Strawberry Borders

On a recent trip to the Nordics I came across one of the greatest examples of how much many countries in Europe hate each other. This may seem like an odd topic for a blog about snacks and candy, but this feud was demonstrated to me via food, more specifically strawberries. Our Nordic adventure took us through Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.

After just having enjoyed our stop in Helsinki Finland, Allison and I were planning on what to do for our long ferry trip to Stockholm. We had an overnight ferry booked with breakfast, but we didn't have any dinner plans. We were thinking of just eating on the boat, but the price of dinner was astronomical, and with all the amazing markets and restaurants near the waterfront we thought we would make a picnic dinner and eat it on the boat. We found some wonderfully fresh salads at a local store, and decided that a box of fresh strawberries from the market would be the perfect way to finish our meal.

We wandered through the market until we came across a stall filled with every kind of berry you could imagine. Each berry looked amazing, but a friend had suggested that it was strawberry season, and that would be the way to go. The nice lady at the stand helped us pick a nice box of strawberries that would be ready to eat tonight. We had a bit of a debate about how many strawberries to get, so we thought we would ask the lady what she thought. We told her we were taking these strawberries on the ferry to Stockholm and she instantly changed her tune.

Once we mentioned we were taking these strawberries to Sweden, she congratulated us on our choice to bring Finish strawberries to Sweden, as the Swedish strawberries were awful. She went on for a few minutes about how great the Finish strawberries are and how horrible Swedish strawberries were. It was a weird tonal change in the conversation, and we decided not to tell her that the only reason we were buying these strawberries was because we wanted to eat them on the boat, and we weren't building a stockpile of strawberries to keep us going for the rest of our trip.

I will say that Finish strawberries are tasty. We did enjoy our box of strawberries on the ship, and low and behold a few did make it onto Swedish soil. This isn't the only incident of aggression that we had between these neighbouring countries on our trip. We were talking to a man working at a grocery store about our trip, and he asked us what we thought about Sweden. We told him we liked it, but we also liked Finland too. His entire demeanor changed, and he suggested that he hated Finland.

As a follow up, while we were driving through the southern part of Sweden near a town called Ystad, we discovered a road side stand selling strawberries. The minute we saw the stand we knew that we had to sample Swedish strawberries. Had that lady in Finland not been so aggressive, we might have passed this stand by, but knowing that there was a rivalry, we had to see if the Finish strawberries were actually better than the Swedish. We did buy a box at the stand, and I will say that these berries were different, but just to keep relations equal, I'm not going to talk about which were better.

We tried to find a fruit stand or farmers market in Denmark selling strawberries, but we had no luck. That's probably a good thing since I'm all about keeping the peace, and we don't need any more global conflicts right now.

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Candy In the Media - Chrismas Commerical That Will Make You Cry

This commercial just proves that the answer to everything, including world peace, is chocolate.

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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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Daily Rations - Part 4 - Macaroni and Asian Beef

Of all of the ration packs that I've reviewed so far this week, this one is the one I've feared most, even more than the cabbage rolls.  First of all, while I'm pretty sure I know what macaroni is, I wasn't really sure what Asian beef sauce was.  I imagined a cross between Chef Boyardee canned pastas, and that red "sweet and sour sauce" you get at mall Chinese food restaurants.  After opening the pack and checking it out, I was only mildly more confident.  If it was a cross between these two things, at least it seemed to lean a more towards the Chef Boyardee, instead of resting in the middle.

While the smell that came out of the package wasn't spectacular, I had hope in my heart.  After taking my first bite, I was really surprised.  I was really surprised because the mysterious "Asian" sauces wasn't that bad at all.  Stranger still was how much I disliked the macaroni.  I would have thought that the meat with a possible four year expiration date would have been much worse than the pasta.  Considering I think I might have some pasta in my cupboard that's been around for at least a year or so, and I'm sure it's fine. When it comes to meat I wouldn't trust frozen meat for more than a few months, let along a couple of years.

All around I'd say that I was pretty surprised by this meal.  I was expecting a horror show, but instead I got a slightly spiced meat sauce with some really horribly textured pasta.  It wasn't great, and if I got it at a restaurant I'd probably return it, but not bad for a quick lunch today.

