Egusi Beef Stew, African Fish Sauce, and Reviews

A couple of weeks ago I won a giveaway from the very generous Juls at Pepper&Sherry blog for some gorgeous African sauces: one a condiment sauce and one a sauce for a regional dish called Egusi Stew.

Before I go any further, let me just say that as someone who never wins anything, really, I was very happily surprised, especially as the winner was getting picked by the blog’s author rather than a random number generator, which is very flattering!  But all this aside, I was excited because I have never really encountered African food (other than Moroccan) up close and personal – and here it was, about a week later, delivered to my door in a neat little box.  With a card of pretty English landscapes which now sits on my refrigerator!

So what is the deal with the African sauces you ask?  Well, as the story goes, Juls met the proprietoresses of the rather new business Pepper&Stew at a food show, and heard their story – and the idea that they would make homemade-tasting no-funny-ingredient sauces and try to bring African food to the mainstream more, which she figured was a good enough reason to try and also to promote them, and besides she liked the name.  I would have, too.

Image courtesy Pepper and Stew, http://www.pepperandstew.co.uk/

So, onwards to the sauces! – I have now tried both of the sauces that Juls sent me.  The African Fish sauce has been opened and tried and declared by T and a friend to be “more up my alley than theirs”, which is to say – bloody spicy or gloriously warming, depends on who you ask.  If you ask me, I loved it – and while I am not one of those fire-eaters that love to chomp on scotch bonnets fresh, I do love spicy food and I do love the almost tangy and earthy flavor that the fish and shrimp base gives this hot sauce.  Think harissa but refined into a silkier, more glamorous and sophisticated dish, and you are nearly there.  So yes, I heartily recommend this to anyone who loves their food spicy, and who loves to have something spicy like Sambal Oelek or the Prik Nam Pla on the side with their restaurant offerings.  Their African cousin certainly does not disappoint!  I sincerely hope they ship to Sweden, because when my little jar is out, I am going to want more of this, oh yes!

The Egusi (melon seed) stew sauce got used last night to make (unsurprisingly) Egusi and beef and spinach stew.  That was the suggested use of it, and the traditional dish it was meant for so it seemed only right.  First of all, as Juls mentioned, there are no suspicious ingredients in this sauce – no E numbers, no starch to thicken it, no water, no other signs of industrial shortcuts.  No, it was composed largely of tomatoes and hot peppers and a few other things.

And you know what?  It did taste homemade!  It did not have the telltale whiff of “factory sauce” when you crack the jar seal, and it tasted like something I’d literally make at home in my own blender if I went crazy with chili peppers (which I often do).

What did I do with it?

I fried some onions till golden and a bit crinkly, added them to the pot, tossed in a little chopped garlic and let it turn aromatic, and then browned some good-quality stewing beef in small cubes, and that went in as well.  Then I poured in the sauce, about 1 dl of cold water, stirred and covered it and allowed it to simmer on very low heat (3/9) for about an hour and a half.  Why?  Because I do not like tough beef chunks in my stew – the low, slow simmer is what you need to achieve melting tenderness (it is very much enough time if you do not use huge hunks of meat – mine were about 1.5-2cm on the side max).

Then, as per instructions, I added the ground Egusi (melon seeds) which came in a little packet alongside the sauce, and the frozen spinach – and that I just eyeballed and tossed a few of those chunky pellets from the freezer bag in.  I allowed it all to come back to simmer, stirred till spinach pellets melted, and then allowed it another 5 minutes.  And I steamed some rice on the side at some point in this process.

It was almost entirely effortless (unless you count cutting up an onion, 4 cloves of garlic and a bit of meat effort), and very, very good.  And, as food from a jarred sauce goes, it was utterly amazing – as it neither looked nor tasted like any part of it has ever been through an aseptic bottling!

