Thursday, November 17, 2022

Eating Everything I Can When Traveling

 So I recently went on a pretty big flight. I traveled from Canada to South East Asia, with many stopovers along the way. As a side note you'll probably notice a few more Asian treats appears on this blog as well as on my social media and reviews. As an experiment I decided to document every thing I ate along the way for this trip that took almost two days. I also accepted almost every single thing given to me, even if it meant eating dinner at 3 in the morning.

I started at the Ottawa airport with a bag of potato chips, Miss Vickie's to be exact. I got these in the lounge while waiting many hours for my first flight to the other side of Canada (British Columbia). This is not going to be the last bag of Miss Vickie's I'll be eating on this trip as I believe Air Canada has some kind of deal with them.

My first full meal was a dinner I believe. I picked the cheese tortellini. Most notable about this meal is the fact that the cheese cake was super dry and on the menu the salad was said to have "a Brussel sprout" and it did. It has one single Brussel sprout sliced thinly.

This photo does not tell the truth. While pictured above is one bag of almonds, I think I had at least 3 of them over the course of this flight (about 6 hours). While I miss peanuts on airplanes, almonds aren't that bad a replacement. I much prefer them over weird snacking crackers that are also common on some flights (see below).
My second bag of Miss Vickie's potato chips came before leaving the first of 3 flights. I was only offered either a bag of chips or a chocolate bar, but I asked if I could have both and the wonderfully patient flight attendant agreed that I would need it for the rest of my long journey.  As an FYI, I saved the Kit Kat bar for later and it melted in my bag. I'm sure I'll post about it on my social media real soon.
We landed in the airport in British Columbia and headed straight for the lounge again. We had a very long (6 or 8 hour) wait ahead of us for our next flight. The lounge had a nice range of food including a constant supply of spring rolls and samosas. I came back to this several times, and it was a good warm up as the place we were going also has a lot of these available.

I couldn't leave Canada without one more bag of Miss Vickie's chips. This time I went for the salt and vinegar, probably my favourite flavour of chips in the world (you can read my full review of these right now if you like). I also had several cups of tea while waiting for this next flight, there were a few flavours to choose from with varying levels of caffeine.
There was also a large jar of cookies available throughout our wait in British Columbia. I did indulge a few times, but I ate far fewer cookies than you would expect from a guy who writes about candy for a living. I was probably just really tired and out of my mind.
Finally we boarded our next flight that would take us across the Pacific Ocean. This was a weird flight for us as we'd already eaten dinner, but because of the time changes we were offered dinner again. Allison decided to sleep, but I decided to go with dinner and I was not disappointed. This flight had a very different method of serving dinner, and it involved table clothes and multiple courses. Dinner started with a small ball of cheese with green and red stuff stuck to it (likely spinach and sundried tomato) as well as a small tart filled with some kind of fish salad.

