recipes.  They also offer knife skills classes for both adults and kids.   It's all local, no long distance shipping.  

@rotuts, since you are in the Boston area, I challenge you to make your way to Brookline one of these days, pay these folks a visit and report back to us.  Please?  You don't need to actually buy anything.  Just have a look-see for us. Pretty please?

 

I also look forward to your reports, @Anna N!

[Anna N]

@blue_dolphin

 

Usually up for taking one for the team.  I am quite looking forward to it. I cannot see it being anything more than a one time fun project unless my ship comes in but compared to some restaurant meals it seems to me to be quite a bargain.  

[rotuts]

@Anna N  

 

Ive looked at your web ref.  it seems what 6 meals at a time ?

 

do you think there might be an ( exotic or not ) meal that interests you that you might not fine the ingredients locally ?

 

I for one , last time I looked can not fine Curry leaves.

 

i don't miss them as Ive never tried them  ................

[Anna N]

8 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Anna N  

 

Ive looked at your web ref.  it seems what 6 meals at a time ?

 

do you think there might be an ( exotic or not ) meal that interests you that you might not fine the ingredients locally ?

 

I for one , last time I looked can not fine Curry leaves.

 

i don't miss them as Ive never tried them  ................

The smallest order is 2 meals for 2 persons which is what I have ordered.  Since there is only me I will be looking at repeating each meal (unless I opt to divvy up the ingredients and treat the second meal differently). I rather doubt  that there are many ingredients not available within a 50 mile radius of where I live. ( lots of fresh produce of course from tropical countries that would not be available.). We are an ethnically diverse community in the greater Toronto area. I am limited by my inability to get around by myself but I doubt there is an ingredient within that radius that Kerry Beal couldn't get her hands on!   Curry leaves are always in my freezer and are actually very available.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

@Anna N please send Kerry Beal down here.  Thanks.

 

I just signed up with the purple carrot.  Twenty dollars off the first order.  First shipment won't arrive until the 19th.  I'm a little worried that only one of the three initial recipes excites me.  We shall see.

[Anna N]

2 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

@Anna N please send Kerry Beal down here.  Thanks.

 

I just signed up with the purple carrot.  Twenty dollars off the first order.  First shipment won't arrive until the 19th.  I'm a little worried that only one of the three initial recipes excites me.  We shall see.

Right on.  It will be interesting to compare.  

[kayb]

3 hours ago, rotuts said:

goy it

 

now Tj's Brookline

 

and the Old Time Chinese Rest. i used to go to.

 

all more or less on Beacon street or close buy

 

can I claim to be a Silent Reporter From e G ?

We'll even gin you up some press credentials. I've done that a time or two in my life.

 

@Anna N and @JoNorvelleWalker, looking forward to your reports.

[Kerry Beal]

I'm pretty sure that it's Sobey's that I've seen preassembled ingredients for making meals in refrigerated bunkers.

[IndyRob]

On ‎4‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 3:27 PM, blue_dolphin said:

Pantry is a bricks and mortar location where one can pick up a recipe and all the fixings.

Crap, that was my idea.  Although if they need to teach knife skills, maybe they really don't have my idea.

[Anna N]

 

 sorry for the hurriedly taken photographs!   I will retake them when I prepare the meals.   As you can see packaging is a huge issue in terms of the environment!  The box and its cold packs however are quite impressive. Will prepare one of the meals tomorrow and document it carefully for everyone who is interested. 

[rotuts]

@Anna N

 

 thank you so much for this

 

sort of a mini- blog.

 

looking forward to what you do this this and your assessment !

[Okanagancook]

Loblaws in Canada announced a major expansion.  I'll bet we see some sort of meal kit area with these new stores and expansion/renovation of existing stores.  Our local Save-On-Foods did a major renovation two years ago and put in a large prepared foods are along with a small area with tables and chairs.

[Anna N]

 I am hoping to get my second wind shortly so I can begin to prepare one of the meals I received yesterday.   So far the box it arrived in has intrigued at least two of my relatives one of whom saw it as a potential solar oven!  

