In a new attempt to kill us satisfy our demand for cheese and things inside of things, Domino’s now has Stuffed Cheesy Bread. The new cheesy bread is just like the old, except with things inside of it. There are three new ways to increase your cholesterol: Cheese Only, Bacon and Jalapeno, and Spinach and Feta. Each one costs $5.99. I’ll take three!

I decided that it would be best to get multiple sets of taste buds to try these new flavors, so I got together with a few friends to do some tasting, a la Sam’s Artisan Pizza Review. Each box included eight pieces of Stuffed Cheesy Bread, and one cup of marinara dipping sauce. It looks like a calzone with cheese on top, which, when you think about it, is exactly what it is. On to the tasting.

Cheese Only

This one is exactly what it sounds like: there’s just cheese inside. I started with an end piece, which was a mistake, because it was just dough. The cheese didn’t make it to the ends. For a more accurate picture of what Stuffed Cheesy Bread is, you must eat the 6 middle pieces. So now instead of 8 pieces for 6 bucks, you’re getting just six. I pulled off a piece, hoping it would be like the commercial when they take one and the melty cheese stretches, unable to decide whether it should stay or go, because it is incapable of making decisions being that it is an inanimate object. That did not happen.

The overall feeling was that it lacked flavor. It’s a lot of dough and some cheese. Supposedly there’s some sort of garlic seasoning, but I didn’t taste it at all. It probably would have been much better with said seasoning. I dipped it in the marinara sauce, which improved it somewhat, but at that point you’re really just having pizza.

Bacon and Jalapeño

This one was the overall winner. They did not skimp on the jalapenos, each piece having a couple slices. There was also plenty of bacon, although some thought it was more like ham than bacon.

The reason we liked this variety best was because it had the most flavor. After the lack of pizazz in the Cheese Only, this provided a good pop. As I already mentioned, bacon makes everything better. The jalapenos had a good bit of heat, but it wasn’t so much that you were unable to taste anything else. They also had a nice crunch, adding a good textural element. The marinara sauce was necessary for my weak palate, as it neutralized the jalapenos somewhat. I dare say we actually liked this flavor.

Spinach and Feta

Personally, I was not all that excited to try this one. I can’t say I care much for spinach or feta. But for your sake, So Good reader, I pressed forward. There was a good bit of spinach inside, at least one leaf in each piece. The feta, however, was not so easy to find. My piece had three tiny crumbles, from what I could see. The overall flavor was very mild. The spinach didn’t really come through at all, but I kind of liked what the feta added. It was a subtle but sharp flavor tone. One person got a large chunk of feta in theirs, and was put off by the saltiness. The general feeling about this variety was not a great one, but I thought it was decent.

In all, this is a decent offering from Domino’s. Stuffed Cheesy Bread is really just a calzone with less stuff inside. It won’t blow you away, but as long as you stay away from the Cheese Only, you might enjoy it. I think this product would benefit greatly from some seasoning, possibly of the garlic variety. If you can handle the heat, Bacon and Jalapeno is for you. If not, give Spinach and Feta a go.

What do you think? Have you tried it? Will you?

Via GeekOSystem.

Here’s the basic gist of the NY Times story: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) which is helping to spearhead U.S. anti-obesity efforts also oversees an organization called Dairy Management, a collective of dairy manufacturers that work to promote the increased consumption of dairy products such as cheese and milk. This organization stems from the National Dairy Checkoff, which was established in 1983 and collects a fee from dairy manufacturers on the milk they produce. This fee is then used to sponsor larger initiatives intended to increase overall sales of dairy products. Past initiatives have included partnering with the NFL and the famous Got Milk? campaign. Recent initiatives include partnering with companies such as Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, Taco Bell and Domino’s to promote the introduction of new products with large amounts of cheese.

So what’s the issue? Bloggers seem to be raising a few:  1) Tax money shouldn’t be used to promote dairy products. 2) It’s hypocritical for the government to promote cheese, which is high in fat, while advocating a low-fat diet. 3) Cheese makes you fat. 4) this is a government “bailout” or “corporate welfare” for Domino’s,  Let’s tackle these one-by-one.