The next course involved a potato covered in cheese and a steak. I'll be honest I'm not really a big fan of steak, but the alternative was fish and I'm even less plussed about that. I'm sure if meat and potatoes are your thing you would have been totally impressed with this, but I kept thinking about the tortellini I ate on the other flight, and the fact that I should probably be sleeping instead of eating.
For dessert, we had some kind of chocolate hazelnut pie. I'll be honest, it kind of sucked. The best part of the pie was the hazelnuts, and the best part of dessert was the grapes.
After a few hours of restless sleep we were rewarded with breakfast. There are two things worth noting about this breakfast. First of all they offered us a plate of sliced fruit, next to a fruit salad that contained exactly the same kind of fruit. So in some ways we received fruit two ways. The other thing worth mentioning is that bowl of creamy stuff on the top of the tray. I'm not sure what it was, but it was fantastic. I would describe it as some kind of pudding/yogurt with some very tasty granola mixed in.
This odd pile is the second course of the breakfast I got (they kept up the whole fanciness even for breakfast). It's supposed to be an orange and chocolate hazelnut, cream filled crepe. It tasted better than it looked, except for the fact that there was way too much orange zest on it.
We landed in Asia, and made our way quickly to our next flight. It was a tight connection and we had no time for any snacks along the way. Frankly I was so tired and messed up at that point I don't know how interested I would have been in eating at that point. We boarded our third and final flight and the first thing we received was a bag of random salty snacks. It was more in line with the cracker based snacks that I'm not too keen on, but I was happy that the peas were not too spicy with wasabi.
On this flight we received our final meal of this journey. I couldn't tell you if it was supposed to be lunch or dinner as I was pretty tired and totally messed up from the jetlag. It was a very typically Asian airline meal with some random meat served with rice and some bok choy. We also got some more fruit, but this time it included dragon fruit, a favourite of mine. I'm pretty sure I didn't manage to eat everything on my plate at this point, but it was nice to pick through it at least.
Dessert for this meal did not disappoint though. Even better was the fact that Allison was not interested in her ice cream, so I got two. While I had a hard time eating everything on this last meal, I found space for the two servings of ice cream.
We arrived at our destination just as I finished my cup of tea. The menu for this flight offered many different varieties of tea, however the flight attendant's English was not great, and when I asked about the teas she just assumed I wanted the traditional Chinese tea. It wasn't what I was thinking about, but it did hit the spot.

Make sure to check out my social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) as I'll be posting a lot of fun discoveries on this new epic journey that I'm on right now.

CC

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Time To Melt My Mouth With Hot Tamales

I'm not sure where my mind was when I made this video. What possessed me to just eat a whole bunch of Hot Tamales at once because 2 of them didn't seem to burn fast enough is a mystery to me.

Make sure to follow me on YouTube to check out all the new and old videos I've made.

You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to check out some of the new stupid ideas I might have.

CC

Monday, November 14, 2022

Spicy Candy Changes, Or I Do

I'm having a bit of a mental dilemma lately when it comes to reviewing spicy treats. My problem is that I've grown somewhat since I started this site, and I believe I have a higher tolerance to spicy food than when I started candycritic.org. My problem stems from the fact that I have older reviews on this site from back when I not only couldn't tolerate spicy food, I actually had something against it. I used to believe that it was silly to eat any food that caused your mouth pain, even though for some reason I accepted sour as being okay. So when I look back at my old reviews I see a person that just couldn't accept spicy food as an option, and maybe didn't even give it a chance. I'm glad I've grown, but I'm not sure what to do about my past.

Check out my latest spicy review where I didn't actually mind it at all.

CC

Friday, November 11, 2022

Fancy a Sip of Coke?

 If you love the idea of a 14 minute art film about various ways to open a bottle of coke, have I got a treat for you.

CC

Wednesday, November 09, 2022

What's Ottawa Food?


I've lived in Ottawa on and off for about 8 years all together. For those that aren't in the know, Ottawa is the capital of Canada. Canada has always had issues when it comes to identifying a national dish. This problem comes from the fact that Canada is a large country filled with people from all over the world. The most prevalent dish in one city will vary greatly from a prevalent dish in another city. Some dishes become popular outside of Canada, like poutine, but often these dishes are very regional inside Canada, and often they have their roots in the immigrant population found in that area. The food you find in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver is all very different, and reflects the people and personality of the region.

This is one of the things that makes Ottawa, the capital of Canada even more complex. Ottawa has a local population, but a majority of the people are from other parts of Canada, most working for the federal government. While places like Toronto and Montreal seem to thrive on collections of outsiders coming into the city, Ottawa seems to suffer. It's not to say that Ottawa doesn't have good food, in fact there are some amazing foods available, I've just always felt like Ottawa doesn't have a personality when it comes to the food. That was until a few days ago.

