Them Treats and Those Beasts

How's your alphabet, even if it's perfect there's nothing wrong with a little practice. Why not pick up my fun alphabet book called Treats and Beasts.

You can get your very own copy at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

Strawberry Kit Kat Bars Are Popular

While writing this review I made the realization that there are a lot of strawberry flavoured Kit Kat bars out there. I've reviewed about 6 of them so far. Strawberry is actually the second most popular flavour theme that Nestle makes for Kit Kat bars. Number 1 is green tea or matcha, but that's not surprising since most of the "creative" flavours of Kit Kat are made in Japan. Strawberry on the other hand is pretty shocking, I would have expected white chocolate or dark chocolate to be second, but not strawberry.

Check out my latest strawberry Kit Kat review.

Junk Fud and You - Candy Brands and Stores I Don't Mess With

 I answer the question, is there any candy brands or candy stores that I just won't deal with?

Facts on Those Snacks

 I bet you've always wanted to know who invented the potato chip, or maybe where marshmallows came from. Why not pick up my comic called Snack Facts and learn all kinds of fun snack related facts.

Pick up your very own copy of Snack Facts right now at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

More Bit Cups Than Little Cups?

I'm starting to feel like Reese's has been releasing more variations of their Big Cups than the regular sized peanut butter cups. My sense is that the large cups work better for adding extra flavours and ingredients. It's a shame though because I think I prefer the regular cups over the big cups, at least on their own. I also find that with the large format, and the ability to put just about anything inside the cups, they might go off the rails sometime soon. It seems like a matter of time until we have pickle cups.

Check out my latest Big Cup review.

The Mango Bread Project

I had a thought recently, and it was all about baking. My theory was sound, but I had to find out if it would work in real life (spoilers, it did not really work this time). My theory was this; bananas are replaceable in banana bread recipes. I figured that that if you replace the banana with any soft (or pureed) fruit, it would have all the features of banana bread only with the flavour of the other fruit. I figured if you would change nothing except the fruit and it should work.

I should mention that I make a mean banana bread. I make it a lot and I love eating it. I have what I would consider a great banana bread recipe that works most of the time. I don’t want to brag, but people love my banana bread. So I figured, since it was mango season where I am and I have some ripe mangoes... why not?

I followed my banana bread recipe to a t. I pureed the mango so it would have the consistency of mushed up bananas. It seemed to be working out pretty well all the way through the mixing process. The batter was a little wetter than usual, but it didn’t seem too bad.

I put the batter in my favourite banana bread loaf pan and popped it in the oven. I was extra careful baking it as I thought this might be the moment when things might work differently. I thought one of two things might happen. I thought that the batter might be a little wetter and therefore might require a little more baking (it did). I was also worried about the amount of sugar in the mango and thought it might burn a little on the outside (it did not).

I carefully checked my mango bread several times, poking in with a toothpick until it came out clean. I would say that it took about 20 minutes longer than my banana bread, but that seemed okay.  I pulled it out of the over and was thrilled with the results. It had risen well, it was a gold brown and the outside seemed just right.

I decided to wait 30 minutes to let it cool before slicing into it. This is where things went a little sideways. Upon my return the mango bread had settled... a lot. It was only about one and a half inches tall, half the height that it was when I pulled it out of the oven. It was very sad looking.

I sliced into it and it was very gooey and felt almost raw. It’s weird because the toothpicks came out clean, but the centre was way too gooey. I had a slice and it tasted okay, but the texture was way off.

The problem is that I’m not sure if this is a failure or not. I mean this particular cake is most certainly failure, but I believe the problem is that I added too much mango puree. So I’m tempted to try again with less mango. I’m also tempted to try again with different fruit as well. I’m not saying my theory is proven, but I believe it also hasn’t been dis-proven either. Maybe any fruit might work in banana bread, you just have to figure out how much to add.

Licking a Glacier... Seriously Cool

 While exploring the newly formed icebergs in a lagoon in Iceland, I thought the best thing to do would be to take a lick.

Blue Orchid Is Awesome!

 I made a comic, in fact I'm still making comics right now. You can pick up the latest issue of my comic called Blue Orchid right now!

You can get every issue of Blue Orchid at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ or on Amazon.

One Type Of Chocolate

You might think after years of eating thousands of different kinds of treat, that I might consider myself a chocolate expert. While I do know some fun facts about chocolate, there are many simple concepts I do not understand. Today's featured review brought up one such example. I don't understand why having cocoa beans from one place (country or even part of a country) makes chocolate better. I guess if purity is something you look for in chocolate, but honestly taste and texture rank higher for me.

Check out my latest chocolate review where I grapple with this particular problem.

A New 10 Second Kitchen From Singapore

 Watching them prepare several bento boxes at the most relaxing Don Don Donki in the world.

Pick Up Treats and Beasts

I bet you go to the zoo, your first question is what kind of treats do these beast like to eat. I wrote a fun book that answers those questions (but don't actually feed beasts the treats I suggest).

Pick up Treats And Beasts right now at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

Gummy... Bears?

