Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream & Opinion Week Day 3: What I Think About Reality Shows
Junk Food Nation, before I get to today’s topic, for anyone reading the comments section of yesterday’s blog post, here is the Ragu commercial that was referenced a couple times:
Yeah, concur – this is either the weirdest or most genius commercial I’ve ever seen. It’s one of the two. I haven’t decided which one yet.
Today’s topic is Eilish’s: what does the Junk Food Guy think of reality shows? Honestly, it first depends on what reality television means? Back when I was kid, Emeril’s cooking show and This Old House, a home renovation show, was reality TV. Later, the Real World and Road Rules was reality TV. Then came the game shows – Survivor, American Idol, The Amazing Race, The Biggest Loser – all reality TV. Jersey Shore and the Real Housewives – now we are getting into more scripted reality TV. Thus, it’s tough to give a widespread generalized opinion on reality TV as a whole – because it doesn’t always fit into one box. And with more reality TV shows being vomited into our lives on a daily basis (Ice Road Truckers, Storage Wars, Dance Moms, etc.) – reality shows have quickly outnumbered fiction shows.
In general, I enjoy reality talent shows, even if I don’t seek them out, mainly because I enjoy seeing greatness – I don’t hate shows like So You Think You Can Dance, The Voice, and X-Factor because I can appreciate any show where people are attempting to be the best they can be. Although the judging is subjective, it’s ostensibly all about who is “the best.” I never did get into Survivor or The Amazing Race – because that was all about playing the game and screwing other people. I’m sorry, if I wanted to watch people be awful to each other for an hour a day, I can just walk down to my local DMV and enjoy the free show. That’s the same reason I don’t watch Jersey Shore or the Real Housewives.
I do have moments when I’m hooked on home remodeling shows like Bath Crashers and food shows like Man v. Food…Haven’t YOU ever wished to be on one of those shows? “Damnit…I wish *I* could be in Vegas trying to eat that 6-lb. sausage while a team of hired guns tears down and rebuilds my master bedroom!” Yes…we all wish that.
Most people I know crow that they hate reality TV but end up watching it for several hours a day. And since reality TV is clearly here to stay, as the small cost of making a reality TV show will always appeal to a studio or network more than the exorbitant cost of a scripted show, I embrace it. Just pick your flavor of choice, and ignore the rest.
NEED MORE TOPICS FOR ME TO DISCUSS! Best 70’s rock band? Favorite place to get tickled? Teams I could never root for? Keep ’em coming, people – Opinion Week rolls on!
Today’s junk food: Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream!
Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream: The Money Shot
I found this Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream staring me in the face, and I couldn’t resist. I’ve reviewed so many things at this point, I couldn’t remember if I’d had this before. But I knew two things: (1) The Junk Food Guy LOVES Key Lime Pie, and (2) this was going into my cart even if I had reviewed it before.
Sounds like a genius combination of elements! Love the little lime swirl
Turns out, I hadn’t reviewed Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream before… but others had, because this is another one of those annual Limited Batch flavors. It was reviewed by Gigi Reviews in 2009. Two Dips Ice Cream Tasters got a hold of this, as did Serious Eats in 2010. GrubGrade recently announced its return, and now here it is on my blog.
The description itself makes my mouth water. I am a sucker for citrus treats – Lemon Squares, Key Lime Pie, Blood Orange candies – all good, all the time, all go in my mouth.
See? Even Ben & Jerry’s uses adjectives like I do! (Meringue-y)
Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream MEANS LIMITED BATCH, so head to Target (where I found this) and look for it diligently. If this is such a popular flavor, why not have it all the time??? I have no idea what goes into their thinking, unless the ingredients just aren’t available year round or something.
Great ingredients, and REALLY bad for you
Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream has 270 calories per half cup. Good. God.
Pretty plain looking
Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream was pretty plain looking from the start, but smelled faintly of citrus when I sniffed it. Standard look so far – an off-white ice cream with some pie crust pieces sticking out. I dug a spoon in, and once you crack the surface you can see patches of the meringue swirl pretty clearly.
Bits of Shortbread-y pie crust pieces
Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Key Lime Pie Ice Cream was delicious. Simply delicious. The Lime ice cream was really good: creamy and sweet and had that mild citrusy aftertaste that lingered like key lime. Just slightly citrus-y – if anything, the ice cream was mild but provided the right creamy base for the meringue swirls.
The meringue swirls were acidic and tart and kicked up the key-lime-ness of the ice cream ten fold! While the ice cream itself doesn’t scream key lime pie, it’s the meringue swirls mixed with the base ice cream that REALLY makes this item sing. The combination is SPOT ON in the flavor.
More pie crust and some meringue swirl
And through it all was the flaky shortbread-like pieces of the pie crust – not sweet at all and provided almost a semi-salty contrast to the really lime-y ice cream. To me this ice cream tasted lime a key lime pie that had been frozen, blended up, and shoved into a tub. That is, it tasted EXACTLY like Key Lime Pie.
Why is this flavor Limited Batch!? It is CLEARLY awesome. Go eat some. Now.
PURCHASED AT: Target!
COST: $3.84
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Sincerely, Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 25 Comments
I get what the kid saw, I don’t see how pasta sauce fits in to the commercial at all. Is Ragu made for children?
and catching your parents having sex would suck at any age.