A few days ago Allison and I where downtown and we decided to hit one of our favourite places to grab lunch in the city, the Elgin Street Diner. This diner has been around for as long as I've been visiting Ottawa, before I moved to Ottawa. It has some great food and a great atmosphere. After enjoying some amazing diner food I ordered the dessert I always get at the Elgin Street Diner, their rice pudding. Every time I go I get the same dessert, and I'm never disappointed.

On our way out the door we talked to the daughter of the owner and she asked if we enjoyed the rice pudding. I told here a meal here wouldn't be the same without it, and as always it hit the spot. She then went on to explain that the rice pudding was her grandmother's recipe and they've been selling it at the diner forever. At that moment I was hit with inspiration.

If I was to define Ottawa food, it would be the consistent diner. Ottawa has a good collection of diners, some more popular than others, but almost all of them are fantastic. One of the key features of these diners is the fact that they don't change. I can go into the Elgin Street Diner and get the same rice pudding every single time. The décor of the diner has not changed at all. The family that runs it has not changed. In many other cities around the world, when a diner becomes the popular hot spot, things start to change. Sometimes these diners turn into fine dining diners. They up the quality, make the atmosphere fancy, and the place just gets classier. Sometimes diners spread themselves too thin and expand to more locations.

I feel like this doesn't happen in Ottawa. Sure new diners open and some close, but so often they don't really change. Some might call this lazy or boring, but I find it comforting. I think that's a good way to describe Ottawa diners, comfortable. Each one of these places is just like the rice pudding at the Elgin Street Diner, I know that if I walk into that place I'll get a dessert that I love. It will be the same recipe that the girls grandmother made a long time ago.

CC

Monday, November 07, 2022

Boring Candy Is Hard To Write About

Probably the biggest challenge I have with this website (candycritic.org) is writing about unimpressive candy. Unimpressive candy for me is neither really good or really bad, it's just fine. Sometimes a candy is simple, and kind of boring, but also not that bad either. I will often find myself restarting the writing process several times when writing a boring candy review. I'll try desperately to find an angle or a feature that's worth mentioning, but sometimes it's just not there. What makes it even worse is I don't have any reason to tell you not to eat the candy either. It's average candy, and it's the bane of every candy reviewers life.

Check out my latest candy review of a treat that's perfectly fine, but nothing impressive either.

Be sure to check out my Facebook, Instagram the Twitter right now as I'm going to be posting lots of bonus review over the next little while.

You can also pick up my book(s) all about the history of candy and snacks. It's called Snack Facts.

CC

Friday, November 04, 2022

Making Some Sour Candy

I'm not a huge fan of Warheads, but I like every Warheads candy I've ever tried.

CC

Don't forget to pick up Treats and Beasts, it won't leave you sour at all.

Thursday, November 03, 2022

A Return To Reviews

This past month, I had one of the most annoying technical problems I've ever had. For almost the entire month of October I was unable to sign into my laptop, the only computer that allows me to post new reviews. This tech problem had to do with two factor authentication, and within a couple of days of this problem happening I knew that I was pretty much stuck for a certain amount of time. The good news is that I'm back up and running with a new review. I decided to review a classic snack that makes me happy.  Knock on wood, I should be find from here on out.

Check out the return review, it's a classic in my books.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, because I could use the emotional support right now.

If you want to be cheered up yourself, pick up Treats and Beasts, my fun kids book about candy and creatures. 

CC

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Part 2 Of 13 Of The Longest Series of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! That I've Ever Done

A year ago I did an episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! where I sampled some Molasses Kisses for Halloween. As it turns out that particular batch of Molasses Kisses was soft and not stale at all. I thought it was unusual since ever other Molasses Kiss I'd ever eaten was rock hard and tough to chew. So I decided to take a small bag of them and see how they held up after a year, which is now. I've decided to try and make this a tradition, and every year around Halloween I'm going to eat one of the Molasses Kisses and see how they hold up after years in storage.

Check out the first episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! featuring Halloween Kisses.

