This morning I received an email saying that I’ve been named as a Finalist for this year’s CBS San Francisco’s Most Valuable Blogger award in the Dining/Entertainment category!!! It was such an unexpected wonderful surprise and both my husband and I are still shocked!
My Bay Area fans and readers of Just One Cookbook, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I feel really honored to be selected and I wish that I can thank each one of you in person for being part of my blog life.
The voting will end on September 9th, 2011 and if you enjoy my blog, would you please cast your vote for me? It’s just one click. You can support me by clicking on the badge below and click on Just One Cookbook. Thank you!
This month instead of reviewing on restaurants around SF Bay Area and beyond, we decided to do a product review on a new snack called cruncha ma me. The company is based in Berkeley and we wanted to support local Bay Area companies, so here’s the review from my husband Shen.
Dear readers, welcome to the first product review on Just One Cookbook. We were lucky to be selected by Cruncha Ma-Me a few weeks ago as taste testers (we received these for free). As parents, Nami and I are always looking for healthy snacks for our children and ourselves. If you look at ingredients on cookies boxes and other snacks in grocery stores, oftentimes half of them sound like they belong in a “chemistry lab” rather than our stomach. For Cruncha Ma-Me, the ingredients are pretty straight forward, just edamame, veggie, sea salt, and all-natural yeast extract.
Japanese restaurants often serve edamame as an appetizer, and personally, my favorite one is the spicy garlic soy edamame from Ozumo’s in San Francisco. There’s something addictive about popping the beans out of their shell one after another into your mouth. In the sample packages provided to us, one is just plain edamame and the other one was a veggie medley. The veggie medley contained corn and bell pepper in addition to the edamame. The texture was flaky with a crunchy core, and since they were freeze dried the edamame and veggie were very light. What I really liked was that the edamame was crunchy but yet you can still taste the flavor. The sea salt did not overpower the natural flavor of the beans. On the other hand, the sea salt was a bit on the saltier side for me and I wish they used just slightly less. The veggie medley had similar texture crunchy but the flavors were slightly sweeter due to the corn and bell pepper.
We did enjoy both snacks but the downside to eating freeze dried snack is that they make your mouth dry. Luckily we had some icy cold green tea in the fridge and it went perfectly with Cruncha Ma-Me. I did not love the snack but for health reasons, we would definitely pick this up in a supermarket for my kids and ourselves as a healthy alternative to chocolate covered cookies.
So you need to let us know when you guys will be on CBS ; )
Ganbare!!!!!
OMG congrats Nami, that is such great news!!! Very well deserved. I’ll definitely be voting for you. 🙂
Just voted!
Congrats Nami! I can’t think of anyone more deserving! 🙂
Hi Nami – I just voted for you! Congratulations on being selected as a finalist and all the best…. you deserve it.
Hey Nami! Belated congratulations!!! You totally deserve this. You were one of my first bloggie friends and I’ve seen your website grow amazingly in just a few short months. I hope one day we actually get to meet so I can say I know a famous blogger!!
This is such a fantastic news .. I voted for you sweetie and I hope you win. So, when are we celebrating ?? 🙂
I never ate cruncha ma me but it’s sounds fun snack bite and looks pretty too!
Congrats!!
OMG congrats!!!!!! That is such an honor, I am so proud of you (and a little jealous!!) I love the cute plastic pod, what an easy way to relieve stress and still enjoy your snack!
Nami, what do they mean you’re a finalist? I thought you’re already the WINNER, with all this support you’ve been getting all around! LOL, yes of course I’ll vote for you even though I don’t live anywhere near San Fran. As for the Cruncha Ma Me review, the best part is that squeezy plastic edamame pod…I have one too and it’s a great stress buster! Haha…good one, Shen :-).
Oh, I’m SO excited for you, Nami! You definitely deserve the honor. I hope I’m allowed to vote for you because I will 🙂
Wow, great surprise!! Congrats!
Congratulations! That’s is a huge achievement to be a finalist! 😀
Huge Congratulations Nami 🙂 You got my VOTE!!
Congratulations Nami… I am so happy for you…
Will click and vote for you now.. Best of Luck dear 😀
Hugs …
How didn’t I see this before???…I just voted before writing this comment..CONGRATS!!! So happy to hear that and it is most defiantly well deserved nomination!!!
What a great snack, and pictures..I love this review!!