2021 Food Olympics Recap

 We started the Food Olympics in August with a tribute to Tokyo, host of the actual Olympics, with a Japanese snack box. Most of the items in the box I thought were awful. After this we continued with 9 different events including Cookies, Snacks, Frozen Appetizers, Homemade meals, Sodas, cheese, take out, Breakfast/dessert sweets and finished with an international snack box.  Some of the highlights of the 9 events were

I found out I like wafer cookies especially the Loacker Quadratini Lemon Wafers from Italy 

and the Meiji Hello Panda Chocolate Cookies from Japan      

    

 I really enjoyed the Sabine’s Collections Garlic, Chives and Parsley Baguette Crisps from Canada

 

·         I enjoyed eating the Frozen Appetizers including the South Korean Bibigo beef and vegetable mandu     and the Whole Foods Greek Spanakopita   

 

·        It was fun to try to cook and eat foreign meals including Bulgogi, Carnitas and Swedish meatballs

 

·        The cheese event was really fun but hard to judge. I tried Aged Manchego from Spain and Jarlsberg from Norway for the first time and really enjoyed them.

 

·      The whole family enjoyed Nordy's BBQ. I also enjoyed getting takeout from local restaurants including chicken pad Thai from Chili Thai, kung pao chicken from Asian pearl bistro and the al pastor burrito from Mi Tierra

 

·        We really enjoyed the Cannoli and cherry turnovers both from Whole Foods

 

·        The international snack box event was a lot of fun and a little different than others since I didn’t know what was in the box.  We enjoyed the Teashop Bourbon Creams from the U.K. 

      and the Dolcetto Petites Cookies and Cream Wafer Bites from Indonesia             

 

Here is the final 2021 Food Olympics medal count

Medal count
	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
US	3	2	1	6
Italy	2		1	3
Mexico	1	1	1	3
South Korea	2			2
Canada	1	1		2
Spain			2	2
Indonesia	1			1
Norway	1			1
Switzerland		1		1
Thailand		1		1
UK		1		1
Belgium			1	1
China			1	1
Greece			1	1
Ireland			1	1
Japan			1	1
Sweden			1	1
	11	7	11	29

The 2021 Food Olympics was a very successful and a very fun event!  I was able to eat lots of food and try new foods from all over the world.  We had foods from or representing more than 30 different countries! Most of these were very good, but some were not so good.  This was so much fun, and I was glad I could do something that corresponded with the actual Olympics.  I hope you enjoyed reading and following along.

Mike's Mighty Good Ramen Soup, Chicken, 1.6 Oz

 $2.69 at Whole Foods

This had good thick better quality noodles, and a pretty good broth.  I liked it, but I thought the price was a little high and I think I’d rather just eat the regular cheap cup noodles.

Plentiful Pantry Cheesy Enchilada Soup Mix

 

I bought this product at World Market for $4.19.  This was a just add water soup mix. The package suggested adding chicken and other optional ingredients.  

The first night we ate it without any additions, and it was an alright soup. On the second day we added shredded chicken and beans and topped the soup with tortilla chips and it was quite a bit better.  I would buy this again or another of their many varieties.

Raos, Chicken and Gnocchi Italian Style Soup, 16 Ounce

 

This soup I ordered from Whole Foods through Amazon and it happened to be on sale for $2.69.  This soup I thought was alright.  

It was a creamy soup with Italian seasonings along with chicken, carrots and of course gnocchi.  I thought the gnocchi were nice and soft and were pretty good.  I thought this was a decent jarred soup and would get it again especially if it’s on sale.

NORTHWOODS CHEESE COMPANY

CHEESE AND SAUSAGE SELECT GIFT BOX $45.99 plus shipping and a 20% off coupon code

 

Every year we have a Christmas eve dinner tradition of eating cheese, sausage and crackers. This year I ordered a NORTHWOODS CHEESE AND SAUSAGE SELECT GIFT BOX from WisconsinMade.com. Which was supposed to contain:

Wisconsin Cheddar Bar (7 oz)

Wisconsin Swiss Bar (7 oz)

Cheddar Cranberry Bar (7 oz)

Wisconsin Hot Pepper Bar (7 oz)

Also included were three meat products:

Northwoods Cranberry Summer Sausage (5 oz)

two Beef Summer Sausages (5 oz each)

 

But they said because of Covid items may be substituted.

So what I got was:

Wisconsin Cheddar with Onion and Chives (7 oz)

Salami cheese (7 oz)

Cheddar Cranberry Bar (7 oz)

Wisconsin Hot Pepper Bar (7 oz)

Also included were three meat products:

Northwoods Cranberry Summer Sausage (5 oz)

Beef Garlic Sausage (5 oz)             

Beef salami (5 oz)

We just decided to cut some of everything up and test all of it. 

The Wisconsin Cheddar with Onion and Chives was everyone’s favorite.  The salami cheese was my least favorite but still good.  The Cheddar Cranberry Bar had just a touch of sweet and was a lot better than I expected and the Wisconsin Hot Pepper Bar was very tasty with quite a bit of heat

  

All the sausages were very similar.  There was a tad of sweet in cranberry and the other two; the garlic and the salami I couldn’t tell the difference between the two.

 

After I ordered and received this gift box, I was a little disappointed that some of the items were substituted. However, I ended up with our favorite of the cheeses and got to try a few different items than I would’ve otherwise.

All of the cheese and sausages were very tasty, and I would definitely buy this again or some of their other varieties!

Trader Joe’s - My favorites part 1

 Bimbibop bowl

A microwaveable rice bowl with carrots, bean sprouts, spinach, beef and hot sauce. I really like these and they’re very easy to make. The beef is good, but there is not a lot of it.  The Korean hot sauce packet is good, but you can make it too hot if you’re not careful.

Cheese enchiladas

The package has 2 cheese enchiladas with sauce.  I think these are best frozen enchiladas I’ve ever had!

Chicken or Pork Potstickers

These have good ingredients that you can actually find inside cabbage, carrots, onions and meat. These are perfect with a little soy sauce and chili garlic sauce.

Korean scallion pancakes

These have scallions, carrots and mushrooms.  I like to cook them a little longer to make them extra crispy.  Like the pot stickers these are also good with soy sauce and chili garlic sauce.