Also be sure to follow me on Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

If you want even more fun, check out my comic book called Snack Facts too.

CC

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

It's Time To Talk About Candy, Snacks and Comic Books with Chetan Patel

In this episode of Junk Fud and You I talk to my good friend Chetan Patel about the connection between snacks, candy and comic books. Chetan is a famous indy comic creator who loves to talk about any aspect of pop culture and comics.

Make sure to check out Chetan's comic Tic Toc Tom.

Also be sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook,

CC

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Friday, October 21, 2022

Arachnophobia

If you don't like spiders, you might want to avoid this very spider heavy Skittles commercial.

CC

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Bugs In My Candy

 Most people would return a candy if they found a bug in it, I pay a premium.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to find out about what kind of gross things I might be eating.

My Patreons saw this video last week, and so could you.

CC

Friday, October 14, 2022

A Halloween Tradition


Every year I share this commercial, and every year it continues to creep me out.

CC

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Some Spooky Pun

 I love a good pun, I particularly love a good Halloween candy pun. These Nestle treats have all my bases covered and make me totally happy.

You can read all my Halloween review right here.

You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

CC

Friday, October 07, 2022

Twist Ending


I feel like M. Night Shyamalan may have been inspired by this Hershey's Halloween commercial.

CC

Monday, October 03, 2022

Two Does Not Become One

Likely my most hidden shame is I really love the Spice Girls. I enjoyed their music when it came out, and still listen to it today. Allison questions my taste in music, but I don't care. While eating this Hershey Bar that is the subject of today's new review the song "Two Becomes One" popped into my head. The song is about the connecting of two wonderful things in to something better, which this bar failed at completely. In fact I would have gone so far as to say that at least one of the elements of this bar is ruined because of this bar.

Check out this review that had me doubting if mixing candies can make something better.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

If you have a few minutes, check out my fun book called Treats and Beasts, and pick up a copy for yourself or someone you love.

CC

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Talking About The Canadian National Exhibition

In this latest episode of Junk Fud on the Road, Allison and Chris talk about their past adventures at the Canadian National Exhibition.

Check out what Chris and Allison are up to right now on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Also be sure to follow them on Patreon for all kinds of bonus content.

CC

Monday, September 26, 2022

Crunky All Week Long

Many people outside of Asia have no any idea what Crunky is, but those who have visited or lived there are very familiar with this chocolate treat. I'm not too sure what was the first Crunky treat since there are so many different ones available right now. It was likely the milk chocolate bar with the rice crisps, but I could be wrong. All I know is that today there are so many different treats made in the Crunky style, and this week I'm going to review 3 of them.

Check out the first of many Crunky reviews.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to keep up with all the other ones.

Also be sure to check out my book called Treats and Beasts.

Friday, September 23, 2022

Friday, September 16, 2022

Makin' M&Ms

 I wonder if the people working at this factory get sick of seeing pretty colours all day?

If you like learning about candy and snacks, make sure to pick up a collection or a single issue of my comic called Snack Facts.

CC

Monday, September 12, 2022

Flavour Combinations We Love To A Fault

I think we have a bias about what flavours work with which candy. While there are certainly some flavour to candy combinations that objectively don't work, there are many candies that for some reason we always expect them to be a certain flavour, even though there's no reason that it has to be that flavour. Take gumnies, for some reason chocolate flavoured gummies are just never a thing, yet there's no reason why it shouldn't work. Chocolate works in just about every single other sweet treat, but it's extremely rare in gummies, why is that? There's nothing about gummies that suggest the texture of fruit, but for some reason most gummies are fruit flavoured.

Check out my latest review to read about another flavour combination that should work.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with all of my adventures.

While you're at it, why not pick up my book called Snack Facts to learn a little more about candy and treats?

CC

Tuesday, September 06, 2022

What A T-Shirt!