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Daily Rations - Part 2 - Wieners and Beans

All this week I'm eating ration pack meals for lunch, yesterday I had some pretty horrible cabbage rolls, today it's wieners and beans.  There is one serious problem with comparing a ration pack of wieners and beans to a home cooked meal of wieners and beans, and that is, I've never tried home made wieners and beans.  This isn't the first time I've ever had wieners and beans, however every other time I've ever tried them they've come out of a can.  In general canned foods, and ration pack foods are pretty similar, so my reaction to these is exactly the same as if I was having a can of wieners and beans.

So unless you're a wieners and beans connoisseur, and you make them at home from scratch, chances are you'll probably enjoy this ration pack fine.  The wieners are pleasant enough, sliced fairly large, but small enough to be bite sized.  The beans are also tasty enough, they maybe could use a bit more of a maple or brown sugar sweetness, instead these have a general sweetness.  The ratio of beans to wieners is exceptional.  I managed to have a bit of wiener with just about every bite of bean.

If for some reason you find yourself in a situation where wieners and beans in a ration pack are on sale at your local store, go for it.  They're exactly the same as the canned version, but the portion size is better for one person (I often find that a can of wieners and beans is a two serving things).

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Daily Rations - Part 1 - Cabbage Rolls

Over the next week I've decided to sample ration pack meals.  In the past I wrote an entire review on a ration box (this box contains all that a soldier would need to survive a day), and I've attempted to make an improved dessert out of ingredients from various ration packs.  This week I've decided to sample a different ration pack meal for lunch every day.  I've only recently discovered the curiosity that is a ration pack, and since sampling one, I've been obsessed with trying more.

One thing to keep in mind is that ration packs are not really designed for taste.  The most important part of a ration pack is to feed a soldier (or sometimes a civilian in a difficult situation), as well as provide them with the nutrition they need to survive and keep moving.  This means two things, first of all these packs are designed to last.  Many ration packs can last several years with out going bad, and can also survive with no refrigeration.  Ration packs are also designed to give the person eating them a very specific amount of energy, enough to carry heavy gear through hostel environments. That means they have lots of the stuff the average health conscious person sitting at home probably wouldn't want to eat, like lots of salt and sugar.

For the first meal I've decided to sample a cabbage rolls.  This is a difficult food for me to review because of my heritage.  I'm half Ukrainian, and that means that I have memories of my grandmother making me cabbage rolls when I was a kid, and I loved them.  So no matter how hard I try, I have to compare these to hers.  In fact the only reason I took this particular ration pack in the first place was to compare my memory of my grandmothers cabbage rolls to these one coming out of a package that is at least two years old.  Seems fairly unfair doesn't it?

As you can imagine these don't hold up at all to the ones my grandmother made. In fact these were so awful I had a really hard time getting through them.  To start, I'll mention the parts that I didn't mind, and then I dedicate a paragraph to why I couldn't stomach these.  The sauce was the surprise highlight of this meal.  It was a little sweet, but it had a nice tomato flavour and I might even say I liked it more than my grandmothers.  My grandmother's sauce was a lot dryer and didn't have nice chunks of tomato like this sauce did.  I also liked the cabbage, but to be honest, screwing up the cabbage would have taken some serious work.  It's pretty much the easiest part of this whole meal.

The part I hated was the part that took up the most space in this meal, and that was the filling.  My grandmother's cabbage rolls consisted of rice, pork, spices, and occasionally some very finely chopped vegetables. This filling contained meat, a big block of thick dense mystery ground meat.  It was like eating a giant disgusting meatball.  I think it may have worked a little better if the meat wasn't so tightly packed, and I think you could have achieved that by mixing in some rice, vegetables, or something.

Unfortunately for the first meal, things aren't going that well.  However I have hopes for some of the future meals.  I thought that I would start with a tough one, and maybe save a few of the "better" possibilities for later this week.  Even though this wasn't like my grandmother's cabbage rolls, I have to admit that in a pinch, it's still pretty amazing.

