A Look at The Junk Food and Snacks at Warner Brother's World in Abu Dhabi

 

On a recent trip to UAE, Allison and I decided to take a little road trip to Abu Dhabi. We had several reasons to make the trip, one of them being to visit the world's largest indoor amusement park, Warner Brothers World. In the UAE they're really known for two things, the dessert, and making things bigger than anyone else. They also have a lot of money to spend, and are willing to make things to the extreme. That's probably the best way to describe this massive indoor theme park. The park is split up into different themed lands, with a general city square in the middle. There's Metropolis, Gotham, Cartoon Junction, Dynamite Gulch, and Bedrock. 

This is not just a mall dressed up with a few themed elements, this is a full on indoor theme park. While there are many attractions that are crunched into small spaces, there are also full sized attractions in huge rooms. I was pretty impressed at how immersive every single land was. Just walking around and taking in the atmosphere was really great. That's not to discredit the rides as many were state of the art and very entertaining. As far as if you should visit, my answer is this, if it sounds like something you'd want to check out, and you're in the area, it's well worth it.

There was however one part that really didn't live up to the hype, and that's the food. There were a few highlights, but for the most part I was kind of disappointed. The quality was all okay, and everything we ate satisfied our hunger, but I feel like there was something missing, and that's theming. Considering you have the entire Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbera and DC comics library to choose from, I was really surprised at how little themed food was available.

There were a few nods to famous foods in the theming of parks, but when it came down to actual themed foods, there was very little. Most of the food was just basic theme park treats, with a few restaurants scattered around. Most of the stores, even the ones that looked like they might have fun themed treats, where just fronts for general merchandise (t-shirts, mugs and that sort of thing). The restaurants had some nice looking and tasting food, but nothing to theme the food except a few logos thrown on.

There was one store that was a little better, and it actually had more than just a façade of a candy store. In the Gotham section there's a candy store based on Harley Quinn. Visually it was beautiful, well designed and fit the theme of the land perfectly. Having not read too many Harley Quinn comics lately, I'm not sure if she actually has a sweet tooth, but her esthetic does work well for a candy store. The candy inside was nothing amazing, but at least it looked cool.

For all my complaining about the food, there was one exception, and it was the one place that was a must visit for lunch. When we planned this trip, I noticed on the map that the Bedrock section of the park had a restaurant, and the first thing I did was check for Bronto Burgers. Fortunately they totally had them, they also offered ribs and other barbeque, which is perfect when it comes to theming a restaurant for a Flintstones themed land. 

I can't say it was the best burger, or barbeque, but it was really fun to eat a Bronto Burger and barbeque in this well decorated restaurant, surrounded by Flintstones stuff.

The food at Warner Brothers World is fine, it's just not that creative, with one exception. As a writer, artist and food lover, I feel like there's so much more they could have done, particularly on the snacks and candy front. As it stands, the most common themed treats are just chocolate bars and lollipops with images of various characters. Don't let this harsh criticism change your mind about visiting this huge indoor theme park. The food is fine, and just be sure to have lunch in Bedrock.

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Ice Scream For a T-shirt For Christmas

Ice Cream Dream
by candycritic

 Pick up this fun ice cream shirt for yourself, or anyone on your holiday list.

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Holiday Treat or Not?

 I always have a hard time figuring out what categories to put certain treats. Under holidays I only put them in their categories if they are overtly themed to that holiday. Here's a few treats however that aren't themed at all, but should probably still be in those categories.

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Happy Halloween!

 The only thing more terrifying than a well decorated cookie, is a poorly decorated cookie being baked.

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Gummy Bear Irony

Irony
by candycritic

I sometimes wish gummy bears could know how frustrating it is to step into gum.

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Halloween Reviews Are Getting Harder and Harder

 

My issue with Halloween reviews is by what I define as a Halloween candy. While there are hundreds of candies one might receive on Halloween, many of them (maybe even most of them) aren't really Halloween themed. They're often sold in bulk and smaller sized, and maybe there's a Halloween themed package. But how many are actually Halloween themed? In order for me to officially post something in the Halloween category on candycritic.org, it has to have a Halloween theme. While I did manage to find one this year, I'm not sure if I have anything in mind for next year.

Check out what could be the last Halloween themed candy I review on this site.

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Every Year I Post This Commercial

 I'm not sure that it's possible to make a scarier candy commercial, so it's perfect for Halloween.

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I Agree, But My Stomach Doesn't

You may not believe this, but I actually have a pretty sensitive stomach. I can generally handle a lot of that, but there are a few things that just always knock me down. The problem is I love to eat them so very much.

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Show Off Your Candy Corns

Candy Legs - Candy Corn
by candycritic

 These are probably the best corns you can spot when you're working out.

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Great Gummies

 As a category, gummies is really hard to judge. I mean what makes one gummy better than another? It's funny because it's also one of the most versatile of all candies. You can make a gummy into just about any shape, give it any flavour, and there are even several textures (although all soft and squishy) to choose from. I'm not sure what it would take to make the perfect gummy, but I can tell you that I was really happy to eat the gummies featured this week on candycritic.org.