If you wonder whether you should try these, and love African food (and it is rather hot, be warned!), or just love spicy hot food in general, then yes, by all means, find a stockist or order the sauces online from their very helpful and pretty site, and use it instead of those questionable “curry” sauces you find on supermarket shelves all too often – full of sugar, and starch-thickened, gloopy and weight-gain inducing.  Buy this because it is wholesome, delicious, healthy and really, really wonderful on a cold day when you are too tired to do much more than open a jar of sauce and steam some rice – it is about all you need to do here, especially if you omit the meat, and just simmer the sauce with spinach for the vegetarian version – I think that would take about as long as the rice steaming, really! – and then you get to curl up on sofa with a bowl of spicy hot, warming and comforting stew.

My only comment on this would be that to me, the Egusi stew tasted a tiny bit flat.  Do not be discouraged by this, as I am the person who normally wants the garlic, the chili, the ginger and lemongrass, the cumin, the entire pantry of spices in her bowl, often at the same time – the boyfriend said it was a very nice homemade-tasting stew.  I think it was more that it does not have that much of a distinct seasoning to “place” it within a cuisine for me – and I sort of hope that the site brings back their palm nut sauce, because I would love to try that!  But, this is not a criticism, or not an objective one – so please, take the objective “this is very, very good” to heart more than my “I want 30 more spices in my food” ramblings.  Just saying!

So if you love spicy hot food, you should definitely visit their site and buy the gorgeous amazing wonderful hot fish sauce condiment!  And while you are there, check out the Egusi stew sauce as well!

Review: Sushi 66 Kvadrat

I’ve mentioned before how Årsta (that’s a suburb of Stockholm where we live) has amazing food.  Actually, I specifically said it has amazing grub, which is also true, but I am not sure sushi can be termed ‘grub’, really.  Especially not when it is as good as this.

Sushi 66 Kvadrat (click linky for more pictures) is a tiny place (one of a chain of 3 across Stockholm, I think).  By tiny, I mean tiny – the one we go to has a dining room about 3x4m with 2 tables and a window bar.  It’s clean, it’s simple, the decor is in shades of dark to light grey, black, white and red, and the rather generic but pleasant music is piped at a comfortably low volume, so that you don’t have to raise voice to talk over it, or strain to hear the person across the table from you.

There is one downside to this place:  they do not serve tea.  In my mind, sushi is simbiotically linked with green tea, and so I always feel a little disappointed by this (though this can, of course be remedied by taking the sushi home).  On the upside, this is the only downside I’ve found about this place.

The menu is pretty basic and short, as I imagine it’s geared towards family take-out for none-too-adventurous with seafood.  This is not a high-end place serving soft-shell crab and dragon rolls, or fatty tuna.  From what I can tell, they order a limited variety of seafood, however – and here we get to the crux of the matter and why I feel I should say a few words – that seafood is always fresh and fragrant and downright amazing.

In fact, let me start over and say it – the sushi they make is amazing.  By that I mean that the rice is perfectly cooked and molded.  The nigiri are not too small (I’ve encountered the tiny-nigiri in many sushi places before which made me wonder whether those people are in the business of starving rather than feeding me).  I’ve also encountered rice so dry it scratched my throat when eaten, and in a far more pricey sushi place here in Stockholm, to boot (we avoid that one now).

But, 66 Kvadrat do it right.  Their nigiri are plump, their avocado is fresh and unoxidized, their scallops are tremblingly-soft and translucent, and their salmon is served glistening and gorgeous and so fresh it drapes over the rice like a silk scarf.

The sushi literally melt in your mouth into seafood bliss.

Pictured: Standard sushi plate, medium

What, you want more upsides?  Well, there are a few.

Their soy sauce is good.  I don’t ever complain when I’m served Kikkoman which is standard, but this place uses something called Sakura, and it is pretty darn delicious.

Their miso soup is good.  I’m not a huge miso soup connosseur, but it’s delicious and not too watery (as miso soup goes), and the greens are fresh.  What more can you ask?

T ate most of his before I snapped a photo... obviously, mine was long gone.

