Good Surprise: Mom's Treats
My mother has far more visionary taste buds than I do. There have been times over the past few months where she has passed foods my way that I have not had high hopes for. They always say don't judge a book by its cover. I say don't judge a food by simply imagining what it tastes like.
There is a unique retailer called Trader Joe's that sells niche foods. My mother picked up some chili spiced dry mangoes there a while back and passed a couple of bags onto me. They ended up getting pseudo-lost in our kitchen until a few weeks ago when I decided to take them to work to snack on. When I started eating them I soon found out that they are God's gift to dried fruit. The perfect blend of sweet goodness combined with a heat that starts low and then builds up to a moderate warmth in your mouth and on your lips. It's great. It almost caused me some issues however, because I couldn't put them down. I have been known to have a bad little habit in life of overindulging in fruit products that I fancy and thus unleashing an intestinal fury that causes me to ponder over and over again the need for moderation in such exploits. The way I was pounding those mangoes, I had a feeling that I would once again regret my decision to not cut myself off before reaching my limit, but apparently my digestive track was tough enough to handle the onslaught of mangoes that I threw at it. I have since learned that this particular delicacy is very popular in Mexico with the addition of a splash of lime juice. Sounds extra tasty.
The other snack that I was impressed with was the Coffee Hershey's Kiss. It's tough to really nail down coffee flavoring, especially for connoisseurs like myself who fancy treats such as coffee flavored espresso beans. I understand that Hershey's Kisses are a classic American candy and I like them every once in a while, but I don't really love them. I would much prefer a few Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips over the kiss 9 times out of 10. And yet, they did an admirable job developing the coffee kiss. It is almost as if they ground up espresso and folded it into the chocolate, though I'm not sure they could do that considering the price point that kisses sell at. Whatever they did, they did it well.
Fair Dinkum
There is a unique retailer called Trader Joe's that sells niche foods. My mother picked up some chili spiced dry mangoes there a while back and passed a couple of bags onto me. They ended up getting pseudo-lost in our kitchen until a few weeks ago when I decided to take them to work to snack on. When I started eating them I soon found out that they are God's gift to dried fruit. The perfect blend of sweet goodness combined with a heat that starts low and then builds up to a moderate warmth in your mouth and on your lips. It's great. It almost caused me some issues however, because I couldn't put them down. I have been known to have a bad little habit in life of overindulging in fruit products that I fancy and thus unleashing an intestinal fury that causes me to ponder over and over again the need for moderation in such exploits. The way I was pounding those mangoes, I had a feeling that I would once again regret my decision to not cut myself off before reaching my limit, but apparently my digestive track was tough enough to handle the onslaught of mangoes that I threw at it. I have since learned that this particular delicacy is very popular in Mexico with the addition of a splash of lime juice. Sounds extra tasty.
The other snack that I was impressed with was the Coffee Hershey's Kiss. It's tough to really nail down coffee flavoring, especially for connoisseurs like myself who fancy treats such as coffee flavored espresso beans. I understand that Hershey's Kisses are a classic American candy and I like them every once in a while, but I don't really love them. I would much prefer a few Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips over the kiss 9 times out of 10. And yet, they did an admirable job developing the coffee kiss. It is almost as if they ground up espresso and folded it into the chocolate, though I'm not sure they could do that considering the price point that kisses sell at. Whatever they did, they did it well.
Fair Dinkum