Check out the full review to find out why these gummies worked out so well.

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Reese's Advice

 I feel like some of this advice may not be great. In particular this first commercial should have fine print mentioning how many eggs you might have to clean off your house.

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The Classiest Treat At McDonalds?

On a recent trip to Dubai I stopped in a McDonalds and noticed something interesting in their McCafe selection of desserts, macarons. I should make it clear, I'm not sure that this is the only place where McDonalds sells macarons, leave a comment if they sell them where you live. The thing about the McCafe dessert case is that it's strangely a place I rarely ever explore. In this particular case (no pun intended), the McCafe is attached to the front counter and sits right next to the place where you have to wait for your food. Many of the McCafe cases I've seen in the past are either near the cash registers (I use the touch screens to order my food) or the cafe is in another section of the restaurant entirely.

You might also imagine that any desserts are in my wheelhouse, but strangely that's not always true. When I'm at McDonalds I tend to focus on the classic desserts, the sundaes and pies, and I often ignore the fancy McCafe stuff. It's only been recently that I've even tasted their donuts, and that's only because we won a few in the Monopoly contest they had. So while waiting for my food, I happened to notice that the McCafe sold macarons, and I wondered how a fast food chain could handle such a sophisticated dessert.

I didn't buy any on the first visit, I instead decided to just gawk at them and wonder if anyone ever bought them. On the next visit my curiosity peaked, and I decided to give them a shot. Fortunately I could still order them from the touch screen kiosks, and I could even pick which flavour I wanted. The choices were very simple, which kind of surprised me. I guess they decided that they didn't want to be too outlandish with the choices. I still think making a macaron with a light brown cookie and a dark brown filling would have been fun, because it would look like a hamburger. 

The flavours were pretty basic, and I went with chocolate, raspberry, and vanilla. The box was the first thing I noticed when I got my cookies. I was kind of wondering if these macaron were regularly available items at McDonalds, and the fact that they have a box specifically designed for the macarons tells me they are. It also tells me that they realise that these are a little fancier than their other desserts as every time I've had a donut at McDonads it just comes in a paper bag. Strangely I feel like the macarons would have survived better in a paper bag than the donuts I picked up.

I decided to start with the vanilla, as it's really the basic flavour that's the most challenging to get right. Vanilla treats can go be amazing if done right, but if not they're just kind of boring. My first impressions weren't that great. First of all they were cold, and I don't mean not warm, they were actually very cold. The vanilla flavour was fine, but nothing that impressive. Finally the centre was a cream, not a jam or even something similar to an icing, it was like a small dollop of whipped cream. The chocolate and raspberry were fairly similar in that they were cold, fairly flavourless, and the cream in the middle was kind of disappointing.

This leads me back to my original idea, is this the fanciest thing ever at McDonalds, and if it is, is it worth it. To the first part of this idea, I do believe that this is one, if not the fanciest thing I've ever had at McDonalds, but as to the second thing, I'd probably say no, it's not worth it. They're not overly expensive, but they're not cheap either (over 1 dollar each US). Personally I still have yet to warm up to the McCafe. I don't drink coffee and so far the desserts have been a little disappointing. If there's something I'm missing, let me know. 

I really thought that the McCafe idea wouldn't have stayed as long as it has. I understand that the coffee at McDonalds is spectacular according to many people, but it was apparently spectacular long before the McCafe opened. Is this cafe gaining its success off of a product they sold before they even opened? So far the donuts where meh, and the macrons were pretty low quality too. I didn't hate either one, but I have no reason to get them again when I could have a caramel sundae instead.

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Time For My Annual Halloween Tradition

 Every year I eat a Molasse Halloween Kiss candy. Each one of these candies come from the same bag that I bought (now) 3 years ago. The plan is to eat 14 of them over the course of 14 years, and to find out if they ever get truly stale, like I remember as a kid.

Read my full Halloween Kisses review here: http://www.candycritic.org/halloween%20kisses.htm

Here's last year's video: https://youtu.be/FOlXM-Iuo0s?si=zPYwoGxUFakndhBR

And here's the first video: https://youtu.be/9heIrajA7y0?si=nIgXJVOccDOfTm8w

Baby Candy Corn

Baby Halloween Candy Corn
by candycritic

 A little something for your little candy corn.

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Time To Crack Some Corn

Corn is an interesting ingredient in the snacking world, particularly when you're looking at sweet treats. You don't really think of corn as being a common ingredient in candy, but it's actually very common. Corn is one of the more common sugars (or syrups) used in making many sweet treats. Even though many of our treats are sweetened with corn, when regular corn gets added to our sweet treats it's looked at as a little weird. That is unless you're in parts of Asia where corn flavoured candy are common. It's a curious ingredient, and just like this week's featured review, I'm always interested in trying it new ways.

Check out my latest corny review.