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Pineapple Ration Cake

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to sample an official Canadian army ration pack.  I posted all about my experiences sampling it, and for the most part my opinion was mixed (You can read more about it here).  I had several people mention to me, online and in person, how much they enjoyed reading about my experience.  Most of the people that commented to me were, or are, members of the armed forces in various countries.  A few friends of mine who happen to be in the armed forces were so taken back that they offered me even more ration packs to review if I wanted.  Since I figured writing ration pack reviews again might be repetitive, both because I've already done it, and someone else is doing it better than me (click here to check that out).  I decided that I would instead try several experiments using ration packs.

The first experiment that I thought I would try is to take the elements of several ration packs, and try to make it into something else, something better maybe.  Since this is my first time trying this, I decided I would go for something that was in my skill set.  I decided that I would try and create a (slightly) more epic dessert out of some of the dessert ration packs.  The first thing I had to do was collect my ration packs. For this I was granted access to a ration pack stash, it was amazing.  It was like shopping at the  most boring grocery store ever, since everything was either in a nondescript foil pack or plain cardboard box.  While looking through the packs I was inspired for what I wanted to create, pineapple upside-down cake.

To make this sweet treat I would need fruit, some kind of syrup or sugar, and some kind of cake.  The fruit was the easiest to find as canned (bagged in this case) fruit is a staple of ration packs.  For this project I figured that a mixed fruit salad would work best.  This would give me pineapple, cherries, and even some peaches, just to mix it up a bit.  For the syrup/sugar, I went with a maple dessert bar that comes drenched in a maple syrup.  This would provide me with the syrup, and maybe some cake as well.  I also picked up several packages of date squares, these might give me the crust/crumble to make for a perfect cake base.

So with ingredients in  hand I got started.  My plan was simple, I started by draining the fruit, and laying at the bottom of my loaf pan in a pleasant pattern.  For this cake I used 3 packs of mixed fruit salad. The biggest problem I had in this case was the lack of pineapple.  There was some, but not nearly as much as I'd hopped for.  I put the cherries down, and ended up using more peach than pineapple, but I think that's OK.

About 3 hours before starting, I took out the maple cake, and started to drain it.  I let it sit for the 3 hours so most of the maple  would drain from the cake.

I also scrapped all of the crumb/crust from the date squares, and set them aside to dry out for a little while.

Once the fruit was placed in a nice pattern, and the maple cake drained all of the maple syrup. I added the maple syrup to the fruit.  At this  point I wasn't happy with the amount of syrup, so I added a bit of the juice from the fruit as well.  I put the fruit in the oven to let the syrup thicken a little bit.  Once it had been bubbling for a few minutes, I took the fruit out of the oven.

While  the fruit was cooking, I smashed up the  maple square and added it to the crumb from the date squares.  At this point all of the cake ingredients were much dryer than when I had taken them out of the packages.  This was a good thing because I figured they would  instantly absorb the syrup from the fruit.   My first thought was to ad some butter to the cake crumbs to help them stick together, but Allison mentioned that this would be cheating since ration packs do not come with butter.  As the fruit was ready, I took it out and carefully layered on the cake crumbs.  I had to be careful not to push the cake into the fruit as it might ruin the design, but I wanted the cake crumbs packed down enough so they would hold together.

Baking the cake crumbs didn't take too long since they were already cooked.  At this point I just wanted to heat them up, and let the crumbs absorbed some of the syrup.  I probably let it stay in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes, then it was ready to serve.

I thought since my military friends were nice enough to give me the ration packs, I would let them sample my creation.  Overall it was a success.  I was worried that the crumb bottom would completely fall apart, but it didn't, I was even able to flip the cake over while  serving it to reveal the fruity bottom/top.  The syrup was perfect and it held the crumb together fairly well, and held the fruit together perfectly.  Everybody was happy with the results, and I was given the best compliment I think you could receive for this experiment.  “This is probably the best thing that's ever come out of a ration pack.”

