Snack Review: Ghana Cookie

Japanese cooking is my favorite cuisine in the world. And no one loves chocolate more than I do. Put the two together, and you’d think, how can it go wrong?

It is true that chocolate is not a native Japanese thing, but it’s not native to Belgium or any of those other places that are famous for it, either. And the Japanese have done a fantastic job of assimilating Western desserts – there is nothing I love more than a good green tea ice cream.

But when I buy a Japanese chocolate snack, it’s nearly always a disappointment. Unfortunately, this was no exception.

Read more

Snack Review: Breyers Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

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.

Read more

Snack Review: Kozy Shack Frozen Chocolate Truffle Rolls

Kozy Shack is one of the most mysterious snack brand names around. How could anyone have thought this was a good idea? A shack is not the kind of place that sounds appealing to go to for great snack food. And the spelling does nothing to assure me that they’ll get anything else right, either.

The history on their web site does nothing to clear it up: the business started as a New York deli called Cozy Shack. I’m not sure how that succeeded either – you’ve got plenty of choices of delis in New York, and I think I would cross the street to another place rather than buy my pastrami sandwich at a Cozy Shack.

But, you know, it’s actually kind of nice that not every brand name around is the product of a room full of consultants and MBAs poring over statistics from focus groups. And, what’s more, they make good pudding.

Still, when I saw Kozy Shack Tiramisu in the freezer case, I had to laugh. It was so incongruous that it was actually intriguing.

I almost bought the tiramisu, but then I saw the chocolate truffle rolls next to them. The truffle rolls had better-sounding ingredients – I don’t think the Italians use corn syrup in their tiramisu – and then I noticed, they are actually made in Holland. Sold. I can’t resist those European baked goods, even if they’re made in a factory and deep frozen for who knows how long and sold at the crummy neighborhood Safeway.

Read more