shut up and let me see your jazz hands

I have had these collecting for months and months (at least since late last year sometime) and just never felt like editing and uploading photos. So 3W4DW seeemed like a good time to get off my ass and do that.

It's almost all US stuff this time, except for some chips from the British import shop and one Japanese Kit Kat. Oh, and some cookies Julie sent me from New Zealand. I think the bulk of these are from the 99 Cent Store, which always seems to have some interesting snacks.

I also decided to upload the photos to flickr this time instead of my website, and created a set for them (and future reviews).

( Cut for lots of pics )

When I was editing the photos from our walk, I finally decided to edit all the candy photos I had sitting around, too. This is mainly stuff from Germany and Australia, with one lone Japanese one we got recently at Mitsuwa.

( Australian candy! )

( German candy! )

( Japanese candy! )

I had See's for the first time today in ages. Went to the post office and stopped in to buy a box to send to Bruce's parents while I was there. Of course I got a few pieces for myself, too: milk chocolate buttercream, dark chocolate pineapple truffle, dark chocolate almond toffee, dark chocolate scotchmallow, and a dark chocolate bordeaux. I've eaten them all already. ^_^;;

And hey, since I'm looking for ways of procrastinating on all sorts of stuff, how about I do that candy post I've been meaning to do for months? *looks through pictures* Damn, I have a shitload of stuff and it's all from April.

( Looooooong )

Speaking of candy, I mailed your package today, Julie. I also managed to stuff in a roll of the aforementioned pink grapefruit Mentos, as Bruce bought some more today. Shipping came to $38 and change. The girl at the post office was like, "Wow, expensive chips..." I'm amused that it comes out to exactly the same price as Bruce's CDs if you include shipping, yet the amounts of shipping and product are exactly the opposite.

Not really. Not a single one of these candies is Valentine's Day-specific, but it's a candy holiday, so I figured might as well do this candy post I've had building up, especially since I got another package from Julie today. :D

( Cookies )

( Candy )

Okay, so I've actually had all of this sitting around (or rather, the photos; most of the candy has long since been eaten) and haven't felt like writing it up.

( Candy reviews with pics )

I didn't take pictures, but since I'm talking about food, I'll tell you I got some delicious ginger cookies (not snaps and not gingerbread, just large, soft ginger cookies) from Star Market in Berkeley. They were pricey, but I'm wishing I'd bought two packs. So good! From the same place, I got two packs of homemade scones, apricot/cranberry and peach. Both types are really tasty. :)

And speaking of candy exchanges, helens78, I've started getting together some Japanese stuff for you, and kakeochi_umai, I picked up a few things here and there for you, too. Am not ready to send either out, but am working on it.

I actually have two candy exchanges to write about, because I was lazy before. The one I got today was from kakeochi_umai, chock full of more deliciousness from down under. But! A week ago I also got a package from cocori in Hawaii.

Sadly, I already have long since eaten one of the things Cori sent - the delicious toffee macadamia nut popcorn (think Fiddle Faddle with macadamia. Yum) - so no picture there.

However, I do have pics of the rest behind the cuts. First off is Hawaiian Sun Guava Jelly and Maui Jelly Factory Lilikoi Butter. I'm doing these together since I just took one pic of the two of them. It's not a very exciting pic either, since they're just jars, but whatever. :p

We actually have some Hawaiian Sun brand stuff here, most notably their juices (sodas? They come in cans like soda, so I'm not sure if it's juice or soda and have never looked closely). If I looked, they might have this jelly, too. However, it will probably take me years to eat all this at the rate I eat jam, so... ^_^;; Anyway! It's very tasty. I actually just had some for the first time this morning, on toast.

The lilikoi butter is a passion fruit-flavored butter sauce. I am assuming lilikoi means passion fruit in Hawaiian or some such. It's tasty, too. The other day I had some on popcorn.

