Kidney Bean Pot Pie

One of my favourite foods is Chicken Pot Pie. I mean, who doesn't love a good pot (or pan) pie? Creamy sauce, flaky crust, hearty vegetables - it's a perfect all-in-one dinner dish.

I have wanted to make a pot pie for some time, but hadn't been able to plan ahead the time to make the crust until this past weekend. The recipes I used as bases are from The Cook's Illustrated cookbook, and in the dish description they talk about how pot pies take so long to make but are worth it when you cook the entire chicken yourself in a pot and then blah de blah de blah.

The filling (kidney beans, frozen peas, canned mixed veggies, canned mushrooms, sautéed onions) in the reduced milk/chicken stock sauce.

My pot pie was quite simple, because I made it as an "I have no fresh produce in the house; let's use cans!" dish. Kidney beans instead of the traditional chicken were a delicious vegetarian alternative (vegetarian except for the chicken stock... veggie stock could be used). The beans added a little more colour, and they have a hearty enough texture to compliment the aforementioned flaky crust.

Homemade crust takes not very much effort (especially when using a food processor), and adds that special touch. Another favourite trick of mine - to avoid mess, roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper.

Making your own crust just requires 30-ish minutes of pre-planning and is quite simple. The recipes I follow mix butter and flour (2:3 ratio, normally) with a little bit of cold water and salt, let chill in the fridge for 15 minutes, and roll out your crust.

Ready to go in to the oven!

 After thirty minutes of baking...

Et voila, kidney bean pot pie, a perfectly-sized dinner for 6.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Quiche and Far and bread, oh my!

I realize that I'm way overdue on a new post. Sorry. At least I have grad school now to blame! (er, yay?)

Anyway, since I've moved into my own apartment for the first time, this means that I've had to cook a lot! I am very happy about this fact, too, not overwhelmed. While I may not cook up elaborate creations every single night, cooking and baking are good destressing activities for me. And you can eat the results, even better!

Along with the salads and quesadillas and sandwiches that have comprised many a lunch and/or dinner, I have taken the time to make a few more elaborate dishes. Where do I turn for cooking inspiration? Well not surprisingly, my mind has turned to France.

A few weekends ago I made a quiche for dinner; zucchini and mint, completely from scratch. It was delicious. I realize this is bragging, but that was one of the best quiches that I have ever eaten, full stop. Yes, it took a while to bake the crust and then let the custard cook thoroughly, but it was so worth it. I'd bought some zucchini (courgettes, for all you non-Americans) at the farmer's market, and just by chance I found a patch of mint near my building in my apartment complex, so I knew the time was right to try this unusual combination out.

After prebaking the crust, I layered in the egg mixture and the zucchini before baking for another 45 minutes.

"Zucchini and mint," you might say. "What a bizarre combination!" It was a combination that I had never tasted before, but I have wanted to try for many years. Since 2008, in fact, when I was studying abroad in Nantes. 

Everyday the students would bring or make their lunches in one of two little kitchens at IES. Sandwiches, salads (la mâche!), bread and cheese were all commonly seen food items. On most days there were 5-10 students eating at the long picnic table in the center of the room, and sometimes the directrice Mme Rouchet would join us. She was always very happy to socialize with us, but I know she also wanted her presence in the room to remind us to only speak French - a reminder many students needed.

One day, I noticed that she was unwrapping a slice of quiche in aluminum foil as the main course in her lunch. It looked tasty, so I asked her what type of quiche it was. Her response was, "Oh, this is a zucchini and mint quiche. It's considered a very feminine type of quiche, but it's one of my favorites." This exchange was done in French, of course, which only added to the charm.

Since that day, I have wondered what a zucchini and mint quiche would taste like. I imagined it to be yummy, even if it is "feminine" (because it's vegetarian, maybe?). I now understand why it is one of Mme Rouchet's favorites: Zucchini and mint = delicious!

The final product.