They make good yakiniku.  I am not a connosseur of that either, but T routinely orders that as a hot meal alternative at Japanese places, and this one is one of the better ones we’ve had.

They are inexpensive.  Not cheap, per se, but not expensive, and certainly not as expensive as you’d get 15 min from here in the city.

So yes.  If you are in the area, and you want good sushi for a good price, this is it.  As simple as that.

Note:  In case anyone is curious, no, nobody has paid me to write reviews of their products or eateries.  I write about the ones I like enough to recommend to friends (or not, but usually the ones I do think are good).  In fact, all the things I’ve reviewed so far, have been items I’d bought and paid for (be it food or consumables or cookware).

Review: Sallad & sånt Cafe (Or, Praise the Holy Lasagna!)

We are lucky to live in the lovely Årsta, which is a fairly central suburb of Stockholm City proper.

Sallad & sånt - look at the mirror-shine on that espresso machine!

Lucky not just because it’s central, and quiet, and has easy access to the city centre, and very green (well, most of Stockholm is very green, so it’s not that special), but because, among other things, it has really good neighborhood grub.  By grub, I mean grub – no fancy Michelin-aspiring pretentiousness here.  It’s simple and it’s very, very good.

And I am not exaggerating – we have the best delivered pizza I’ve had since living on The Hill in Saint Louis (its Italian neighborhood!), wonderful short-menu Chinese (mmmm Mamma Xu’s homemade dumplings…!), the best kebab in town (according to numerous accounts by envious people who don’t live near it and the newspapers, too), a nice old traditional Swedish restaurant which T says has good food (I haven’t tried it yet), and a fantastic-looking old konditorei (patisserie) which we have managed (so far!) to avoid (oh, the lure of sugar!) – though that resolve won’t last forever!

And then there is the corner cafe called Sallad & sånt (‘Salad & such’) – the masters of the monster lasagna.

And by monster lasagna, I am talking about nearly 1.5L of their very excellent, homemade lasagna – per serving!  I am not kidding – they are approximately 10x12x12cm = ~1.44L (approximately, as in it varies a bit – I doubt they cut them with a ruler!).   And considering the relative (lack of) height of the average lasagna you get at a cafe (or even a restaurant!), these are about twice as high.

Of course, had it been average lasagna, its size would not have mattered – but it’s really, really good, too!  And also, really, really meaty.  And they make it themselves, which is why it does not taste like it spent two years in deep-freeze before being delivered to a chain-cafe and microwaved for you there.  No, it sits proudly in their refrigerated case (right next to its very slightly smaller counterpart, salmon lasagna), and stares at you, and you see it and fill with this atavistic hunger for it… and the rest is history.  Or well, a very stuffed boyfriend.

"... I am not sure I can finish this..."

As my friends all know, for a tiny person that I am, I can really eat with the best of them, and usually, if I am healthy and very hungry (we only go there if we are really hungry and prepared to seriously eat), I can more or less finish this lasagna.  With effort.  And then I need a walk because I sort of feel like a (very short) beached whale until I’ve walked it off.  Today was not such a day (I think I just hadn’t worked the appetite up enough), so sadly some of the lasagna was unfinished.

And, that’s sort of sane.  I am wondering if next time we can’t finish it, we should ask them to pack it up for us, or if we can maybe order one and share it (hard to contain the aforementioned meat-greed it wakes in us when we see it though…), because as you can see, it arrives on a huge plate literally piled with very fresh salad, and a nice-sized dish of dressing (we routinely get the garlic one, but we are garlic addicts so no surprise), and it’s… a lot of food.  It’s probably a decent enough amount to  feed a large viking of the 2-meter-tall variety that occur here and not leave him hungry.

I could go on, but there’s little enough that needs adding – if you are in Stockholm and very hungry and you like lasagna, you should try this place.  Have I mentioned they have a very good selection of salads, proper (leaf) teas, and very good espresso and espresso drinks?  No, I haven’t.  I guess my brainpower is still low, due to being in a post-lasagna meat coma.

