avatar_mandru

Favorite Snacks?

Started by mandru, July 07, 2014, 10:14:29 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

mandru

There's lots of threads here in the Cuisine section and many of them touch on one food type or another that I'd love to snack on (PZ's jerky or nex's biltong among other great items posted here on OWG come instantly to mind) but I couldn't find a thread solely dedicated to favorite snack foods just for the sheer pleasure of snacking.

Whether for movies , mindless nibbling or just having something handy for a quick satisfying nosh what are some of your favorite snack foods?


A new discovery for us.  For the last couple weeks we've had access through a local market to Tuscan melons which are a variety of cantaloupe.  Normally I check for ripeness of a cantaloupe by smelling the stem end of the melon to see if the aroma in it has bloomed and then I'll shake the snot out of it to see if I can hear the seed bearing membrane sloshing around inside of it.  An under ripe melon won't slosh because the inside is still too firm and the meat of the melon will also still be too green (and crunchy) with under developed flavor for my taste.

The Tuscans are a bit of a different critter.  There are regularly spaced green veins that extend down the length of the melon from the stem end that as the melon ripens the green fades to a beige cream color spreading from the blossom end of the melon as the green pales and retreats towards the stem end.  Having been told by the grocer this was the key thing to watch for in a ripened Tuscan I tried shaking the first one we bought firmly as it reached that visual cue and was concerned that I could not hear any "slop, slop, slop" from inside.

The flesh of the melon turned out to be perfect with a surprising pleasant hint of spices.  It's hard to explain the exact flavor but my impression was of faint cinnamon and clove as found in a sweet wine mulled with a hot iron.  Mrs. mandru didn't pick it up at first but once I'd pointed it out to her it became one of her favorite aspects of the melons uniqueness.  This spice note may be related to the fact that cantaloupes are part of the Muskmelon family and this variety may be more closely related to the original musky wild melons that they were names after.

Mrs. mandru has just about overtaxed my digestive system's ability to process fresh fruit in the last two weeks.  She keeps running back to the market to grab another melon as each one purchased ripens and is quickly consumed.  ???


It's not often I get into chips but recently Mrs. mandru brought home from a grocery shopping trip an old craving of mine in the form of a chip made by Frito-Lay called Sabritones.  They are chile and lime flavored bite sized crispy squares that to all appearances look deep fried.  They hit the tongue and teeth with the exact feel of a deep fried pork rind.  My mouth says "Yup.  A little bubbly melting as it settles on the tongue and that crunch, oh that crunch!"

It turns out that they are a puffed wheat product and as far as I can make out from the ingredient listing has no animal based components what so ever but I'm not going to tell my mouth that.  ;)

The chile & lime seasoning is tasty without being too hot but several hand fulls in you'll realize that they have an accumulative heat effect that provides a nice substantial glow that does not overpower the flavor of each new chip as you chomp it down.

Be careful with these they can be addictive and go great as a chip substantial enough to scoop up huge gobs of fresh homemade guacamole.  ^-^
- mandru
Gramma said "Never turn your back 'till you've cut their heads off"

Art Blade

nice  :)

I'm not too much into snacks. Once in a big while I get some bags of English Walkers potato crisps, preferably salt and vinegar flavoured.  :)
[titlebar]Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.[/titlebar]What doesn't kill us, makes us weirder.

fragger

I don't snack a great deal either, but I like just about all kinds of nuts (except walnuts - for some reason I can't stand them). My favourite nut is the simple, humble cashew. I could eat cashews by the bagful (I prefer the unsalted kind), with pecans running a close second. I read somewhere once that there is a particular type of pecan (can't remember which type, I think they come from Mexico/Central America) which is about the only single food source on Earth that you can literally live on - they provide every single nutrient your body needs. It would make for a bit of a boring diet though :-D

I really enjoy a good beef jerky but the good stuff is very hard to come by. GOOD jerky, that is - there's a great deal of mass-produced rubbish around and most of it tastes like spiced-up shoe leather. Blech. Maybe if I ask PZ really nicely he can FedEx me some next time he makes a batch :-() I'll even spring for the postage!

