War of the Cheezes: Round 2 - Daiya vs. Rice Vegan (by Galaxy Nutritional Foods)

Round 2 of the War of the Cheezes blogs will be:


Current Champion:  Daiya

vs.

Contender:  Rice Vegan by Galaxy Nutritional Foods

Daiya is the current champion because it is the best vegan cheeze I have found, by far and away.  However, I am not opposed to trying the other varieties out there, and educate my readers on them.  Why waste your time and money (and tastebuds, for that matter), when I can waste mine...and share pictures!

So here it is.  I promise, I will get a full Daiya blog, complete with photographs, up for you someday.  But for now, I can only try one kind at a time (money is tiiiiiiight).

After being iced up into my house for the past few days, I decided to brave the slick roads and venture out to my favorite specialty grocery, Georgetown Market.  Even though their hot bar was closed for the day, they did tweet that they would be having soup:  Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato.  Yum...that sounded perfectly warming and delighful.  That's all I really went for (that, and to refill my water jugs).  Nearly $50 later, I walked back to my car with a bag-and-a-half full of groceries (okay, I needed some staples).  Don't you worry - I didn't neglect to slip on the ice and fall flat onto my ass...seriously.  How embarrassing!  I picked my spilling water jug and my pride up off the ice, dusted off my chilled butt, and headed home.

Now, what goes better with a warm tomato-y soup than grilled cheese!?  NOTHING!  So, I fired up the skillet, Earth Balanced (you know, like "buttered", except with vegan, soy-free Earth Balance) my favorite sprouted grain bread by Food for Life, and put a couple slices of American flavored cheeze on top.  Of course, I couldn't let it melt away without trying a little bite.

I tried this little bite...actually, I only took a bite of this piece.

On the skillet...

BLEH!  Oh boy..this stuff tasted terrible, and I mean, awful.  It was like someone ground up cardboard in the blender and mixed in some oil and orange food coloring, then spread it out to dry.  The texture was not creamy either, but kind of stiff.  I didn't even try a second bite of the piece I'd broken off.  I decided not to waste a second piece of bread on this "grilled cheeze" (it's not cheap, ya know).  But, I did let it finish cooking up.  I figured the least I could do is give it a second chance...not to mention see how it melted.

This is all the melty I could get!

Well, it didn't get any better.  It did not melt at all, but rather softened a bit and curled around the edges.  When I sat down with my lunch, I had very low expectations as to how this would taste.  I added a side of my favorite vegan carrot slaw (also courtesy of Georgetown Market), since I probably wouldn't be finishing the grilled cheese.

Does this look melted to you!?

LUNCH!  Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup and Vegan Carrot Slaw from GM!

I was right.  The taste didn't get any better with the crispy, buttery bread, and neither did the texture.  I will never buy this again!

Luckily for me, the soup and carrot slaw did not disappoint.  :-)  Lunch was saved!


Summary:  Don't waste your time even checking this one out!  Taste, meltiness, and price all make this a complete failure.  I'd definitely choose Teese over Rice Vegan....but I highly recommend shelling out the couple extra bucks for Daiya.