Meal kits cater to a cavalcade of culinary cravings

One of the latest, hottest trends in food is the fresh-food meal-kit delivery subscription service. Recipes and pre-measured ingredients for meals that you choose, or can be chosen for you, arrive in insulated boxes and are delivered to your home weekly, so you can make fresh, tasty meals quickly. Business is booming. According to Statista.com, sales of fresh-food meal-kits were $1.5 billion in 2016 and expected to reach $11.6 billion by 2022.

The reasons to subscribe to a service are many. Maybe you don’t have time (or inclination in this time of COVID-19) to plan out menus, grocery shop, and then cook. Or takeout isn’t the taste sensation it used to be. Perhaps cooking prowess has not been your strong suit and you want to learn basic cooking skills. Rather than experiment and risk a disappointing outcome, you want to cook something tried and true with no guesswork.

Or it could be you’re craving for new foods and flavors, but you don’t want to purchase lots of new ingredients that may end up going to waste, either because you only need a small amount for an individual recipe, or because you’re positive you’re never going to use the rest of that sweetbread in any recipe for the rest of your life.

How many of us have gone to the grocery store needing just a few items and come home with food we didn’t need or were trying to avoid? A fresh- food meal-kit delivery service might help keep you on track. Or maybe you want to eat differently for other health reasons or because of philosophical or environmental considerations and preferences.

Additionally, a meal-kit delivery service might make a good gift. Treating someone to door-delivered easy-to-make meals might make their week.

 

Choosing the right service will take a little research. If you Google meal delivery services, you’ll find lists and ratings from a wide variety of sources, and dozens of meal services to choose from. Because meal-kit delivery service is a very dynamic segment of the food industry, companies continually innovate and merge/enter/leave the market. So, once you’ve found the service(s) you want to try, it’s best to get the latest information from their website. Read what past and present subscribers have to say about a service. You can check Yelp reviews, as well.

When evaluating what meal-kit delivery service to use, there are several factors you’ll want to consider, such as:

What’s on the menu

Some services cater to specific dietary wants and needs; others with broader menus might offer meals that meet those needs even though it is not their specific focus. You will also want to note how many weekly options there are to choose from and how often they rotate the menu.

For overall variety and popularity, HelloFresh, Freshly, and Blue Apron might be good possibilities.

For meeting health and diet needs, Diet-to-Go and Nutrisystem offer multiple options.

For those wanting to eat organic/vegetarian/vegan/plant-based, Sun Basket, Purple Carrot, and Green Chef offer many options.

For foodies, Martha & Marley Spoon, from Martha Stewart, offers a range of selections.

Cost

Cost per serving is generally in the $10 range (Dinnerly positions itself as costing less than average) but can vary depending on the number of meals and quantity ordered, shipping costs, current promotions, etc. Competition is keen. Many companies have enticing introductory offers, as well as referral programs that entitle subscribers to offer a friend a free trial.

Flexibility

How many meals and servings you are required to order weekly varies by company. Some programs might be better for singles, others for families. You might also want to find out if the service allows for ingredient substitutions, increased portion sizes, etc.

It pays to know the service’s subscription commitment/ suspension/cancellation policy. Also, take note of when you need to order your next week’s meals and what happens if you miss that window, as well as what day of the week/time of day you can expect the delivery. While the meals are packaged for freshness, another consideration is how long after delivery is freshness guaranteed, so if the shipment is delayed or you can’t pick up the delivery as quickly as you planned, you know what to expect.

What you need to have on hand

Check what utensils and ingredients are needed to make the recipes. Regarding ingredients, many meal-kit service recipes require you have just the basics, such as salt, pepper, and oil. For others, you might need to supply items such as eggs and flour.

Time

While most meal delivery service kit meals will take up to 45 minutes to prepare, Freshly delivers pre-cooked meals that only require reheating.

While fresh-food meal-kit delivery services aren’t for everyone, if you are looking to try one, the options are numerous, and look to be quite tasty!

By Ellen Marsden

RECIPE: Honey-Mustard Salmon

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 Tbsp Butter

  • 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

  • 2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

  • 1 Tbsp Honey

  • 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce

  • 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil

  • Salt and Black Pepper to taste

  • 4 Salmon Fillets (6 OZ EACH)

  • Roasted Parmesan Asparagus

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400F. Combine the butter and brown sugar in a
bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, until the butter and sugar have
melted together. Stir in the mustard, honey, and soy sauce.

Heat the oil in an ovenproof skillet over high heat. Season the salmon
with salt and pepper and add to the pan flesh-side down. Cook for 3
to 4 minutes until fully browned and flip. Brush with half of the glaze
and place the pan in the oven until the salmon is firm and flaky (but
before the white fat begins to form on the surface), about 5 minutes.
Remove, brush the salmon with more of the honey mustard.

Little Havana

As a lifelong South Floridian who grew up in Miami, I find that often one Cuban restaurant’s menu is pretty much the same as the next Cuban restaurant’s menu. Mainstays at most include camarones al ajillo (shrimp in garlic sauce), ropa vieja (shredded beef), chicharrón de pollo (chicken chunks marinated in mojo and fried), churrasco (steak), lechón asadá (roast pork), and vaca frita (fried beef). All are delicious – that’s why they are classics – but I must admit it is refreshing to find a new take on an old favorite.

