ne(one)piphany

This will be about snacking.

But it's not like I've been stuffing my face! I've just had these things on the backlog for awhile and now that I'm sick -- well, it's as good a time for miscellany as any...

This is Tim's Cascade's latest limited edition variety, which is the Best Thing Ever. Nice amount of sinus-clearing wasabi bite per chip, plus the palpable crunch for which Tim's is known makes for a decidedly different snack! Wish the timer wasn't ticking -- but you can still get them right now at most any northwest grocery. Time to stock up?

Canada seems to be the place to get the best flavors of potato chips these days. When I was in middle school back in the midwest, I remember that you could get interesting varieties of Snyder's of Hanover chips in vending machines, including salt & vinegar (which was still exotic to me at the time), ketchup, dill pickle, and pizza flavors. Alas, the company seems to have gone pretzel-only and I haven't seen anything like them since on this side of the border. In Canada, though, you can get all that and more! And also these:

Ketchup Pringles! SO genius!

If you haven't tried ketchup-flavored potato chips, you might be recoiling in horror right now. I did too, once. But they're actually wickedly addictive once you get into them (haven't tried dill pickle so far but I can imagine a similar effect).

On the candy front, Canadians love their KitKats. White chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel, KitKats of various thicknesses and lengths -- they're all available up there. Strawberry KitKats, something like a candy bar made of strawberry and milk chocolate Pocky sticks mashed into a rectangular mold, may just be the best of them all. Yummy!

[Emily tells me there are Green Tea KitKats in Japan. Heavens!]

There are Vanilla Smarties now too!

Seems like I've only been to Vancouver once in the past year, which should be a crime. Looks like I'll either have to change that trend or find a friendly supplier to help me out -- but for my sake, only at a trickle! Can't have too much of this kind of good thing, after all.

Hope that was somewhat interesting for you. Off to try and get well!

Found at Candyland in Richmond:

Emily, of course, was first to let me know they existed, but I never expected to see them in the flesh. Should have known that Canada would be just the place to go -- another example of how snack-deprived we are in the States!

My flickr friend hexion said this, in comments:

Children in Japan do not like green tea taste. However, the adult like green tea taste. I think that it is a thing like the bitter chocolate.
 
By the way, There is a custom of presenting "Kit kat" to the examinee in Japan. Because the pronunciation of "Kit kat" is near Japanese "Kitto katsu" that means "Win without fail".

Kitto katsu!

They're good; maybe a little too sweet, but not overwhelmingly so -- about what you'd expect from a good green tea ice cream, but swirled with crispy KitKatty goodness. Since they're imported from Japan, a little pricey, and then there's that commute...

I know it seems tea's been on my mind a lot lately, and you'd be right! Shaula over at tsuredzuregusa 徒然草 has a lovely entry on tea, for whose inspiration I can take some little, indirect credit (via Watermark & my Adagio Teas entry), which spurred a small tea shopping expedition: genmaicha is an old friend (this from Republic of Tea), wonderful and mellow, while lapsang souchong is a new acquaintance, smoky and nostalgic. I know a few of you vehemently dislike it -- I wonder if it comes from not having often experienced warm winter fires on frozen nights, crackling & aromatic of charcoal, memories of which come flooding back to me as I sip. How could you not love?

And from janjan, word of her own Adagio reward, which sounds amazing -- but I need to watch myself. Finish the tea you've got first, yukino.

More snackblogging, because you know you love it. Seriously.

Found at Candyland in Richmond, which once upon a time had the goodness that is green tea KitKats:

These seem to be one in a series of flavors designed by famous confectioners -- at least that's what little I can guess from the packaging. This one's by Takagi Yasumasa of Le Patissier Takagi, a man I saw on television once, creating amazing-looking desserts en route to getting schooled by Iron Chef Kobe in "Battle Strawberry."

Inside the box, fifteen or so individually-wrapped packages, each holding a miniature pink bar. The coating is a white chocolate base imbued with wine, a muscat-like flavor that's subtler but juicier than my previous favorite, strawberry. We've gone through half the box already and I wish I'd bought more than the one. *sigh*

They also had white chocolate KitKats, but no sign of green tea or other flavors, a shame since I'd wanted to stock up.

And since I'm all about the green tea, I picked up these McVitie's miniature green tea digestive biscuits:

They're good, but very leafy in taste -- would go beautifully with a hot cup of genmaicha or barley tea, I think, but not so much for dry snacking.

Also, I meant to mention that in Chicago we found those Lay's dill pickle potato chips which I'd previously only seen in Canada. No word on nationwide availability, but that's hope, keep trying!

Oh,

and

Happy new year!