OK, I know that I’ve skipped “real” Cheap Eats posts the past couple times. But I’ve had a rough past week (grandmother’s funeral, having to return a new iMac to the Apple Store) so I’m going to beg off this time again.

But I did want to mention that, somehow or another, the Cheap Eats blog was picked for the top 100 Blogs for Foodies by the Culinary School Guide.

I dunno what this means, but it’s kinda cool. I’ve always stayed purposely under the radar here, so it was neat to appear in the list next to all sorts of important foodie blogs. I’m not worthy, a la Wayne’s World.

Granted, it’s just another top 100 blog post and just the opinion of the site’s editor. Also, we appear in the category “Foodies on a Budget” - but I guess that’s pretty much correct.

Still, I feel kinda good about it. And now, I better go and get my suit cleaned for the award ceremonies. Party time. Excellent.

Hye there Cheap Eaters.

I’ve sort of hinted at this new project of mine over the past couple of weeks. It’s still “in the works”, but I figured I should probably officially announce it right now.

The website is called Cheaplander and this will be similar to Cheap Eats in that we’ll focus on reviews of cheap, inexpensive products. But the difference is we’ll be talking about EVERYTHING cheap, not just food.

I’m also going to be putting up some articles and other content (hopefully not boring your socks off) as time permits. I haven’t really told anyone about the site yet, so I figured since this blog was the inspiration for it, I should let the readers know about it.

First, I need to get something out of the way: Cheap Eats itself will NOT be discontinued. In fact, if anything, I’m going to ramp up posting here in order to try get eyes over there. I’m going to have SOME food reviews over on Cheaplander, but the majority of them will still land here.

The thing is: I’m not a very good promoter. I’m a halfway decent blogger I guess. But the blogging world has completely changed - there are just TOO many good blogs out there. So, the only way I could think of right now to try and get people interested was to spam you cross-promote it here.

Sorry if that sounds a little lame. Nevertheless - I’ve been writing on Cheap Eats for almost 4 years now. I haven’t asked readers for anything in all that time. But I guess I’m asking now - if you enjoy Cheap Eats and you have the time, would you please check out the new blog? And, if you would like to, please leave a comment. Also, if you’re into the whole RSS feed thingy, I’m using Feedburner for that - I’d be ever so grateful if you could add the feed to your reader.

Now - about Cheaplander. While it seems awfully opportunistic with the crazeee market bailout bababooey going on right now, I’ve been planning that website for about 2 years now. I enjoy writing, and to some extent, I enjoy helping people out. When I started Cheap Eats, I never thought it’d be possible to create a blog that would be entertaining, yet helpful. But I went ahead anyway - I figured at some point the blog would gravitate toward one side or the other. I’ve been told by many that eventually you have to “choose” between them.

(This sounds very Jedi-master-ish, I know. Or perhaps Pepsi-Coke-ish.)

I’ve been extremely surprised that to this day, some people enjoy the writing purely as entertainment, while others come here to actually get help. I get tons of mail about both sides, and it’s pretty gratifying.

I like writing about food and have made a lot of great contacts that way. But, I always felt that there was a whole spectrum of content that was being missed. That was the beginning of my plans for Cheaplander. Along the way, I realized that the gist of the content could focus around the idea of living within your means, since I’ve been sort of practicing this since I was a kid (haha, well more like brainwashed into it by the folks. Must say, I owe all my “success” to them, however.). Indeed, Cheap Eats itself came about because I needed to live within a budget.

As you can imagine, I couldn’t have predicted how timely that phrase would be. Just look at the state of the markets today.

Ok, I’m not going to go on and on - you can read more about it on the About page for Cheaplander.

But one last thing - whereas on Cheap Eats I’ve always been a bit hesitant to get involved with the “community”, I’m going to make more of an effort to include fellow Cheaplanders in the new site. I’ll probably be making a few more posts about it over the next couple of months - but, I’m looking for contributors to make a few posts once in awhile.

Up front: I can’t pay you. However, if exposure is what you’re looking for, then that’ll be taken care of in a byline on your post and inclusion on the “contributor’s page”. Also, I tend to get occasional free stuff from companies. I’d be willing to ship some of that out to people who might review it. I’m still trying to figure it out, but let me know if you’re interested.

Thanks for reading this non-Cheap Eats post. Full “coverage” will resume in a few days.

Bryan

p.s. I apologize in advance if certain things on the new site don’t function yet and if the look is still rather bare. I’m still in the midst of changing things day-to-day.

Hello, hello Cheap Eaters! I have made a it a bad habit of injuring various body parts over the past couple years. First it was the shoulder and back. (Actually, those are still ongoing issues, that are tolerable.) But the latest and greatest is some sort of injury to a joint on my left ring finger. No idea what happened but I’ve had to tape it up which has made it absolutely JOYFUL to type. The previous entry was done mostly with one hand and 2 fingers.

