A good place to stock up Halloween candies

Free shipping at $25, these popular candies have a very good price! Close to the price offered in warehouse club.. Plus, you have something quite unique and scary enough to get some “wow”.

Nestle Halloween Assorted - Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, Crunch Chocolate, 56-Ounce Bags (Pack of 2)	Wonka Mix-ups, Halloween, 64-Ounce Bags (Pack of 2)	Wonka Mix-ups, Halloween, 64-Ounce Bags (Pack of 2)
Nestle Classic Scream Halloween, 32-Ounce Bags (Pack of 2)	Nestle Classic Scream Halloween, 32-Ounce Bags (Pack of 2)	Wonka Mix-ups Monster, Halloween, 18.7-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4)
Nestle Butterfinger, Halloween, Fun Size Bigger Bag, 24-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4)	Nestle Halloween Assorted, Fun Size Bigger Bag, 21-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4)	Wonka Nerds, Spooky Halloween, 18.7-Ounce Packages (Pack of 6)

Halloween is Coming…

The Jelly Belly Boo Box

Sounds like a good item for the office or home party. Here is the description of the item:

This charming little haunted house is decorated with smiling jack-o’-lanterns and a ghost on the outside, but the best part is what’s inside! Take the roof off and you’ll find some scary-sweet Jelly Belly treats! Here’s what you’ll get:

* One 9 oz. bag Deluxe Halloween Mix
* One 8.5 oz. bag Sour Gummi Pumpkins
* One Gummi Pet Rat (random flavor)
* One Gummi Pet Tarantula (random flavor)
* One 3.5. oz Beananza bag 20 Assorted Flavor jelly belly
* Two 1 oz. bags Candy Corn

Net weight 28 oz.

Remember the jelly flop? The interesting imperfect little Jelly Fellows. If you are patient enough, you can now get a much better bargain: Buy 2 bags and get 1 free. Use code: HALLOWEE at the check out!

Celebrate your birthday with a delicious cake - Zero Calorie!

How much I want to have that delicious cake! Oh no, that fat, sugar….
When I was searching for a good cake replacement for an upcoming birthday, I came across to these beautiful cakes, they are so beautiful and will definitely cheer up the party. The best yet, they come with zero calorie - naturally! You will stay just healthy, if not healthier.. But if you are allergic to the flower, it might be better for you to enjoy some real cake, even it is loaded with calories..
All the delicious cakes are provided by 1800flowers.com:

A slice of life?		Birthday flower cake		or a cupcake?

Morinaga Hi Chew - How Many Flavors?

Hi Chew candies are the soft, chewy candy that was first released by Japanese candy maker - Morinaga in Japan in 1975. It was re-released in its current shape (a stick of several individually-wrapped candies) in February 1986.

Hi-chew candies are individually wrapped. Each candy has an outer white coating (this is the same for every flavor) and a colored, flavored interior, with some exception. For example, the Strawberry Cheesecake and Yogurt flavors have an outer colored coating with a white, flavored inside. There are also other flavors, such as Banana Chocolate, Watermelon chocolate, they could have chocolate dots in the white coating layer.

The flavor of hi chew is similar to US’ Laffy Taffy or Starburs or salty taffy candy, with a texture leans toward chewing gum. It is more chewy, not sticky at all.

Morinaga offers flavors of Hi chew each year. There are three flavors available all year around, which are: Green apple, Grape, and Strawberry. Each year, it releases several other new flavors. Some are the variation of previous released flavors, some are brand new. The most interesting flavors of year 2009 are: Dragon fruit and Camu Camu berry.

Morinaga has factories both in Japan and Taiwan. The original Japanese version has all Japanese printed over the wrapper, and each candy is individually wrapped in foil. The size of Japanese version is also larger, which is about 2.0 Oz per pack. Some very special flavors, such as Chocolate watermelon mentioned above, are in 1.5 Oz.

The “Hi Chew” in English is printed on the wrappers of Hi chew made outside of Japan. The size is smaller, they can be ranged from 1.5 ~ 1.7 Oz.

Hi Chew Ume Plum (Made in Japan)

Hi Chew dragon Fruit (Made in Japan)

hi chew Ruby red Bloody Orange (Made in Japan)

Hi Chew American Cherry (Made in Japan)

Hi Chew Camu Camu Berry from Amazon Forest (Made in Japan)

Traditional Flavors:

Hi Chew Grape (Made in Japan)

Hi Chew Green Apple (Made in Japan)

Hi Chew Strawberry (Made in Japan)

Sold out in 2009: Banana, Mango, Lychee, Mix fruit & Strawberry Cheese Cake

Although we do like flavor and texture of Original Japanese Hi Chew Better, we do find some interesting hi chew flavors made in Taiwan. The flavors are similar but with lower cost. They are offered by Amazon.  Click on the picture to go to the product pages. Here are some interesting and cheaper version of Hi chew flavors made in Taiwan:

Morinaga Hi chew Honey Dew Melon(Made in Taiwan)

Morinaga Hi chew Orange (Made in Taiwan)

Morinaga Hi chew Mango Made in Taiwan

Morinaga Hi chew Green Apple Made in Taiwan

Morinaga Hi chew Green Apple Made in Taiwan

This is not exactly the hi chew, but another very popular Morinaga product. It is made in Taiwan, a cheaper alternative than those made in Japan.