So whether you are vegan (they even do soy lattes, though honestly – ew!), vegetarian, pescatarian or a carnivore like me (mmm… lasagna… mmmm!), you should visit the place.

Oh, and the prices are reasonable.  You can read the menu if you cilck the top photo to full size – sorry about the quality of pictures, but I only had my phone camera with me, and this begged to be written!  And it’s just 5 min (very slow, stuffed-with-lasagna) walk from Valla Torg tram station.  You know you want to!

Review: Out Of Africa Raw Shea Butter (not food, but it may as well be!)

I have dry skin.  I always did.

It was a great thing as a teenager, because – and, please don’t start to hate me now, I barely ever had any spots.  So long as I washed my face and did a minimal amount of maintenance a teenager is bothered to do to her face, I did not need powder, or foundation, or even concealer.

Now I am no longer a teenager, and I still can go around barefaced.  In fact, the other day I got a flattering “if I had skin like yours, I’d not wear makeup either…” from a lady at least 10 years younger than me, which totally made my day (thanks!).  And in a large part that has to do with eating right, sleeping enough, not binging on alcohol, and not smoking – and I should write a post about how all that works, but that is for another day.  This here is a review, after all!

So, while I still don’t have spots, my skin is still dry – and, unfortunately, that leaves it open to environmental stress and free radicals and temperature changes (try going out from a heated Swedish apartment in mid-winter – easily a drop of 30+ degrees Centigrade in a space of a few seconds!), and generally all those things that cosmetics companies yammer at you about, and promise that their product will be the one to prevent the “insert-number-here signs of aging“.

I don’t buy that [bleep].  I have degrees in biology and chemistry, and I can read a darned label (and yes, all those cosmetics come with boxes, labels or inserts which tell you what’s in them, though they’d dearly want it to not be obligatory, and it is – thank you, labelling regulations!).  And I know full well that most of what is on that label is nothing I want on my skin.  But, see point A – my skin is dry, so I need something on my skin to protect it.  What’s a girl to do?

Well, this girl tends to buy her own oils, or shop with those brands that don’t have words I need to have a chemistry degree to understand on their label – not slamming all cosmetics companies here, you know – some are really very good!.  But many, sadly, are not.  I mean, why should I buy a “moisturizing shea butter lotion” with 97% [random stuff and water] and 3% shea butter, if I can get … shea butter?  No reason.

Out Of Africa Shea Butter Tin

On advice from a friend, I went and ordered a tin of unrefined, raw and unscented shea butter from Out Of Africa online.  If you are in North America, you can either find a shop that stocks them, or buy this directly from their website, but I had to go through an internationally-shipping site.  It wasn’t really any hassle, and after about a week of waiting for the package, I got my paws on this stuff.  And began to use it immediately – obviously.

After about a week of use, I have to give it a 9/10 rating, and it’d be a 10 if I had ordered the scented variant that my friend had.  So, a 10 for the Graperfruit-scented variety (tin pictured) at least.

What is the downside?

It’s utterly minor.  I realised that I do not like the scent of raw shea butter.  No, it is not bad, and a lot of people like it – but I think it is too nutty for my taste.  And, the scented (with natural oils) variant that my friend had, it had no trace of the nutty scent, so don’t be put off by this.  Also, if you do like warm, nutty scents, you may well go nuts for this as it is (punny, ha ha!).  Mind you, even as it is, the scent is very faint and disappears almost immediately on application, but I think what I will do is take some of it, heat it gently on a water bath till it’s stirrable, and mix in a drop or two of Provencal lavender essential oil I have, then let it set in a tin or jar before using.  If I am not too lazy – it really isn’t that much of an issue.

There is another thing which isn’t a downside, but it ought to get mentioned – shea butter is thick.  If you aren’t used to using raw vegetable butter on your skin (such as coconut, cocoa etc.), this may be a surprise, but worry not – it melts on contact with your skin, so when you warm it up and spread it on your hands and pat it on, it goes onto skin without a problem.