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Ze Frank Breaks Down Candy Trading

 I'm not sure I totally agree with all his values, but this video is entertaining either way.

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A Creepy Candy Corn

Happy Halloween T-Shirt
by candycritic

 I feel like this t-shirt appeals to those who love and those who hate candy corn equally.

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Creepy... Maybe Not Scary

 Snickers is great at making scary Halloween commercials, this ones fun, but I think it's more creepy than scary.

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UAE Highlights

 

I'm trying to think if there's any other country that I've visited more than the United Arab Emirates. I've mentioned many times in the blog that I have reasons for visiting places that have a lot of western stuff. I have, and currently live in countries that are a little off the beaten path. In fact, I've lived in at least two countries that have never had a McDonalds. Depending on your opinion of McDonalds, you might think that's a good thing, but what it means is that I've lived in countries that are often short on western comforts. While that gives me a great opportunity to sample what many would consider to be exotic goods, it also makes me miss some of the regular things I can normally get at home.  You might be wondering why I wouldn't just go back home regularly then, that's a simple answer, price and time. It's both expensive and very time consuming to get back home from where I am. Fortunately there are many countries and cities dotted around the world that offer some of the comforts that I'm used to in Canada, and when I have the chance I like to get my fill of comfort food.

United Arab Emirates is probably one of the best countries in the world to get wester comfort foods. I haven't been in a while, but I've found that's become even more true. It used to be a place that had all the regular places, with a few more obscure western restaurants. Now it's chock full of all the regular places, and plenty of very specific and obscure western treats too. Allison and I decided to take advantage of these, while still managing to make regular stops at one of our favourite places, Cheesecake Factory.

One of the stops we managed to make was at Dickey's Barbeque, which was fine. I believe Dickey's is a chain of BBQ restaurants in the US, but I'm not sure if it's made its way to Canada yet. It wasn't the best barbeque either of us had ever had, but filled the gap.

The strange thing about Dickey's is their obsession with their yellow cup. They really seemed keen that I not only get my soda in this yellow cup, but that I take the cup home. I'm presently using it as a cup to hold my paintbrushes, so I guess that's something.

We also managed to stop at 5 guys, which was a first for us. This is a weird one because this is a place that's actually fairly common in Canada, but we just never go. It's not that we have anything against the place, it's just that all of the 5 Guys locations near my house in Canada are in places where I have other restaurants that I love. If we're in those areas, it means we're going to those restaurants, and we never really try anything new.

That might change after this visit as the burgers and fries were pretty good. I also like the idea of getting peanuts before a meal.

We didn't just eat western food on this excursion, we also managed to sample a really famous and very tasty Pakistani restaurant. It was nice to go to a Pakistani restaurant since there really aren't that many around. Having lived in Pakistan for a few years it was some wonderful and familiar flavours.

While the food was great, the real highlight was the fact that they also sold custom Adidas... sort of. Apparently they may or may not be authentic, but I have my suspicions.

While we did eat a lot of foreign foods, we also managed to enjoy a few iftar dinners as well (since it was Ramadan). Iftar dinners are one of my favourite meals since they're often buffets and they also often have foods I've never tried before. The format allows for a great sampling of new and fun foods including amazing desserts.

You also can't go wrong when you start a meal with a delicious date.

The candy scene in the UAE hasn't changed much over the years. Plenty of over the top candy stores, lots of imports, but only a few treats that you could really call local. I can't say that I completely hate the fact that most of the treats in the UAE are imports as it's a great place to take a look at the popular treats from all over the world. It also lets you really see how exotic western treats actually are.

The candy and desserts you could call local are also always presented in a big way, with lots of pageantry. 

I do however admire their very modern candy machines found all over the place. Video screens make for a much flashier and fun place to buy snacks.

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You Should Give Out This Candy For Halloween

 Here's a list of the top 5 candies that no one is giving out for Halloween this year, but probably should. Sure some of it is a little expensive, but it's cheaper than cleaning egg off your windows.

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Candy Corns Keep You Warm

Candy Corny Sweats
by candycritic

 Check out this amazing candy corn hoodie!

Define The Word Pie

The most I see of the world, the harder it is for me to define the word "pie". When I say the word "pie", your mind probably first pops into a round baked treat filled with things like apples and cherries. It likely has some kind of top crust keeping these fillings piping hot too. But maybe you'll then start to think about cream pies, and instead of a hot filling it's cold, and likely has no top crust. Then you might wander to the kind of pies that you find in stores and gas stations, a single piece of crust folded over and stuffed with fillings (like this week's featured review). Finally, if you're Greek (or if you've visited Greece), you might think of pies as also being any pastry filled with vegetables and cheese. This is only the tip of the iceberg, as I'm sure this post alone might turn up people with other "pies".

Check out my latest pie review because it's filled with chocolate.

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The Ultimate Japanese Candy Experience

Check out this tour of the biggest Japanese candy store in all of Japan. A place I'm adding to my list of places to visit in the future.