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Be Rational

Remembrance day was just a few days ago, in Canada this day is about remembering all of the Canadians that gave their lives, and their time to keep Canada awesome.  Recently I had the oportunity to sample a small part of the life of someone serving abroad.  I was given a Canadian military ration pack to try out.  For those that don't know what a ration pack is, it is a bag of food that should be able to give the average soldier substanance for one day.  Historically ration packs have been given a bad rap, it's been said that the basic food is just enough to keep someone alive, but nothing to keep them happy.  However, with the advancement in food science and packaging, ration packs have become fairly sofisticated, and now offer some pretty fancy meals to soldiers that may have nothing but a fire (or sometimes not even that) to heat up their meals.

The pack I received is for a soldier that notionally has some way of boiling water.  The pack contained a pretty wide range of foods, from a small Werthers candy to suck on, to a bag/box of something that claims to be sweet and sour pork.  It also comes with various powedered fruit drinks, coffee, tea, and a bag of Oreos.  I pretty much munched down the Werthers and Oreos imediately after opening the package.  They were exactly what you might expect, mini Oreos and a nice smooth butterscotch candy to suck on.  I'll probably never drink the coffee, and the tea and powedered drink were un-eventful.

The real highlight of this meal is the sweet and sour pork, or at least that's what was written in huge letter on the box that all of this comes in.  To prepare the pork you have to boil it in water for about 10 minutes.  I can assure you that this has nothing to do with "cooking" anything, and it's more about warming it up.  The side dish of rice involves taking some boiling water and pouring it into an envelope, sealing it closed, then letting it sit for 10 minutes.  I assume that the bags you cook these dishes in are also designed to be eaten out of, but since I was at home, and since I wanted to photograph them, I decided it might be better to serve everything on a plate.

It's not the most appealing looking plate of food, but it smelled pretty good.  My assumption throughout the whole process of making this food was that the pork would be disgusting and the rice would be tolerable.  I was wrong.  The pork, while not being the best asian meal I've ever eaten, wasn't that bad.  The meat was pretty tough, but what can I expect from something that can sit in a bag for months.  The sauce was actually pretty tasty, and I the chunks of fruit and vegetables throughout the sauce was a really nice surprise.  The rice on the other hand was horible.  I can't say that I've ever tasted rice that was actually inedible, until today.  It wasn't just the texture, but the "butter" flavour just ruined everything.  I think the rice would have worked out so much better if it was just plain rice.

For dessert I was offered pears in a syrup.  For some reason I imagined some kind of poached pear served with a caramel like syrup.  I really thought it would have been something fancy, but it wasn't.  What I got was a bowl of pears that looked identical to the types of pears one might find out of a can at the grocery store.  It wasn't bad, but it could have been better.  I think a little spice, or some kind of caramelized flavour could take these typical pears and made them something special.  I'm not saying I wouldn't be grateful for these if I was stuck out in a jungle with nothing else, but why aren't the people that serve our country entitled to something with a bit of extra flavour.

The next day I decided to treat myself to the "lunch" portion of the ration pack.  Or at least that's what I assume this is supposed to be.  Frankly it didn't really have much explanation and the peanut butter, jam, and pita really didn't go with anything else in the pack.  I decided to make myself a peanut butter and jam pita lunch, and it was OK.  The delivery method was a little messy, but once I squished the pitas together my poor peanut butter and jam squirting skills went unnoticed.  The great thing about this sandwich is that it reminded me of being a kid.  When I was a kid I loved making pita sandwiches, I liked pita bread more than sliced bread.  This simple ration pack made me feel like I was a kid again, back home.  I sure hope that the folks that eat these packs overseas get the same feeling, because they deserve a little bit of home comfort.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

M&M's were the perfect treat to ship overseas in wartime.  They're fairly durable, taste great, and can be divided into small portions.  It's a little strange to make this a selling point for these candies, but I guess that was a different time.

I found this ad here.

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Candy News

Do you like at home science projects?  How do you feel about tasty treats?  Well you might want to check this out.

The trend in food is "big, bold flavours", but according to this article, it might be ruining our ability to enjoy the more subtle ones.

Have you ever wondered why carbonated drinks taste better?

I'm generally OK with food science, and even OK with many "Fankenfoods", but I'm not sure how I feel about berries that taste like bubblegum.

The guy that created the Cronut is at it again, and this time it involves coffee and waffles.

If you're into old school weaponry and marshmallows, have I got the perfect Christmas gift for you.