The upsides?  Loads of those!

First of all, to those of you who are ethically-minded, this is organic, environmentally-friendly harvested, etc., etc., read the details on their site.  I won’t go into all their certifications, but they are enough to make me feel good about paying for it.

Second, the price – it’s reasonable.  In these not-so-easy economic times, having something which doesn’t break the bank is a plus.  And for that price, it comes in an attractive and practical tin which fits into your handbag if you get the smaller size, for use on the go – as lip, face, hand, or general moisturizer.

Third, and more importantly – it does amazing things to my dry skin.  You need just about half a pea-sized amount to cover face and neck.  You put it in your palm, stir it with a finger to warm it up, and then spread it between your hands and pat onto clean, towel-dry skin.  Including around the eye – no irritants in this.  It soaks right in, and doesn’t even leave a greasy shine, and it feels – trust my spoiled self! – wonderful.  Great.  Insert other positive adjectives.  I now see why the cosmetic companies advertise their products as containing shea butter – but it’s even better to just have the 100% premium ingredient!

Fourth, it’s food-grade.  You could, if you wanted, eat it (at least the unscented version – the ones with essential oils mixed into them may taste of those and those don’t always taste good).  It is like unrefined coconut oil in that it is, among other things, a food product – meaning, it does not contain anything that would make you sick if you absorbed it through your GI tract – and thus, I am quite happy to let my body absorb it through the skin.

Fifth, better yet – it does not trigger my boyfriend’s nut allergies.  T is allergic to all nuts and peanuts, except coconuts and almonds (which aren’t true nuts), but this does not bother him at all.  So while I don’t make any guarantees, chances are, if you are nut allergic, this may work.

So far, it has made my skin elastic and smooth, and the fine lines I’d been seeing creeping up (they tend to every time the central heating kicks on and the air gets dry) have disappeared from view.  I’m not making huge claims of this making them go away or anything, it’s more that the skin gets moisturized, and it lasts all day from one application – so that the lines neither get a chance to show up much, nor get worse.  This is just from one week of use, mind you – who knows, it may wow me further in a few weeks from now (I’ll update the post, I promise!).

P.S.  I also bought a vanilla 30% shea butter lip balm from the same place.  Wow.  Just wow.  And yay!  My vanillaholic self rejoyces!

And now please excuse me – I have a face to wash, and shea butter to put on it.  I look forward to that!

Review: Chasseur Mini-Casseroles

As of two months ago, I have a new kitchen toy.  You’ve probably noticed.

The glossy forest-green one. The other color I bought is a matte graphite

More precisely and importantly, however, I have a whole set of six of them – two in the shiny smooth forest green glaze, and four in a matte graphite grey-black.  I have bought these cute and tiny Chasseur single-serve glazed ceramic casserole (cocotte) dishes two months ago during a Christmas sale in Liverpool’s shopping district in preparation for the move to Stockholm.  The move itself, and packing up of things have been more an excuse than anything, as I’ve wanted them for ages, but who needs excuses when purchasing something which will get used on, if not a daily, then at the very least, twice-weekly basis.

Before further ado, I would give those a 10/10 and urge every foodie (unless terribly averse to the single-portioned presentation) to get some or at least consider these.

The physical quality and manufacture of the casseroles themselves is wonderful – they inside glaze is cream-colored and glass-smooth, and thus neither get burnt-on stains, nor give any issues with cleanup – I just let them cool and then soak them for a bit, and every spot comes out with a little gentle rubbing with the scotch-brite end of the washing-up sponge and liquid.  A minute of effort is all it takes to get the surface feeling squeaky-clean.  Heat distribution is even whether used with or without the lid, and the integral handles conveniently cool faster than the main body after being removed from the oven, making warm food in a very hot container easier to manipulate onto the table (or a kitchen-towel covered lap in sofa or bed).

