The Return of the 10 Second Kitchen

 A while back I decided that whenever I had the opportunity to watch someone make food for others, I would make a short video and post it on the Candy Critic map. When Covid hit, things slowed down on this project, but now that things are getting back to normal I think I'll bring it back. This is the world famous Tiny Tom Donuts making their tiny doughnuts.

Check out the Candy Critic map for all of the cool locations of the 10 Second Kitchens.

Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Timbits Cereal

The idea of making a breakfast cereal out of one Canada's most iconic donut seems like a revelation and an obvious choice all at the same time.

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The Food Trend You’ve Never Heard Of - Salted Egg

Food trends are like all trends today, they appear on social media or television, then suddenly they’re at every restaurant and part of every snack as big name brands try to capitalize on them. These trends don’t often disappear, but they die down a bit. At one point every bakery specialized in cupcakes, now there are still many places that make them, but few specialize in them. Sriracha was once the hot sauce of choice on everything, it’s still popular, but it’s not a Krispy Kreme doughnut flavour. We tend to think of these trends as global phenomenon, where the entire world is discovering, and eventually getting sick of this trendy food all together. This can be the case, but it’s not always.

Salted eggs are a traditional Chinese food that was adapted into the snacking world, and is now taking parts of Asia by storm. A salted egg is an egg that is brined and soft boiled. It gives the egg a salty flavour perfect for a snack or as a side dish. A few years ago, a few industrious companies in Singapore started to discover ways to turn this simple salty egg into a crunchy snack. Their solution was a little un-orthodox from a western standpoint, but it became a hit. The new snack took these salted eggs, turned them into a batter, and used them to coat fish skins. These fish skins would then be deep fried, and turned into a crunchy snack.

Salted egg fish skins gained in popularity, and became a go to snack in Singapore. The main producer of these salted egg fish skins was a company called Irvins. They made this snack something more than just a salty treat, they would have lines out the doors of their stores, and would actually sell out of product before the end of the day. My first encounter with salted egg fish skins came about when I was flying through the airport in Singapore. Irvins had just opened a branch of their store in the airport, and I was perplexed about why it wasn't even open in the middle of the day. I was actually more perplexed about who would want to eat something called "salted egg fish skins".  Apparently, they had run out of stock that day and closed shop. On my way back from my trip, I again stopped in the Singapore airport and Irvins was open, and the lineup was huge. People were buying giant bags of these fish skins, and I had no idea what the deal was.

After this stop through I decided to learn a little more about this snack, and I discovered that this was one of the great hidden gems of Singapore, and people would seek out Irvins and get their salted egg fish skin fix. At first, I discounted this as just a weird trend in a particular country. Sometimes foods in a particular country will become trendy, but only locally, and to the occasional foodie that might be passing through. About a year later I happen to be visiting Singapore, and I decided to indulge in this trend. By this time there were a few companies making these fish skins, and I also discovered a few places (Irvins included) were selling salted egg potatoes (these are basically potato chips instead of fish skins). While I was in Singapore, I sampled some of this fish skins (and even wrote a review). I wasn't blown away at how great they tasted, but they were kind of unique.

At this point I still figured that this was a niche Singapore thing, and nothing more. It was fun to eat, but I figured I wouldn't hear about them again, unless I went back to Singapore. Then something weird happened. I was walking through a store in Cambodia, and I saw salted egg fish skins. Huh, I thought. I was a little surprised to see them, but not convinced that it was a full on trend. I say this because Cambodia generally doesn't have much of a snack (or candy) creating scene. Most of the snacks in Cambodia are just imports or copies of imports from other parts of Asia, with a few Australian and North American treats thrown in. Don't get me wrong, there are some great foods in Cambodia, they're just not into making original snacks right now. While seeing these salted egg fish skins in Cambodia tweaked my interest, I wasn't convinced.

Then last week (about 6 months after discovering them in Cambodia) I went to Bangkok, and my mind was blown. Bangkok is a place that is loaded with trendy stores, cafes, and restaurants. I would say that it's one of those cities that seems to really be into trendy things, and last week Bangkok was really into salted egg. The stores were packed to the gills with salted egg fish skins and potatoes, but there was more. I started to notice international brands jumping on this trend. Most notably I saw a bag of salted egg Lay's potato chips. This is when you know something is more than a niche local trend, when a large brand jumps into the game.

But this wasn't the only example. In Thailand (and I imagine in other parts of South East Asia (and maybe further) salted egg is becoming a flavour that every food company wants to be a part of. I found salted egg ice cream, salted egg meals, and even salted egg doughnuts at Krispy Kreme. It was as if everyone wanted to be a part of this new food trend. I couldn't resist trying out a salted egg doughnut, it was surprisingly good. Having said that I was expecting it to be horrible, so even partially good would have been an improvement.

Seeing as I'm still living in South East Asia, I'm not sure if this trend is moving outside of this area (although apparently the cheese doughnut I thought I ate at Tim Horton's in China was actually salted egg). I think the salted egg trend would work all over the world. I think North America and Europe could get on the salted egg train too. I think Krispy Kreme and ice cream companies may have a hard sell for this, beyond it being a novelty, but I think chip companies would do really well. Maybe the fish skins might not be very popular, but the salted egg potatoes would be a big hit.

This trend could spread, and it could be something we see all over the globe, or it might just be an "Asian thing". I hope not, because it's not often that you get something that's just a little weird, but actually works, and I'd really like my friends to be able to try this flavour out.

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Tim Horton's, China Edition

A few months ago, Allison and I decided that we would plan a trip to Shanghai, China. Since we're living in Asia right now, the distance wasn't too far, and we had a long weekend to use for just such an adventure. The focus of our adventure was going to be Shanghai Disneyland (you'll be able to read more about that later), but with an early flight into the city, we decided to spend our first day in Shanghai proper.

