Meat patty?

Meat patty? Banquet, ConAgra's line of inexpensive frozen dinners, now offers a Cheesy Smothered Meat Patty Meal. That's right, the thing next to the mashed potatoes is a "meat patty," not a beef patty, a pork patty, a chicken patty or anything else that doesn't conjure up the phrase "mystery meat." The ingredients list reveals that the "meat patty and cheese sauce" contains, in order, water, beef, pork, "Cheddar club cheese," textured soy flour, whey, bread crumbs, soy protein concentrate and lots more. So if Mr. Tidbit were being generous, he would call the patty "meat loaf." If he were not, he would call it "mystery meat."

Mr. Tidbit must note that, while many Americans might wonder about something called a "meat patty" (Meat? What kind of meat?), people in other parts of the civilized world might have the same reaction to a product that quite a few of us accept as perfectly normal: fish sticks. (Fish? What kind of fish?)

Women's cocoa? Nestlé adds to its collection of hot cocoa mixes new Women's Wellness, in "rich milk chocolate flavor."

Two things distinguish it from the regular Nestlé mixes ("milk chocolate flavor," for example):

While the vitamin/mineral content of the regular mix consists of 2 percent each of the daily values for calcium and iron per serving, a serving of Women's Wellness contains 25 percent each of the daily values for vitamins A, E, B6 and B12, 30 percent each for vitamin C and iron, and 35 percent for calcium. (Mr. Tidbit must note that antioxidants, iron and calcium are good for men, too.)

And of course it costs more. At one discount supermarket, the 7.2-ounce box of 10 envelopes of the regular milk chocolate mix costs $1.99 (20 cents each). At that store the 5.9-ounce box of Women's Wellness, containing eight envelopes each about the same size as the regular ones, costs $2.59 (32 cents each).