If you want to keep up with all of the daily candy news that we come across as it happens, follow us on Twitter.

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Friday Candy Video

I've always enjoyed the feeling of stuffing my mouth with certain treats.  There's a certain satisfaction is having your mouth full of grapes, Smarties, and caramel cubes.  I'm not really sure if I'd like any of those treats propelled at my face at breakneck speeds, in fact I don't know if I could name a food that I would enjoy having propelled at me... maybe marshmallows?

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Old Candy Critic Articles - Chocolate Relief

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week I'm posting an article written by Tedd, a fan of Candy Critic, and man who served overseas in the military.

Late in 1990 I was a Combat Medic in Desert Storm. Sleeping in a tent in the middle of the desert, sand in places I don't even want to mention, dealing with heat that I never thought possible during the day and freezing temperatures at night. Always wondering what that bang was or what that glint of light was coming from across the dunes. Was that a mirage or an enemy truck?

Things weren't all bad while I was there, however. I was with fellow soldiers, we played lots of card games, Nintendo sent us a bunch of Gameboys, Chef Boyardee sent a bunch of their goodness. The company I remember most was Hershey's. Chocolate and the military have had a long and fruitful relationship and Hershey's didn't forget this.

You see, in the United States of America, the production of chocolate proceeded at a faster pace than anywhere else in the world. It was in pre-revolutionary New England — 1765 to be exact — that the first chocolate factory was established in this country. During World War II, the U.S. government recognized chocolate’s role in the nourishment and group spirit of the Allied Armed Forces, so much that it allocated valuable shipping space for the importing of cocoa beans. Many soldiers were thankful for the chocolate bars, which gave them the energy to carry on until more food rations could be obtained. Today, the U.S. Army’s "Meals Ready to Eat" contain chocolate bars and chocolate candies, and chocolate has been taken into space as part of the diet of U.S. astronauts.

What Hershey's sent to Desert Storm were 144,000 bite-sized chocolate bars, wrapped in nifty desert camouflage wrappings and specially formulated to withstand temperatures of over 100 degrees F. I remember getting up out of my cot one morning and going to the tent we had set up to take care of sick and injured soldiers. There, I saw a box that I originally thought was just another makeshift desk drawer. It had Hershey's printed on it, and when I looked inside, imagine my delight when I saw those mouth-watering, bite-sized packages of choco goodness. I felt like it was Christmas! I immediately dug in and grabbed a few, laid them on the table, unwrapped one, and popped it into my mouth.

What does a chocolate candy bar that doesn't melt in 100 degrees taste like? VERY GOOD! I remember it was a bit harder than other candy bars I have eaten, and it didn't melt in my mouth, but the taste was very close to the Hershey's we all know and love. After coming down off of my chocolate high, I decided to test the heat resistance and stuck a few in my pocket...ok, pockets. Throughout the day and several days thereafter, I and the other soldiers of my unit used them as "chips" for card games - those that we didn't eat before we got them on the card table. In a town nearby they were a treat for the children that lit up their faces like the sun.

Hershey's knows how to support the military and I thank them for their contribution to the Desert Storm conflict. They, and other companies, raised the morale of all the military while away from home and family. It was, and still is, nice to see that the military is appreciated to the point that companies like Hershey's are willing to go that extra step to let our guys and gals know they are appreciated.

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Wednesday's Candy Links

Need a quick education about chocolate?  Do you prefer your information in a graphical format?  It's your lucky day.

You'd think the reality show Toddlers and Tiaras could not possibly make its way onto this site, well think again.

Candy is the answer to world peace, I have proof.

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Monday's Candy Links

$30 Million in Maple Syrup stolen in Canada, Prime Minister Harper, I believe this qualifies as a national emergency.

You would think a US soldier giving a kid in a war torn country a little sweet treat as being a nice thing to do.  Well apparently it's not.

More news about artificial sweeteners being bad for you.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising - What To Eat In War Times

To continue with my "American" themed blogs this week, I found this advertisement promoting candy to American soldiers.  While we can joke about this, I've heard stories from many soldiers about how candy helped them while fighting a war.

I found this ad on Vintage Ad Browser.

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