Wednesday, July 15, 2009

looks like this ain't ever gonna happen on a friday...

so i'm changing my "product review fridays" to a floating day, once per week. i'm doing this because i'm technologically inept and don't always have food porn to post. tonight is that night.

gardenburger used to make something like this, and like all things i love dearly it **poof!**disappeared. i wasn't vegan then, but i didn't eat pork either and found it to be a nice kosher alternative to ribs. well, i was delighted to see that morningstar farms was carrying them, but the price for two riblets $4.59 was a little too much for this penny pincher. they were on sale last week, so i snagged a box.

they are vegan and they taste exactly like the gardenburger ones. deeeeeeelicious! the sauce is sweet and smoky, absolutely perfect. they're fine for nuking if you're in a hurry and need to use the microwave, just cook one side for a minute, then flip, then another minute, then flip again. i had mine on a grilled bun with pickles and onions just like a certain unmentionable evil fast food chain limited time only sammich. it rocked. so good job, morningstar farms! you're my first product review to get a full two turntables and a microphone. even at full-price, i'd buy these again.

tip: eat yours with a nice big baked potato and some cole slaw. yum!

7 comments:

Eddie G said...

Yeah, MSF is doing some great stuff! I made the best-tacos-ever last week using their crumbles!

Mona said...

How "pork"-y or unlike other fake meats do they taste? I know you haven't eaten pork--I haven't either. Because I've never eaten it (save for once in first grade when the teacher gave the class green eggs and ham and I didn't know that I was allowed to say no) I find some fake meats a little too weird still. These look good, but I would be afraid to try them lest I end up not being able to stomach them.

Jen said...

@mona: i grew up in an assimilated family, so i've eaten my fair share of pork products. i would say that it reminds me of a mc rib sandwich--a meaty quality, but you know deep down it isn't the real deal. all vegans have their varying limits regarding the consumption of soy or wheat meat. if you miss this kind of thing, then the riblets are right up your alley. if you're put off by a meaty texture, then i'd say stay away.

Unknown said...

Yay! I wasn't sure they'd be the same so I never tried them. Thanks

Bianca said...

I love these! I used to love the Gardenburger ones too, and yea, they just disappeared one day. I was pissed, but these taste almost exactly the same.

And I almost died of excitement when I picked up a box of these in Kroger and noticed the ingredient list was vegan...since MSF puts stupid eggs in everything. Yippee!

Anonymous said...

The reason they taste exactly the same as Gardenburger riblets is because they are the same. Kellog now owns Gardenburger and Morningstar Farms. I hadn't notice the GB riblet disappearing,but when I checked their site no such item is listed. So they probably just moved it over to MSF brand.

Anonymous said...

We used to use crumbles from various brands. Monringstar crumbles were our last favorite. We now Use TSP/TVP (they are the same thing). A little more work involved (barely) and for less than $2.00 you can get enough TVP/TSP that equals about $8 of crumbles! And it tastes delicious. We have made tacos with it tons of times now and sloppy joes as well.