Chicken Skin Paradox

 I have an odd paradox when it comes to eating chicken skin. I know a lot of people out there find that the skin of the chicken they eat is the best part. Honestly, when I eat chicken I'm known to peel the skin off an leave it to the side. When I go out for chicken I often get chicken sandwiches. The paradox however is that I'm actually a big fan of deep fried chicken skin, a treat I was introduced to while I was living in Yangon. So it's totally possible that I could go to a chicken place, peel the chicken skin off my chicken, then dip into a bowl of deep fried chicken skin. It's weird, I know.

Check out my latest chicken skin themed snack review.

Potato Chip Flavours

 

I'm wondering if the world is running out of flavours for potato chips. The trend lately has been to try extreme or weird flavours or just copy already existing flavours. I feel like it's been a long time since someone has made a potato chip that was original, but also that made sense. It's not that I mind these weird flavours, it's just been a while since I've eaten a potato chip with a completely original flavour that made me think I'd eat another bag of them.

Check out my latest chip review, of a flavour that I've tried before, but it still tasted pretty good.

Chicken Wings Start A Review-a-thon

 I feel like starting this week's candy review-a-thon with a gummy chicken wing is perfect. It's a great way to show how strange and beautiful gummies or any candies can be. One of my biggest complaints about candy is the lack of creativity, but every so often I'm pleasantly proven wrong. This gummy is so strange, but its weirdness doesn't get in the way of it being a candy. When I started candycritic.org, I had a sweet tooth, but the longer I've been doing it, the more I want to discover really creative treats. At times like this I'm greatly rewarded.

Make sure to read this full chicken wing review.

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Easter Reviews Are Coming In

While writing this review a thought crossed my mind. What's the best holiday for candy? I'm talking about the best quality candies and not the most candies. I would also have to add that the candies have to be unique to that holiday, so that means that a Kit Kat bar cannot count for Halloween. The more I thought about it the more I think I'm leaning towards Easter. While the selection of Easter treats is more limited than many holidays, the fact that high quality chocolate is a big ingredient plays to its favour.

Check out my first of many Easter reviews for this week.

Also be sure check out my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds for more Easter fun.

Don't forget to check my new book called Treats and Beasts as well.

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The Shape Of Salty Snacks To Come?

We're going to forget the argument that salty snacks are not candy and have no place on this site. I've covered that a few times on this blog, and I'm not going to stop reviewing this kind of snack. The thing I want to talk about today is the lack of creativity when it comes to the shape of salty snacks. Right now I'm seeing a trend is making salty snacks 3D. This means escaping the common flat potato chip (or perfectly round, or triangle) shape of salty snacks, and we're adventuring out a bit. Sure there's also pretzels and cheese puffs, but frankly those are shapes that have been around for such a long time. What I'm talking about is making salty snacks in fun shapes similar to gummies. I think the only brand that's really done it recently is Goldfish crackers. 

The thing that makes me happy are snacks like this week's new review. In Asia there seems to be a trend in making salty snacks in the shape of chicken parts. Obviously you flavour them with chicken, but I guess that doesn't have to be a rule either. I would just like to see more salty snacks with really unique shapes. I think potato chips should be the next group of salty snacks to take on this challenge. It's not like Pringles are a naturally shaped potato chip, so why not make it fun. I also think more cracker companies should be doing this too.

Click here to read about these chicken shaped salty snacks (and please don't complain about them not being candy).

Also be sure to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, I guess you could complain about them not being candy there.

Don't forget to pick up the latest issue of Snack Facts as well, and don't miss some of the merch at our store either.

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10 Second Kitchen, It's Been A Little While

We haven't posted a new episode of 10 Second Kitchen in a while, but I'm hoping that changes. I've got some ideas about how to expand this little video project, and I hope you enjoy what we have to offer.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter so you can see where we might be filming new episodes of 10 Second Kitchen.

And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube feed to see the episodes as soon as we put them up.

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Chips That Eat Like A Meal - Lay's Thai Taste "Basil Chicken Flavour"

Flavour wise, chips are one of the most diverse snacks in the world. In my life, I can only remember one flavour of potato chips that didn't work (and I'm fairly sure will never work). In general it seems like you can flavour chips with just about any kind of flavouring. From chocolate, to vinegar, to shrimp, there are so many chip flavours out there, and so many of them have such great possibilities. The only downfall I've discovered is in the quality of the toppings and the chips themselves.

Just because potato chips have so much potential, doesn't mean that flavouring them is easy. This new review is a pretty good example of a great idea for a flavour, that just didn't hold up. It's not that these are bad chips, they're just not up to the level that they could have been.

Click here to find out why these potato chips didn't hold up.

Also be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to find out what other weird things we're eating.

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10 Second Kitchen - Happy Herb Pizza

I love to see the ways that restaurants display they're birds, it always seem to involve spinning.

Want some chicken yourself, find out where this is on our Candy Critic map.

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Visiting Canada? Here's 3 Foods That We (as Canadians) Never Miss When We Go Home.

I was inspired on my last visit to pay attention to the foods that I just can't miss when I go back home. There were a few others that almost made the list, but these 3 are ones that I just can't live without.

Check out our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feed to keep up with all of our adventures.

And also be sure to follow us on YouTube to find out when we post a new video.