And, they are just the right size for a one hungry person’s lunch serving of chili, stew, artichoke dip or crumble pie.  I would also say they are good for a braised-meat main dish or a mini-lasagne, but I would use them for that as a part of a main meal, rather than the entirety of it – they are 300ml (average volume of a soup bowl), so I guess that would largely depend on the size of person in question, what else they are eating at the same sitting, and their appetite at the time.

So far I have been using these mostly to feed T and myself cosy sofa dinners and lunches, but I think I must try a braised meat or fowl dish in those for a dinner party at some point.  Perhaps something with chicken and sherry and lots and lots of garlic and thyme…

Ah, the salivation-inducing dreams of food.  The best part of those is that they can and should be made to come true!  And, rather to the point of this specific post, I doubt that I will forget about these once the novelty wears off – in fact, I have a feeling that I will find many more uses for them as time goes by.  Best kitchen toys are like that – you never, ever get tired of either what you know can be done with them, or finding new delicious uses for them again and again.

Note: I have included a link to the Chasseur site above, but it appears that they have discontinued the lovely oval mini-casserole range (which looks exactly like their larger cast iron oval ones), and now only make the round ones in the same 300ml capacity.  The quality and versatility that I’ve fallen in love with since buying those is probably still the same.

Review: Yee Rah @ Liverpool One

Last weekend I have been visited by a friend from Norway. It was a little bit spur-of-the-moment, but as both she and I have needed some girl-time, and we both have a limited supply of female friends (women are terribly hard to get along with, I have no idea how most men manage!), it made perfect sense to have her call me early in the week and ask if I were going to be available, and then just drop by.  For the record, I do so much love living in the globalised world – years ago this sort of thing would not be possible, except maybe to the super-rich (which neither one of us is).

Since we had a couple of evenings, we split the food ideas evenly between a dinner cooked by yours truly (photo and recipe to follow in a separate post), and going out to a very nice place in Liverpool One called Yee Rah, which is a sort of an oriental-fusion food restaurant, very modern, and with a fantastic ambience that I had wanted to try for a while, but never had the occasion to.  The hall itself is designed in muted shades of natural green and brown, reminiscent of a tropical rain forest in palette.  It is double-level (ground and upper), comfortable, and softly lit, providing a very relaxing atmosphere.  The kitchen is open, and an array of food at various stages of preparation is displayed under lights to anyone passing through.  I must say, though we did not end up having dessert in the end, those made us salivate even as we walked by.

We were greeted promptly, offered a window table overlooking Chavasse Park, and most importantly, the servers neither abandoned us, nor hovered, but were rather responsive to a raised hand and eye contact, the way too few restaurant staff seem to know to look for these days.  I give the staff full marks for exemplary service.

Regarding the food – we ate one of the Tapas platters, the one including squid rings, which was both, generous in size, and incredibly good (the pork spare ribs are to die for!).  Then I had Beef Teriyaki, and Hanne – a Koreah-spiced breast of duck.  Having tried each other’s food, I have to say I preferred the duck.  Hanne did, too – it was warmly spiced and not too sweet, as well as incredibly tender, and I’d order it next time I go there!  The beef was also very decent, despite the sauce being a touch too salty for my preference.  Portions were generous, and presentation beautiful, despite it being a busy Friday evening (which I can imagine is hell in restaurant kitchens).

The cocktail menu was short but well-chosen, and though it didn’t have a Margarita listed, it was furnished complete with properly salted glass on my request.

Unfortunately, I have no photos.  All I can say for myself is that we were too busy eating, talking and enjoying ourselves to remember to snap pictures before wolfing the food down.

In short, I would gladly recommend this to anyone who wants a classy and stressless evening out, without it being overly formal or stuffy.  For the price-conscious – while the price of food and cocktails is not cheap, it is certainly not unreasonable.  For us, a large shared starter platter, a hot drink, main entree off the “Grill” section, and a cocktail ran to about £60 total for two (not including tip, which had been richly deserved, as we had a wonderful time!).

