Snackscot

Spotted in a bodega: one tiny, adorable kitten.

I would imagine this must be good for business.  I know s/he makes me want to buy at least twice as many Nutter Butters.

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My pants are too tight. Oh, hello, Pudding.

Yes, I'm too lazy to shop for maternity pants.  The pair I'm wearing today have to be completely unbuttoned when I sit down.  I'm spending my Elevenses eating leftover pudding from The Food Emporium anyway -- tight pants be damned!

FYI, marshmallows left in pudding overnight take on a sort of soft-foam texture.  Odd.

Also!  While I have mentioned I found Whole Foods' chocolate pudding to be TOO chocolatey and rich, the F.E. pudding is just my speed. The only thing I don't like about this in-store brand is the packaging.  Because the pudding cup is "rippled" around its sides, it is impossible to scrape all of the pudding out with any utensil.  Wasted pudding is a disgrace.

p.s.  Here's a funny picture of my cat wearing my hair as a wig. It is un-staged (i.e. he crawled under my chin and sat down like that):





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C is for...

Cheese farm -- September Cheese Farm in Honey Brook, PA, to be exact, where the staff is pleasant and the samples are many.  Try the spring onion cheese (alas, sold out when we were there)!  Try the bacon cheese spread on an almond cracker!






Cheese Curds -- These have been a favorite of mine since childhood.  We bought plain (unflavored) and roasted garlic cheese curds.  They should squeak when you chew them.  That's how you know they're good.  Also, my parents say if you leave them in the fridge a little too long and they start to lose savor, just zap them in the microwave for a few seconds.




Cute Cat with three paws who lives at the Cheese farm:


shoes by Marais

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Chocolate for the Athletic Frog In You

(nail polish = "Office" from American Apparel, another great gift)

Cadbury's Freddo makes me think, Froggy* Plays Tennis.

I found a little something strawberry inside this Australian frog, but it all tasted pretty artificial. Still, I'm not sorry I sampled it. Thanks, Cali!

p.s. Do frogs really taste like chicken? Anyone?

n.b. *Turns out, "Freddo" is a beloved character in his own right. And comes in numerous flavors.

Patting a Dog is a Snack for your Soul

I don't drink whiskey, but I did pet Whisky.

Merry Christmas!

The tree wasn't as big as in years past, but there were still plenty of Christmas traditions to enjoy this morning. To name a few:



Hot chocolate in Christmas mugs (we added a spoon of fair trade Moroccan Mint cocoa to each Swiss Miss instant packet's contents).




Warm, Mom-made cinnamon rolls.




Cats.


If today was a holiday for you, I hope it was a happy and delicious one!

Poetry Tuesday - A Cookie Party Pet.

The beaver-tailed cat
Has stars for toes
And on its butt, a kiss.
Who made this cat? I say,
Cat, who made you?
Beaver-tail, whiskers,
Red fur, paddle tail came into my heart
-- Blink, mew, sniff: stardust! --
On those little cat feet.

Bugs in Bulgaria

Whatever happened to Bugs Bunny?

Why, he's in Bulgaria shilling for curiously flavorless pretzel snacks (translation on the bag: "Maxi Sticks"). Seen here: Beer and Latin Fiesta flavors. FYI, Beer was saltier and may have barely tasted like yeast.

Thanks for the find go to D.G.

Okashi Morning (Parts 1-4)

Part 1

Arriving at work yesterday, I was greeted by this cheery, colorful pile. It's a Japanese snack sampler from N., just back from a months-long gig in that country! I'm familiar with Pocky, but the rest of the items were new to me. Good thing I got in just as she was putting everything out on the table. You wouldn't have enjoyed a picture of what it looked like after we started ripping into and eating everything. My pick from the pile?



I chose to consume this beverage-themed gummy straw for two reasons. The first is that I love Haribo gummy colas (currently my favorite gummy of all time). The second is that I couldn't resist the drama occurring on the back of the package (see photo below). The two colors of cola/beverage (is the blue drink a cola? Dish soap?) are fighting over the straw! Clearly, this is why the product is colored both blue and brown.



