A Deep Dive Into Turkish Ice Cream

 One might argue that it's not technically ice cream, but there's a good argument to say it is too.

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Making a Chocolate Dinosaur

If you're unfamiliar with Kracie Pop 'n' Kitchen, it's a series of do it yourself candy making kits from Japan. The theme of most of these kits is to make miniature candy/snack versions of popular Japanese meals. The process to make these kits is can be very complicated, but also a lot of fun. I recently came across a new kind of kit from Kracie, one that focuses on learning, as opposed to eating, and it's also a bit less labour intensive. I picked up one of these kits that teaches you something (?) about dinosaurs.

The aim of the kit is to have you make several chocolate dinosaur parts out of chocolate, then using the handy placemat that also happens to be the bag holding everything together, figure out which dinosaur(s) you got and learn something about them. I did not learn anything about my dinosaurs, but that's only because I can't read Japanese. Fortunately for me my focus is on making the chocolates.

The instructions on how to make your kit are half illustrations and half in Japanese. I might have been able to figure out most of this without Google translate, but I may have had a few challenges figuring out the timing for letting the chocolate melt and set.

Speaking of melting the chocolate, that was the first step towards making these chocolaty dino shapes. It was surprisingly easy, and I can only assume I did it right. All you have to do is take the two bags of chocolate chips and put them in a cup of boiling water for 5 minutes. This was the part that I had the most guess work as even the translated instructions didn't make much sense. Fortunately it seemed to work fairly well.

After the 5 minutes I tested to see if the chocolate had melted by squishing the bags. I was pretty amazed at how quickly and smoothly the chocolate had melted, but I probably shouldn't be as the folks at Kracie are masters of candy chemistry. After melting the chocolate I folded it as shown on the package and cut the tip off.

The next step is probably the one that requires the most patience and steady hand of this entire project. Having said that, compared to the other Kracie kits I've done (see video here), it's still pretty easy. I had to carefully squirt the chocolate into the mould. One of the tricks on the package suggests that you tap the mould after you've filled it in order to let the chocolate settle better.

Before the chocolate sets, you're supposed to add the cookie crumbs. I'm not really sure what this adds to the aesthetics of the dinosaur, but it did add a little crunch to the chocolate. After the cookies were added it was into the freezer for 10 minutes (apparently you can also use your refrigerator for 20 minutes instead).

The next part was really the moment of truth. This would be the moment when I discovered if I made any mistakes, or if the kit had any flaws. It was time to pop the set chocolate dinosaur parts onto my plate. Fortunately for me, neither Kracie nor myself had any problems.

It did take a little work to shake out the pieces, some of the shapes were more challenging than others. In general I was pretty happy with the results, and while I had a few small bubbles in a few places, I felt like I, and the team from Kracie, did a great job making these dinosaurs.

The next stage was to sort out my pieces and construct my dinosaurs.

I had two complete dinosaurs.

A footprint and a shell.

I looked up my dinosaurs on the placemat, and I did find them, however I didn't really learn anything due to the language barrier. I didn't mind though because I always have Google to look up information on dinosaurs, and while I'm doing that, I have some tasty dinosaurs to eat.

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An Omani Adventure on Junk Fud on the Road

 This was our first true travel adventure since Covid, and it was so amazing and fun.

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Reading Snack Facts - Issue 4

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 4 all about potato chips(crisps).

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

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Puddin' Puddin'

 A deep dive into the origins of pudding. Spoilers, it starts with meat.

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Reading Snack Facts - Issue 3

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 3 all about Halloween.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

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1701 Candy Reviews

This very review marks the 1701st review on candycritic.org. That means that I can now brag that I've got over 1700 reviews on Candy Critic, and I can even say that we're nearing 2000. One thing that many people tell me about reviewing candy is that at some point I'm going to run out, personally I doubt that at this point. There are times now when I'll visit a store and discover that I've reviewed each and every candy on the shelf, but I have yet to go on a trip where I don't find something brand new. I'm also inundated with all kinds of news and press releases talking about brand new treats coming out. I know for a fact that I'm going to make it safely to 1800 reviews, but I also imagine that I'll make it to 2000 as well.

Check out my 1701st candy review right now!

You can also check out my very first review right here.

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