I do like to snack on potato chips from time to time, and my favourites come from a company called called Red Rock Deli. Their chips are delicious, and their bags are actually almost full (as opposed to many other brands whose bags contain about a 50/50 mix of chips and air). Dangerously more-ish, their flavours are: Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream, Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar; Lime & Black Pepper; Honey Soy Chicken; Sour Cream & Caramelized Onion; Tasmanian Mountain Pepper & Braised Beef; and Hunter Valley Roast Chicken, Lemon & Tyme. They also do a range of corn chips: Jalapeno Pepper & Mature Cheddar; Sea Salt; Trio of Cheeses; and Sour Cream & Caramelized Garlic. Then there are their dips: Moroccan Sweet Potato, Sesame and Pistachios; Thai Curry, Pumpkin & Cashews; Basil Pesto & Cashews; Balsamic Beetroot, Feta & Cashews (yep, it's that beetroot thing again ;)); Thai Chilli, Lemongrass, Coriander & Cashews; and Roasted Red Capsicum, Cashews & Basil.

Since discovering these I've never looked at chips and dips in quite the same way 8)

mandru

My principal defense against pointless snacking or munching on something because I'm bored ( I have a lot of time on my hands) is I just don't put my teeth in.  ;)    With no teeth I usually don't even think about snacks.  :laugh:

The Red Rock Deli product lineup sounds like a treasure trove of snack-ability.  I also like salt and malt vinegar flavored chips.

I am a big fan of roasted salted nuts.  There's a chemical in walnuts that can cause cankers of the gums and lining of the mouth which I think is probably the main reason I too avoid them.

But I found a local ice creamery that uses a flush mounted counter top slab of marble chilled via a deep cooling unit (the process is called cold stone) that allows them (using trowel like spatulas) to hand mix their rotating varieties of fresh made ice cream with a large selection of different add-ins like M&Ms, crushed Oreos, toffee bits and different chopped nuts.  By keeping the ice cream very cold through the add-in mixing process the salting on the nuts sticks to the nuts and doesn't dissolve off into the ice cream.  For a while I really craved their high quality French vanilla-bean with dry roasted and salted walnuts which was odd because the really did have a lot of other really good flavors that I would have typically preferred straight up with no add-ins.  There was something indescribable about a seemingly otherwise plain Jane French vanilla-bean ice cream that denatured the oils or whatever it is in walnuts that would cause me to steer clear of them.  I also liked that they stayed salty in the mixing.

Then on a visit to that shop several years ago when I placed my standard order I was informed that because of sensitivity to and or the various allergies some people have for tree nuts through potential cross contamination of mixing add-ins on the cold stone they would no longer be carrying the walnuts.  ???

I turned to Mrs. mandru and told her to go ahead and place her order while I tried to pick something else from the brightly colored tubs in the glass topped scooping cabinets but it was like my vision switched straight over to grayscale and everything looked about as attractive as wax.  Once Mrs. mandru's order was prepared and handed to her in a waffle cone the server turned back to me and asked "Have you decided?"

"Yeah, I've decided that there is no reason for me to ever come back here.  How much do I owe you?"

"There's got to be something you'd like."

I don't know why it happened right then.  Maybe it's my natural aversion for having a salesman infer that I don't know what I want but admittedly I hit one of those "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." moments.

Fortunately Mrs mandru jumped in with "You don't understand, I've seen this before.  You had something he couldn't find anywhere else.  Now you don't.  The way he processes that kind of disappointment is by deleting your business from his mental list of options for "places to go".  It's not a good idea to poke at him right now or attempt to redirect his preferences.  Just tell us how much we owe."

Maybe twice a year Mrs. mandru will drop by that ice creamery (if she's nearby and it's convenient) either with friends or while she's out and about running errands and shopping but I've never gone back.