At Little Havana Bar & Grill in Coral Springs, those dishes exist, but owner Jorge Alvarez also has more inventive dishes – often influenced by other Latin cultures. That is what my friends and I discovered while dining there on a recent Friday night.

Dinner / Cena

We started with drinks and piquillo, Spanish tapas that are not always on the menu. A tasty marriage of a roasted red pepper stuffed with bacalao (cod), the appetizer sat in a rich sauce that tasted like lobster bisque. We also had mariquitas, fried plantain chips that were perfectly tender in the center and crispy on the edges. It came with a mojo sauce, which we drizzled on top.

“They are delish,” declared Vida Handelsman of Coral Springs, who was also dining that night with her family. The mariquitas are her preferred way to start a meal at Little Havana. She said she prefers Alvarez’s place to the other Latin restaurants in the neighborhood that serve Cuban food. “They don’t specialize in Cuban as they do here. The Latin flair here is so authentic, I feel like I’m on vacation.” Her husband, Kenny, who works in Hialeah, said the food at Little Havana is as faithful to the original cuisine as any of his regular Cuban lunch spots.

Alvarez, a 14-year resident of Parkland, grew up in the restaurant business. Twenty-seven years ago, his parents opened Little Havana restaurant in North Miami, followed by another one in Deerfield Beach four years later. In May of this year, Alvarez and his wife, Michelle, opened the newest Little Havana on the corner of Coral Ridge Drive and Holmberg Road. Open seven days a week, from 11:30 am to 10 pm, the community welcomed it with open arms, and the restaurant is packed daily.

One of the more unusual dishes is lechón tamarindo, pork topped with a sweet and slightly sour sauce made from sweet red peppers and tamarind fruit. On its own, the tropical tamarind can be so tart it is almost inedible unless cooked or rolled in sugar. At Little Havana, the popularity of this dish hatched pollo tamarindo, the chicken version that my dining companion, Rachel, described as “tender with a fantastic sauce.”

For Rachel, the farther a culinary concoction strays from the beaten path, the bigger the smile on her face. She often finds chicken uninspiring, but not this time. “I love finding authentic cuisine cooked in a way I have never tried before,” she said. “That was the dish on the menu that spoke to me.”

Perhaps because they represent comfort food, I chose the hearty chicken soup and the tender Little Havana steak, pounded thin, then grilled and served with chimichurri sauce. My friend, Sara, chose the Relleno, a piece of haddock stuffed with tender bites of shrimp and mingled with a creamy seafood sauce. It didn’t disappoint (her, or any of us.)

There are a couple of choices on Little Havana’s parrillada (grilled) menu, both intended for two people – or in our case, it was enough for three. The first one has chicken, beef, and pork smothered in onions and chorizo (Spanish sausage). The second option has roast pork, lamb shank, ropa vieja (which got its name because the shredded meat in this classic dish resembles “old rags”), grilled chicken steak, and Little Havana steak. Bring your appetite and invite your meat-loving friends if you plan to order this. All of the meats were perfectly grilled, moist, and hearty.

For health-conscious diners, who think they need to limit Cuban food to an occasional calorie splurge, Little Havana’s manager Jorge Fuentes has you covered. He suggests salmon (not on the menu but always available), grilled snapper filet, or Pescado Diana, haddock baked with tomato, onion, garlic, and capers, then toasted under a broiler. Vegetables and salads can be substituted as a side instead of the standard rice and beans.

Drinks / Bebidas

Little Havana serves wine and beer, but Alvarez says the most popular drink is the mojito (which also comes in pineapple, mango, and guava flavors). It is strong and refreshing, but my favorite was the robust sangria… flavorful and sweet. There is also a mojito martini.

Happy hour is from 4-7 pm every day, which means you can celebrate the end of the day with $6 mojitos and sangria, and $4 beers. Furthermore, you don’t have to sit at the bar to enjoy these specials – happy hour includes the whole restaurant. Monday’s happy hour is actually a “happy day,” when drink specials are available all day long. Two favorites come out twice a week: paella is served all day on Fridays and arroz con pollo is available all day on Tuesdays.

There is some form of live music Thursday through Sunday from 6-10 pm. A singer crooned Spanish language tunes to a packed house on Friday night when we dined. Alvarez said this is a typical Friday night crowd including large parties, families, and couples.

Dessert / Postre

Save room for dessert… we tried three, proclaiming our favorites to be the creamy flan and crema catalana flambé, the Spanish version of crème brulee. Aside from the name, catalana flambé is very close in taste, texture, and appearance to its French cousin. Flame-kissed, the sugar fused on top and cracked under my fork. Once in my mouth, those crunchy bits wedged themselves in the crevices of my delighted molars. The tres leches cake was moist, dense, and very sweet. Of course, if you have a sweet tooth like me, I encourage you to be the judge. So take your pick, or better yet, try them all.

 

by Linda Brockman

November 2018