Maybe I should turn this into a tumblr where I just re-blog awesome snacking related photos that I find on the web. At least until I get the will to write something serious.

Anyway, no grand piece addressing donuts just yet.

Deal with it.

Maybe I'll do a cookies piece.

Recent snacking habits have consisted of some intense cereal eating. At night. An hour or two before bed.

Just finished off a box of Fruit Loops.



That's what a box of Fruit Loops looks like.

I love that feeling when you take the bag out of the box to check how much is left and it looks like a quarter left and you sit down and think to yourself "I'm gonna finish this off."

And you do.



Sounds like something I would say. Except I can't because I don't know anyone with a free lifetime supply of Fruit Loops.

Sad.

soon....

Still working on these Maltesers right now.
Damn, shits are good.




This is where it's at for me as far as breakfast is concerned nowadays.
The days of separating the oat pieces out of bowls of Lucky Charms are behind me and I need to eat a breakfast that can feel like it's somewhat nutritious. There is something about these that make me eat bowl after bowl after bowl.




Baked up some Pumpkin bread. I had two of these boxes of Pillsbury quick bread mixes left over from Thanksgiving of last year. Finally got around to baking one up on Sunday night. Totally forgot that I got these in my snack package from Cody and Anna:




Extra Puur. Because standard Puur isn't good enough. Yeah, I was thinking of putting these chocolate sprinkles on Pumpkin bread. Not the most standard or logical of decisions, but who cares. I'm sure it'll taste good.
The Snackmaster fun fact: These easy-to-prepare boxes of baked breads/cakes/brownies were once MUCH easier to make. Back in the 60's they got the powder mixture perfected so that all you had to do was add water, stir, pour and then bake. However, focus groups determined that people wanted to feel like they were more engaged in the preparation process, so they redesigned the prep routine for you to add eggs and oil. I guess people felt too depersonalized by such an easy process and wanted to still feel like they were adding their own touch to it. I'm lazy. I'd rather just add water. Meh.

Also grubbing:





These I HAVE found in the States quite often. They're really easy to find at those "higher end" bodegas in NYC. The European or Asian bodegas will often carry them, although not in this precise form. These are smaller bars consisting of 5 bite size partitioned pieces. This pack of 16, however, carries more weight and lasts longer than a single store bought bar.

Next time on The Snackmaster: "Donuts. Are you doing it right?"

THE RESURRECTION!!!!!

First of all, many thanks to nitecruzr, davidchin38 and Brett from Blogger for their assistance in getting The Snackmaster blog back and fully functional. As you may or may not know, the blog had been "deleted" or frozen for almost a year. I don't know why, doesn't matter, I'm back in business.

You should know that I didn't start this blog as a joke. As such, it should come as no surprise to hear that, although the blog was inactive, my snacking was not.

Bong bong.

I'm not going to go on an exhaustive year long recap, so I'll just throw out some quick notes on my recent favorites.




First of all, there is a Little Caesar's Pizza place down the street from me. This one has an insane deal where you can buy a large cheese or pepperoni pizza and an order of the "Crazy Combo" breadsticks (takeout only) for $7. (Sidenote: the "Crazy Combo" earned it's name because of the wacky and unpredictable combination of garlic bread and marinara sauce. Anyway...) This, as you probably know from experience, is a ridiculous price for a large pizza, not to mention the garlic bread. So I've been doing that every other week or so.




Cheddar Cheese and Cracker Combos.

Lord on high.

Not sure if I've covered these in the past. Either way, they deserve more attention.
They've been a favorite non-sweet snacking favorite of mine for a few years now. There is a mysterious exceptional quality to these, in both idea and form. Combos claim to use real cheese in the making of their snacks, but something that tastes this good simply cannot be made from non-artificial ingredients.

Another fun fact about Cheddar Cheese and Cracker Combos is that they are not only a favorite of mine, but also my cat's. My cat has been known to try to break into bags of my snacks in the middle of the night, causing an irritating and rude awakening from my sleep. When and why she does this is almost always completely random. I can leave the same bag of random snacks out two nights in a row and sometimes she will try to attack them and sometimes she won't. Cheddar Cheese and Cracker Combos is always the exception. Every time I leave them unattended she will make a move on them. She would even lust after them so badly that often she will try to sneak up on the bag AS I'M EATING THEM.
Clearly this annoys the hell out of me, but it also touches me. It is kind of special to know that we share such a passion for something so singular and unique. So much so that I had a grand plan for her 10th birthday. As a special treat, I was going to empty out the cheese from the center of an entire small bag of Combos and put it on a dish for her to eat. (The middle part is clearly what she was going for. On a few of her first successful ventures, I woke up the next morning to find several half-hollowed Combos scattered on the floor next to a torn bag.)
That WAS the plan. A month after I formulated this idea I found out that she is diabetic. While I'm still not sure technically how her diet interferes with her insulin shots, this clearly does not seem like a good idea. Sigh.




Europe.
Their chocolate.
My good friends Cody and Anna are such wonderful people who always think of me when they spend time in Europe. Today I received a package from The Netherlands packed full of a variety of Europe's finest. I have been eating the bag of Maltesers while writing this post. They're pretty damn good. I was fearful at first that they would taste like Whoppers. Structurally, they are almost identical to Whoppers except the center is a bit more airy and crisp. I have never been a fan of Whoppers. I always thought the "malt" flavoring was much too strong. Maltesers' malt flavoring is much more subdued and even. Of course the chocolate casing is a finer chocolate as well.