 You might have thought that the letter "w" would be difficult to write into an alphabet book about animals and candy, but strangely it was the first one I came up with.

Check out all the other animal/candy fun stuff you can pick up.

CC

Monday, September 05, 2022

Shape Is Important

I think it's pretty interesting that a candy like the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup can exist before the Reese's Bar. I say this because bars are the most typical shape of chocolate treats, and cups although not too strange, are not nearly as common as bars. Even the old commercials for Reese's Cups used to show people eating bars of chocolate and accidentally getting peanut butter on these bars. They never explained the cup shape, and frankly I don't know where it came from. I probably would have never even thought about this if it wasn't for this bar, the candy that appears to be a step backwards in the evolution of the peanut butter cup.

Check out my full review of this strange yet very simple bar.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram too.

If you want to learn a little about the history of candy, pick up my comic called Snack Facts.

CC

Friday, September 02, 2022

A Whole lot of Chocolate Bars


If you've every wondered how to make a million chocolate bars, Hershey's got your covered.
CC

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

A Junk Fud and You Where I Talk About My New Books

 In this episode I talk about my two new books, Treats and Beasts and The Complete Snack Facts.

You can pick up your own copies of either (or both) of these books right now.

Pick up Treats and Beasts here.

Pick up Snack Facts here.

You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram if you like.

CC

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

This Is A Very Cool T-shirt

 I feel like watching a vulture eat ice cream would be very interesting, although I don't think I'd like to eat the same flavour of ice cream as a vulture would.

Check out all the Treats and Beasts stuff and maybe get yourself a copy of the book.

CC

Monday, August 29, 2022

Dessert Themed Candy

You would think that making a dessert themed candy would be easy. Some people even think that desserts and candies are pretty much the same thing. While I will agree that there is some crossover between desserts and candy, saying they're the same thing is like saying lunch and dinner are the same thing. While both are similar and can even have similar ingredients, there's a certain something that differentiates these two meal, and the same is true with candy and desserts. This is why I find that not all dessert themed candies work. I feel like the people that come up with these dessert/candy combinations don't really understand the difference, and I even think they figure mixing these two themes is an easy combination.

My latest review is an attempt to mix a dessert with a candy, it tastes pretty good, but I don't think it worked.

I've got another Cow Tales review going up later this week, make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to check it out.

Don't forget to get my latest comic collection called Snack Facts if you want to learn even more about sweet treats.

CC

Friday, August 26, 2022

Crazy Eyebrow Skills

 I'm not sure if this makes me want to eat Cadbury chocolate, but it does look cool.

CC


Monday, August 22, 2022

Raw Dangerous Cookie Dough

I have a question for you, has raw cookie dough always been dangerous? I ask because I've been eating cookie dough for a long time. In fact I can't remember the first time I've ever tried it, and I can safely tell you that I don't think a year of my life has gone by without eating cookie dough. It just seems like in the last few years people have had to make special cookie dough for me to eat. When I was a kid, I would just eat the stuff right out of the bowl, or tube as the case may be. I never thought about raw eggs being dangerous, I guess I figured mixing it in a bowl made it safe?


You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook too.

While you're looking for something sweet to do, why not pick up my book called Treats and Beasts?

CC

Friday, August 19, 2022

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Is Today The Day?

 Is today the day I get to eat something so strange that my mind shuts down and I just curl up in a ball and weep? Or is today the day I'm disappointed by the fact that my mind is still awake and I have not curled up into a ball?

Check out all my videos on my YouTube channel.

Also make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

While you're at it, pick up my new book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

Monday, August 15, 2022

Mac Tonight?.. With Cheese?

 

There's a lot of attention on social media to rail against "stunt food". I would argue that the originator of stunt food has to be the candy industry. It's been decades that this part of the food industry has dared it's customers to go for really silly food combinations and flavours. Strangely this is also the area where I see very few social media posts railing against it. For the most part it seems that people are okay with weird and over the top candy creations, but when it comes to regular food, and even desserts there seems to be a problem. This makes me very happy because I would have nothing to write about on this site if candy companies didn't try new things, and I for one even enjoy the crazy projects that go horribly wrong.