Review: Atkins Advantage Chocolate Decadence Bar

I make no secret of the fact that I strongly dislike sugar.  In fact, I think a large proportion of the modern Western obesity epidemic is attributable to nothing else but sugar, be it in the guise of table sugar (sucrose), glucose, fructose (other than found in actual raw fruit), or refined starches (from maize starch thickeners to white rice and bread).  I think overconsumption of refined carbohydrates is unhealthy, and recommend against it.

That does not, however, mean that I am Atkins-product mad.  I own a copy of “New Diet Revolution” by the late Dr. Atkins, and it is, in all respects, a book of very sensible advice (which, by the way, mentions that no one should try the diet without consulting a physician – something which appears to have been lost in all the Atkins™ franchise since the good doctor’s passing).  To be honest, neither am I a fan of bar-and-shake solutions to weight loss, for a number of reasons (another time about this), but the point here is that I am neither a fan, nor a hater of the current incarnation of the Atkins empire (although I am most certainly a fan of the late doctor himself).

The bar I ended up trying was Atkins™ Advantage Chocolate Decadence 60g bar.  I thought that if I try and like the bar (which does state it effectively has less than 2g of sugars and no refined starches), it may become a very convenient meal when taking flights or long train trips, and would be certainly better than most travel-food alternatives.  I love chocolate (idea which in no way conflicts with my dislike for sugar), and I honestly really wanted to like it.

Sadly, I have to give the bar about 6/10.

The negative sides of it were the eating quality and nutrient profile.

• In terms of eating quality, it was chewy and heavy, and did not go down well at all without copious amount of hot coffee to wash it down, and while it did taste quite decently (for something virtually carb-free) of chocolate, it was, in my opinion (and even compared to real chocolate) just a touch too sickeningly sweet.
• In terms of nutrient profile, what bothers me is the fact that while the bar concept is focused on it being very low carbohydrate, I find that, in addition to not tasting that great, it is not nutrient-dense enough for its caloric content for my liking.  What I mean is that at a hefty 232 kCal per 60g bar, it has no vitamin or mineral content declared anywhere on it, nor can I find any enrichment in the ingredient list.  So, unless someone corrects me, I can say that in terms of its nutritional contribution beyond protein, some fat, and fibre, it is more or less nil.

That is not to say that everything you (generic you, in this case referring to myself) eat, must be pumped full of mineral or vitamin supplementation.  Far from it!  My opinion is that while a generic multivitamin pill a day is a Good Thing™, more is generally not necessary except under specific circumstances.  But, I prefer to eat fresh food which usually has a high nutrient-to-calorie ratio, and if I do eat something which does not, then by the little green apples, it better be a foodgasmically knock-your-socks-off amazing thing to eat (Brew‘s “Best Lemon Cake Ever” comes to mind here, in all of it calorifically mountainous magnificence).  To sum it up, the Chocolate Decadence is just not decadent enough – it is neither feel-good-about-eating-it healthy, nor does it make me salivate thiking about it.

The bar is not without its advantages, however.  I am a harsh judge of things that go into my mouth (interpret that as you like, but it applies to all of them, really), and it does deserve the 6/10 mark I gave it.  Why?  Well, first of all, it is convenient travel food, it is filling, and while not cheap (at £2/bar), it is not likely to cause you stomach upset, and it is far better than not eating (which can result in a headache, irritability, and, using common sense, is more detrimental to health than eating).  Having the Atkins chocolate bar in your handbag is still a great way to avoid hitting the pastry case at the train station/airport cafe when you order your tea or latte.  Just buy your hot drink, pop the bar out and feel good about not having overdosed on sugar for a questionable trade-off in taste.

In conclusion – I will not make the Atkins™ Advantage Chocolate Decadence part of my weekly shopping.  I will not consider this a part of my eating habit, nor a treat.  However, I will buy this or its sister products in range (if there are any with similar profile?  I have not seen any in the UK.) before travelling and carry it with me.  It’s practical.