Text 30123, 74 rader
Skriven 2015-08-22 15:08:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: picnic tastes 101
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Morning tastes:

I opened a prize from Australia, Cadbury Dairy Milk with
Vegemite (limited edition). First words that came out of my
mouth: ooh, that's nasty. Steve took a taste and agreed.
As the squares sat out on the counter, curious passersby
came by for a taste - the consensus was "interesting."
Steve later upgraded his estimation to that. The aching
sweetness of the chocolate is accentuated by the salt
almost meatiness of the Vegemite. There is a caramel layer
as well.

I also had a couple bags of macadamia Roca mishaps; these
turned out to have been doubly mishapped as I'd left them
in my suitcase, which then had been left out in less than
climate control. The candies had melted and reformed several
times, and by the time we opened them, well, they were
beyond recognition, visually, anyhow. I stuck them in the
freezer to reform, and they did so too enthusiastically,
so it took a combination of my pounding and Steve's knife
work to get them into bite-size pieces. They were, luckily,
not beyond recognition tastewise.

Spicy snack mix from Nancy, peas, sesame sticks, peanuts,
spicy peanuts. This was too spicy for Ruth but okay for the
rest of us.

Doritos Jacked 3D Jalapeno pepper jack flavor was pretty
worthless. The things are thick and rather hard, not
Doritolike except in their general triangularness. The taste
is negligible, the heat perhaps building up to a whimper at
the back of the throat after one has eaten a couple handfuls
of them, and the flavors of cheese and Jalapeno really hard
to notice.

Steve had harvested mussels from the lake. I warned everyone
not to expect much. He grilled them on charcoal, the self-
preserving bivalves exuding lots of water and putting out
the fire, whereupon we put them on the stove to finish. They
tasted like pond water, not a big surprise. Experiments with
salt, Sriracha, garlic powder, and similar strong flavors
were somewhat unsuccessful. Verdict was unanimous - survival
food and no more.

Evening tastes:

The Shipps had made chicken sauce piquante in the crockpot -
peppers, celery, onions, and garlic chopped into a tomato
gravy, then chicken parts browned and then stewed in that
until falling-apart tender. Pretty tasty despite being I
thought extremely mild. Ruth asked for the recipe for her
life group, commenting that she would have to tone it down
for that audience. The chicken was served with converted rice
and collard greens cooked with smoked turkey parts. I tried
turkey pot liquor; it was okay with a shake or ten of Tabasco
but didn't hold a candle to pork-based.

After dinner, green tea-flavored Kit Kats, a Japanese product
- instead of the wafers we know and love, these are thin
crumbly cookie layers with a green-tea-flavored white
chocolate. Somewhat good.

The Hafflys offered Baci, which may have been new to some -
hazelnuts atop hazelnut cream and enrobed in chocolate. The
candies are nice, but the distinguishing feature is the little
slips of paper with aphorisms that are folded into each piece.
Mine said "The most arid desert is a life without friends."

Hannaford hazelnut spread is a Nutella analog but without any
dubious ingredients. It's pretty good, I thought stickier and
less chocolaty than the real thing.
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