NEAROF

After last year’s lacklustre taste-test of So Nice’s dairy-free Noel Nog, I figured my chances of finding a decent soy-based eggnog alternative were slim to none. After all, how many alternative nogs can there possibly be? The soy nog market must be small, and – pardon my generalisation – when it comes to products that [...]

A lot of people hate corn syrup for a lot of different reasons. For an overview, watch King Corn, a recent documentary that’s both interesting and mildly shocking. While it’s hard to eliminate all corn syrup from your life, there are a few easy fixes. Giving up most corn-syrup-sweetened soft drinks, say. Goodbye, too, to [...]

As much as I love Coca-Cola, I know there are people who don’t like it for a variety of reasons. Some dislike it on nutritional grounds, while others take issue with the global ubiquity of massively multinational companies. Personally, I quite enjoyed being able to cool down in the shade of a mango tree with [...]

Unexpected fusion foods tend to capture my attention. Combining one cuisine with another in a culinary mashup can yield both interesting results and unmitigated train wrecks; the results vary widely. In this case, R.W. Garcia Thai Sweet and Spicy Tortilla Chips combine Thai seasoning with tortilla chips, which sounded like a combination that would yield [...]

Another jolly good find in the new British import section at Hub Cigar in Edmonton. Shortbread is one of my guilty pleasures (I usually make a big batch around Christmas), and I have a soft spot for organics. Easy sell. The Look: Considering the number of shortbread tins and packages that have a Scottish motif, [...]

Chocolate makes me happy, as does organic stuff, so this one-two punch of organic chocolate has plenty of awesome going for it. Here’s my take on three different flavours of Theobroma Chocolat bars. The Look: Very distinctive, with beautiful packaging and a long, slender shape that’s memorable and enticing. Downside? They easily break into pieces. [...]

Somewhere along the way, yogurt went from delicious, nutritious food to processed pseudo-food, a scientific experiment that spiralled out of control. See, bad things happen when you start counting calories obsessively. When faced with two yogurts on a dairy-case shelf, one that’s 250 calories per serving and another that’s 100, health-minded label-readers often pick the [...]

When it comes to calories and coffee, it’s the extras that’ll get you. While coffee itself is almost calorie-neutral, the amount of milk and sugar you add can take a mug of brewed coffee from a handful of calories to more than 100. If you have a few mugs throughout the day, that splash of [...]