Historically the gummy bear shape is actually fairly important. It was after all the first shape ever manufactured as a gummy, based on performing bears on the streets of Germany. It is however very odd that this shape of gummy remains one of the most popular. While Haribo is the first to make this shape of gummy, they're certainly not the only one anymore. Even stranger is the fact that we don't see any other candies made in this shape. It would even be odd to see a chocolate or a hard candy in the shape of a small bear, but a gummy makes perfect sense.

Check out my latest bear shaped gummy review.

Canadian National Exhibition - A Deep Fried Adventure

Every year in Toronto, Canada there's a big event known as the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). The CNE originally was like the national fair of Canada. It would happen after each province and county in Canada had their local fairs with the goal of getting the best of the best of these fairs and merging them together as one. The main feature used to be the judging of prize winning livestock, foods and fruits and vegetables. There would also be butter carving competitions and other events. However since it was also a fair, there were rides, games and a other fun attractions for people to enjoy. The CNE was Canada's biggest fair, and it was something I would look forward to each and every year.

Today the CNE is a little different. The main difference is that they've moved the farm judging to another time (a few weeks before). While there is a small portion still dedicated to farm animals and country life, most of the fair is selling things like crafts and home goods, rides, and carnival food. It used to be my number one reason for going the CNE was the farm stuff, now I find my main focus is the food. Apparently I'm not the only one.

The CNE has developed a reputation for some weird food choices, but most importantly almost every choice of food is not healthy at all. It's as if the CNE has become all of Toronto's cheat day when it comes to eating. This year was no exception for me as I ate some pretty unhealthy treats. Here's everything I ate at the CNE this year, and how it rated:

I started out with some deep fried cheese curd (sorry I didn't take a photo, I was too hungry). Deep fried cheese curd is basically like mozzarella sticks only smaller. The coating on them was nicely seasoned, and like mozzarella sticks they came with a marinera sauce which worked really well. This was a great way to start my morning and warm me up for what was to come.

The second thing I ate was deep fried pizza. When I first heard about the deep fried pizza at the CNE, my assumption was that it would just be a slice of pizza stuck in a deep fryer. Instead it was a heavily battered slice of pizza, deep fried and then covered in Doritos. They also offered several toppings like garlic sauce and hot honey, but I just went plain. It was pretty good, but I think the pizza could have used more tomato sauce and cheese.

Next I had what I consider to be a CNE classic, Tiny Tom Donuts. I've written about these delicious little deep fried treats before and they did not disappoint this year. My friends and I came up with a theory about these donuts this year. We believe that these donuts have the shortest shelf life of any donut in the world. If you eat them within 20 minutes of buying them, they're great. If you wait beyond the 20 minutes they're not so great. We also noticed this year that they offer several new flavours including a strawberry powder, but we stuck with the classics cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar.

After we finished our donuts, we headed into the midway where we discovered a spot where they were giving away free Nerds Gummy Clusters. The good news is that they gave me a pack of one of the flavours I'd never reviewed before. The bad news for you is that you'll have to wait for the official review to find out what I thought about them.

After some fun adventures as well as a Toronto Argos football game, we decided it was dinner time. We went to an area where they had a bunch of food trucks, and I was certain that I would get myself something a little more sensible for dinner. Then I saw this beast of a chicken sandwich and I just couldn't say no. What I ate (pictured above) is a Biscoff-fried chicken crunch ice cream sandwich. What it is a chicken sandwich deep fried with a Biscoff cookie coating. It's then covered in a hot honey, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and covered in Biscoff cookie bits. It really seems like something that shouldn't work, but it does. It is sweet, a little spicy, but also cooled off well from the ice cream. I ate the whole thing and didn't regret it at all, but I did start craving a salad by this point.

To end the day we decided to pick up one of the newer carnival classics, some deep fried Oreo cookies. I keep remembering that I enjoy these deep fried delights, but each time I eat them I'm still amazed at how well this works. The cookie and the icing melt perfectly in the batter to create something that does taste like an Oreo, but doesn't feel like one. 

At the end of the day I realized two things. First of all each and every thing (except the nerds) that I ate was deep fried. The second thing I realized is that I did not eat a single vegetable. Let's just say that for the next week I'll be eating salads exclusively. It was however a great day at the CNE, me and my friends shared some amazing treats, and none of us got sick. The deep fried Oreo cookies and Tiny Tom Donuts remain a favourite, but the Biscoff-fried chicken crunch ice cream sandwich was an amazing surprise.

Quick List - The Oldest Candies I've Reviewed

 A quick list of the oldest candies I've reviewed on candycritic.org, with a few caveats. 

Blue Orchid Chapter 3!

 Have you caught up with every issues of Blue Orchid? You don't want to miss a single chapter of this awesome comic.

Pick up Chapter 3 of Blue Orchid right now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ or on Amazon.

A World Without Twix Isn't Right

Here's the weird thing about Twix bars for me; it's not my favourite bar, but it's almost always my go to bar. I don't know if I could survive a year without eating at least one Twix bar. It's one of the few bars that I actually crave, and a bar that often satisfies the craving. It's not the perfect bar, or even the top rated bar on candycritic.org, it's just something in me that craves them.

Check out my latest Twix review.