@Rodzilla: Great point. Also, did the parents make the pasta AFTER knocking boots? Because the kid’s wearing the same clothes … I sure how they washed those pasta-cracking hands.
loved survivor during season one…was over it by season two. these days, for some reason i can’t stop watching restaurant: impossible. enjoyed the last season of the great food truck race. food reality tv is the way to go.
suggested topic to discuss: would pro sports be better if they were played by knife-wielding spider monkeys?
@Parowpyro: Actually, you’re right – I also did watch Survivor Season 1 and enjoyed it (Richard Hatch, right?) but never watched another Season after that.
Spider Monkeys! I like it.
That commercial was disturbing.
@Eilish: Plus, Ragu is NOT what I’d want after that trauma – try Bourbon.
I have real problems watching the talent-based reality shows, because I get sympathetically cringey at awkward things, even when the awkwardness is a) the point, or b) entirely contrived, or even c) being celebrated. So I cannot watch the crappy American Idol auditions or lousy Dancing With The Stars numbers. Hell, I can’t even watch Stephen Colbert singing “row row row your boat” with members of Grizzly Bear. Nor can I watch any part of The Office. Too much awkward!
The other “Childhood is hard” Ragu commercial involves a parent telling his daughter that the feisty hamster she’s looking at really is the differently-colored sick hamster from this morning. Weird.
Question for the JFG: I would like to hear your thoughts on the different shapes of chewing gum. Specifically, the comparative benefits and weaknesses of the candy-shell chiclet-type, the classic stick (think Big Red), the smaller stick (like Trident) and the pillow (Bubble Yum). If you’re feeling daring, I invite you to opine on non-traditional gum-delivery shapes, like Blow Pops, Bubble Tape, or Big League Chew.
@Shorneys: HAHA great topic. I’ll have to think about that one.
And you cringe at awkwardness? So you really didn’t like Seinfeld?
That commercial was the worst – poor kid. I wonder if they explained to that kid actor what he was seeing or if they just gave him a substitution to get the same performance. He’ll see it years later and be like, “Wait a minute! I’m not looking at a dinosaur on a tricycle!”
Here’s a topic – VEGAS – what’s good about it, what’s awful, why should I go? Or not go?
@Teresapalooza: HA! VEGAS…go! Vamp!
And your comment about what they showed the kid and him realizing it after the commercial is out is so funny, I laughed out loud.
During a segement of the “Ice Cream Show” on PBS, there’s a feature on Ben & Jerry’s. At one point it was mentioned employees get 2 pints (if I remember correctly) a day to take home; one of the owners was hand delivering it to someone. (It comes on WETA-26 at least once during the summer; it was made in 1996)
The only reality show I watch: “The Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC.
@Elisa: AH, I did like Season 1 of the Apprentice. Maybe that’s my problem – I liked the first season of these shows, but always felt like the seasons after that weren’t as good.
Ok, I have to ask : How much do you enjoy tart things? and based on that, how would you rate this in tartness? I ask because, well, I’m afraid, though I know I probably shouldn’t be.
side note to Elisa : It’s three pints a day 🙂
@Dubba: I REALLY like tart things, but I’ll say that I wouldn’t call any part of this ice cream tart at all. It more just has moments of sour/sweet that mix into the creamy ice cream… doesn’t have that lime rind bitter tartness that some Key Lime Pies have.
@Dubba pt 2: HOLY EFFF. THREE PINTS A DAY!?
hahahaha, yup, 3 pints… but they have a free gym too
@Dubba – that free gym sounds crucial….Damn. I wanna work for Ben and Jerry’s I wonder if they need an in-house counsel
I also liked this flavor too. I love ice cream with pie crust in it.
I’m not huge on reality tv shows, but I do like the ultimate fighter show.
Next topic we can debate who is the second best quarterback in the afc east. Ya maybe not, Fitzpatrick prob is. I think you might agree with me on that.
@Will: Brady is a clear #1. Then you’re left with Sanchez/Tebow, Tannenhill/Matt Moore, and Fitzpatrick. I don’t feel like I’m being a homer when I say that Fitz is #2. The Jets are a total disaster…although Tannenhill has been impressive. But we’ll see how he holds up at full game speed.
Dubba, just so you know if you want this reviewed for the blog it’s all up to you. I hated the real key lime pie when I was in Key West, no way will you make me eat this one aha.
JFG, What’s do you think of Roger Clemens returning to pitch? I see it more of a way to delay his eligibility into the hall of fame in favor of getting new voters that see the steroid era as just that. I see him hoping they will have a more open mind to the whole situation in which it gives him a better chance to make the hall of fame. Yes I know it was never proven that he did do steroids but the dragged on cases and all that didn’t help his reputation at all. Then again I might be completely wrong with my logic.
@Nick: The “tryingot wait out the voters” is an interesting theory, and one that probably isn’t too far from the truth. Clemens has enough accolades where I think voters will be sort of on the fence and will eventually let him in. Rafael Palmeiro??? He’s cooked – I don’t care how many years go by.
2 Questions:
Question the first: how would you show your kids the Star Wars movies? Would you show them in the order we all saw them in? Would you follow George Lucas’s numbering in chronological order? Would you even show them the ones with Jar-jar?
Question the second: what would Lebron’s shoe have to do for you to plunk down $315 for a pair?
@Kahnfucius: Yeah this Lebron shoe thing is ridiculous. $315 is a flight to friggin California!
I love Ben & Jerry’s Key Lime Pie flavour. I had it for the first time recently in the USA and absolutely loved it! Hopefully it will get to us in Australia soon.
@Spencer: yeah this flavor was pretty great. Also easy to like if you like Key Lime Pie (which I do!)