Join me on this snack journey

Maybe you’ve gotten the same ad on social media somewhere…Desert Drinks & Exotics. Wacky fun drinks and snacks from around the world! It was the passionfruit drink picture that really sucked me in, though. Big passionfruit juice fan right here (I even bought passionfruit powder so I could make passionfruit ice cream). Anywho…

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Shuffling some paperwork

-non-food related posting ahead-

After trying to live with the ‘Albanyish Dana’ moniker for a while, for lack of anything better, I’ve decided to put a stake through it.  Don’t like it.  Don’t want it.  Especially since I dipped my toe into Twitter.

Anyway, you may see that changed to SchenectaDana.  I dunno, it’s a little better.  Let’s go with it.  You may find me twittering as @SchenectaDana.

-we now return you to food-

Is that a word? Plus recent grocerysploring

When I travel, I like to pop into local supermarkets and the like for a look around.  See what local favorites might be heavily stocked, see if different, regional varieties of items might be available.  I think we’re all aware that large brands don’t necessarily release product versions nationwide simultaneously.  And of course there are smaller producers that get onto their ‘local’ shelves, but don’t make it to Albany.

This is hardly an uncommon hobby as I’ve discovered with a quick look around the web.  But something’s missing.

What exactly is that called?  What are you doing when you’re on vacation in Florida and have a free 30 minutes and decide to use it wandering through a Publix?  (Look, I’m not talking about taking away from a vacation, like leaving the beach to wander a grocery store, but if you have to run in for sunblock anyway, why not also roam a bit?)

I have been unable to find a word for this.  At the risk of sounding insufferably snooty, I set out to come up with a term for it.  Run it up the old flagpole and see who salutes, right?

I ended up with two.  The first is simply when you give a supermarket (or drug store, or farmers market, or ethnic food store, etc.) other than your typical haunts a good going over: grocerysploring

Clearly a mashup for ‘grocery exploring’.

But what about when you’re in Cleveland?  How about: grocerystourism?

What do you think?  Grocery tourism.  And it sounds like ‘grocery store-ism’.  Bonus.

I’m going to use them, anyway, since there doesn’t seem to be words out there for this practice.

It was a heavy dose of grocerysploring yesterday that netted us a healthy supply of Cherry Cola tic tac Mixers (CVS), one pack of the Peach Lemonade tic tac Mixers (CVS) that the wife wanted to try, a Sky Bar and Minion Cocoa Fart Gun Clouds (Five Below), Mountain Dew Dewshine (Shop Rite), and another box of Skittles Orchards with a box of Mike and Ike Root Beer Float candy (Dollar General).

I must’ve had a Sky Bar from Necco at some point in my life, but I just can’t remember it, so for 99 cents it was worth picking up.  (update: it was OK, the fudgy part was great, the rest was forgettable)

I really really like the Cherry Cola tic tacs and figure they could become scarce or just disappear, so I picked up a handful at CVS.  (update: the Peach Lemonade is OK, I found it not very lemony, but not as bad overall as Cybele seemed to think)

We tried Five Below because on the recent Candyology 101 podcast, someone mentioned finding Minion tic tacs there.  While we already got a Kevin and a Stuart when ShopRite had them, we wanted to pick up some more and also some for others.  They didn’t have any, which isn’t a surprise, these are apparently wildly popular.  I did grab the last tin of the Fart Gun Clouds, basically just for the tin.  The little pressed cocoa powder flavored fart clouds are pretty terrible tasting, so it’s a good thing the tin is cute.  Maria nailed that one.

I think she’s radically wrong on the Minion tic tacs though, my wife and I both really like these passionfruit tic tacs.

Candyology led me to a win, though, with the Mike and Ikes, Dollar General had plenty of these (in addition to just about every other flavor Mike and Ikes).  These are FANTASTIC and I will be buying a bunch.  Great candy root beer taste with a creaminess that is so reminiscent of the frothy top of a fresh root beer float.  And they look great.

I’d basically given up on the Dewshine until I saw the 4-packs on the shelf at ShopRite.  For $3.99 you bet I grabbed a pack.  Haven’t tried them yet, but one is chilling in the fridge waiting for me.

The Return of the Blog

So I think I’ll put a single AAA battery in this blog and power up occasional posts.  I’ll repost the couple of early posts that I had up and sometimes add to them when I think it’s worthwhile.
I bought a couple of local-made products lately at the Schenectady Greenmarket that I think warrant reviewing (well, after I actually open them), because that may be of value.   That’s basically why I decided to turn the heat back up under this pot and let it gently bubble away amongst the gazillion other blogs on these here internets.

Specifically, breathlessly await the review of a (very) pricey jar of Peanut Principle peanut butter and some gooseberry jam.

On second thought, you’d better breathe, it might be a while.