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Myanmar Days

 In this latest episode of Junk Fud on the Road, Allison and Chris talk about some of the foods, treats and snacks they've discovered over their first few months of living in Myanmar.

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Giving Gummy Birth

Baby Gummy Bear
by candycritic

 I'm sure most mothers wished they could give birth to gummy bears.

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I'm Not Sure That I Hate Any Candy

My latest review has made me think about the idea of liking or hating candy. I believe that there is not one candy in the world that I hate. There are a few flavours I don't like, and even a few texture I don't care for. But just because I don't like a flavour or texture, doesn't mean that I don't like the candy. In fact there have been a few candies that I totally disliked the flavour (hated even) yet I love the concept. What I'm finding however is that the candies that get really low scores (like this new candy bar that I just reviewed) are disappointing to me. I believe, what makes a horrible candy is disappointment.

Click here to read about this really disappointing treat.

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That's One Cold Cola

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A post shared by Matty Jordan (@mattykjordan)

 The fact that this man has a maple leaf on his toque tells me that he might be Canadian, and this might be the most Canadian way ever to pour a coke.

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Tasteless Journal (The Time I Lost All Sense Of Taste)

 

I lost all sense of taste, while the Covid tests came up negative, I hear they're not totally accurate. I had the symptoms, including the one I feared the most, I lost my sense of taste. I had read that in most cases the sense of taste returns, however the word "most" lingered in my brain. As you would imagine, a person who reviews candy would need their sense of taste, it made me contemplate this site, and even messed with my other senses. I started to feel a little paranoid and even learned just how much I depend on my sense of smell for so many other things. Below is the journal I decided to keep, just in case this was to be my last post on this blog.

Part 1 the first 7 Days

I have no taste… literally. About 7 days ago I started coming down with the flu. I figured it was the flu (and not Covid) because several days before Allison was very sick with the flu and we checked her for Covid and it was negative. She was just on the upswing of her flu when I started getting symptoms. Then it hit me like a freight train and I was out. About 3 days into my flu I started to lose the ability to smell and taste things. By the 4th day I was completely tasteless.

The flu started to clear up, which was good because we had a flight out of town on a trip. I wasn’t perfect, but I was beyond the stages of being contagious. The one thing that had not recovered however was my ability to taste or smell anything. By this point I was hungry, but unable to enjoy the flavours. It’s been 7 days now and the ability to taste has not really returned. 

It should be understood, I’ve lost my ability to smell and taste only sort of. My tongue still works perfectly, so I can sense sour, sweet, salty and bitter, and spicy. I just don’t get that extra kick that you get with your olfactory senses in your nose. Food flavour is very basic for me, and I’m extremely sensitive to texture. I’ll be honest, while I’m fairly sure it will return, I’m very worried that it might not. As you might imagine, taste is very important for a person who reviews candy. Fortunately I actually have several months worth of reviews lined up, so there is no immediate problem.

Psychologically it is taking a bit of a toll on me. I’m not as interested in eating at all, I’m never really hungry. When Allison and I pick a place to eat, I really don’t care at all. I do think about texture a bit when I choose foods, but there’s no particular type of food that I crave. When I do eat, I feel a little down that I can’t totally enjoy it. 

I have given more thought about texture, and realized even more the collaboration taste and texture have together. Certain textures work well on their own, however some textures need certain flavours to be satisfying. I’ve been a little experimental with texture and discovered the following things:

Pickled jalapeños - Crunchier than I thought, still burns but without the flavour.

Bread - Very satisfying to chew.

Hamburgers - All condiments are for people who can taste, otherwise just makes a hamburger into a squishy gross mess.

Gummies - Not as gross as I thought they would be, still satisfying to chew.

Meat - Tough meat is actually kind of satisfying.

Chips - Very satisfying. 

Ice water - Excellent, my current favourite thing.

Day 8

We went to the mall today and I think my sense of smell might be returning gradually. Extremely smelly places at the mall smelled like something. I’d never been so happy to walk by a Lush store. The smells are still faint enough that it’s hard to identify them, but I smell something. I’m not convinced that it’s real, or if I mentally just want to smell anything again. Every time we walk near something and I think I smell something I ask Allison if it’s real and try to identify it. A few times we’ve walked by stores and I’d turn to her to ask if she smelled anything and I’d see her choking, I’m looking at you Lush.

I think I’m also starting to taste a little too. Most notably I think I can taste my most nasty of burps. I thought I tasted my Wendy’s Bacon Mushroom Melt today, but I’m not sure. In the evening we went for a walk and smelled something kind of like garlic, I turned to Allison and asked if there was a smell and she mentioned that it was a fairly rank garbage smell. So maybe the base smell in rotting food isn’t bad, but the layers on top are not.

I experimented with a few more foods today:

Salty fries - They're better crispy than soft, temperature means less so cold is fine.

Grapes - Less satisfying than before when I could taste them, but not bad.

