This has been a difficult week for me. Film buff that i am, i can't really ignore all the Watchmen hoopla, and because i love the book i don't want to, AND because i love the book, i feel i must try. Not going to see the movie, rereading the book instead. So here comes Slashfood with this cupcake photo. It would be prety fun to decorate these sweet babies. Check out the original blog, Cupcakes Take The Cake, for yet another Watchmen cake.
i'm always trying new snacks at the Asian groceries, and this one was so strange we couldn't resist. It's difficult to tell exactly what the Chinese manufacturers meant by 'orthodox' olives, but we're guessing they are the black ones, because there was also a light green variety which must be UNorthodox or reform, since no specification is made.
The neat thing about this item is that the makers began with a dubious concept - a sort of candied ripe olive - and meticulously followed through until an authentically bizarre, but somehow tasty, result was achieved. The Fuzhou Dashijie Olive website shows a selection of preserved fruits and drinks, including several types of plums and olives.
The ingredients: fresh olive, sugar, salt, licorice root, fennel, clove, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, and radish red. The presence of licorice and fennel with a strong olive flavor makes sense, it's a classic flavor combo found in Spanish tortas de aceite. Individually wrapped, the 'olives' have a slightly dry and wrinkled skin and an actual pit in the center, for authenticity. As you can see from the opened one in the second picture, even when unwrapped and split they look like the real thing, individually wrapped and measuring about an inch in length. The flavor is strongly of olives, but very sweet, with the licorice notes both kicking the sweetness up a notch, and smoothing it into a more refined herbal flavor, more like a sweet than a candy. The texture is as if you took a very large, lightly brined ripe olive and left it out in a dry room for several hours, as it moves toward leathery. If you really love olives, this is well worth a try at $3.69 for a big bag of more than a dozen olives. i plan to check out the green olive version, and try seeking out this brand of preserved plum as well.
Argi and Esti think they will be visiting Trader Vic's when we get to Altanta.
One of the things i most enjoy on the internet is finding a review page comparing snack foods or beverages. It appeals to my obsession with other peoples collections, and my nostalgia for obscure treats. While catching up on Nenslopalooza today, i noticed Nenslo updated his Revista de Galletas Maria, a review of Maria cookies. Marias are a flat, round cookies originally produced in Europe in the late 1870's and quickly gained worldwide popularity. Today, at least in North America, we think of them as Mexican or Spanish cookies, but as this page shows, they are produced around the globe, with the Asian varieties usually called "Maries". Think animal crackers or arrowroot biscuits, sometimes with a little more sugar or vanilla in the mix. If that sounds good, they can be found in many places, you just haven't noticed them before - at K-Mart, Target or Meijer, at discount food stores, and at most dollar stores, sometimes two packs for a buck. Maybe it's an ethnic thing, but i'd agree with Nenslo that Mexico and particularly Spain make the best Marias, and he warns against the ones from Belarus!
While on the subject, let's point out a few other shiny snack sites on the web. Although Giant Robot printed the funniest and most comprehensive Asian beverage reviews, Jack Energy's site is one of the best drink rundowns i've seen. 8 Bit Joystick covers several of the most popular types of Pocky in a review of the sublime Men's Pocky. Unfortunately, he neglects my favorite green tea pocky.
At McSweeney's you can find Reviews of New Food, and Eric Silver describes one of my pleasures, Ojingaa Dang Kong, amazing peanut and squid balls. There are many dare foods in McSweeney's random sampling, and it's scary how many i have tried.
sweetnostalgia.com is actually a cyber shop specializing in old fashioned and regional candy. There are other such sites on the web, but at Sweet Nostalgia you can buy a bar at a time. If you want to try a Valomilk or an Idaho Spud, they're your go-to guys.
The best site i've found for mundane comfort snacks is taquitos.net. Homer Simpson is their culinary hero. They say they have 2875 snacks reviewed, so i'm a ways away from seeing it all! Mmmm... white cheddar fries!
Smells squiddy when you open the bag. Crunchy but delicate spheres with peanutty center. In fact, it only tastes like peanuts until you've swallowed and the squid flavor gently returns. Strange and delicious...i...need...more...
i felt like the last person in North America who hadn't seen the Falls, until my husband dragged me, our friend and the trailer there last Thursday. It was pretty cool, except the food was pretty lame. Fortunately the trailer, which we camped in near Fort Erie, was packed with snacks. Our campground also had...BUNNIES!!! Jim pretended they were making him hungry, and the night we ate at the Happy Wanderer, he was bereft over not having hassenfeffer on the menu.
i'm a bit ashamed to say we didn't visit any of the tacky attractions on Clifton Hill. The whole point of the trip was that we were too broke and exhausted for WorldCon, so we kept talking ourselves out of Spiderman rides, Frankenstein mansions, and rock 'n roll wax museums. We did have fun anyway! A lot of our water viewing was near the Niagara Fallsview Casino.
The lobby has a fountain that is a tribute to Tesla with spinning wheels, interior illumination, and wires ascending the dome.
Several times each evening, they dim the lobby lights, and crank up the fountain until the tanks overflow, and lightning shoots up the dome...
The First Hand Canadian Crafts and Design shop had a nice selection of Roger Wood clocks on display. And the casino buffet wasn't bad. The best meal we had was at the Venice Lighthouse, just a smidge south of our camp on Niagara Parkway. A crappy Chinese buffet we visited had really outstanding Japanese ice cream. i wanted Italian, Vietnamese or sushi, but was vetoed.
The food aside, i really enjoyed the quaintness of the town, which was jam-packed with tourists from all over the world. It was so nice i forgot about Boston, except to wonder who won the 2007 WorldCon bid, Japan, who i presupported, or Columbus, who bought our memberships. It is Japan. i'm sorry for Ohio, who would have run a fine Con, practically in our back yard, and excited for Japan. If we win the lottery, we will go!
