Cake In a Can

Japan is a truly amazing place. In Japan they not only think of putting cake in a can, but they manage to make it work. Making something innovative work is the key to amazing treats.

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Another Round Of Questions

 These three questions (although one is more a comment) are a little more obscure than some of the other common questions I get, but I do get them pretty regularly.

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Zillions of People Love Treats and Beasts, and so Will You

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

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Retro Commercial Is Awesome

Not only is the commercial amazing, but the candy bar it's selling looks great too. I imagine that this bar no longer exists, but maybe if enough people ask nicely...

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Nocilla Spread From Spain - Is It Better Than Nutella Part 2

 

This particular chocolate spread has lead me to a conclusion about chocolate spreads. Some people argue that Nutella is full of sugar, fillers, and generally non-healthy things. The argument is that it's basically icing being sold as a breakfast spread. While I don't disagree that one should probably limit the amount of any chocolate spread one eats particularly in the mornings, I'm starting to think that certain ingredients are key to make a great chocolate spread. I say this arguing that Nocilla is a fine spread, but it's not as good as Nutella. 

Here's what I think is better about Nutella, or at the very least the problems I have with Nocilla using Nutella as the example. First of all, Nocilla as many of the other spreads I've discovered, does not advertise as a hazelnut, or any other kind of nut spread. I'm starting to think that Hazelnuts are a key ingredient in chocolate spread, as if the cocoa powder needs something else to balance out. I don't totally feel that nuts are totally necessary, as my favourite spread in the world contains no nuts, I just think that you really have to have amazing quality chocolate to be able to pull of no nuts.

The second problem is the oil. I believe that choosing the right oil is key, and I feel like many of the secondary brands of chocolate spread that I taste do not pick the right oil or oil combination. I believe this come about because you want a certain texture when room temperature, and palm oil is great for creating that texture. Unfortunately palm oil is a faux pas today, so companies move instead towards coconut oil. Coconut oil has the perfect texture, but the flavour is overpowering. In particular it overpowers anything that doesn't have a strong flavour, even more so if you don't blend it with a nice nutty flavour.

What I'm saying is this spread is good, but I think it pushes the limitations of what can be done when excluding certain ingredients. While I feel many companies, including the fine people who make this spread, want to be different than Nutella, I just don't think it's as good. Maybe it's because I like icing, and I'm generally not fond of coconut oil except in very particular circumstances. Needless to say I do not believe this is better than Nutella, it's fine, but it's just not better.

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I Eat A Crispy Crunch Again

In this episode of In Hindsight I look again at the Crispy Crunch bar. This bar not only has some amazing childhood memories for me, but it's also the reason I don't love Butterfinger bars.

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If enough of you follow me on Patreon I promise to do my best to love Butterfinger bars.

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You Really Should Have a Copy of Treats and Beasts in Your Library

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

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Breaking It Down

 I've always felt like Jaw Breakers have the most descriptive name in all of candy.

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X It Off Your List, and Pick Up Treats and Beasts Right Now

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

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A Deep Dive Into Banana Candy

 I've always thought I was the only person who thought banana candy doesn't actually taste like any banana I've known.

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Eating in Qatar

I think Qatar has a really interesting food scene. Since it was part two of our trip in the Middle East, it's hard not to compare our time in Qatar to our time in Oman. While these two places have a lot in common, there seems to be some differences as well. If I was to describe the main difference I saw I would say it's about traditionalism. Don't get me wrong, both of these countries are steeped in their traditional culture, but my experience in Qatar was that of a place looking at outside influences a bit more, where Oman is looking more at its traditional roots.

I say all of this with some strong biases. First of all we never left Doha when we went to Qatar, where in Oman we traveled around a lot. Qatar was also just on the end of their World Cup show, and it felt like the city went through a very large transformation to prepare for it. I would say that Doha appears to be a little more modern and bigger than Muscat, we did plan our travel with that thought in mind. This is all to say that during our time in Doha we ate a lot of western food.

We did this because we no longer live in a western country, and when presented with western food it's a treat. I've mentioned this a thousand times on this blog before, but whenever we live overseas (as we are now) we often like to plan some time when we travel to enjoy western treats when we can. Doha offered us more than we expected, and we took advantage as much as we could.

Our hotel even offered us western fair every single morning. They had a waffle maker and an attendant at the waffle iron that couldn't get them out fast enough. It wasn't just me though, I would say that most of the guests at our hotel went for a waffle every single morning. The line actually got so long that I had a few breakfasts without.

The one thing however that we could not do without each and every day was cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. 

Allison and I are huge fans of this place, and especially their cheesecake.

It really serves us well as they even have a cheesecake that Allison can enjoy.

They also have many different cheesecakes that I can enjoy.

Which is great.

I probably could have written an entire blog about each and every night at the Cheesecake Factory, and our amazing server Chris, who got to know us and knew what we wanted to order each and every night.

At this point I'm just putting filler text between the many pictures of the different cheesecakes that we sampled.

We didn't eat every single meal at Cheesecake Factory, in fact we only ate one (we just always ate dessert at Cheesecake Factory). We also enjoyed meals at Shake Shack, TGI Fridays (which we had an issue with considering the Muslim weekly calendar is different than the western one), and even a few stops at McDonalds (I'll have more on that in a future post).

All was not dedicated to fast food either, we managed to try a few fancier restaurants as well. One such meal we were treated to an amazing view of the city on top of the torch that was built to celebrate the World Cup. The view was amazing and the food was very classy indeed.

Probably our most interesting meal was when we decided to wander to the Katara Cultural Village. We didn't know what to expect at this place but we knew we wanted to get lunch. What we discovered was a love for Armenian food at a restaurant called Mamig. To keep on brand with this blog, we got a couple of desserts that were both beautiful and tasty.

One was a wonderfully creamy pistachio dish the other was cakes filled with silky cream. I cannot tell you how great every part of this meal was, and how much I'm now a fan of Armenian food.

I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that most of our meals on the Qatar leg of our trip weren't from other parts of the world. Maybe much like my home town of Toronto in Canada, part of Doha's culture is other cultures. This part of the world has been a hub of trade for thousands of years, and so there's a certain openess to other cultures, and cultural foods. While we focused on western food while we were there, that's only because we wanted to. There were so many other great places to eat, and fun foods to enjoy. From Fancy treats to simple pleasures, Qatar has some amazing food range.

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Why Don't You Have a Copy of Treats and Beasts Already?

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

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Easter Time Is Here

 

This latest Easter review is an amazing example of classic candies that have taken me way too long to review. This is particularly interesting because I've actually reviewed many other versions of this treat, but not the original. Without spoiling too much, I feel like there's a reason I haven't reviewed these and it has something to do with how I feel about bland marshmallows. I'm sure there are some people out there however who love these, so feel free to complain in the comments.

Find out why I really didn't love this classic Easter candy treat.

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