Bill Manweh - American Chili Cheese Dog Platter
Franchi - Argentina BBQ
Bruss - UK Monster Cake
Barnabus - Oregon Surf & Turf
Darkstar - USA Smokin' Beef Brisket
Jackball Canadian Cuisine - Salmon & Rice
Please show respect for all of these fine dishes by voting with a comment for your pick for best of 2005. Also respect for the many other fine submissions we received during the year.
Umpqua brand ice cream is a favorite here at the Fat Pride Times test kitchen. They make a great tasting, quality product in many nice flavors. Recently, we tried a tub of the Chocolate & Peanut Butter flavor. Sounded great as the lid claims it is loaded with peanut butter chips. It was an 8-1 ruling from our staff that it was actually the opposite of that. Please view the tub photo above and feel free to post a comment regarding if you see "loads" of peanut butter chips in the ice cream. We will be contacting the company in hopes of engaging them in some dialogue regarding what we feel is a major issue. We also assume that Umpqua will handle it and make things right - like all their other offerings.
Senator Snowe of Maine, the largest lobster producing state in the USA is really rallying against the so-called Langostino Lobster - which is actually mushy crab meat. As you expected this is about the money. Olympia Snowe told the FDA " 2-inch shellfish known as "langostino lobster" is an imphostor to the real thing". Rubio's Mexican Grill, a lame California restaurant chain was sued last year by customers for using the less expensive langostino inplace of genuine lobster in its "lobster burritos". Senator Snowe also sniped this about the FDA behavior on this foodstuff issue: "It will be remiss in its duties if it continues to allow restaurants or other entities to perpetuate this hoax at the expense of Maine's lobstermen and America's seafood customers."
The staff at The Fat Pride Timesis a strong opponent of mislabeling and deception of foodstuffs. We have hired an extra employee to travel to Maine and will be reporting back as this issue plays out. If, and when, we need your support - please join in and fight for what is right.
We were recently contacted by an associate from Bunim/Murray Productions (Starting Over, Real World) in Los Angeles regarding an open casting call for those of the regalia. Below is some information regarding this in more detail:
Are you a BIG person?
Are you PROUD of who you are?
Are you TIRED of the American obsession with weight?
Care to show the world how you feel in a fun location for five days?
Bunim-Murray Productions, the company that brought you shows like
The Real World, & The Simple Life, is producing a new tv show.
We are looking for energetic and fun people who are comfortable
with their weight and have personalities that would be great for TV!
For more information, contact Adam at(818)613-2076 or contact us about the show via email to:asaltzberg@bunim-murray.comWe are proud to list below the definitive list on the internet at this time:
Having recently found a source for the authentic "Swedish Fish" jellied type candies, the staff here decided to stage a battle royale to determine pound for pound which jellied fish was the true champion.
The photo above was taken at the night before weigh-in in a casino meeting hall booked by the promoters. As in most profesional sports press, each fish used heavily logoed backdrops from their brand name endorsers.
The knock-off brand "Ju Ju Fish" was pitted against the authentic "Swedish Fish" in a four-flavor, eight round old-fashioned fish fight.
As most here predicted, the "Swedish Fish" just pummelled its way to victory over the "Ju Ju Fish" in a TKO decision in the third round.
We have received a reader email that pointed to an interesting article that we here at the Fat Pride Times encourage you to read.
Meet the East Bay activists and researchers at the center of the new civil-rights movement known as Health at Every Size.
By Lauren Gard
Article Published Sep 13, 2006 Fat! Fit? Fabulous! by Lauren Gard
A friend of the FPT recently left town and brought over the frozen foodstuffs that were in his family's freezer. While most were recent purchases and have allready been consumed, there is the above piece of corned beef. Frozen on/before May 17, 2004: this meat is now over 2 years and 5 months old. The staff here loves corned beef but we are not sure if this is still safe to consume and we are calling on your expertise as FPT readers to comment to us your opinions.
After sorting thru the 100's of emails we receive at the FPT on a daily basis, sometimes we have a look into our junk mail bin. Look at this bender they want us to go on. First, I get the Homlel of my dreams, then visit Taco Bell & McDonald's with vouchers, Pick up my Coach brand bags and hop on for an airline flight. Upon arrival, I immediately will be getting some leg and using Trojan latex condoms for protection, followed by more Taco Bell then finally a nice shave by Gillette Fusion.
Right after, I join a dating service and will be coming into more Trojans! The bender ends with 3 trips to Taco Bell and the capper at McDonald's.
Research out of Australia is reporting that there are currently over 1 billion obese adults on the planet. "This insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world, It's as big a threat as global warming and bird flu" said Paul Zimmet. The week-long International Congress on Obesity recently took place with Zimmet as the acting chairman of 2500 international health experts.The Fat Pride Times is taking the position that this is a problem - however people need to stop blaming food. The problem is people never get off their cans and move around whatsoever. Food is getting a bad rap on this.
A staff member noticed these 'gourmet' pub-style frozen jalapeno and cheddar burger patty boxes on sale the other evening. Price was 7.99 for 6 burgers - we found that to be a nice price. Going into the FatPride Times Test Kitchen, the group consensus was that these were probably gonna be so-so. However, when you add the proper toppings and spices they make one nice item. Our method - as shown above - was to spice it with red chili pepper flakes, let it cook around a large portion of red onion pieces and then melted cheddar upon the top. Turned out to be one of our more recent favorites - however keep in mind that a real meal will require two of these patties per person.