( Hawaiian Sun Guava Jelly and Maui Jelly Factory Lilikoi Butter )

Then we have CookKwee's Maui Cookies in kona coffee & macadamia nut flavor. Mmm. These aren't really a strong coffee flavor, but it's definity noticeable. And definitely good. My biggest complaint would be that they're very, very crumbly cookies, which is annoying to eat.

( CookKwee's Maui Cookies )

Last, but not least is KTM Mochi Maru. These are little flavored mochi balls with jelly inside. For those unfamiliar with mochi, it is not ice cream! The mochi part of mochi ice cream is the rice dough on the outside. So these are that same sort of rice dough, but filled with jelly.

I was excited about them, but they weren't as good as I'd hoped. I really liked the strawberry, but found the other flavors disappointing. There's lychee, pineapple, mango, strawberry, and chocolate. All of these are flavors I occasionally like in other things (especially chocolate, obviously), but they didn't work with these.

( KTM Mochi Maru )

Now it's time for the stuff from Julie! Aside from the new and exciting stuff detailed below, she also sent another package of original Tim Tams for grate yay.

So while we're on the subject of Tim Tams, how about Tim Tam Black Forest Fantasy? It's a dark chocolate Tim Tam with some cherry jelly/syrup in the center. Oh God, these are so good. I asked for them specifically after seeing them on a NZ online grocery store and I am so glad I did. Nnnnngh.

( Tim Tam Black Forest Fantasy )

The other "omg why do we not have this here!?!?" winner of this batch was Griffin's Belgian Cremes. When I saw on the package that they were cinnamon cookies with raspberry cream filling, I went uh... O_o But! They are soooooooo good. The cinnamon isn't overwhelming (I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon, especially cinnamon candy, so this is good) and the raspberry filling is delicious.

( Griffin's Belgian Cremes )

There was one more package of cookies - Griffin's Gingernuts. These are, as you may have guessed, ginger snaps. I love ginger snaps. I love any sort of ginger cookies, in fact. These are very, very hard and very gingery. Mmmmmmm. And they'll go perfectly with the ginger gelato I still have in the freezer. :)

( Griffin's Gingernuts )

Next are the candy bars. Two of these I picked out myself from the aforementioned online store as ones that looked interesting. First is Cadbury Pinky. Marshmallow (pink, natch) and caramel covered in milk chocolate. Mmm, this is good. Sadly all the candy bars were very smushed and melty. This is the downside of doing candy exchanges in the summer. Of course we're having a mini heat wave this week...

( Cadbury Pinky )

Cabury Moro is the other one I chose. It's caramel and nougat covered in milk chocolate. I thought it might be like a Milky Way, but it's actually got chocolate nougat a la 3 Musketeers. So basically 3 Musketeers with caramel. What's not to like?

( Cabury Moro )

And finally we have Cadbury Dream Strawberry Delight. I am not a huge fan of white chocolate, but this was good. It was the most smushed and thus looks nothing like the picture, but rather looks like a big smushed white and pink thing. Still tastes good, though! The strawberry filling is kind of syruppy.

( Cadbury Dream Strawberry Delight )

Considering I am trying to be healthier about my diet and eat maybe a cookie or two a day, if that, this stuff will last me a while. As you can see in the photo, I still have most of the coffee/macadamia cookies left, and I also have about 2/3 of the coconut biscuits from a while ago, and some of the Marshmallow Puffs as well.

I seem to remember having other stuff to talk about, but I think I'll make another post later.

Got a big package today that turned out to be the results of my candy exchange with kakeochi_umai. So far umai (delicious) has definitely been the key word here.

The other key word was melted. I had to put all of this immediately in the fridge because it was all soft and gooey. Stupid heat.

Anyway, after letting it solidify for a while, I decided to have a go...

( Reviews with pictures! )

Anyway, now I've just about made myself sick trying all this other stuff on top of eating the box of Jaffas. :p

Thanks for sending it all! I am already gathering stuff for a second shipment. :D