The Haribo Kindermix is pretty good. These are easily classified in the gummy bear genre of snacks, yet they probably are the biggest gummy bear snacks I have ever eaten. The consistency is slightly different as well, as are the fruit flavorings. All in all a solid gummy snack.
(****EDIT**** They also have a licorice flavored one in the mix, and frankly I'm not too sure how I feel about that ****EDIT****)



I honestly can't tell you what the official name brand of these are. Whatever it is involves some combination of the words Eti Puf Renkli. These are clearly the grandfather to the Hostess Sno Ball. They are about the size of a marshmallow and are consistent with the design of the Hostess Sno Ball: sprinkle covering, marshmallow inside with a sweet cracker flooring. I feel like the choice to include these in the package was probably the most exciting selection for Anna and Cody to make. While being a relative of the Sno Ball, they are truly an extravagance and I can safely say I have never seen anything like this in the states.

So that's it for today. Welcome back to The Snackmaster! Please feel free to comment or suggest anything that comes to mind!

Help The Snackmaster Out

The Snackmaster wants your help/feedback. While I'm certainly nowhere near blogged out, I feel like I may be missing out on covering some truly important snacks. I want you to utilize the comments section below to offer suggestions of snacks that you would like to see me blog about. I am committed to exploring new options so if that means that there are some awesome foreign treats or regional rarities, I am willing to do some research and, if it is possible, mail order them.

Have I missed anything really big? Anything truly important?
Are there any new brand extensions that seem promising?
Are there snacking techniques that you've heard about that deserve attention?
Do I need to broaden my horizons? What exactly does that look like?
What's REALLY good?
Please try and remember the goal of The Snackmaster: don't offer suggestions of fruits or other healthy foods, unless there is some exceptionally guilty-feeling response you get from eating it.

And please, do not refrain from commenting if you have come upon this post months from now. I will regularly check back.

Cadbury Heroes

Recently my brother, Liam, and his beautiful wife, Christine, went abroad. I made them promise to bring me back some foreign snacks. One of their stops was in England and Cadbury Heroes was the selection made.

Firstly, a name like this is a bold statement. To an avid comic book collector and true snack connoisseur, putting the word "Heroes" in the name of your product is a risky endeavor. So, you may ask, did Cadbury succeed in living up to the name Heroes? Sure, why not, I guess. Frankly they didn't fail. This product is truly exceptional, but no more so than dozens of other snacks I can think of. Cadbury Heroes is an assortment of some of Cadbury's finest chocolate products. Let me break it down item by item:

Cadbury Creme Egg "Twisted" - This is basically a miniature version of a Cadbury Creme Egg. Having previously discussed this before, the only thing I could add in regards to this incarnation is the fact that the creme to chocolate ratio is a bit more even. This is neither a plus nor a minus. I have learned to love the excess of creme that one must face in the standard egg, but am also pleased to enjoy a more reasonable balance.

Cadbury Dairy Milk - This is two small squares of Cadbury's signature milk chocolate. As a kid, whenever a family member visited a European country this is what was brought back. The idea being that the chocolate from over there was clearly superior to any in the states; I must substantiate, from my experience, that this is true.

Cadbury Dairy Milk with Caramel - Easy comparison : Caramello. However, using Cadbury's milk chocolate clearly places this a few tiers above the dry and less milky chocolate of Caramello. The caramel insides are about the same in flavor and texture.

Cadbury "Twirl" - Not a real big fan of this one. It's like layers of thin, dryish chocolate overlapping each other while leaving smalls pockets of air to form a crispy small chocolate bar. Nothing real special about it. I'm a fan of chocolate straight up or accompanied with some delicacy. No need to find a different way to present/form it for me to enjoy it.

Cadbury "Eclairs" - This reminds me of Sugar Daddys or Bit o Honey. Some weird caramelly-taffy type stuff. Not really big on these either. There is a small bit of chocolate in the center. It's kind of weird but whatever.

Cadbury Bournville - Dark chocolate. It is what it is. Not a real big fan of dark chocolate.

Cadbury "Fudge" - This truly deserves the quotation marks I've been putting on some of these. This is definitely not fudge. My best guess is that it some sort of confectionary/chocolate blend created to taste like fudge. It's still pretty good. It looks like a mini Twix bar, but with a soft, chewy consistency.


§§ §§ §§ §§

The Snackmaster Thank Yous:

Much thanks to Ashley for hooking me up with some of these:



and to Cody and Anna for these:





The nameless top one can only be imagined as a "Fruity Rainbow Fun Stick."

The Snackmaster : The Reboot

The Snackmaster has taken quite a break, but I believe I am ready to start blogging again. Many thanks to all the (quite unexpected, at times) people who came up to me randomly at parties or out and about and let me know that they enjoy the blog. There would be no reboot without those incidents.

I started the year off like many others: hung over.
My friend Soren was in NYC for the New Years and we hit up a very necessary, rehabilitating brunch at a Latino diner down the street from me in Bushwick. Nothing really special about the place, but it is a favorite of mine on weekend mornings when I am struggling. Stuff is cheap, but more importantly, classic american greasy diner breakfast.

I had: two scrambled eggs (ended up being not that greasy, and not runny: perfect), cheapo sausage links, home fries, and an extremely generic plain bagel grilled with cream cheese.

Soren had: French toast made from regular sized sliced bread (nothing special looking AT ALL) and bacon.

We both had: Really good, cold water in tall glass mugs, a small cup of coffee (super watery, bodega style coffee: my favorite) in a paper cup.


While I have been away, I have been busy:



My bedroom; my shrine.