Review: New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls & Sbarro Declares Bankruptcy? (Other News…)
Junk Food Nation, Happy Happy Tuesday. Everyone recovered from St. Patrick’s Day? And is it St. Patty’s or St. Paddy’s? And do you think the first time someone called St. Patrick “St. Paddy” he looked over and said with a scowl, “That’s not my name, bro”? I guess we’ll never know. Onto some news…
1) Sbarro, the (un)popular pizza joint in mall food courts and highway rest stops everywhere, filed for bankruptcy last week. Sbarro, by the way, is the fast food chain I avoid the most. The only choices you have when eating at a Sbarro are, “Do I want the slice of pizza that costs $8.75, or do I want the lasagna covered in tomato water for $11.85? And…hmm…does it matter that they both taste awful?” Ugh, no wonder they filed for bankruptcy. Stop charging $7.00 for a slice of pizza and a soda and maybe you’ll have more customers.
2) Apparently, a couple weeks ago, infamous Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford tweeted out incorrectly to remind his followers to turn their clocks back one hour for Daylight Savings, instead of forward one hour. Twitter exploded, of course. In other news, cocaine is a hell of a drug.
3) In today’s “Oh-just-make-the-Terminator-already-and-enslave-us-all” news, this Lego Cubestormer robot broke the world record, solving a Rubiks cube in 3.253 seconds. Go to this link and watch the video. Or even just look at the GIF. It’s horrifying.
UM, SOMEONE KILL IT. KILL IT NOW. SHOOT MILES DYSON AND THROW THIS INTO THE PIT OF MOLTEN METAL!
4) Finally, tonight is the auction draft for my second fantasy baseball league I play in, Clout Wars. I’ve mentioned it on this blog before…a collection of lawyers, doctors, and sports writers that gathers once a year to bid ridiculously to fake-own real MLB players on their quest for TOTAL FANTASY BASEBALL DOMINATION. I love it. I’ll likely be live tweeting this event this evening…for the truly bored.
Today’s junk food: New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls!
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls: The Money Shot
A few days ago I reviewed the Ritz Buffalo Ranch Crackerfuls, and liked them. On that same day, I purchased these New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls. As someone who has eaten chili WITH Ritz crackers, I support this flavor greatly.
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls: Dancing with cheese
Whenever I eat chili, I typically do add some sort of cheese on top – although it isn’t always cheddar cheese. Usually it’s whatever I have: jack, pepperjack, shredded mozz. These New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls look like they focus on cheddar. Or some general shredded “yellow cheese.”
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls: 140 per pack
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls: Ancho chili pepper powder?? Fancy
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls: The individual Money Shot
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls came in three cracker packs, as seen above. Once opened…
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls: Three sandwiches
…they looked like this! Each sandwich looked dusted with chili powder.
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls: Close up
Up close, these New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls looked plenty buttery and loaded with spices.
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls: Opened
I opened up one of these New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls, and tried the cheese by itself. It had a VERY powerful flavor – the cheese itself was creamy and savory and sort of tangy (tomato powder), to be honest. The cheese also was loaded with cumin and chili flavor. This cheese tasted sort of smoky too – like that nice smokiness that you get from stewing kidney beans for a long time, coupled with the actual nice bean flavor.
The cracker, eaten separately, was buttery and crunchy, and had some chili powder flavor, but was sort of muted. The cracker itself wasn’t a great communicator of flavor.
New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls
Cheese and cracker eaten together, I thought these New Ritz Crunchin’ Chili & Cheese Crackerfuls were pretty good! Flavor-wise, I got the nice chili tangy smoky taste while also the traditional cheese and cracker flavor from the Ritz sandwich. I don’t think it was AS successful as the Buffalo Ranch Ritz Crackerfuls – those tasted like I was dipping a Ritz Sandwich into ranch and buffalo sauce. These didn’t taste like I was dipping a Ritz Sandwich into chili; these tasted like a Ritz Cracker Sandwich with chili-flavored cheese.
That said, the chili flavor was up front and center, and there’s no mistaking what this was supposed to taste like. If you like chili powder flavor, you’ll like these.
PURCHASED AT: Giant Food Grocery.
COST: $3.99 OUCH.
Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.
Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 14 Comments
Quizno’s filed for bankruptcy protection last week too. Pretty soon the mall food court is going to be Panda Express v. Sarku Japan v. Starbucks.
Now you know why the Food Network has rolled out Food Court Wars…
@Dana: I’ve seen the commercials….don’t you feel like food courts are a dying breed?
@Shorneys: Ugh, not a huge fan of Quiznos either. Never liked their torpedo bread
Food courts at busy malls still look busy to me at meal times. I do see a lot more ‘traditional fast food’ making a move on food courts vs. just the generic Chinese food place, Nathan’s hot dogs, salad place, subway, mcdonalds. One of the malls around here now has a Five Guys and a Moe’s (despite the presence of a Moe’s down the street). They’re not _in_ the food court, but they’re right downstairs, so you can pick something up and come upstairs and eat. I think new, healthier options can succeed as long as there’s foot traffic, interesting to see what might show up on that show. The only one I saw was a pizza and wings place (lame) and a chicken salad sandwich place (huh?). Personally I like a place with a decent gyro, that thing’s just spinning on a spit all day anyway, use decent pitas and fresh veggies, make your own tzatziki and that’s an easy, tasty food court item.
@Dana: Make your own tzatziki would be awesome. I like that idea.
Chicken salad sandwich place? haha
The Dublin Airport has an answer in no uncertain terms: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=671758966203802&set=a.436776843035350.95014.157498590963178&type=1
“natural flavor (contains celery)”. Of course.
@Dana: The best public service announcement!
I know the Sbarro’s has to-go hot/cold food bar which is $ by the pound at Union Station. Guess that’ll be another empty spot in a high foot traffic area.
@Elisa: Hey, I’m in favor of more Chipotles everywhere!
Finally tried – agree, not as tasty as the buffalo. I’d buy the buffalo again, but not these.
@Dana: Nice
I also “reviewed” those and here’s my thoughts:
Dear Mondel?z International, I bought Ritz crackerfuls crunchin chili & cheese and I’m not impressed. Yes, they taste good, but 3 per pack in a 6 pack box is a rip off. There’s more trash per pack than there are crackers. Most snack crackers have 6 crackers per pack and way less garbage. Even the box itself is made of thicker and more cardboard than should be necessary. And what’s the point of the paper sleeve in the individual pack if the crackers are broken anyway? I will not be buying this product again until it is packaged in a more eco friendly way, even if it is 30% post consumer material. I feel it is a shame since it actually tastes pretty good, but just not worth my money. Oh yeah speaking of my money, I paid the same amount for 18 crackerfuls and a can full of garbage, as I did for twice as many Lance Captain’s Wafers and half the trash. Definitely not worth my time or money. Please address this issue.
@Joe: Have you tried the new “BOLD” Lance flavors?