Day 9

Allison made bacon and eggs this morning, and I think I can smell the bacon. I’m wondering if it’s actually the fat in the air hitting my tastebuds on my tongue or if my olfactory is picking it up. I’m optimistic about it being positive, so the smell feels positive, but when I objectively think about it, this fatty smell isn’t great. 

Went to another mall this afternoon and the smells became more regular. I could only really smell strong odours like perfume shops, but it became somewhat regular. I even managed to smell waffle cones being made at an ice cream shop. I had a chicken Caesar salad for lunch and I could kind of taste the dressing and even the chicken on its own. I also got a slice of cheesecake, I went for key lime as I figured the sourness would work no matter what. It worked and I might have even had a hint of actual lime flavour too.

In general I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll regain my sense of smell and taste, but I really don’t know how long it’s going to take. At one point today we went into a fancy store and they offered us some chocolates to sample. I took the chocolates, but stuffed them discreetly in my bag in hopes of sampling them later when my taste comes back. After all, chocolate is almost completely olfactory in its flavour profile.

In my dreams I was hoping that my sense of smell and taste would just pop back instantly. Like one minute I couldn’t taste anything, then suddenly I’m back to normal. I’m now convinced it’s going to be a slower process. This is going to make it difficult to know when I should go back to writing candy reviews. For now however, the plan is to continue collecting things I want to review in the future. Maybe I’ll feel confident one day and I’ll get back to the reviews.

Day 10

I’ve decided that I’m going to blow my nose several times today, even if I don’t feel the urge. I feel like somewhere in my head there’s a backup, and maybe it will relieve the problem. This morning I had a bun that had no flavour, however I blew my nose and then brushed my teeth and I could taste the mint. I’m not sure if the bun is just not as flavourful, but I figure it can’t hurt to clear things out of the sinuses anyways.

As the day went on, things are starting to get better. I ate a Big Mac and I could taste the sauce. I actually ate two hamburgers and I finally felt like flavour was more important than texture. The sauce didn’t just make my food wet, it gave it flavour. I also ate a few chocolate treats and could tell the difference between the hazelnut nut flavoured chocolate and the regular milk chocolate.

I can safely say that my sense of flavour has returned, but it’s not at 100%. I can now enjoy food again, but I don’t feel comfortable writing reviews again. I feel like the flavour details are still missing. This makes me wonder about my tasting skills before. I know that I’ve been writing about food for many years, and I would always try and get as much information about flavour at every bite, but maybe the reason I enjoy doing this is because I have an ability to taste that is heightened.

I don’t feel like my entire ability to break down ingredients, or to find out why a candy is good or not is back yet. At this point it feels like chocolate and other flavours are just good to me. I’m not sure I could pick out better or worse chocolate, or tell the difference between Kit Kat bars manufactured in different countries. While I’m now much more optimistic, I’m not back to normal yet.

Day 11

Today I find that I’m drifting between tasting things and not. I find that when I first bite into something with a fairly strong flavour I taste it, but after a few bites my taste buds either fail, or I lose interest. I’m not sure if this is psychological or my olfactory is having some kind of endurance problems. I feel like it’s an improvement, but I’m not sure.

I really discovered during this entire ordeal how much I use smell all the time. Most notably I can’t really seem to keep flavours/smells long enough to analyze them in my brain. I just get a whiff and that’s it. I don’t know if other people break down flavours to their components like I do, but considering the reaction I’m getting the answer is no. People seem to think if I can basically taste things that’s good enough.

I’m also finding it odd when I walk around. I feel like I use smell often as a sense of direction and placing things around me. I not only smell food, but flowers, machinery and sometimes people (not really in the creepy way). I find that I can predict things that I might be approaching with smell, and right now it’s not really working. Again, I’m not sure if others do this, in fact I wasn’t even really aware that I did it until losing this sense. 

I’m still blowing my nose more regularly in hopes that it’s helping with clearing this up. While I hope this gets back to normal, I wonder if I’m going to be more cognisant of it in the future because of this.

Day 12

I'm still rejoicing when I taste something, and annoying Allison in the process. I really think that I rely on my sense of smell more than most people. I'm not at 100%, but I feel like it's coming back. The slight whiffs of smell are staying a bit longer, and the bites of food are pleasurable again. Each day it's getting better, and now it's only waiting for the flavours to come back enough that I feel confident that I can review candy again.

Epilogue

After day 12 I stopped writing in the journal, at about day 15 or 16 I felt confident enough that my sense of taste was back, I still waited a few weeks to write a review, and at that point I was able to pick out small details of flavour. I admit that I was afraid, but more than that I was sad and a little confused. Losing my sense of taste made me feel a lot less excited about food, and also made me less interested in eating. It actually became slightly dangerous at one point as I just didn't have an appetite and didn't eat as much as I should have (almost passed out 3 times). 

I also felt confused because I didn't realise how much I use my sense of smell to navigate me through my day to day. I became lost with only my sense of sight to guide me, and it turns out my sense of sight is not that reliable.