1) Tax money shouldn’t be used to promote dairy products

Fair enough. I agree. In fact, I don’t think government should be used to promote or subsidize any specific foods or food products. But good luck weening American farmers (and vote-hungry Congressmen) off support from the U.S. government, which comes in the form of support for marketing initiatives, direct subsidies to farmers, tariffs on competing foreign products and setting price floors or ceilings for years when a crop is in over or under supply. The USDA oversees industry-specific collectives in addition to Dairy Management that promote other products like beef, pork, potatoes etc.

Farm subsidies and crop support in the U.S. has a decades long history of support from members of both parties and the goals are to provide year-to-year price consistency for consumers while ensuring that farming remains a viable career path for American farmers. While true libertarians would no doubt oppose any government involvement in promotion of specific food products, liberals jumping on this story should be aware that liberal lions of the Senate such as Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders are big supporters of the Dairy Checkoff program as a way to help keep small family farms in business.

Similarly, “anti-spending” Republicans from the mid-west and plains states have frequently advocated for continuing farm subsidies to help keep corn, soy or wheat farmers propped up. Ditto representatives from Florida and their support of sugar tariffs. Keep in mind that if you want the government to promote healthier eating, you, by nature of that very goal, need to allow the government to pick so called “winners and losers” – which foods they advocate people eat more of, and which they advocate people eat less of.

2) It’s hypocritical for the government to promote cheese, which is high in fat, while advocating a low-fat diet

Of course it is. But the government is riddled with hypocritical spending. Many would argue the government has no place spending any money telling Americans how to eat at all, whether it is the USDA advocating a low-fat diet or Mike Bloomberg spending money on subway ads attacking the high salt levels in soup. Atkins diet supporters would argue that carbs, not fat are the biggest issue for Americans and it’s misguided for the USDA to focus on promoting a low-fat diet. Not to mention that if you want to provide support for small dairy farmers, you can’t do it without letting them sell their higher-fat products.

It’s funny that some of the people jumping on this story seem to be liberal foodies from the wine & cheese crowd. As these folks munch on their gourmet French cheeses while looking down their noses at the disgusting fat mass of Americans, they might be interested to learn that while France has a public-private National Nutrition and Health program, they simultaneously promote the purchase and increased consumption of French cheese through the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Oh, and these initiatives use a much higher percentage of government  vs. private money than any of these programs in the U.S. You might also be interested to know that an ounce of brie has more fat than an ounce of the whole-milk mozzarella that would traditionally be used on a pizza. Plus, those American cheese “singles” you look down at with disdain? 1/4th the fat per ounce compared to brie.

3) Cheese makes you fat

No it doesn’t. Even eating a lot of cheese will not make you fat.  You’re only going to gain weight and get fat if you consistently eat more calories than you burn. If those calories come from cheese, potatoes, corn, wheat, it doesn’t matter, you are going to gain weight. Look at the story this week of the so-called “Twinkie diet” where a nutrition professor lost 27 pounds in 2 months eating almost nothing but Twinkies, Oreos, Hostess cupcakes and Doritos.  But, but, but…he must have gotten less healthy while losing weight right? Well, not exactly. His body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent while his bad cholesterol went down 20% and his good cholesterol went up 20%. What you eat is important, but how much of it you eat is far more important.

4) This is a government “bailout” or “corporate welfare” for Domino’s

The organization in question, Dairy Management spent $12 million to help promote Domino’s new pizzas with 40% more cheese. Its job, no, its whole MISSION and reason for existing is to increase sales of dairy products, so why is it surprising they would want consumers to eat pizza with more cheese? It’s not. It’s not surprising at all. That’s just them doing their job. The most accurate breakdown of this organization’s roll in this story can be found in this post on Year of Plenty, Newsflash: Dairy Industry Wants You to Eat More Dairy – What’s So Controversial About That? Domino’s sells pizza, a huge component of which is cheese. Dairy Management advocates Americans eat more cheese. It’s a natural fit and partnership. This isn’t any different than Shrek 3 partnering with McDonald’s to help pay for McDonald’s ads that promote kids meals with Shrek toys.

Dairy Management has a total budget of $140 million, and according to the NY Times receives “several million” a year from the Agriculture Department.  Except the money it received from the Agriculture Department ($5.3 million for the year in question) went to the US Dairy Export Council, which promotes American cheese oversees and has no involvement in any domestic initiatives like the one with Domino’s, which are funded through contributions by domestic dairy farmers and manufacturers.