And needless to say I've not eaten many walnuts since then.  :-D
- mandru
Gramma said "Never turn your back 'till you've cut their heads off"

Art Blade

[titlebar]Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.[/titlebar]What doesn't kill us, makes us weirder.

PZ

I like the packages of nori available at Costco - an entire package is only 110 calories or something close to that.  I also love the baked salt and pepper kettle chips that Costco formerly offered (but no more).

At various times, pickled products are a favorite - green beans, okra, and asparagus.  One thing I've tried recently is purchasing bags of frozen okra and grilling the pods - I love the slimy texture.  I also dropped a few into an old pickle jar still full of pickle juice and they were excellent.

I still love the smoked cheese, smoked salmon, and jerky I like to make.  I guess I'll need to send some to a few of you folks next time!

Binnatics

I am also very fond of all types of nuts. Walnuts are amongst my favourites. They nice bitterness is a joy for the taste, and they combine perfectly well with Rucola salad. Something else that always fits nicely on my salon table is olives. I like them in all their appearances, from dark green to deep black. I like the bitter and wrinkled ones, the tiny salty Olives de Nice, the Greek Kalamata, and the various spiced-up green ones that come from Maroc.

I also like the Catalan Pan con Tomate. And excellent snack that I first tasted in Barcelona and is in fact nothing more than a simple baguette, spiced up with tomato seed (the juicy content of the tomato) and strong olive oil. It's not easy to make it yourself, because either the baguette will get too fried or too juicy. But if you hit it right, it's a sensation.

I don't eat much salty snacks like most people do. I prefer my nuts without salt, and I prefer the English blended chips/crisps above the very salty Dutch ones. I like the black pepper and sea salt flavour as well :-X :)

Funny way of testing melons Mandru, I never tried shaking them to see if the seeds slosh ^-^ I know when a melon hits its ripeness when suddenly the whole room where you keep them starts smelling. It's so obvious, really cool :)
"Responsibility is not a matter of giving or taking, responsibility is something you share" -Binnatics

mandru

I largely use the shake test for cantaloupes at the market simply because when there's a big stack of them it's hard to know which one of them is smelling good.  ;)

Green olives are also a craving of mine.  At a deli we visit on special occasions we'll order a side of large green olives stuffed with either garlic clove (sometimes if available we get the garlic and jalapeno stuffed) or blue cheese stuffed is also a favorite to munch on while our sandwiches are being prepared.  Yum!
- mandru
Gramma said "Never turn your back 'till you've cut their heads off"

Art Blade

alright, green olives (not stuffed) are great, I can eat a lot of 'em  ^-^
[titlebar]Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.[/titlebar]What doesn't kill us, makes us weirder.

fragger

I too love olives. My faves are the black ones, but I love 'em all.

This discussion reminded me of something I used to like snacking on when I lived with my family in Fiji way back in 1972. The vast majority of the population back then was, and still is, Indian. Wandering around the streets of the capital, Suva, one would often come across Indian sidewalk vendors selling all kinds of exotic snacks, and chief among them were little plastic bags full of hard, dried, curried peas. Peas may sound like an odd choice of food for snacking purposes, but they were surprisingly habit-forming. Even today there are times when I wish I had a bag of them.

They would also sell these peculiar, roughly one-inch cubes of candy-like stuff that tasted vaguely like marzipan but had a texture that was somewhere between soft nougat and marshmallow, and very slightly crumbly. I don't know what it was composed of (I was probably better off not knowing) and it was usually rendered in some unnatural-looking colour like Barbie pink, DayGlo vermillion or scarlet and was dusted with fine, sweet powder, à la Turkish Delight. Boy it was nice stuff and I used to pig out on it shamelessly. I can taste it again now just writing about it :-()

mandru

I've had dried peas (with and without the pods) but never as strongly flavored as I suspect curried would be.  For me it sounds much more intriguing than odd.  :-X