The odor of blue and brown in a battle turned out to be overwhelmingly sweet and strange. I opened the package to discover that the scent came from this gummy wad:



Inside the pouch, a long gummy string lies coiled, appealing to me in the same sort of way that the gum that came in long rolls once was (Oh, I just remembered the name: Bubble Tape! Remember Bubble Tape?). I say I imagine this is meant to represent a straw, though it is much thinner than a straw would be. It is blue on two ends and brown in the middle. I expected it to be blue on one end and brown on the other, as if the two soda straws had merged. Curious.

Now, to my mind, Brown, though under-represented on this candy, is winning the fight. The blue ends were sweet, feisty, fruity, peppery and soapy. It stung my tongue a bit and lingered on the palate longer than necessary. The brown portion in the middle tasted like a gummily artificial version of soda pop, still sweet but smoother and less alarming.

If you look closer at that illustration again, you'll notice that the brown guy (and I don't use "guy" here to label this soda as male) looks angry and the blue guy looks scared. Now this makes sense to me. Blue is clearly a usurper. Long live Brown!!

Or does it take the blues in our lives to fully appreciate the browns?

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Part 2

The second Okashi offering I tried was Pucca. Again, this was because of the curious illustration on the back of the package.




Snarky! I like it. This reminded me of a certain (Quaker Oat?) cereal that was like a crunchy pillow hollowed out on the inside which you could bite into halves, but Pucca is fish-shaped and filled with fudgey chocolate. Nice crunch. Well done, fishies.





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Part 3

Finally, I sampled the purple disks in this tube.





Why? Because I cannot resist robot hippos. Looks like they eat grapes and then, I can only imagine, emit purple disks from some robotic orifice.

Yow! Grapey! A little chalky, but the strong fruity flavor made these novel. I don't think I'd eat a whole tube, but one was just fine.

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Part 4

I did not taste everything that was displayed on the tabletop. I restrained myself (though when I ran across some leftover Pocky and Pretz later in the day I may have had a nibble of 2 or 3 flavors). Ahem. When snacking with a group (especially in the workplace), it is important to not come off like a snack hog. But I did snap some quick pictures of a couple of other intriguing packages before they were trashed.



What is this? A flirty flan? A teasing cupcake? Am I receiving some sort of knowing wink from a small dulce de leche cheesecake?



A toucan, right? I liked this illustration. An exotic bird + treasure chests + chocolate candies with something inside = pretty good vacation idea. Intriguing.

All in all? I tip my hat to you, Japan. Don't stop the innovations and feel free to keep it up with the package design. But you might ease up on the blue cola products. Just saying.


p.s. Dave said CHOCO A~NPAN (the box can be seen in the first photo at the top of this post) were soft little treats that looked like hamburgers but were filled with chocolate. He raved about them. Anyone in NYC know where he can buy some more?

Make mine a monkey?

As much as I like chocolate, I'm not that into "mocha" flavored drinks. But I do like frozen-whipped-smoothie-icy beverages. So I was all for trying an advertised "Monkey Mocha" after a long car ride on a sunny day. Dan saw the sign and hopped out of the car to buy a couple while we were in line outside the parking lot for the ferry to Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, WA, and he made it back to the vehicle just in time for us to board and drink the mochas on the crossing. Not bad. Hit the spot, as they say.

Yet -- why "monkey?" It certainly wasn't an ingredient. Was there banana in there? I didn't taste any. Nor was it served by monkeys. The bikini coffees at the bikini espresso stands are served by bikini-clad women (ask me what I think about this), so shouldn't the monkey mochas be served by primates? Nice mocha; confusing name.

Yogurt on the top

I have been digging Greek yogurt with honey lately, but decided to switch things up when I noticed Old Chatham Sheepherding Company offers a ginger flavored sheep's milk yogurt.

