This place is enormous, and packed to the gills: to use a term borrowed from the Oreo people, what we have here is a Double Stuf event. Picture a stadium–sized exhibition space in New York City, filled with booths displaying tempting-looking snacks, sweets, and savouries. Behind these irresistibly designed and invitingly lit items stand busy, [...]

Shelf Life had dinner with a bunch of babies the other day, and was struck by their complete and utter awesomeness. For us, the miracle of newborn humanity gives rise to all sorts of deeply felt, meaning-of-life questions, not to mention the follow-up issues: Is Baby Einstein a complete and utter waste of time? Do [...]

St. Dalfour Ready To Eat Gourmet On The Go Wild Salmon With Vegetables 153g, $3.99 widely available for more information visit St.Dalfour.com And so it’s game over for Vancouver 2010 – gone are the dazzling competitions, the smiley party people, the roared O Canadas. Hardest of all, though, is bidding farewell to our favourite Lower [...]

Holiday necessity or Victorian monstrosity? Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen – and found Canadians divided on the topic of plum pudding. Many of us – especially those of British descent – love this fugly-looking and mystifyingly delicious olde worlde relic (one scion of Upper Canada says: “It’s pure ambrosia. When [...]

Parker Lee Hot and Sour Soup Bowl 400g/14.1oz, $2.69 Available at selected Grocery Stores and Asian Markets. We bought it at Metro. For more information visit: www.mannarich.com Headachy, bleary eyes, upset stomach? We know the feeling; pronged exposure to the Food Network will do that to a person. But many of us will come down [...]

The Village Kitchen Thai Coconut Chicken 860g, $17.95 Available in gourmet & specialty food stores in Ontario For more information visit www.thevillagekitchen.ca When you think about it, products like these have to be good. The people who make frozen meals have their work cut out for them, because their competition is not necessarily homemade versions [...]

We’re doing it for the children. For years, Shelf Life has resisted the idea of taste testing packaged macaroni and cheese, not only because all neon-coloured meals make us nervous, but because the topic seems over-explored. Is there anything consumers don’t know about this stuff? We know that per capita, Canadians buy more of it [...]

Corn is our friend, but it has a dark side. Shelf Life wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of, say, an aggressive Niblet. Consider the evidence. First and most disturbing is the hegemony of Big Corn in our grocery stores, an unhealthy state of affairs in which thousands of everyday food products are [...]

Hark! Catch those snaps and snarls? The sounds you are hearing are howls of outrage coming from a pack of American hot dogs. Sara Lee, manufacturer of Ball Park franks, has filed a lawsuit against Kraft, maker of Oscar Mayer wieners. Among other things, Kraft is allegedly guilty of false advertising, because its ads proclaim [...]

Pete’s Tofu 2 go Sesame Ginger with jazzed ginger soy sauce 175g, $2.99 Available at health and fine foods stores. For more information visit; sunrise-soya.com Et tu, tofu? Shelf Life is wary of products that come with enclosed sauce; the dips and other add-ons hardly seem worth the effort, because they’re generally not very good. [...]