I would argue that I am a person of refined tastes. I am able to appreciate the perfectly simple pleasure of an unadorned potato chip without extra flavor powders sullying its spudly purity. I scorn fancy ice cream flavors with seventeen kinds of chunks and swirls mixed in. I of course feel this shows my culinary sophistication, rather than being evidence that I have never outgrown the three year old’s dread of having different foods touch on my plate.

One combination that always works for me, though, is banana and chocolate, whether it’s that Starbuck’s Vivanno thingy that they aren’t allowed to call smoothies, or else my own frozen banana concoction – which has taught me the virtues of the frozen banana. So I was attracted to these, although the name Banana Babies seemed a bit gruesome. And they didn’t let me down.
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If you’re from Australia or have an Australian friend, you’ve probably heard of Tim Tams. They’re billed as “Australia’s favorite chocolate biscuit” and consist of layers of chocolate malted biscuit, chocolate cream filling, and a chocolate coating. Sounds good, right? Up to now the only way for those of us in the United States to get some was to either have some sent over from an Australian friend or pay exorbitant prices at specialty food stores. Well, no more!

Starting this month, Pepperidge Farm is offering both the chocolate creme and caramel varieties at Target stores here in the US. But, you’ll have to act fast - they’re only supposed to be available through March. If you’ve tried them, let us know; if they’re popular enough, maybe this will become a permanent fixture on our snacking scene!

• Tim Tams Website
• Original Tim Tam Article

While visiting my Mom the other day, we discovered that we had the house to ourselves, so we brought out the Breyers ice cream. My Mom is a big fan of Breyers, so she always has some various flavor packed away in her freezer. This time it was Breyers Triple Chocolate All Natural Ice Cream.

I’m all for chocolate, but sometimes things can be a little too chocolaty, so I was hesitant to try it, figuring all three flavors combined would give my taste buds spasms. The three flavors in this ice cream carton were: white chocolate, dark chocolate and milk chocolate. I decided to try all of them separately before combining them.

I tried the white chocolate first: I noticed the taste of chocolate right away, but my Mom didn’t think so and said it tasted like plain vanilla. She is so wrong.
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Milkshakes have always been an important part of the complete snacker’s repertoire, and with the success of this year’s There Will Be Blood and the popularity of the quirky and brilliantly creepy “milkshake” scene (is there any doubt that Daniel Day-Lewis is a genius?), there seems to be a slight surge in popularity for the frosty and deeply satisfying drink.

You can also find t-shirts at the “Ultimate T-Shirt Search Engine” Teenormous featuring the milkshake-drinking catchphrase.

With cooler weather upon us, or at least gaining on us, I took one last look at this summertime beverage and compared a few of the choices on the market. Here are the astounding results.
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I had to be more or less bullied into trying these. I was suspicious of them for a number of reasons, starting with the name. I’m not sure if all of what’s on this tiny bag would even fit in the post title: Quaker Mini-Delights 90 Calorie Packs Chocolately Mint Bite Sized Crispy Multigrain Cakes.

That kind of made me want to go have a snack with a one-word title like “banana.” I’m also very suspicious of the word “chocolatey,” which is a way to circumvent what labeling regulations require if you just say “chocolate.” Many sins, I feared, could be concealed by that little extra letter “y.”

The picture on the packet is also suspicious. There’s a picture of two of the actual item, accompanied by two entirely chocolate-covered cookies which are clearly not also supplied in the package. (Trust me, I checked.) You know those pictures on packages that say ‘serving suggestion’ in small letters? I peered at the package looking for those words, assuming that this misleading picture was meant to suggest that these would be very tasty indeed as long as you ate them at the same time that you ate two chocolate covered actual cookies.

Furthermore, very few delicious things are only 90 calories. And, finally, ‘multigrain’ all you want, this is basically a rice cake, and we all know that rice cakes are what is made out of those styrofoam packing peanuts when you mail them in for recycling.

So when a friend handed me a packet and said “Oh, you have to try these,” I said, “No thanks.” She said they were really great, but I also knew that she had just gone on a diet. I suspected that her current definition of “delicious” might be “anything that doesn’t taste like a celery stick.”
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