[Anna N]

 

 

so here we go. The ingredients so you can see them more clearly and the recipe. 

 

First the ingredients. The sweet potatoes, garlic cloves and kale were clearly very fresh. The pork chops are the kind that I run away from if I ever see them in the supermarket!  They were so thin that if you got a decent sear on one side you would have already overcooked them.  I defy anyone to do justice to pork chops this thin. The recipe instructs you to grate the sweet potatoes but makes no mention of perhaps peeling them first!  It also mentions sprinkling pecans on the finish dish but does not suggest that you chop them first.  I am aware that any reasonably competent cook would automatically do these things but recall that the suggestions from the original post was that these types of meals are teaching people to cook.

 

 

 The ingredients prepped and ready.  At the risk of being called lazy I will say I was surprised at the amount of preparation that was needed. I am currently quite challenged and standing there and grating two sweet potatoes on a box grater was not going to happen so I used the grating disk on the food processor!  

 

 

One of the finished plates. If you read the recipe you will note that things are taken out of pans with no suggestion of keeping them warm until the dish is ready for service.  I put two dishes  in my toaster oven to hold the sweet potatoes while I cooked the kale.  

 

 Conclusion

 

Nah.  Not the fault of the service itself but I have no idea how anyone can claim to like kale.  The grated and sauteed sweet potatoes were quite acceptable but the pork chops  were tough and dry as I had expected. The kale… The less said the better. Blame me for a poor choice of  meals but there are only so many to choose from.  I have put the second plate in the refrigerator but I strongly suspect that is just a waystation before it goes in the bin.  

 

Anxious to see how the second meal turns out.  At least there is no kale in it.  

[Deryn]

Thanks very much for giving this a go for the benefit of everyone here. I am sorry your first meal was not 'good value' for you, Anna. I probably would not have followed their directions to the T either if they asked me to use a box grater. I might have just put the sweet potato in the oven or microwave and cooked it that way - or, as you did, grate it using other means. I agree with you on thin pork chops. I have no idea why anyone ever buys those for just the reason you stated - they are tough even before you can flip them - especially if cooked in a sauté pan. I probably would have known that too upon seeing how thick they were, and perhaps decided not to cook them as directed either. They are designing meals for the lowest common denominator, not that I blame them, but it means that many just won't 'work' for some reason or other for everyone. If everyone who orders that meal finds the pork chops too thin to cook without being tough, I hope people provide that feedback so the company decides to include thicker chops or changes the recipe or discontinues that recipe in future.

 

I thought the prices were not bad (in line with US kit prices it seems which is a great bargain in Canada - no exchange increase, etc.). I thought the meals pictured for this week looked great (on screen) but seemed very limited as you noted - and I didn't want to push the 'order' button to find out whether I would get to choose IF I was in their delivery area (which I am not).

 

I see that they mention they do occasionally offer gluten and dairy free options (which are not something I would want or need) but I wonder if they allow you to choose not only the main selection but particular elements of the meal otherwise (in other words, could one substitute kale for something else if desired?). I doubt it unfortunately - and I understand why - though perhaps one could ask them not to bother sending kale at all if one knows one dislikes it or cannot eat it even though one's value for a meal goes down if they do that.

 

And, given that apparently only their liners are 'unrecyclable' (but may be reusable), I am wondering what other things in your kit(s) seemed overly packaged (in, I guess, an environmentally poor manner) to you?

 

Another question - Portion size? Did it seem sufficient? If you had only half (i.e. a single portion) of any given 2 person dish (and enjoyed every morsel of your meal), would you have leftovers or been left hungry?

 

Aside from the fact that I doubt I could ever get any kind of 'meal kit' delivered here, one of the issues for me would still remain that so many of them seem to include kale and other cruciferous/brassica vegetables (and soy) which I am not supposed to eat. That is probably because they are fairly hardy and would stand up reasonably well to transport, (as opposed to things like lettuce).