Morinaga Caramel Made in Taiwan

A Super Wired Candy — Yuck!

In searching for something special for upcoming Halloween, I came across a really scary candy from Jelly Belly;, which is quite beyond my wildest imagination. Not sure how about you. Here it is:

Individually wrapped Gummi Rats from Jelly Belly. Four flavors. 100% of the daily value of vitamin C. Great party candy!
You’ll actually want these rodents all over your kitchen. They’re soft, chewy gummi treats exploding with flavor. Best of all, each rat contains 100% of the daily value of vitamin C. Perfect for Halloween décor or handing out at parties, each Pet Rat weighs 3 ounces and is approximately 9 inches long. Four flavors are included in one package: Cherry, Orange, Marshmallow and Licorice.

24 Pet Rats total.

If you look at the package more carefully, here is what the candies look like:

Just too much for me…. at least  a Manga style rat will be more acceptable.

Any more, if you dare to get it, here is a 5% off coupon …
Buy Halloween at JellyBelly.com: Spend $25+, get 10% off your order. Apply code BOO at checkout.

Belly Flop - A Delicious Candy with Imperfection

It is always a family fun event to open a box of Jelly Belly jelly beans: don’t look at the guide on the box, just try to guess what the flavor it could be. Some of them are quite obvious, but many required a good sense with a wild imagination.

The task to identify the flavor has even been more challenged, when the Jelly Bean turns out to be one of the Belly Flops. What are Belly Flops? Here is the description of the candy:

“Belly Flops from Jelly Belly. Irregular jelly beans in weird shapes, sizes and colors, but taste just as good at half the price!

Did you ever wonder what happens to the Jelly Belly jelly beans that are a little less perfect? Or the ones that somehow escaped the Jelly Belly logo stamper? Well, those are our beloved Belly Flops!”

Here is the picture of the candy:

Belly Flops Jelly Bean

Just as the description, the bag of Belly Flops I purchased contained all different shapes of Jelly beans. Some of them were just missing the signature print of “Jelly Belly” on them. Many were in all kind of shapes. Some of them were quite hilarious and you would wonder how it could be so?! Nevertheless, the flavors were just as good as any other perfect Jelly Bean can be. In fact, it was kind of even more fun to eat, since we would never know what the next popcorn flavored Jelly Bean would look like…

Pocky (Japan)

When Pocky first came out in Japan over 40 years ago, teenagers in particular went cuckoo for the new snack. Since then, it has been making new fans all over the world including the US, Canada, and Europe. Today Pocky is especially popular among anime enthusiasts, and I’ve even come across a fun quiz from one of those fun quiz sites that asks, “What flavor Pocky are you?”. With all of its quirkiness and creative flavors, Pocky has become one of our favorite snacks to get at our local Asian grocery store (which used to be down the street from us, until we moved).

Found alongside cookies and crackers, the Pocky sticks, as we like to call them, resemble petite, more delicate breadsticks with a softer, more sugary crunch. We think the Strawberry Pocky is pretty good, the Chocolate is of course delicious, and the Black Sesame is the most unique flavor we’ve tried thus far. But after reading up on all of the Pocky flavors available, I realize that we just skimmed the surface of earth-shattering taste sensations. Flavors include grape, yubari melon, marble royal milk tea, cream cheese, sweet potato, pumpkin and even pizza! I’m not sure that all (or any) of these flavors are available to the US market, at least I don’t think I’ve seen any of these beauties at our local stores.

Find more Pocky at PierMall.com.

This post was originally published on snackfeast blog. Reproduced with permission. Thank you Geri!

Global Goodies: Mochi (Japan) & Tteok (Korea)

I love mochi. This web page has a little description of it and you can also learn more about it here on wikipedia. Basically mochi is made out of glutinous rice - so you also come across mochi labeled glutinous rice balls - and can be stuffed with sweet red bean paste. By the way red bean paste ice cream is fabulous.

I’ve eaten mochi that is tinted a kind of olive green, and also the standard white color. There might even be some that are tinted a light shade of pink but perhaps I’m imagining that - [edit: nope, saw pics of baby pink and blue mochi]. In any case, the mochi that I have eaten is soft and very chewy, sticky to a point even. My favorite part of eating mochi is that bean paste center, which can either be silky smooth or a little chunky with bigger bits of red bean incorporated into the finer puree. Our trips to the Asian market are rarely complete without gazing at, and perhaps purchasing these exotic tasty treats.

In South Korea, we also have rice cakes which I love, love, love maybe even more than mochi, and they are called tteok [also spelled deok or dduk]. But I think that’s most likely due to national pride and strong nostalgic twinges of rememberance, hazy memories of eating sweet filling rice cakes at home, bought by my parents at probably the only Korean grocery store in the New Orleans area. I also have black and white photographs that help me “remember” eating tteok with my late grandparents in Seoul when my sister and I were just toddlers. I am sure that those were simple yet joyous experiences shared with my beloved grandparents and sis, and those most authentic cakes must have been amazing to eat.

