Turkish Taffy?

 

I've visited Türkiye several times and while their nougat and delight are amazing, I can't say that I've ever seen a Turkish taffy. I generally associate taffy with the United States, although I've never actually looked into the history of taffy before. I could be wrong since Türkiye is responsible for many of the world's amazing sweets. Maybe Turkish taffy is correct, I'd only hope that the taffy in Türkiye is much better than this stuff.

Check out my review for this (possibly) oddly named chocolate chewy bar.

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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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The Candy Critic's Thanksgiving Candy Ideas That Should Exist

There are so many flavours associated with Thanksgiving, and many have crossed over to the snacking world. Pumpkin spice is probably the most popular flavour right now, but there are also many potato chips flavoured with inspirations from this holiday as well. I seem to remember Jones Soda pulled off Thanksgiving flavours at one point, and people went nuts over them. I personally think we need more snacks with the awesome flavours of Thanksgiving, but I’m not just going to complain about it.

Instead I’m designing a few Thanksgiving candy and snack creations, and best of all for the candy/snack companies out there, I’m giving the concepts away. I invite any snack or candy company to use these ideas, all I ask in return is that you send me some samples. I’ll even post a review on candycritic.org.

Sweet Potato Marshmallows

The connection between sweet potatoes and marshmallows is a weird one. I don’t know how it started,  but I can’t deny that it works. One of the thing it taught me is that sweet potatoes work well in sweets. In Asia sweet potato candies are common, but not in North America. That’s why I think introducing a sweet potato candy in North America around Thanksgiving makes sense. If you tie it with marshmallows it just could be the novelty candy that people grow to love.

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Pop Tarts

The idea of a savoury Pop Tart is due. McDonald’s in Asia have been selling savoury pies for years, and what is a Pop Tart other than a flat pie. I think theming it to Thanksgiving would be a great way to introduce this concept, and mash potatoes and gravy would be the perfect flavour and texture combination. You could fill the pie with the mashed potatoes and then make a nice gravy (unsweetened) topping. After that the sky’s the limit, chicken pot pie, pizza, so many choices.

Cranberry Bubble Gum

Of all the concepts I’m presenting today, I think cranberry gum is the most logical and least intimidating. It’s so logical that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone mentions in the comments that it already exists. I think cranberry could easily become the flavour of Thanksgiving much like pumpkin spice, this way we’d have a flavour to put between pumpkin spice and peppermint/candy cane.

Turkey Spice Corn Bread Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

This next idea requires a little bit of imagination. Take your a average store bought cupcake, like a Hostess Cupcake, and flip it around. Go savoury over sweet, and use some Thanksgiving flavours. To start, get rid of the cake and go cornbread instead. Then take the spices one normally uses in turkey stuffing, and flavour your cornbread. If you so choose, maybe fill it with mashed potatoes as well. Next, top this cake off with some savoury cream cheese. I think this would be a fun play on pumpkin spice, and done well could actually work. Having said that, if it does work, and Starbucks makes a frappuccino flavoured with Turkey Spice, I claim no responsibility.

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It's A New Episode Of Junk Fud On The Road - Turkey

This episode brought back some great memories of a country that has a really great food culture, Turkey. This is one place that has the potential for a follow up episode in the future.

Make sure to follow us on YouTube and SoundCloud to keep up with all the new episodes of Junk Fud.

You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook as well.

And Don't forget about our Patreon page.

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It's Our Second Entry In Our Kenya/Tanzania Review-A-Thon, And It's All Wrong - C’est Bon

This week's entry in our Kenya/Tanzania Review-A-Thon is wrong because this bar is not actually made in Kenya or Tanzania, in fact it's not made in Africa at all. This bar is distributed in many places all over the world, but it's actually made in Turkey. The problem is, this isn't the only bar I found on our latest adventure in Africa that's made in Turkey. It appears that many Turkish candy bars are imported into Africa, and it appears that all of the bars I purchased fell into this category. So for the sake of keeping this review-a-thon going, I'm going to say that these snacks are things I purchased in Kenya or Tanzania, but not necessarily manufactured there.

Click here to read about this Turkish bar that you can get in Africa.