One of our readers sent us this picture taken of a bag of snacks he had taken quite a liking too. We will let the photo do the talking. What is interesting is that this store is actually quite normal and this product doesnt seem to fit in with the other offerings.
Sperryville Emporium
While looking over a sample box of Cran-Vanilla Crunch cereal - which is very very good by the way - a member of the FPT team noticed an offer for a free t-shirt on the front featuring the infamous "Got Milk" advertising campaign. It did say details on back, however we had a group consensus that 'the details' were simply too demanding and we look at this as a form of leading (perhaps false) information. The back of the box shows you do get a free t-shirt AFTER you buy 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. One can assume that there is most likely a bunch of receipts needed and time-demanding paperwork.We here at the Fat Pride Times will continue to report to you foodstuff companies that have what we feel is deceptive advertising.
We are also asking our readers to send in any thing similar to this offer so we can share it with other FPT readers.
This picture is a chance to see what we do all day long at the Fat Pride Test Kitchen, which is located 700 feet below ground. This meal was sliced chicken breast meat with potatoes, green beans and curry spices. Note that we served it up on paper plates, a behavior that some think is brilliant and others ignorant. This post is now open for debate via your comments on paper plates - yay or nay.
One of our readers send an email mentioning this 'upcoming' holiday for us to cover and we realized that there are issues regarding this day. Yes, everyone agrees its all about the marshmallows, however the official date is up for argument. It is being reported as falling as early as August 14th, as late as August 31st and all the days in between. This is a disturbing situation that must be settled ASAP. The Fat Pride Times encourages you to call or write to your local elected official and encourage that we set a national date for this great day.
While we found it difficult to sample bread without anything on it, we knew this had to be done to judge the merits of this unique offering. Dave's Killer Bread definately has an interesting backstory and we encourage you to visit his website and read the full version. Being that the staff here considers bread a 'vehicle' for other foodstuffs, we had a bias present going into the tasting. However, this bread is quality stuff and we are proud to endorse it.
Today at the FP Times test kitchens we brought in two of the double-meat, bacon and cheese stackers for research. As you can see in the coupon in the post below, Burger King presents them as being pretty gd massive. However, we were all suprised to find that the patties and buns are actually smaller when compared to a Whopper. The results were that while it was a quality sandwich, it did not live up to the price - which I forgot since we had that buy one get one free coupon. Our end opinion is that they are worth it if you have a coupon only, otherwise the price is not right.
Holy Moses! Burger King has rocketed to first place in the hearty portion burger contest. Take a look at that "Quad Stacker" - 4 beef patties, 4 slices of cheese and 4 slices of bacon. That is double the quantity of the standard "Stacker" burger. Our plan is to have one of the staff use the 2 for 1 coupon for 2 of the Quads. We will then monitor him as he quaffs both down and document the quality of satisfaction and how long he powernaps afterwards.
An anonymous reader has submitted the above photo of a nice looking whole bird - stufed with pasta and herb butter. GD. Now that is the real deal. Nice Work. We here at the Fat Pride Times hopes this will encourage others to send in their pics as well.
Sorry for the lag in postings but the staff here went on a frozen food bender over the past three days. You can view some of our samplings above. The Totino's were on sale for 1.00 each. The Boston Market meatloaf, which rocks, was on sale for 2.50. Please note that it is the 'hearty serving' one.
One of our staff ran into these last night and immediately drove it over to our test kitchen. While we intended to take full pictures of the bars - we got caught up in the moment and ate 80% of the 2 we had before remembering about taking jpgs. These are truly good - hard to find - but worth the effort.
While we at the FP Times try to stay off frozen foods for the most part, we recently sampled Cuisine Solutions brand frozen lamb shanks. They come individually sealed with a tasty sauce and are even microwaveable. Served over rice, these shankers are truly excellent. The photos above show the before and after - all done in the microwave. Apparently, this company also produces salmon and other items in the same fashion and we will be testing those soon and reporting back to you. We can however fully endorse this foodstuff.
Our good friends over at VegasFoodGuide.Com sent along the above snapshots of some recent test meals they were researching for their guide to Las Vegas foodstuffs. However, the pictures have no names or labels and we are calling on you to help us identify them by posting your comments with the link below.
The FP Times New Zealand consultant has contacted us to report upon a local lager. This beer is available at New World grocery stores out of New Zealand. Our man finds that while name "Sheepshaggers Gold" is noteworthy, the actual brew is of a lower grade taste wise. However, if you get a chance to buy a bottle, we recommend you should simply as a collectible - based on the name and label.
Above you see pictured one of our many meals prepared at the FP Times World Test Kitchen Headquarters - which is actually located 2000 feet below the earth. Here we took chicken tenders from Albertson's and sliced them up over a nice bed of lettuce and topped with ranch dressing. The bread on the side is called "Texas Toast" and is a cheesy oven baked bread. Everyone here on the staff tried a sample and think we have stumbled upon an easy, affordable home-made meal that you can have pride in making and eating. Challenge: meet it or beat it - what you got? Send me your JPG's or post your comments below.