In hindsight I'm not sure if we had Covid, and just didn't test positive, but fortunately we took precautions anyways and didn't leave the house until after our initial symptoms were gone. For those of you out there feeling Covid in the long term, and those who fall on the bad side of "sense of taste returns to most", I feel for you.

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Beans, Beans The Musical Fruit, The More You Eat, The More You Drink Dr Pepper

These Dr Pepper beans I'm eating in this latest episode of Why Would You Eat That?!! make sense, but only if you really think about it. It seems like a secret recipe thing that people would doubt until they try it themselves.

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Make sure to check out all the other adventures I have on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

If you want even more candy fun, be sure to follow me on Patreon.

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Gummy Bear Tug-A-War

Gummy Bear Tug-of-War
by candycritic

 This is the most fun and tradgic candy t-shirt you'll ever see.

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Retro Fruit Stripes Gum

 It's interesting, the reason animals have stripes is to confuse predators, this commercial is full of stripes and also a little confusing.

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Are These Potato Chips?

One of the most challenging thing about creating a website dedicated to rating and reviewing snacks is trying to figure out what category certain snacks fall into. Pringles are a great example as they're not really potato chips as we know it, but they're not really crackers either. Having said that, they do share some of the same features of some of the crackers we see out in the market today. I constantly get the criticism that what I'm reviewing may or may not be "candy", or even snack food, but I like to think of it more along the lines that just about anything can be considered candy if you think about it.

Check out my latest (maybe) snack review.

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Not All Ice Creams Are Created Equally

 I believe that some ice cream flavours might not work in regular contexts. Maybe this might work if you dipped your celery in it instead of just a spoon.

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Is This Cokokrem Better Than Nutella?

 I'm here once again to find out if another chocolate spread is better than Nutella. The more I've been writing these comparisons, the more I've realised that there are often times when chocolate or hazelnut spreads aren't trying to be better, just similar to Nutella. This particular spread is not the case as it's pretty similar to Nutella in taste and texture, however there's a twist. The twist is that this comes in a tube, and it's a fun tube at that. Since chocolate/hazelnut spread is a food product focused on kids, or at least the young at heart, it makes sense to put it in a fun package. This is probably the most entertaining package that I've ever had chocolate spread, in fact it might be the only attempt to make the packaging fun. It's also the easiest package I've ever found to dispense chocolate spread as it needs no knives or spoons to get it out. It takes seconds to apply this to your bread, and requires no cleanup at all.

Flavour wise I'll admit, it's not as good as Nutella. It is most certainly going for the chocolate and hazelnut flavour, but the flavours are just a little more subtle than Nutella. It's not much better for those who find Nutella to be too sweet, as this is also just as sweet. The chocolate hazelnut flavour is pretty close, but just a little more bland than Nutella. Having said that, if I was going camping or on a picnic, I might choose this Cokokrem instead. The application is so much easier, and the flavour is close enough that I'd be happy to eat this instead and the package would make eating it on the go so much easier.

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Not All Snickers Are Created Equally

 Check out my list of the top 5 Snickers variants that I've ever reviewed.

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On My Way To Mars

When I first started this site, I never gave much thought about reviewing the same treat from a different part of the world. This new Mars bar review is a great example. I happened to have picked up my first regular Mars bar in Europe, I wrote the review and left it at that. Now however, I know that the same bar made in different parts of the world might actually be different. So today I've finally managed to get a Mars bar from Canada on candycritic.org.

Check out my latest Mars bar review from the great white north.

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Cinematic Food Is Cinematic

 I love seeing food in movies. It doesn't matter if it's realistic or completely fake, it always says something interesting.

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How Many Fake Kit Kats Can One Person Eat

 It appears that I've eaten so many fake Kit Kat bars that they might get their own category on candycritic.org.

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I'm Obsessed With Kit Kat Bars

Every so often I think that I should stop posting any more reviews about Kit Kat bars, or in the case of this week's reviews (more to come later) copycat Kit Kat bars. It's odd that a bar that has been my favourite candy bar for many years, is also a bar that produces so many varieties, as well as so many copycats. I've said to myself before, this is the last Kit Kat bar that I'll review, then something is presented to me and I can't stop myself. 

Check out the Kit Kat clone bar that I reviewed, and stay tuned for more Kit Kat clones all this week.

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A Movie About Spicy Snacks Is What The World Needs

 I love the idea of telling the stories of how snacks were invented, there's a lot of people out there who built you snacking memories and deserve all the credit in the world.

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McDonald’s Options Gone Wrong

 

As technology moves forward, the fast food experience is evolving. In the future I'm pretty sure we'll have restaurants operating with no human intervention, and using fancy algorithms they'll be able to predict what you're going to order. For now we still have people working the front counters and behind in the kitchens (I'm thankful for that), but we are starting to see some interesting automation. McDonalds is probably one of the places leading the way right now with their automatic order stations. While other fast food places do offer these order stations, I find that many McDonalds locations are starting to make it hard to order any other way. 