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It's A Very Special Episode Of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

This is not only a double episode (two snacks), but both parts were filmed on the road (Singapore and Thailand). In this episode we try two very unique McDonald's pies, both on the savory side. Savory McDonald's pies are rare in North America, but all around the world they have some pretty unique savory pies, and some of them are actually pretty good.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to find out what we're eating next.

Also make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with everything we put out.

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Daily Rations - Part 5 - Chicken with Ham and Cheese Sauce

Whenever you're writing anything, the key is to end on a bang, save the best for last.  I really tried with our collection of ration pack reviews this week, but unfortunately something went horribly wrong.  I'll start by telling you why I thought this dish had potential.  First of all the chicken is one solid piece, it's not ground, or processed in any visible way.  Secondly, chicken is probably my favorite meat, so I figured it has a pretty good shot of doing well.  Thirdly there's cheese involved, I mean who doesn't like cheese?

After reading the description on the package things pretty much fell apart.  The smell that came out of this ration pack was not pleasant.  It was cheesy, but not a pleasant cheesy, it was instead the smell of cheese that's trying really hard to impress.  A cheese smell so strong, and so sharp, that even a stinky cheese connoisseur might gag a little.  I was happy to see that the chicken was in fact a sold piece, however I'm guessing for packaging reasons it had to be cooked very well done.  I took a knife to this chicken and had to use great effort to break it apart.  Even though it was soaking in this cheese goop for the last 2 years, none had penetrated the dry interior of this chicken.

The smell of the cheese was just a warning for the taste that came with it.  It was so strong and sharp that I had trouble getting down more than a couple of bites.  It says there's ham in this, and you might be able to smell it a bit, but it could have been much stronger allies with the chicken and maybe given up some of it's juice fat to moisten this dry chicken breast.

As always I'm sure if I was out in a jungle fighting to stay alive, this would be fine.  However on my kitchen table it was a struggle to get down.

This review wraps up my whole week of eating rations for lunch every day.  While I did poke fun at the taste of these meals this week, I don't want to forget what they're for.  War is not a pretty place, and the fact that somebody tries there hardest to keep our soldiers not only fed, but give them something tasty to eat is a great thing.  While these aren't home cooked meals, for some people it's a taste of home that can give them a moral and energy boost to get through a tough day that's much harder than any day I've ever had.

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Candy In the Media

I'm a big fan of using candy and snacks in your daily cooking.  I'm also a big fan of trying something new, unique, and something that probably won't work, but is fun to try.  However, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that you do not try this recipe.  It just sounds so very horrible, and it sounds like a waste of perfectly good nachos, chicken, and Mountain Dew.  While I think the nacho/Doritos on chicken would work really well, to me the Mountain Dew is really the deal breaker in this recipe.  If for some reason you decide to try this out, and if it actually turns out that it's really tasty, let me know.  If enough people can convince me, I just might try it... maybe.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

Mark sent me a link to this really interesting candy advertisement.  It's an advertisement for a bar called the Chicken Dinner Bar, a treat with a really mysterious past.  According to the website where I found it there is no chicken in the bar, nor does it taste like chicken at all.  It is suspected that it's tied to Herbert Hoover's promise of a "chicken in every pot."  It was also apparently one of the best selling bars of its time.

Click here to learn a little more about the Chicken Dinner Bar.

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Spreads - Potted Chicken

I just finished an art piece for bewarethecheese.com's fine art gallery "Senses". For this piece I had to photograph, and eventually eat more than 40 different spreads.  I've decided to post a little something about each spread that I sampled.

See yesterday's post and insert "Chicken" wherever is says "Beef".

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Spreads - Chicken Salad

I just finished an art piece for bewarethecheese.com's fine art gallery "Senses". For this piece I had to photograph, and eventually eat more than 40 different spreads.  I've decided to post a little something about each spread that I sampled. 

I never really like chicken salad until I was an adult.  I'd always rather go for a tuna salad sandwich instead.  Thing in my life have changed, and I've converted a little.

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What Do American's Eat? - Part 4 - Wings

All this week I'm going to be featuring "American" items that I found in a European grocery store (Lidl) during a sale they had featuring American products.

The chicken wing is another food that I can't argue that it's American tradition.  Just about every historical text I've found claims that the BBQ/Buffalo style of chicken wing originated new Buffalo New York.  After that the history goes in several different directions with more than one place taking credit for the creation.

One could argue that cooking chicken wings is not an American creation, but that's pretty obvious.  The part that makes these "American" is the sauce.  How the sauce is applied and the ingredients are most certainly an  American invention.  Similar to caramel corn, I'm surprised more places around the world have not adopted chicken wings into their diet.  It's the kind of food any country could customize to their own taste, without loosing the spirit of the original.

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Swiss Chalet Has It's Own Channel?

My friend Randi turned me on to the latest and greatest reason anybody in Canada should get cable.  It's the Swiss Chalet (a very famous chicken restaurant in Canada) rotisserie chicken channel.  Apparently people with Rogers cable actually have this as a choice.  Since I'm not in Canada now I have to settle for the web version, and I also can't use the discount coupons that appear regularly.

Click here to check it out online.

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More News About KFC Double Down Sandwich

The folks at Gawker have made a list of other fast food treats that are far more unhealthy than the now legendary KFC Double Down Sandwich. I'm not sure if this is sad or good news.

Click here to see the list.

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