So when Slice reports in its headline that “USDA Warns Against Fat While Funding Domino’s Campaign” they are simply wrong on the facts, since the USDA did not provide any funding to Domino’s or its advertising campaign. When American Pundit writes “Federal Government Helps Dominos Sell Pizzas, Uses Tax Dollars to Push Dairy Products” or BigThink writes that “The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending millions of tax dollars to help companies like Domino’s Pizza” they are factually incorrect. Sure, the government uses money that could be seen as “pushing” dairy products, but they didn’t give any money to the Domino’s campaign in question.

Kerry Trueman of Eating Liberally trumpeted the “bailout” phrase in her coverage on Civil Eats and Huffington Post. Trueman laughably compares Domino’s to Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Fannie Mae, Bank of America, and AIG, all entities that were saved from bankruptcy by an infusion of government money. In fact, the very definition of “bailout” is receiving money from the government. There’s just one problem: as we’ve already established, Domino’s didn’t receive any money from the government. So calling it a “bailout” is simply not true. If there is any sort of “bailout” being provided here for Domino’s, it’s one funded by the dairy industry. Which, besides being  wrong by definition (since its not government money) is a bit silly. Dairy manufacturers want to sell more cheese. Domino’s sells a product for which cheese is a primary ingredient. If Domino’s and the dairy industry want to team up to help share marketing costs in an effort to increase sales for both parties, that’s not called a bailout, that’s called a smart business arrangement with mutual benefits.

If liberals like Trueman want to advocate for an end to farm subsidies and the government encouraged/funded promotion of products from American farmers such as milk and cheese, I’m all for it. But if these types of programs are ended, farms WILL go bankrupt and people WILL lose jobs. That’s fine if you are ok with letting the free market takeover and seeing those jobs re-allocated elsewhere based on the whims of  supply and demand. So I’d like to point out once again that there is a reason the biggest supporters of these programs, particularly with regards to the dairy industry in general, are liberals. Good, honest, hardworking liberal Congressmen and Senators who want to keep farms in their state from going bankrupt and provide an actual livable wage for small family farmers. To do so though, means letting these farmers sell whole milk to be used to make high-fat cheeses.

Final Thoughts

This is a great debate to be having but lets make sure we’re reporting on everything honestly and accurately. Domino’s didn’t get a “bailout” or even receive any money from the government. They partnered with dairy manufacturers to attempt a mutually beneficial marketing campaign. Another thing? Both parties got their money’s worth. Domino’s sold more pizzas and the dairy industry sold more cheese.

Volokh Conspiracy was more accurate and had less hyperbole in their write-up than some of the blogs I mentioned above, and concludes the post by writing:

If Republicans are looking for budget items to cut, this would seem to be an obvious choice.  It’s not much, but every little bit helps.

Agreed. We are facing a budget crisis of epic proportions that if we are honest with ourselves, will require us to raise taxes, cut entitlements & defense and thoroughly review all domestic programs for wasteful spending. Not drastically cutting or eliminating almost all food, farm, crop and agriculture subsidies would be a missed opportunity for taxpayer savings. But lets keep in mind that these are tough choices with real consequences. There is a reason liberals support this sort of government support for farmers and why other countries like France do the same thing. Cutting government support for promoting exports will hurt sales overseas and will undoubtedly cause some farms to go bankrupt and U.S. jobs to be lost. If stories like this one can galvanize liberals to call for government spending like this to be cut, then great. But I’m not keeping my fingers crossed.

But this new sandwich isn’t your poor mans cheese sandwich. Chef Martin Blunos has created a cheese sandwich that costs $150, yes, $150.

So what makes the sandwich so expensive? The cheddar is blended with white truffles, it’s dressed with a 100 year-old balsamic vinegar, and in probably the most asinine addition to a sandwich possible, it’s sprinkled with edible gold dust. You know, to help keep you regular. “Nature’s Metamucil” as I call it.

Pictures via Beef Jerky Reviews and Snack Patrol.

via Gothamist

Oh yeah, and a special shout-out to Jordan (Jo-Jo) – yep, your friend actually is cool enough to know me.