At first bite, I was disappointed -- not much ginger in there. But the sour tang of sheep's milk kept me spooning it into my mouth. After a few more tastes, I idly stirred the yogurt remaining in the container, only to unearth a treasure trove of the ginger I'd been hoping for. Suddenly, the root's flavor was everywhere I wanted it to be! Bits of what I thought was raw (but turned out to be crystallized) ginger crunched between my teeth, answering the smoothness of the yogurt appropriately. And when I was done with the container, a light gingery burn lingered in my mouth.

I thought it was just the old Dannon "fruit on the bottom" yogurt that needed stirring, but I've learned my lesson. If you give the black sheep a whirl, don't forget to stir.

"Let the Cartoon Begin!"

Here's another intriguing item Daupo brought back from Costa Rica. Please pardon the blurry photo. I have misplaced the wrapper and so cannot try for another.



Zoo Cartoon (or is it "Cartoon Zoo?") is an artificially-flavored strawberry (morango) wafer snack. I identified the flavor as strawberry before looking up the word to double-check, so that speaks to the artificial flavor technology at least being up to snuff. Kind of like a Kit Kat, the large 7-layered vanilla and strawberry cookie inside (wafer, strawberry, wafer, strawberry, wafer, strawberry, wafer) can be broken along perforated lines into smaller sticks of Zoo Cartoon.

I liked this guy. Pretty light and inoffensive. Crunches when it's supposed to. It's not my favorite wafer snack (where's a Little Debbie Nutty Bar when you need one?), but it does not fall into the category of "crazy-candy-from-another-place that I would never eat again."

The name, however, like the raccoon, is a complete mystery to me.

Hippo Hooray!

Hey, soccer fans and hippo lovers! This Kinder's for you.




Don't forget to save your Punktes. Earn your Fan Outfit!




Nutella-y hazelnut flavor...chocolate...nutty things...crispy outside shell...creamy inside...and golly, it's cute!

The Chewy Menagerie, or: I Question my Humanity

Daupo brought goodies back from Costa Rica and was kind enough to share. Here are my impressions of Frulli (in 3 tropical fruit flavors), made in Brazil by Dalla Costa.



Orange
Mamão Papaya Com Creme (Papaya With Cream).

Animals featured on wrapper: Alligator/crocodile who walks upright and has protruding (drooling?) tongue; hornet or other bestingered insect with blue wings; some kind of shark or dangerous blue fish ? (illustration cut off).

Experience: Sweet, only slightly tangy, kind of tastes/has the texture of a Circus Peanut at times, though moister. Stuck to my (surface of upper left) teeth. How can it be crumbly and juicy?!


Yellow
Banana Com Creme (Banana With Cream)

Animals featured on wrapper: Partially submerged hippo recovering from an injury (has band-aid on its rump); friendly-looking woodchuck/ground hog (beaver?) with protruding teeth, propping itself head and shoulders above a hole in the ground; green octopus or squid (with 6 legs) gazing heavenward and wearing a wry smile.

Experience: Does not taste much like banana. Kind of floral tasting, like a rose petal. A lot of saliva was created in my mouth to deal with this. My tongue started tingling about midway through chewing this flavor. Stuck to different teeth (outside and surface upper and lower right). Aftertaste is slightly more banana-y than before candy was swallowed.


Fuschia
Cereza Con Creme (Cherry With Cream)

Animals featured on wrapper: Blue, 6-legged octopus with owl-shaped head (again, could it be a squid?), looking startled or shocked; water skiing duck in goggles and green Speedo-style swim trunks; ostrich (mostly cut off by wrapper construction) glancing out of the corner of its eye to make visual contact with me (smiling - flirting?).

Experience: This was my favorite flavor. Almost a bit of sourness to the cherry. Like an old Lifesaver, but not in a bad way. Vigorous chewing made the texture grainy. Stuck to back teeth on both sides, but more on the right.


Overall: I feel uneasy. Most candies only have one animal mascot per product or flavor. Why so many in this case? And what are these animals looking at? And, finally, where do I, the human animal, belong in all of this?