The thing that makes these kiosks interesting to me is the ability to custom order your meal, without having to face the disappointed gaze of a human being. The kiosks will not judge me if I order so many extra pickles that it seems like an unhealthy addiction. The thing I'm finding about these modifications available at the McDonald's kiosks is they seem to differ from country to country, and sometimes even restaurant to restaurant. Because of this, and because of my unhealthy addition to pickles, I always check what my options are every time I place my order. As it turns out, in Qatar at least, they have some really strange options to choose from.

On this particular day, Allison and I ordered our regular choices. I got a Big Mac.

Allison got the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. While there were a few options that seemed pretty standard, we also noticed a few that seemed a little bit odd, or at the very least new to us. I was super happy that extra pickles was an option.

We'll start with Allison's Quarter Pounder. While there are a few regular items she added on, like the extra pickles (although extra pickles are not available everywhere). Two of the addons were pretty interesting. In particular the mayonnaise and shredded lettuce. In fact both of these options were available for every burger (as you'll see later). The really fascinating thing here was the fact that Allison could not only add lettuce to her Quarter Pounder, but she could add a double serving of lettuce.

I'm not sure if this photo does it justice, but Allison actually got a small salad wedged into her Quarter Pounder. They did not skimp on the lettuce at all. It's a strange addition available, and one that they really delivered on, but I don't think it's the strangest.

I too went for the extra lettuce and extra pickles (I'm only human after all). I was not offered the choice of adding two extra helpings of lettuce, I assume that's because the Big Mac already comes with lettuce and two extra servings would just be silly. The very peculiar option is the one word found under the shredded lettuce on my order, "cut". When I ordered my burger, under the options it only said "cut", with no explanation at all. I simply couldn't pass up this opportunity so...

I too received a ridiculously large amount of lettuce. My container was pretty much filled to the top and overflowing. But as you can see, my burger was in fact cut in half, right down the middle. It's not that I find cutting your burger in half to be problematic. Maybe you have kids that are going to share one burger, or maybe (as is the case) you find it less messy to eat one half of a burger at a time (particularly if you have a ridiculous amount of lettuce and pickles). The part I found odd is that there was no explanation as to what "cut" meant on the options, and they never asked how I wanted it cut. While I didn't mind it being simply cut in half, I would have preferred a pizza style of cutting into four or maybe even six wedges.

When I picked up my order, I did hear some conversation (in a foreign language) and some giggles. I'm not certain that this order is very common, or if they knew we were being a little silly, so they added a ridiculous amount of lettuce. Lucky for them ridiculous is one of our favourite ways to have our burgers.

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Just A Carrot?

 

With all kinds of state and provincial fairs going on right now, weird food flavours comes to mind. This week's featured review falls in to the category of candies that I wish tasted really bad. I even go off on a bit of a rant about it. It's strange how I crave weird foods, yet at some state fairs right now they're making crazy concoctions that I really have no interest in trying at all. In some ways I feel like there's a difference between ice cream that tastes like a cheeseburger and gummies that taste like carrots. In some ways I feel like it's okay for gummies to have strange flavour, but maybe certain flavours should be left alone when it comes to ice cream. Fortunately I also feel like my mind can change, and I hope it does each and every day.

Check out my disappointment at these orange flavoured gummy carrots.

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Go Bananas!

 This is a fun little video that might teach you about some of the many varieties of bananas available in the world.

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I'm Cheesed, But in a Good Way

In my snack eating world, Combos are one of the most underrated snacks out there. I always enjoy eating them, but I don't get them that often.

Find out what else I'm snacking on by following me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

If you want some fun reading material, pick up Snack Facts, a comic all about the candy and snack history and facts.

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The Classics

While I'm sure not everyone in the world would agree, Wine Gums are a classic candy where I come from. I think just about every person my age or younger has not lived in a world where this candy has not existed. How much you like it may vary (I like them a lot), but it's no doubt that it's been around. It makes me think about younger an older generations than myself. For the older generations, what's a candy that's not a classic to you, but seems like a classic now. To the younger generations, what's a candy that's truly a classic, that's not a classic for me.

Read my latest review of a classic treat I should have reviewed a long time ago.

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Relax and Watch Them Make Jelly Beans

 This is probably the most chilled out video I've ever seen of candy being made. It's like watching Bob Ross painting.

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Travel With Fruit

I have a theory that's probably very unpopular. I believe that fruit is more often than not, bad for road trips and hiking. Don't get me wrong, I really like fruit, but it often gets a reputation for being the perfect road trip or travel snack, and frankly I disagree. I've decided to make a collection of common fruits, and give it a score based on how well I think it travels. I'll also give a short write up and justification about why I think it doesn't travel well.

Each fruit will get a score out of 10 1 being horrible for travel 10 being slightly inconvenient for travel. Keep in mind that this is an argument that all fruit is hard to travel either hiking or road trip, and no fruit is going to "win". The thing that I'm most excited about writing this is the fact that I get to eat all this fruit... for science.