Also, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get early previews of all of our reviews this week.

You can also find our new reviews previewed on our Tumblr page as well.

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This Week In Candy

Now that things are unpacked, and our world is organized, it's time to get back to our regular work.  Over the next three weeks we're going to look at the snacking and junk food fun we had in the three (and a half) countries we visited on our latest trip to Europe.  We'll call them "travel tips for the candy fan", and we're checking out some great places worth visiting in this great continent.  We'll start this week with a look at France (including a stop at Disney Paris), a place that's known for being a mecca for all foodies, candy and junk food fans are not forgotten.  Next week we'll look at British/Welsh treats, and finally in two weeks we'll look at Dutch treats.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're going to look at one of the most famous desserts to come out of Turkey, Turkish Delight.  When I was a kid Turkish Delight was something that you really had to travel to taste, but today it's available all over the world.  It's a treat that has many flavours, textures, and a great history.  So tune into our Instagram feed and learn a little something about this soft chewy treat.  If you don't use Instagram, you can also check out our Snack Facts on our Twitter feed and our Facebook page as well.

If you want to keep up with all the candy news and trends, make sure to follow our Facebook or Twitter feeds.  We post the latest news as it happens about junk food, candy, sweets, baking, or anything else that catches our interest.  You'll also get to see some behind the scenes stuff that goes on at Candy Critic.

All of this traveling and sampling of foreign treats has made me a little homesick.  So this week's new review is a treat from my "home and native land", Canada.  Unfortunately this treat didn't really do very well in the review, but I'm still happy to have a bite of home now and then.  Click here to read this Canadian review.

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Sweet Treats Of Turkey

On my recent trip through the Mediterranean I made a stop in Istanbul.  I haven't been to Istanbul since I was a child, and I have only vague recollections of that trip.  The one thing I do remember however is how this trip ruined Turkish delight for me.  When I got back to Canada and sampled other Turkish Delights, they never held up to the stuff I tried in Istanbul.  It wasn't until a recently that I've learned that many Mediterranean and Middle East countries also make a fine "Delight", but for some reason North America gets it all wrong.  So even as a child, this city had a huge impact of my candy taste testing life, it was my first step towards being a candy snob.

The thing that I was most excited about on this return trip was to see if Istanbul still held up as a unique and tasty place to get sweet treats.  As it turns out, it is, in fact I might say that Turkey rivals Japan for unique and tasty treats.  As a Westerner many of the treats, and the way they're delivered are pretty strange, but if you get by your bias you'll discover flavours and textures like nothing you've ever tried before.

Living in Greece and having traveled around this area a lot lately, I found many similar treats in Istanbul, but for some reason there's a bit more authenticity to them.  In many European countries you start to find a great deal of influence from the French, German, and other Western European countries in sweet treats.  In Istanbul it seems like they avoid this, the places I visited didn't offer many Western baked goods at all, they focused almost completely on their own.  Even the grocery stores I visited had very few Western treats, there where several bars available with Pistachios, and other Turkish/Mediterranean ingredients, and very few M& Ms, Twix, or Mars bars.

The treats from the traditional Turkish stores and market stalls were exactly what you might expect.  First of all there where many bulk stores, particularly in the Bazaars, selling candy in bulk.  The candy they sold was nougats, delights, and nut filled baklavas.  There was not a French pastry to be seen anywhere. Even the coffee shops offered some uniquely Turkish drinks (I sampled something called Sahlep that is now favourite hot drink).

I only scratch the surface in my exploration of Turkish treats, so I could be missing something entirely.  I did however find that the treats available truly reflected the Turkish culture, that meant that there was little variety, but it also meant that the local treats where in abundance.  Keep in mind that when I say there's little variety, I don't mean little selection or even evolution in their treats.  I found so many flavours and formats of Turkish delight it would blow your mind.  In particular I came across a really creative way to serve sweet treats, in Donair form (they would shave the candy off a giant hunk of candy on a spit).

This city, and this country, offers unique flavours and a glimpse into the tradition that comes from their culinary history.  It gives you a great example of a culture that hasn't had a Western influence into its sweet treats, and how this sweet treat culture has evolved.  I'm sure I could spend a whole year learning about the many varieties of sweets available, and I'm sure I'll be back to sample again.

