These are odd.

Paul showed me these videos the other day.  That candy sushi looks pretty fabulous!  My instinct is that these must taste gross, but  I haven't tried them for myself, so that's not a fair assessment. 

I do like miniature things...and assembly...




The pizza freaks me out a little.  What's with all the liquid?

Have any of you ever tried this sort of homemade gummy candy? 

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Famous Original

Here's a pet snack peeve: when I pick up a "mint" at a restaurant after a meal, unwrap the plastic and put it into my mouth, and then find it's not mint flavored at all but some weak, fruity something-or-other. I don't mind so much if they're cinnamon, but they're almost always knock-off cherry or strawberry. Bleah. You hear me, Hibachi Hut? Because sometimes you let me down.

Luckily, this mint was the real deal. It tastes like the original Starlight peppermints. Thanks, Famous Original Ray.

Street Smartie

I will now admit that one of the reasons I liked Smarties (the sweet and tangy USA version, not the chocolate kind known abroad) as a kid was because I thought that they kind of looked like pills and I could pretend I was taking some sort of illicit medicine when I snuck them out of my desk at Hoover Elementary (go hornets!).

Other things in my desk around that same time: a small vial that had once held lemon-scented perfume and could still be used for sniffing (I had not heard of aromatherapy back then, but I love the smell of citrus to this day) and a paperback copy of Black Like Me (I can still smell that lemon perfume whenever I think about this book).


p.s. Valley of the Dolls is too classic to miss.

To a tea

I think it was my grandmother who gave me these three miniature tea cups and saucers (pictured above) when I was small, which I treasure in that I-love-you-but-don't-want-to-break-you way. I also loved my Holly Hobbie tea set, and it was both very sturdy and had a tiny teapot so that was the one I played tea with. I never drank real tea at my tea parties. "Pretend tea" was water, milk (into which I dunked cookies or graham crackers, which wasn't the best idea, as the cups were too small to clean easily), or an empty cup.

I never became a coffee drinker (one Santa Lucia celebration in 3rd grade nixed that for me), but I do drink real tea and tisanes (in a bigger cup) these days.

Soon, I'm going to a real, live ladies' tea party. I've made cheese puffs with black sesame seeds (with that spicy cheese finally procured from the Union Square Green Market), zucchini bread with lemon curd, and mini pavlova with berries and cream. I'm taking a Rooibos (fair trade and organic certified) tisane, one of my favorites because you can't over-steep it, and a Moroccan mint tea made of green gunpowder tea (to which some fresh mint will be added). I am really looking forward to tea and high-class snacking.

Pickle Puss

I've hinted at my affection for cornichons, but I didn't go into it then. I have a deep, abiding love for these little pickles. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water.



A dill, a sweet, a bread-and-butter, or a watermelon rind pickle won't always do it. Some days I need a handful of these tiny, sour, crisp gherkins -- brilliant, intense, and brightly acidic.

No pâté necessary.


p.s. There's also something about food in miniature that appeals to me. Can't you see Hunca Munca in the doll house nibbling on one of these?