If you ever get a chance to take a holiday back to Fiji and have the finances to swing it, the chance to rediscover those favorite long lost snacks would make for a solid check in the positive column of a 'Yes or No' reasons list for taking the trip.  :-D

I seem to recall that it was during that long ago family trip that you discovered the Asian pear apples too.
- mandru
Gramma said "Never turn your back 'till you've cut their heads off"

fragger

You do indeed recall correctly, mandru :) I think I may have also mentioned the black Rotuman oranges that we used to get in Fiji. A perfectly normal, and delicious, orange on the inside, but resembling a cricket ball covered in dried grey mud on the outside.

Which brings me to fruit. I love to snack on fruit, and my favourites are stone fruits - peaches, plums, apricots, etc. I love them, even though they will later make me fart across the whole gamut of human hearing, from basso profundo rumbles right through to high tweets that only dogs can hear :-[ These mini-detonations never seem to smell however - they just help to loosen the window seals a little :-()

Art Blade

you can still try a cover-up by telling people that your hobby is to repair broken brass instruments. :-()
[titlebar]Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.[/titlebar]What doesn't kill us, makes us weirder.

Binnatics

Barking dogs don't bite. That's a golden rule when it comes to farting. Usually, I'm the silent type. That's why I keep moving after eating plums and such 8-X :-D
"Responsibility is not a matter of giving or taking, responsibility is something you share" -Binnatics

Art Blade

That's when Retiredgord was dubbed "SBD" -- Silent But Deadly. :-D
[titlebar]Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.[/titlebar]What doesn't kill us, makes us weirder.

PZ


durian

He who understands others is intelligent
He who understands himself is wise (Tao Te Ching)

mandru

 :-()

I've also heard of a product called the better marriage blanket purported to have the same deodorizing effect.
- mandru
Gramma said "Never turn your back 'till you've cut their heads off"

PZ

 :laugh: :-X

Look how this topic has morphed from favorite snacks into Gord's favorite past time !

Art Blade

it's not his favourite pastime but an ingenious way of combining movement with digestion, making use of a massively gas-inducing diet resulting in a sometimes rather resounding propellant for his wheelchair. So imagine him zipping around in that thing while sounding like a V8 or an electric car depending on the output..  :-()
[titlebar]Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.[/titlebar]What doesn't kill us, makes us weirder.

durian

From now on, I have to be very, very cautious before entering an elevator, if I see an old guy sitting in a wheelchair, I'll definitely won't enter  :-()

He who understands others is intelligent
He who understands himself is wise (Tao Te Ching)

Art Blade

if it sounds as if you entered a Formula One pit, you might be right  :-()

I don't know why to hold back and perform that silent type. Particularly in the office. People don't hear the warning and might approach you unexpectedly and then suspect you of whatever bad things that spring to mind when inhaling contaminated air that smells as if something died nearby. I much rather have people whip their heads around and shout, "did you just fucking break that chair?!"
[titlebar]Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.[/titlebar]What doesn't kill us, makes us weirder.

Binnatics

 :laugh: Sure thing.

But I just don't have vocal cords in my a$$ ;)
"Responsibility is not a matter of giving or taking, responsibility is something you share" -Binnatics

PZ


fragger

 :laugh:

Back on track for a minute ( ! - Pee-eww, someone open a window! Who did that...?)

A simple snack I like is crackers and cheese - however, not just any crackers and cheese :-() The crackers I like most for this are ones called Saladas. These are lightly salted and are about four inches square, but have perforated lines crisscrossing their middles so that they can be cleanly snapped into two 2" x 4" pieces, or four 2" x 2" pieces. I like to break them down into the latter size, and for the cheese I really enjoy the products from a company called Lemnos Foods. They have what they call their "export range" and this includes a variety of savoury cheeses, which are sweet and tangy and have fruit and/or nuts all through them. I have been known to pig out severely on these from time to time :-[

🡱 🡳