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It's a Turkish Review Today

I could go on and on about how much I really like authentic Turkish delight. Trust me, you have to make sure you get yourself some high quality stuff before you write it off as just a super sweet ball of gel.  The good stuff is smooth, almost creamy, and for some reason doesn't come off as that sweet.  I'm sure the amazing flavours used is a big part of the fact that high quality Turkish delight doesn't seem so sweet.  Today's review is a shining example of flavouring Turkish delight in a way to really dull the overly sweet parts. It was also a textural experience like no other.

Click here to read today's new Turkish delight review.

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Free Turkish Delight!!!

Every single duty free store here offers copious amounts of Turkish delight for free. I love this airport.

Istanbul airport.

Friday's Candy Links

I'm really digging the new M&M's world site, in particular I love that you can buy things based on your favorite M&M's character.

Speaking of M&M's, Mars anounced that they will be releasing some limited edition colours of M&Ms.  The colours were selected by fans.

After reading this article about the best sweets in Istanbul, I'm starting to see a lot of similarities between Greece and Turkey.

And if you happen to be visiting Europe, why not make a stop over in Berlin and check out "Main Street Sweets"

12 interesting quotes from Wikipedia, including information on McDonalds, Cookie Puss, and Tater Tots.

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What's A Chocoist?

I've never heard the term "Chocoist" before, but this article from Istanbul seem to use the term associated with a chocolatier or at the very least chocolate expert.  The article is pretty interesting and the term is one I might start using.

Click here to read the article.

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Turkish Cypriot Treats

If you're not too familiar with Island of Cyprus, one might say that they're a little tension going on between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots.  The tension is like nothing I've ever seen before, and even crossing from one side of the border to the other was really strange.  I mainly stayed on the Greek side (mostly because that's where my hotel was) but when I did go across I made sure to check out a Turkish treat store.

They had all kinds of Turkish Delights to choose from.  I've even reviewed one here.  Also, to be politically correct, I've reviewed the Greek Cyprus Delight here.  Let me just say my opinions do not have any bearing on a political opinion about the country or the people.

In these Turkish sweets stores, they had all kinds of interesting treats including these beautiful jars of honey filled with nuts.  It's a little sad that the borders are so tense because the people on both sides are really nice, and the treats are all fantastic.

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Turkish Baklava

One of the lesser known facts about Baklava is that Greece isn't the only place in the world that makes it.  Nope, in fact some say that Turkish Baklava is better than the Greek stuff.  Now I wouldn't go walking around Athens saying to out loud, unless you want to get yelled at, spit on, and maybe beaten up.  But recently I received a gift from a friend visiting us here in Athens, it was a box of Turkish baklava.  At first sight I have to say it was pretty impressive, so many shapes colours and textures to behold.

It had a selection that looked pretty similar to the stuff that I find here in Greece.

But it also had some baklava that I couldn't possibly describe.  I have to admit, variety wise this collection is pretty diverse, maybe even a little more diverse than the stuff I've seen around Greece.  Taste wise though, I'm not as impressed, there's not as much spice and not nearly enough sweetness.  It's pretty much a bit of philo dough with a whole lot of pistachios.  I'll reserve my judgement as to which countries baklava is better, at least until I try more.

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Ice Cream Magic

I'd like to see Chris Angel or David Blaine try any of these tricks.

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Craving Godiva In Istanbul?

Godiva has apparently opened its first shop in Turkey. If you've never tried their treats I highly recommend it no matter what country you live in.

Click here to read more about the new shop.

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Turkey Dinner Rip Off

I love turkey TV dinners. I don’t mean that nice expensive ones either, I’m talking about a dinner that cost less than two bucks but tastes out of this world. This to me would be the perfect holiday meal. I have two comments to make about them however.
First of all thank you TV dinner people for taking the onions out of the peas. It was gross and I don’t know a single person that would eat them.
Secondly what’s the deal the cranberry desert? It’s not really a desert as much as it’s sauce for your turkey. I believe I’m owed a slice of pie or something.


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