We didn't know what we were going to do on this day. We would have just got off a strange midnight to 5 am flight, likely with little sleep. The only thing we knew for sure is we wanted to walk along the Bund. Other than that we had nothing planned until we checked into our hotel in the afternoon at Disneyland. We asked a few friends about what we should see, and got a list of fun neighbourhoods and sights to check out. Then it dawned on us, we had heard rumours that there were Tim Horton's opening up in China, and Shanghai would be the perfect city to do this. We did a little research and were delighted to find that this was the case, and that the one location (two more have opened in the last few days) was well within our touring plans.

While it would have been great to make Tim Horton's our first stop in Shanghai, geographically it didn't make any sense. We decided instead to start with the Bund, and work our way into the city towards the People's Square (where the TIm Horton's is located). The day pretty much happened as expected. We wandered around Shanghai finding a few snacks and treats to sample along the way, but we always kept a bit of room for some Timbits (and whatever else we might come across at Tim Horton's). It was a fun day seeing the sights and enjoying the vibe of  the city, and it wasn't until after lunch that we finally came to the doorway.

When we came to the door it was as if we were back in Canada. The sign is perfect, even slightly understated (very Canadian). There were a few advertisements stuck to the window as well promoting things that seemed very Tim Horton's and the might have even been recognizable (it's been a little while since I've been back in Canada). But the outside is where any similarities to a regular Tim Horton's stopped.

Once you walked into this place the decor took a drastic change. There was a lot of wood and heavy tables and chairs. There were also neatly stacked mugs and bags of coffee stacked for sale in an elegant display in the middle of the store. The decorations were much more modern than one might find at a regular Tim Horton's, but most interesting was the employees uniforms. They were all wearing bright red plaid lumberjack shirts. Stranger still was the lack of any kind of doughnut rack. Instead there was a glass display case with the various doughnuts available displayed under glass. I'd never seen Timbits displayed on a slate black stone plate before, fancy to say the least.

The look was a bit jarring, but the menu did have a few things to make you feel comfortable. It was a little odd to actually see a book style menu as well. I'm glad the menu was there though because there were a few different items available, and these menus provided a good way to communicate with the people taking your order. My favourite part of the menu was the full description of what a Double-Double was and how to order it. While a few menu items tempted us, we thought that Timbits and coffee would be the prudent thing to order. We also thought it would be quick, and just in case we couldn't get a table, something we could carry outside if necessary.  Did I mention that the place was packed, it made me happy to see so many Chinese people celebrating Canada.

This is the part where things kind of fell apart a little. First of all they don't offer Timbits the same way that most Tim Horton's offer Timbits. It appears that you could only order Timbits in batches of six. We asked for assorted (since the example Timbits in the glass case didn't mention what flavour was available), when we said we wanted assorted, the girl helping us looked at us strangely. It seems like the only way one can order Timbits in this location is to buy a box of six different Timbits. It worked find for us, but if you had a craving for a full box of chocolate dipped you might be out of luck.

This is what you get if you order 1 Timbit... how cute.

Remember that they didn't have doughnut racks, so that meant that the donuts had to come from the busy kitchen. The thought was that they had racks, but they might be in the back, out of the way. As it turns out, this might not have been the case. We waited a good 20 (or 30) minutes for our Timbits to be prepared. I was peeking into the kitchen and I spotted an employee carefully preparing our Timbits, one at a time. This did turn our quick Timbit grab into a longer adventure, but a table opened up in that time, so it worked in our favour. I'm not sure if this slow Timbit issue is just a kink to be worked out, so I'm willing to give them a pass on that. I'm particularly willing to give them a pass because of the quality of the Timbits we finally got.

We ordered 12 Timbits, and we each got a box of six, the math works I guess. In each box were 6 carefully decorated Timbits that were frankly beautiful. Two in particular were absolute masterpieces (one was a little too strange for Allison). There was a maple iced Timbit that was covered so carefully with just the right amount of maple icing., but the real hero was a Timbit that was coated with chocolate icing, and then sprinkled on top was some kind of amazing chocolate powder/milk chocolate. These two doughnuts were just amazing, well beyond anything I've ever seen at a Canadian Tim Horton's.

The chocolate glazed, sprinkled, and cherry powdered Timbits were pretty close to what you might get at home with one exception. In the case of all of these doughnuts, they were far less sweet than what you find in a Canadian Tim Horton's. I imagine that this is a change made to deal with Chinese tastes, and it was a really nice twist. It helped the flavour of these Timbits come through a little bit better, and if you're like Allison, the lack of extra sugar is a plus.

The last Timbit was truly the strange one in the mix, and most certainly the one geared towards Asian tastes. It was a cheese filled powdered Timbit. It wasn't cream cheese though, it was a creamy version of something I would describe as similar to cheddar. While this seems like something out of left field, cheese doughnuts are actually pretty common in Asia. While it wasn't my favourite, I'm glad I had the chance to taste it.

All it all I would say that we had a pretty good visit to Tim Horton's in Shanghai. It didn't really fill the nostalgia hole I was hoping, but it was fun to see. A friend asked me later if it felt like I was in a Tim Horton's in Canada, and I'd have to say that the answer is no. It felt more like I was in a Tim Horton's themed restaurant. It was a little bit too fancy and complicated to feel like a Canadian Tim Horton's. There was also a lot of Canadianana being thrown in my face from all angle. The lumberjack shirts, the wood everywhere, and the general Canadian iconography all over the place (hockey sticks as door handles) made it feel like it was trying so hard to be Canadian. I would by no means call this place a failure, but for Canadians looking for a taste of home, it's a little strange.

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