Market Basket
Do we need fat that looks like frosting?
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
Food editors get some very interesting mail. Here's what came in this week — new products you'll soon be seeing on grocery store shelves — along with my oh-so-biased thoughts on each one.
Advertiser library photo
In the ever-expanding category New Products We Can Live Without, Parkay has introduced Fun Squeeze, a butter-flavored condiment in bright blue and pink meant to entice children to eat vegetables and other healthful foods. Parkay's press machine says that in a survey of 1,000 parents, 7 of 10 agreed that such a product would be an aid to getting kids to the table. The press release also includes tips for getting kids involved in healthful eating and, finally, something we can agree on: Cook with them. Eat with them. Talk with them. If you do that, maybe you won't have to turn their food the color of a beach ball.
Parkay is marketing blue and pink butter substitutes in squeeze bottles for kiddie appeal.
In the Isn't Somebody Already Doing That? category is a new line of spaghetti sauces that TV chef Emerile Lagasse is bringing out this month with B & G Foods. These include Kicked Up Tomato (spicy marinara), Kick It Up Roasted Gaaaahlic (roasted garlic marinara), Puttanesca (peppery anchovy marinara), Vodka Sauce (creamy marinara) and Roasted Red Pepper (marinara with roasted red pepper). They're packed in 26-ounce jars; suggested retail is $3.79-$3.99.
And in the Oh, Please! division is StarKist's new Lunch To Go line composed of a three-ounce packet of tuna in a pouch, mayonnaise and relish packets (with mixing spoon) and three Ritz-like crackers plus a little mint for garnish with a suggested retail price of $1.69 for the chunk light variety and $2.19 for the albacore variety. I scoffed when the Lunchable phenomenon was invented but was swiftly outvoted. I still think the cost of these products isn't worth the convenience if you've got access to a 'fridge and sink where you lunch. For the cost of three or four of these single-serving packets you could buy a whole package of crackers or loaf of bread, a small bottle of mayonnaise, some small cans of tuna and have lunch for a couple of weeks!
Workplace pantry?
The Starkist thing suggests an interesting topic: What do you keep in your desk or locker at work to munch on or make when you forgot to bring lunch or your lunch date is cancelled?
What nonperishable food products have you found useful to keep at work? Do you do anything to dress them up?
What's the weirdest thing you ever concocted for a work meal when you just couldn't get away but were getting that I-better-eat-something headache?
Send us your Desperation Lunch stories: Taste, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 69802. Or fax 525-8055. Or e-mail wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com. We'll share your workplace pantry ideas at a future date.