Check out a fairly strange candy concept, and see if it went the way you thought it would.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to keep up with all the other weird treats I come across.

While you're at it, check out my Patreon page for even more weird content.

CC

Monday, August 08, 2022

Take A Chunk Out

I'm very biased about the shape of candy bars. I've realized that if a candy bar does not fit the common size of candy bar on the store shelf, I'm less likely to buy that bar. There are a few exceptions, but most of the time it has something to do with where I'm buying that chocolate bar. If I'm at a candy specialty shop I tend not to think too much shape of my candy, but if I'm at a pharmacy or grocery store I feel like buying odd shaped candy is weird. Am I the only person that thinks this way? When was the last time you bought an odd shaped candy bar?


If you want more oddities, follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.


CC

Thursday, August 04, 2022

Making Treats and Beasts - A Few Problems

In past entries in this blog I've mentioned that there were a few problems making this book. The one that people ask me first and foremost every time I tell them about the concept for this book is "how did you mange with the letter X". I won't lie, for the animal in this case I had to do some research. This was probably the only animal in the book that I can't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it exists. The candy however was actually fairly easy, in fact that reason I felt comfortable using candy in this book was because I knew I had a candy for the letter x.

The next problem came about when I started thinking about making this project into a book, or selling it in any way. I realized that I couldn't use brand names for candy without either paying out companies or risking breaking some kind of copyright. Once I started working on these drawings I started to have to update a few pieces in order to make sure the beast was enjoying a generic treat. I actually enjoyed this challenge. I did use some research material for finding generic candies, but thankfully it was almost entirely my own website candycritic.org. I also decided that it would be okay to use the names of candies from outside North America.

I would be lying if I told you that turning these drawings into a book was not filled with some other frustrations. I had to double check spelling and grammar at least a dozen times. I also had to figure out how to format my drawings to they could be printed into a book. I've worked on books and comic books in the past, but frankly someone else almost always did the pre-press work for me. I learned a lot and it actually left me confident enough that I made a second book quickly after (the complete Snack Facts).

I hope you enjoyed my tales of putting together Treats and Beasts. As always, if you want to pick up your own copy, check it out right now on Amazon.

CC

Tuesday, August 02, 2022

You'll Really Run Rampant With This New R T-Shirt

Of all the treat and beast combinations I've done for this series, I feel like there's a possibility that some day I'll see a raccoon eating rhubarb custards in real life.


CC

Monday, August 01, 2022

The Right Ingredients, But Not

I sometimes feel like the research and development departments of some candy companies don't really understand what makes candy great. I feel like sometimes (this new review is a prime example), these companies "know" what works in a candy bar, but they don't understand why. It's too often that I try a treat that should work on paper, but the design of the bar or the quality of ingredients just makes it a complete failure. With this treat I had my hopes up, but they were dashed on the first bite.

Check out this disappointing review and find out why it failed.

Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too since we have a bonus review going up later this week.

If you've just eaten one of these bars, and you need something to cheer you up, pick up a copy of my book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

Friday, July 29, 2022

What to do if You Chew a Lot of Gum

 I feel like this is the kind of thing I would think of doing when I was a kid, but I'd give up at around the 5th or 6th wrapper.

If you like candy art, check out my book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Making Treats and Beasts - The Cover

The other piece of art and design I had to think about when I decided to make this a book was the cover. While working on the animal drawings I had zero thought about if this was going to be a book, and less about details like covers. When I started working on colouring the drawings I realized that this book is probably going to need a cover. I'll admit that my first thought was just to collage a few of the drawings together and see if that worked out.

