Balance of Food

Waffles and Mochi aimed at kids who aren't old enough to cook

Listen to your vegetables and eat your parents didn't survive as the title of the Barack Obama and Michelle Obama executive produced Netflix show. You hear the line a couple of times in the initial episode of Waffles and Mochi, including the theme song. Waffles, part waffle and part Yeti, and Mochi (the tiny pink ball) live in the far north. They want to become chefs but hard to do when all you have to eat is ice.

They end up at this grocery store in a large city that has an upstairs garden. Mrs. Obama runs the garden and the store.

The 10-episode series on Netflix allows children to learn about different foods through the magic of Waffles and Mochi. In the opening episode on tomatoes, they learn that tomatoes are fruits but are treated like a vegetable. They travel in the MagiCart, a shopping cart that transports them around the world. The tomato episode features Samin Nosrat (Salt Fat Acid Heat) helping them make pasta with tomato candy and Chef Jose Andres making gazpacho. They also learn about Neapolitan pizza and sign langauge at Mozzeria, a Washington, DC restaurant where all the workers are deaf.

The episodes cover different foods per episode: tomato, salt, potato, pickles, rice, egg, herbs and spices, corn, mushroom, and water.

"If you want to be great chefs, you have to learn about all kinds of different foods." — Michelle Obama

Mochi does make sounds that only Waffles can interpret, so Waffles does the talking. The people are always happy to see Waffles popping up out of nowhere to learn about food.

They also learn the origins of food, like gazpacho coming from Spain. There are songs and animation in the half-hour long episodes.The songs are courtesy of Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci aka Garfunkel and Oates.

The show features kids experiencing the food in multiple languages. Waffles and Mochi earn badges in each food at the end of each episode.

Waffles make the initial mistake of oversalting the cookies and has to learn that balance is important when salt is involved.

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BalanceofFood.com television coverage

Waffles and Mochi is a bit of Sesame Street and Salt Fat Acid Heat with a pinch of Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?.

One potential concern is the correlation of the target audience and whether they are old enough to help out in the kitchen to cook. Waffles and Mochi works on a level of 5-8 years where kids usually don't start helping until at least 10 years old.

Watching with the adults in your life can be a good way to start a conversation about food and cooking. The information is really good and important, especially in encouraging kids to find something better than convenient food and fast food.

There is so little positive nutritional content in television form, especially for children. Even if Waffles and Mochi was horrible, the program would still be worthwhile. The program has a lot going for improving nutritional information.

video and photo credit: Waffles and Mochi program

Taco Bell offers more choice in Build Your Own Cravings Box but not that much choice

The $5 meal concept has been more of a KFC aka Kentucky Fried Chicken concept some time back. There wasn't much nutrition in their "meals."

Taco Bell, a sibling company to KFC, has a $5 Build Your Own Cravings Box that is now available to those who have downloaded the Taco Bell app.

Regular readers have wondered why, even if I don't eat too much fast food anymore, I am obsessed with what fast food establishments do.

In the case of the Build Your Own Cravings Box, this isn't about fast food but choice.

The power of exponential math tells us of the hundreds of potential combinations. Most people won't have to go to that extreme unless they love everything on the Taco Bell menu.

"The Taco Bell I'm proud to lead does it differently — we put fans in the driver's seat and allow them to eat how they want to eat, not how someone, irrespective of how famous they may be, tells them to." said Taco Bell brand chief Nikki Lawson in a press release.

Despite that notion, there are rules. There are only 4 items in a box, technically the drink is one of the 4 items so that is likely not literally in the box.

Each box will then have 3 items: a specialty, starter, and side (definitions to come).

The specialties are Chalupa Supreme, Cheesy Gordita Crunch, Crunchwrap Supreme, Black Bean Chalupa Supreme, and the Black Bean Crunchwrap Supreme. There are 5 of them yet 2 of them are just black beans instead of seasoned meat versions of 2 other items.

The starters are Crunchy Taco, Beefy 5-Layer Burrito, and Bean and Cheese Burrito. Difficult to turn down a burrito over a taco since you will get much more food. You can't choose 2 burritos: that would violate the rules.

The sides are Chips & Nacho Cheese Sauce and Cinnamon Twists. You want the chips and dessert yet you can't have both. Rules are rules.

You have a lot of choices for drinks. They aren't new choices so you have given great thought already to high-fructose corn syrup or the artificial sweeteners you want.

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The Build Your Own Cravings Box would be more fun if the goal was how much food could you cram in the box for $5. The Crunchy Taco takes up less room than a burrito. You might worry about chips getting crushed but the Cinnamon Twists can get squished. Rules are rules.

The Build Your Own Cravings Box has limitations and rules. The incentive does offer more choice than major fast food options will give you.

A local chicken place offers 2 sides with an entree. You can, for an extra $1, trade one of those sides for a slice of peach cobbler. My local barbecue place offers 2 sides with an entree. They have 5 sides but I always get the same 2 sides.

Choices are great when there are choices you want. The sides at these 2 restaurants are all very good. They don't have the advertising budget of a large national fast food chain.

BalanceofFood.com fast food coverage

What would your humble narrator do with a $5 box of Taco Bell food? Following the rules, I would pick a Crunchwrap Supreme (because of the nacho cheese sauce), Crunchy Taco (5 layers is too much for me), and Cinnamon Twists. I would pick orange juice for my drink, barely beating out unsweetened tea.

If fast food rules your life, the Build Your Own Cravings Box offers more choices than usual. Then again, you could think outside the box … literally.

photo credit: Taco Bell