Familar Food Brands

[alohabear]

Is it just me or do you notice some people will only buy one kind of brand of food? I notice my parents only buy Coral tuna or Libby's (in the black and red can) corned beef. What brands are your must haves?

I myself (being married to a mainland haole) get whatever on sale(lots of house brands),most of the time ,but it always has to be REAL SPAM for me.

[damontucker]

Re: Familar Food Brands

Best Foods Mayonaise.... Won't eat anything else!
Heinz Katsup too...same thing...

And what does being married to a mainland haole have to do with this whole thing? Don't we all like sales?

[alohabear]

Re: Familar Food Brands

Best Foods Mayonaise.... Won't eat anything else!
Heinz Katsup too...same thing...

And what does being married to a mainland haole have to do with this whole thing? Don't we all like sales?

She taught me that brands are all basically the same. Tuna is Tuna and so on. I really like the Safeway housebrands like SELECT . I personally can't taste the difference from Best Foods and other mayo and I have a foodscience degree.

[blueyecicle]

Re: Familar Food Brands

Can you tell the difference between Kechup? I can. I do not like Hunt's at all.

[oceanpacific]

Re: Familar Food Brands

Libby's Vienna Sausage with the YELLOW label;
Libby's corned beef;
Libby's corned beef hash (Mary Kitchen is also good);
Hormel SPAM (Treet, Tempt, and Tulip don't compare);
JELL-O;
Coral tuna;
Heinz ketchup;
Kraft American cheese slices;
Campbell's chicken noodle soup.

[helen]

Re: Familar Food Brands

I have tried at least two other brands of Macroni and Cheese but I always go for the Kraft brand, even not on sale.

[modpirate]

Re: Familar Food Brands

We buy generic whenever possible, but I think Chicken of the Sea really is the best canned tuna.

[Miulang]

Re: Familar Food Brands

Best Foods/Hellman's Mayonnaise
Grey Poupon Dijon mustard
C&H Sugar
Hebrew Expensive hotdogs
Aloha Shoyu (low sodium)

Miulang

[alohabear]

Re: Familar Food Brands

I have tried at least two other brands of Macroni and Cheese but I always go for the Kraft brand, even not on sale.

Velvetta is my fav. BTW, does any other place sell Coral tuna? Can you find it on the mainland?

I think Chicken of the Sea is the best tuna

You mean it's not CHICKEN ?

[Jonah K]

Re: Familar Food Brands

Heinz Tomato Ketchup
Gulden's Mustard
Heinz Sweet Relish
Kraft Mayonnaise
Yamasa Shoyu
Hormel Spam
Hawaiian Springs Bottled Water
Punalu'u Bakery Bread
Mission Tortillas
Beach Cliff Sardines
Walkers Shortbread Cookies
Sharkey's Coffee
Trader Joe's Milk Chocolate
Orville Redenbacher's Organic Microwave Popcorn
Progresso Soup

Are "must haves" in the pantries at all of my places. Other than those, assorted "Kirkland" and "Members Mark" products (eg. canned tuna, canned salmon, etc.) are good enough.

[damontucker]

Re: Familar Food Brands

Hawaiian Springs Bottled Water

I can't figure this one out... can one really tell the difference in taste in bottled waters?

[Kelly0040]

Re: Familar Food Brands

-I buy the same tofu brand my mom used to buy. I dont know the brand name, but I suppose I should in case they change the label. It may be the crappiest tofu available, but it's one I recognize!

-Kraft cheese slices (sometimes velveeta if it's on sale and my husband begs).

-Campbells Chicken & Stars

-Lindsay Olives

-Armstrong Olives

-Smart Balance butterspreadstuff. It doesn't give you the same buttery taste for a grilled cheese (or smell cuz you know when a grilled cheese is cookin and that butter/bread/cheese combo is like the most alluring thing ever after baking cookies), but I use the stuff whenever I have to use real butter. Whatever you do, do NOT buy the SB peanut butter unless you really have to. If you really need your omega fats, eat a piece of salmon before you eat some of the pb. If you like fish and pb together, then you may want to try the SB pb. The SB popcorn is good tho (unless you like that extrabuttery microwavable popcorn, then you prolly will miss your greasy fingers and superbuttery taste).

Everything else, I just buy what's cheap. Like mayo, mustard and ketchup we're not picky about. I'm ok with lowfat versions of mayo. I mix my mayo and mustard together so I rarely notice if it tastes different, but nonfat mayo is just wrong. Some of the generic cereals are off, too. But like for simple ones like rice crispies and corn flakes it can be fine. There are a few things I prefer the generic brands over, but I can't think of any. OH one is Safeway's mac and cheese that has white cheddar. And if Velveeta is the one with the creamy cheese in the package and shells, that stuff is so good.

Safeway's brand has treated us very well when we buy it (canned/frozen veggies, the frozen family dinners are all right, they have a cherry ice cream that my husband loves) not to mention it's the cheapest about 80% of the time. I can't think of anything we've had that has been awful.

Costco's Kirkland brand is also good and I don't mind it at all. I think sometimes they're using a brand we already know and slapping their Kirkland name on it.

As for bottled water, I can tell a difference. Some can be a tad saltier or almost sweet. Note that if it says "drinking water" it's just tap water (like the cheap flat of bottled water at Costco). If it's "spring" water, then it's spring water. Growing up, we always had Crystal Geyser botteled water in the house and one day I went to the store and got a bottle of Evian to see what all the hoopla was and there's a huge difference between the two and I don't like Evian. I can tell the difference between bottled drinking water and spring water and to be honest, most of the time I don't care as long as it's wet and cold and as long as it doesn't say Evian on it cuz it just doesn't taste right to me.

[adrian]

Re: Familar Food Brands

One brand I'll never buy is the "best yet" foods.

Actually, if I go shopping I don't even look at the brand - if it looks familiar, then I'll buy it - even if its a few cents more expensive than the other types on the shelf.

[blueyecicle]

Re: Familar Food Brands

I have tried at least two other brands of Macroni and Cheese but I always go for the Kraft brand, even not on sale.

I am with you. We grew up on generic Mac & Cheese. I hated it. So if I don't make it myself then I only buy Kraft. Period!
And one Heinz Ketchup, period.
And only Dr. Pepper...no Dr. Thunder ot shasta version. It's gotta be Dr. Pepper.
But generally it doesn't matter much...
No wait...Flour...I bought generic flour all the time then I got 2 bad bags...you may ask how flour goes bad? But it does YUCK!
So now I only buy Pillsbury flour. It actually does smell different.
Oh yes and like above me KRAFT cheese slices...the others are pieces of oil wrapped in plastic! Ewww

[Kungpao]

Re: Familar Food Brands

I can't figure this one out... can one really tell the difference in taste in bottled waters?

Yes. Generally, the easiest ones to discern the differences between are springwater vs filtered water. Some spring waters taste awful when compared to other spring waters. Some filtered waters have funny aftertastes when compared to other filtered waters. The most "clean" tasting water to me are Voss artesian spring water and Fiji spring water.

But those are pricy so i stick to DeerPark or Aquafina.