Then I was doodling in a my sketchbook and I decided to start with a circle. I thought that maybe I could make a circle (which is a common shape themed in this book) and randomly scatter a few drawings around it. I thought maybe the drawings could be held up using trees. Then I started thinking about decorating those trees with candy. Finally I thought that maybe instead of just reusing a few of the animal drawings, I could put some nice text in the trees.

Next thing I knew I had a rough concept for the cover. I used some pencil crayons to see how it might work in colour. I made a few mistakes on my rough attempt, but I feel like the overall concept worked. Now that I knew I was going this direction, I knew I had to ink it up and get it under the camera to shoot.

It took a few attempts to ink it up. I'm actually not very confident with my inking, particularly when it comes to letters. I feel like this worked pretty well, and the next phase was to colour it up. Fortunately that wasn't too hard as I already had a rough drawing in colour to reference. I probably should have done that with all the animal drawings, but live and learn.

Next, some of the challenges I had with this book.

If you want to have your own copy of Treats and Beasts, be sure to pick up a copy on Amazon right now.

CC

Monday, July 25, 2022

A Lesson About Heat

 

Throughout my candy and snack eating life, I've tried to expand my horizons. There are two way I feel that people can expand their food horizons. One is to try new foods that they would have never tried before. A great example for me is spiders. I decided to try eating spiders because other people eat them, and it turns out I kind of like them. The second way to expand your horizons is to take a food you don't really like, and try it in different ways over and over again, to see if you can gain a taste for it. That's exactly how I feel about spicy food. Ten years ago I couldn't handle any kind of spice at all, today I'm getting much better and starting to figure out what people love about spicy foods. This new review would have been very different tens years ago, maybe an episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

Check out this spicy review and marvel at the fact that I didn't cry.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see me eat things that occasionally make me cry.

If you want me to be happy, pick up my newest book, Treats and Beasts, it will not make you cry at all.

CC

Friday, July 22, 2022

An Interesting Opinion of Classic Candy Treats

 I do often watch other people review candy, but I've never been so interested in someone else's opinion on the subject than I was watching this video.

Don't forget to check out some of my cool candy merch.

CC

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Making Treats and Beasts - The Inks Turn Into A Book

As I mentioned before, I really had no direct plan to turn this collection of drawings into a book. In fact I wasn't even sure that I would finish all of the drawings. I figured I might loose interest at some point and just move onto something else. The thing is, I didn't. I really wanted to try and finish each and every drawing in the collection, and near the last few drawings I realized that I think it would make a really fun collection, maybe in a book format.

After deciding this, my next phase was to figure out how the book should look. I decided that I would use a few electronic fonts, however I wanted the letter that was showcased to be my own design. Since I had designed the animals and snacks using a rough circle template, I figured the letters should also fit into this template. I found lots of reference online and starting sketching out some font ideas. Eventually I had each letter drawn and inked.

The other choice I made once I decided to make a book was that I wanted the illustrations to be in colour. I don't own a scanner and I didn't want to buy one for this project. I still wasn't convinced it would actually pan out. Since I am a photographer, I decided that I would photograph each drawing. This turned out to be fairly challenging, particularly getting the light just right. I built a setup and had to shoot each and every drawing on the same day. I wanted to make sure they all matched perfectly.

After that I brough everything into various Adobe editing tools and after a few drawings were done I had a system that worked fairly well. The good thing about taking the photos of the art was the fact that many of the sketchy lines and even the texture of the paper came through just a little bit. I feel it gave the art a really nice natural feeling.

The colouring was probably the hardest part of the process for me. I'm not a great expert on colours, and I found parts of this process to be very hard on the eyes. I do however feel that it worked out fairly well and I'm glad I went beyond black and white.

Next the cover idea.

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CC

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Kit Kat Done 5 Ways

In this experiment I taste a Kit Kat bar done 5 ways, room temperature, refrigerated, frozen, microwaved and baked. Find out which one tasted best, and which one changed entirely.

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CC