You can read up on these fantastic creations here and here. There are so many varieties of tteok it can boggle your senses.

Until recently, I would sometimes mistakenly refer to tteok as mochi, because as a younger person, when we would eat mochi, I thought of them as tteok and vice versa! So these labels became interchangeable in my mind. But tteok and mochi are not very similar at all other than they are made from glutinous rice. Although some types of one like this

do resemble some kinds of the other, at least for me.
I can find tteok here at two grocery stores, each about 20 miles or so away. One of those cakes reminds me so much of the kind I used to eat, which was probably my all-time favorite, with my parents. These sweet cakes with an amber-colored rice are studded with pine nuts, sesame seeds, and bits of sweet red beans [I think], and the whole concoction is slicked with an oil of some sort [I think again] - perhaps sesame oil? I just know that I need to finish the cake by the next day or else it will spoil. One side note about pine nuts - as an adult shopping for myself, I came to realize just how expensive pine nuts are, but when I lived at home and my parents bought a container of them from time to time, I was in hog heaven. I would eat them just like peanuts - shoveling them in a handful at a time! Teehee, naughty child I was.

(Photo of the huge variety of tteok is from wikipedia)
(Photos of tteok at bottom are from Life in Korea)

Find high quality Mochi here at PierMall.com.

This post was originally published on snackfeast blog. Reproduced with permission. Thank you Geri!

Walky Walky Pocky Bits - Newest Member to Glico Pocky Family

Glico Walky Walky Strawberry Pocky

Pocky has been so popular these days. It is fun to eat and delicious in taste. To keep its fun nature, Glico has been keep pushing out new flavors, and …. new format. Now, I am introducing you to the newest members of the pocky family - walky walky pocky bits

There are three flavors available at the moment:Milk Chocolate, Strawberry and Dark Chocolate.

This new pockies are no longer the sticks, they are about 5 mm long stick pieces. The bit pieces are completely covered with cream, not those soft cream, but smooth, slightly hard cream cover. The flavors are mimicking Glico Pockys three most popular flavors: Milk Chocolate, Strawberry and Men’s pocky (i.e. dark chocolate).

Since the bits are small and covered with cream completely. It is great for those who love the cream part of the pocky. The bits have really more flavors this way. Very similar to those three classic flavors.

Glico - Walky Walky Milk Chocolate Pocky

What else special? It is the box. It is no longer the traditional retangle box, it is in a study cup now, with a easy flip open cover. The idea is that you are walking and have a snack attack, and just flip open the cover and shake some bits into your mouth and then snap close it.

Glico - Walky Walky Dark Chocolate Pocky

So you will have no messy on the hand and better yet, you will control how much you would eat each time (unless you accidentally shake whole cup into your mouth… that would be different story!)
All in all, the idea is pretty cool and the tasty are delicious. Have a try. it is quite unique. Just like other seasonal pocky, these walky walky pocky are also limited editions. So get them when they are around.

PierMall.com carries limited quantities of three different walky walky pocky. Once they are gone, they will be gone.

Meiji - Chelsea Hokkaido Milk Candy

There hasn’t been a post from me in so long, so I apologize for the delay.

Meiji Hokkaido Milk Candy

Anyways, on to our product for the day!

Once again, the attention to detail is obvious in Japanese products. Meiji’s Chelsea Hokkaido Milk Candy is packaged exquisitely in a silver and blue box decorated with blue flowers. Each piece of candy is individually wrapped in its own silver and blue foil; there are ten pieces per box.

The inside box (or tray?) is all black with white lettering and a four-leaf clover “wishing you happiness with Chelsea”. And if you slide the tray out a bit, you’ll see a label proclaiming “The taste of old Scotland”. Pretty random, if you ask me (what does Chelsea have to do with Scotland, anyways?) , so I did some research. Milk candy is really just the Asian version of that well-beloved classic treat – butterscotch. And apparently that little slogan is a reference to the bunch of theories food historians have referring to the origin of the name “butterscotch” and its connection with Scotland. (You know - one of the definitions of “scotch” meaning of Scottish origin, or having to do with Scotland. ) Pretty interesting - the things we learn writing blogs.

Meiji’s Chelsea Hokkaido Milk Candy is made with milk from – you guessed it – Hokkaido. Hokkaido is Japan’s second-largest island, and well known for its local dairy products. The milk coming from the milk cows raised by local farmers is particularly rich and creamy, which adds a nice taste to this milk candy.

Milk candies are particularly popular nowadays in many parts of Asia, including China and Japan. These specific ones are hard candies and not actually chewy – just rather sticky at first. They have a very nice, rich, milky sort of taste, and I actually prefer these to regular butterscotch. What’s more, these are actually pretty much guilt-free; the entire box combined has only 179 calories.