Still had water

Who knew peaches were a hurricane staple?

Besides the peaches will go bad so how about food that will last longer? Like these cotton candy Twinkies?

Or these Cookie Monster cookies?

If water is not your thing, there’s always wine in a can.

Hey, just trying to bring some levity during this waiting time…

Recently the Lucerne milk line at Safeway changed cartons, going with a different look. Or did the entire carton itself change?

Different milk drinkers say the milk from this new carton tastes “cow like.” There’s a bovine quality to the milk that’s not welcomed. Maybe meant to mimic “farm fresh,” but the city dwellers and suburbanites don’t appreciate drinking milk that smells/tastes like a cow. This is specifically for the fat free, lactose free milk, both regular and calcium-enriched varieties.

So if you like that farm fresh feel, stock up on this milk. Otherwise, complain to Lucerne or find another brand of lactose free milk.

As the remodeling of the Safeway in Kailua makes progress, a recent addition was this new endcap display. It’s all for Starbucks.

More of the new flooring is installed.

There are more temporary, popup displays.

There’s odd placement of stuff like the poke bar and greeting cards.

Greeting cards, cheese puffs, and the bakery goods.

And candy themed after The Hunger Games: Catching Fire?!?

From the looks of the amount of incoming hardware, the changes seem significant.

Sample of new hardware.

Floor stripped to concrete.

Old and new flooring.

New flooring closeup.

For posterity sakes, remember the old.

I gotta check back in a week to see how much has progressed.

• I’ll probably never try an authentic cronut from Chef Dominique Ansel.
• There’s an unspoken hierarchy of bakeries and the sophistication level of their pastries.
• Safeway (and Vons) is not in the upper tier of this bakery hierarchy.

With that out of the way, what would you expect when you see that neighborhood grocery, Safeway, now sells donut croissants, branded as Dou’ssants. I didn’t expect a whole lot. Funny thing though. With these low expectations, I bought a four set and was darn impressed with this fluffy goodness. That’s to say the Dou’ssants were delicious.

From the outside, the Dou’ssants look like husky donuts. The outer layer has a little more texture, and they’re densely heavy. On the inside, you can see some layering, but like the Croissant Donut from Saint-Germain Bakery, the construction of the Dou’ssant is like two halves melded into one. The taste reminds me of malasadas, buttery, glazed malasadas. After eating one, that glaze around your lips is hard to wash off.

So here’s my personal take. Of all the cronut variations in Hawaii, the Dou’ssants are your best overall pick. What? Why? Like I said, I’ve never sampled the original cronut so I don’t have a basis for comparison. But the Dou’ssants are very yummy. The price is right at four for $6. Availability is good if every Safeway sells them. I don’t have to go to a Waikiki hotel, I don’t have to go to specific locations downtown or in Ala Moana, and I don’t have to search out a mobile location. Inexpensive, yummy, and widely available – that’s a recipe for success.

You know you want to sample the Flamin’ Hot Funyuns no matter the burnage that’ll ensue. Pucker up!

Who doesn’t love the sophisticated cookies? After you outgrow Oreos, Pepperidge Farms will be waiting.

Remember the days of seeing Hickory Farms “pop up” locations during the Holidays? These small stores would temporarily open for business, pushing these meat sticks to customers. Be honest, you’ve sampled the beef stick, right? No shame in that.

Highlighting some of the new stuff I saw at our local Safeway.

Ben and Jerry’s has a new limited ice cream flavor, Key Lime Pie. I love me some key lime, and this frozen treat does taste like key lime. Mellow key lime anyways, not a mouth-puckering, eye-squinting, sour-on-the-tastebuds key lime.

International Delight is changing their packaging with a newer, more sophisticated logo (seen on the left).

The Dark Knight rises, and he drinks Dark Berry Mountain Dew? Whatever, but Mtn Dew is definitely playing up the Dark Knight and Gotham City.

I didn’t see this Mtn Dew, Dark Knight, and G Shock collabo at the grocery store, but if I did, I woulda grabbed it and seen if my Safeway Club Card gave me any discounts.

Last week, went to the East side for dim sum and happened to catch the grand opening of Beard Papa’s, the maker of fresh ‘n natural cream puffs, located in the Koko Marina Foodland. The short line took forever to move. We ordered 6 puffs and were in line for about 30 minutes! I’m no expert, but from my introduction to the efficiencies of Lean Six Sigma, I would recommend the guy packing the puffs be “cross-trained” into another position. How hard is it to take an already cooked puff, fill it with cream, powder it, then pack it in a box?

The puffs are good. Crispy on the outside and sweet with a lot of filling on the inside. Eventually, more varieties will be added to the menu after the production line gets their act smoothed out.

After downing the puffs, we drove to the lifestyled Safeway in search of chocolately fruity goodness and proceeded to clear out their inventory of the Coffeemate Chocolate Raspberry creamer.

Check out my pictures of Beard Papa’s grand opening and the lifestyled Safeway.

Bonus: Some local guy’s quest to try Beard Papa’s puffs from Shirokiya.

Nike’s Jordan Brand also introduced its Lifestyle lineup featuring Carmelo Anthony, Quentin Richardson, and Terrell Owens. This clothing campaign is inspired by the early days of MJ and “challenges us to learn the Jordan Way of Life by being authentic, never compromising, earning excellence and aspiring to greatness.” Corny, yeah, yeah, I know.

Sadly though, I think if you saw Jordan’s Lifestyle trio (sports reputation aside) walking the aisles of your local lifestyled Safeway, you’d think you have to change your lifestyle, or at least markets. I’m just saying.