Watermelon - 2 out of 10 - This is probably one of the worst fruits for traveling. If you want to keep watermelon in good shape, the best thing one can do is not cut it. I've kept watermelons in my fridge for over a month uncut and it still tastes great. However, after I cut into a watermelon it feels like you have at most a week before it starts to go. It's even more so if it's out of the fridge. 

Let's also not forget about the trash left behind with a watermelon. This includes the rind and all the seeds. The seeds also create a problem as picking them out can make a mess. Even if you're some kind of watermelon seed ninja, in general watermelon is a fruit that requires a shower after eating it. This is not only a horrible road trip fruit, it's like the worst road trip fruit with one exception (see below).

Orange 5 out of 10 - The peel is the first and most obvious problem with bringing an orange on a road trip. If you happen to be driving the car, you'll have to pull over and peel the orange before you can even think about eating it. Even if we assume that you've pulled over and thrown away the peel, even if you're willing to lose that much time to get a little extra vitamin C. Then you have the stickiness. 

Orange stickiness is no joke. There's two dose of sticky to contend with too. There's the obvious juice that you'll have to deal with when eating the orange, sure sometimes it's contained in the wedges, but that's pretty rare. Even if you have a lucky orange, you'll probably already be sticky because the peel releases a stealthy sticking liquid that I contend is worse than the juice on the inside. This ninja spray that comes off the peel is even a pain to wash off your hands, so you're probably looking at more wasted time scrubbing your hands at the next truck stop.

Banana - 6 out of 10 - Bananas are deceptive, because they may at first appear to be a great road trip or hiking snack. They're self contained in single serving packages and they taste great. But let's start off by looking at this self contained package. Banana peels have the ability to go brown and rot faster than any other fruit by-product. I feel like the banana peel starts to rot before you even finish the banana. If you're on a road trip your trash bag is going to smell like rotting banana very quickly. This is even worse if you're hiking and have no place to dispose of the peel. And don't go throwing that peel on the ground either, I've seen enough black and white comedy movies to know that's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The other thing about bananas is the fact that they go bad really quickly too. Even if you leave the peel on, I feel like bananas have the ability to go from just ripe to a sock full of mush in minutes. And god forbid you happen to bump it in any kind of way. A bruised banana will be a sack full of liquid in no time.

Apple - 6 out of 10 - I think we can agree that the core of the apple is the worst thing about eating any fruit. Even in the perfect environment when you have a cutting board and knife, the core is going to be the biggest challenge you'll have with an apple. You have to make one of two choices when eating an apple, either go in deep and try to clean the core off running the risk of eating a seed or those sharp seed pods, or agree to waste some apple and leave a little extra room. No matter which you choose, you'll still have a core to deal with, and similar to the banana peel, the core of an apple rots at breakneck speeds.

There's also the juice problem. Some apples are very juicy and you'll find beads of juice running down your fingers for sure. Other types of apples may not bleed juice, but all apples will likely give you a light misting of sticky juice. Maybe a baby wipe or a stop at a roadside rest stop might help you, but I feel like that spray of stickiness will likely find a way to stick around.

Grapes - 7 out of 10 - I'm going to be honest, I think grapes might be the best fruit to bring on a road trip or hiking. They're not perfect, but I think they're as good as it gets. The thing is, there are very particular stipulations to make these an acceptable road trip fruit. First of all you have to get rid of the stems. This means that you have to break them into a bunch of very round and easy to lose pieces. If you have a container than you might be okay (but then you're carrying around an empty container all day). 

If your grapes have seeds than consider the advise above null and void. I understand that seeds are the key to life when it comes to plants, but if there could be some way of outlawing seeds in grapes that are sold to the public as food I would not disagree. Seeds in grapes have been something that has made me sad many times.

Honorable Mentions - I just want to mention a few other of my favourite fruits that are also not great for travel. Dragon fruit is a terrifying looking fruit that actually might be one of the better road trip fruits. I've peeled a dragon fruit by hand and feel like you might be able to enjoy it while on a road trip. It'll likely be kind of messy, but not nearly as messy as the last fruit I want to mention, the mango.

Fresh mango is probably one of the most amazing fruits one can buy. If you live in a colder climate you might not understand what I'm talking about, but a quick visit to Pakistan or India will teach you how great this fruit can be. The problem is getting into it, particularly on the road or hiking trail. We once decided to pick up a mango while on a road trip in India. It was an amazing looking mango, super soft and ready to eat. The problem is we did not have a knife or cutting board to deal with it. We did some research and only came across warnings about how intensely messy it is to peel and eat a mango by hand. We ended up in the shower, in our underwear, covered in juice enjoying one of the tastiest fruits we'd ever eaten. In a car this would have been disastrous. Having said that, there are two fruits I can think of that are just no goes at all...

Pineapple and durian.

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A Pez Movie... Sort Of

 This looks like a really interesting story of a man that brought Pez into the world... possibly illegally.

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The Best Skittles?

 It's a rare occasion when the OG is not the best, but when it comes to Skittles they're not even the second or third best.

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