Thusly - I really need to take a R&R break. And because I also happen to be working on an upcoming project related to Cheap Eats, I thought I might as well take the opportunity for a longer vacay. Not that long, mind you. I’ll likely return with posts some time in late September.

By the way, thanks to everyone who has posted wonderful comments and written in with words of encouragement over the years. I really appreciate it!

Bryan

NOTE: Due to rocking and rolling and other earthquakedness, our regular Cheap Eats coverage will be postponed until such a time as the ground stops shaking. For now, please gaze fondly at this older photo of an enormous shrimp dumpling from the now defunct Won Ton Time on Garfield in Monterey Park.

Regular coverage will resume in a few days, or next week depending on schedule and Laziness Quotient™. Thank you.

Mm.. Crunch ‘n Munch. To make a short story longwinded, I was casting about trying to think of something to review for Earth Day. Something that would really speak to the heart of the matter about Us destroying the ozone and whatnot. I was going to be a real Green Hero by calling attention to the plight of Mother Earth.

Instead, as usual I caved to the pressure of cheap, preprocessed food bought at the Dollar Store. Truth be told, awhile back I stocked up on a number of different Cheap Eats items at the Dollar Store to review (the people who work there must think I’m insane buying all that random food). I guess Earth Day can wait another week. Not that I don’t think about the state of the environment.

So, about the Crunchity ‘n Munchity… I was going to insert a joke here about people having the “munchies” after ingesting the afterburn from certain plants, but since this is a family friendly website I decided against it.

I’ve been eating Crunch ‘n Munch, since the 70s or so. Made by ConAgra (who bought the rights from Franklin Nut Company?), this is pretty much in a similar vein to Cracker Jack and Fiddle Faddle. I’m not sure what it going on with the rhyming in all three of those names.

Cracker Jack is probably the most traditional and popular of the three, and for some reason I don’t think I’ve reviewed it yet. I’ll probably try get a hold of some if I can find it for cheap. Fiddle Faddle - I know it’s similar and I used to eat it that back in the day as well . For the life of me, I can’t remember how it was different than Crunch ‘n Munch - I think maybe it didn’t have any peanuts?

The Crunch ‘n Munch formula is basically clusters of sugar syrup coated popcorn with peanuts embedded in them. I got the “Caramel” variety which is different than the original flavor of Buttery Toffee. They also have an almond version of it.

I have to say that I was pretty pleasantly surprised with the flavor and quality. A side note: everyone thinks that stuff at the Dollar Store is “past it’s prime” and that’s how they can sell it for cheap. But so far, I haven’t had too many instances where the product was not fresh. This box of Crunch ‘n Munch tasted pretty fresh to me.

Continue reading “Crunch ‘n Munch” …

Well, let me tell you - I had a whole production planned for April Fool’s. This involved changing the website to look like it was bought by Google, buying a domain name (cheepeatr.com) and installing social networking (web 2 point blow) software, and then youtubing myself sitting naked in a bathtub full of caviar saying, “How do you like me now, suckahs!”

I had actually planned to do something funny like that since about last summer or so. But as it turns out - I’m just not a funny guy. In fact, I’m so un-funny that on the Funnilee Scale, which is measured similar to the Scoville hotness scale but in units of funnyness - I rate a little higher than a bell pepper.

I don’t know about you, but being as funny as a bell pepper means I have a hard time coming up with laughy joke production things. It’s true I can be funnier than Saturday Night Live, but hey, that bar is set REAL low…

Also, it turns out that I have no funny friends to inspire me to new funnilicious heights. You see, I have been living in a cave for the past 2 years and while the benefits are decent (low incidence of predators in the area, running stream just outside), the walk to the comedy club where all the other alien bears hang out to get their funnybones tickled is just too far to make it on an average day.

The other thing is that I can’t really leave the cave for long periods of time right now because I’ve left my flying saucer double parked in front of the meadow where we’re gathering specimens to take back to Betelgeuse. The Alpha alien bear really gets PO-ed if he notices anyone doing that, so I’ve had to keep an eye-tentacle out. Last thing I want is to have it impounded by the Galactic Bear Force and be stuck on this godforsaken planet for another year or so.

So in lieu of the hilarity that normally goes with April Fool’s, here is a nice picture of Alien Bear Ramen defaced by myself with a light sky blue Photoshop pen. It is the best I could do on such short notice with the computer in the cave, but I figure it gets the point across. Happy April Fools, earthlings.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I’ll be taking a short break from posting. It should be no more than 2-3 weeks and then we’ll return with food reviews and recipes. Thanks for standing by.