Edited April 15, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[Anna N]

@Deryn

 

 I was attempting to adhere as much as possible to the instructions that were included in terms of preparation.  Aside from possibly pounding the pork chops and breading them schnitzel-like, I can't imagine another way of making them palatable.   The other issue I had which I forgot to mention was the suggestion that you use the same pan for the kale as you had used for the sweet potatoes.   Perhaps they assume everyone would use non stick but I found it necessary to wash my stainless steel pan before attempting to cook the kale.  

 

 Was it enough food? Probably by most dietary standards it was.  I would have to say though that my son-in-law would be raiding the fridge within minutes!  

[Shalmanese]

On 4/14/2016 at 11:27 AM, Anna N said:

 

 

The test cooks responsible for the sample plate don't even know enough to cut the edges of the pork to avoid cupping. Doesn't give you much confidence of the general level of culinary sophistication of the entire operation if something as basic as this passed through so many layers of review.

[ElainaA]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

 

so here we go. The ingredients so you can see them more clearly and the recipe. 

 

First the ingredients. The sweet potatoes, garlic cloves and kale were clearly very fresh. The pork chops are the kind that I run away from if I ever see them in the supermarket!  They were so thin that if you got a decent sear on one side you would have already overcooked them.  I defy anyone to do justice to pork chops this thin. The recipe instructs you to grate the sweet potatoes but makes no mention of perhaps peeling them first!  It also mentions sprinkling pecans on the finish dish but does not suggest that you chop them first.  I am aware that any reasonably competent cook would automatically do these things but recall that the suggestions from the original post was that these types of meals are teaching people to cook.

 

 

 

 I have no idea how anyone can claim to like kale.  

I agree with you here. I am not sure how this whole kale thing got going. When my daughter lived in Princeton, NJ about 6 years ago, the stores had windows full of tee shirts saying " Eat more Kale". Clearly the campaign worked. If you add am equal amount of bacon it (kale) becomes somewhat edible. But, in my opinion, only somewhat.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

@ElainaA I live within what-used-to-be-walking-distance of downtown Princeton.  How I miss it!  Though not for the kale.  There is a store that sells only olive oils, another sells only teas.  When I was a grad student in the 1970's there was a butcher shop of blessed memory.  And seafood...

 

Anyhow -- I had a discussion at work with one of my colleagues who has tried Blue Apron.  She found the quality high, and she said she learned new cooking techniques and appreciated the convenience.  But the Blue Apron portions were tiny for two people, and she was trying to stretch the two person plan to feed three.  She gave up because of cost.

 

And I was delighted to learn today that the Taiwanese expatriate who founded the aforementioned tea shop in Princeton is giving a presentation to our staff!  It was from him many years ago that I learned not to cook tea with boiling water.

Edited April 17, 2016 by JoNorvelleWalker
spelling of course (log)

[Martin Fisher]

I subscribed to a premium vegetarian mail order meal plan back in the late 80's which had been advertised in Vegetarian Times magazine (I went vegetarian for a time as an over-reaction to a bout of cancer in my very early 20's.)

The plan was great and introduced me to many foods that I was, at the time, unfamiliar with, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc.

Having grown up in a very rural setting, there was very little exposure to diverse ethnic foods.

It was a wonderful experience.

[gfweb]

On 4/8/2016 at 9:36 AM, kayb said:

 

Not quite the same thing, but I make a lot of entrees that seem to fall in the "can't make a little bit" category -- lasagna, spaghetti sauce, stew, vegetable soup, etc. -- with plans in advance to freeze portions for future meals. I found small aluminum trays with cardboard tops (convenient for writing on) that contain a perfect two servings for the two of us. I have a freezer full of such, and it's awfully convenient.

 

I've been fooling with making a little bit of various dishes. Lasagna works very well in a ramekin. Au gratin potatoes in ramekin or teflon cupcake pan is great too. Fritatas in a ramekin have become the standard.

Edited April 16, 2016 by gfweb (log)

[rotuts]

Kale aside, Pork Chops are an almost ubiquitous meal in the USA.

 

and one of the more difficult cuts of meat to cook well.

 

Maybe B.A. knew about the former, and forgot about the later.