In other cooking news, I also made my very first Far Breton, which is like a milk custard with prunes. A Nantais friend was coming over for a going-away dinner (he just finished his PhD and was moving for a job), and I thought I would try to whip up a hopefully authentic taste of home. This dessert was one that I my Nantes host mother made for the family a few times, so it's dear to my heart. It's a dessert unlike any I've ever had in the US, too - the texture is somewhat chewy and heavy, with a lightly sweet but very pleasant taste. While I was not able to get the entire top to brown, it was still a big success! A delicious one too, I might add. Yumm...

Finally, since there's been so much lovely produce at my local farmer's market, I caved a week ago and bought a big zucchini with which to make zucchini bread. Sadly, the bread is not as delicious as I'd hoped (not enough zucchini taste!), but I'm going to try again and be more careful with my measurements this time.

That's all for now, folks; I hope you've been having a good end of summer!

Coin collecting

Quick jumps to confirming the number of coins in a roll and information about coins intrinsic worth more than their currency value.

Since I was a small child, I've been interested in collecting coins. Nothing particularly organized or fancy; I had a container of foreign coins as well as multiple containers of American coins I found. I had/have a knack for finding coins - there were about 5 consecutive years where I found a coin on the ground every single trip to my local grocery store. I kept those found coins in a special collection, counting them every so often and watching the sum grow. It was also fun to make a "timeline" of coins by lining them up by production year, seeing how many years I had coins from. If you've never seen an old penny (or done the classic chemistry experiment on pennies), as an example, it's pretty cool to look at the differences. Here are some coin related sites.

As I got older, family members would tell me that I should deposit all of my coins in the bank because I was losing money hoarding them. With inflation plus the lack of interest earned in my sock drawer, they were right, but I stubbornly held on to my collection.

Well, logic has finally won over whimsy. I rediscovered the collection when sorting through my socks while unpacking from France, and decided it was time to deposit my $80-or-so in coins (my last tallied count of the collection, in 2002, included 267 dimes). Since I now put any coins that I find directly in my wallet, my attachment to the idea of hoarding coins appears to have passed its heyday. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t pick out a few special handfuls worth of coins to save. Fun fact: you can get free coin roll wrappers from your local bank.

Are there any coins that you collected as a child (or still collect)? Do you have a favorite coin? 

 

Some information I found while researching for this blog post:

On theunderstory.com (scroll halfway down the linked page), there are many useful suggestions on how to wrap coins. Once you have rolled those coins, though, how can you check to make sure that your roll of quarters has 40 and not 39 coins in it? By weighing the rolls, of course. Here are the weights and messes of rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters:

 

Coin type	Number in roll	Weight of coin roll (oz)	Mass of coin roll (g)	Mass of one coin (g)
Penny	50 = $0.50	4.4	125	2.5
Nickel	40 = $2.00	7.05	200	5
Dime	50 = $5.00	4.0	113.5	2.27
Quarter	40 = $10.00	8.0	226.8	5.67

Using a cooking balance is one easy way to confirm that you counted correctly. NB: the provided mass of each coin assumes that the coins were minted recently. If you have coins of a certain age included in the rolls, the weight will be different. Which coins have different weights? Read on to find out; the answer depends on their metal content.

 

Because the metal content of coins has changed over time due to fluctuating material prices, the metal in some coins is worth more than the currency value of the coin itself. The full table can be found on coinflation.com and consumerism commentary; here are the particular bits that have been of interest to me and, I expect, many people with change jars or novice collectors sorting through their collections. The intrinsic value of the following relatively common coins is worth more than its currency:

Coin type	Years valid	Metal	Approximate value (28/6/11)
pennies	pre-1983	copper	$0.027
nickels	all	nickel	$0.062
dimes	pre-1965	silver	$2.46
quarters	pre-1965	silver	$6.14

Last post from France...

Yesterday was my last day "in" Dijon. Oh, I'm still in France - not leaving Dijon until Tuesday morning - but from here on out I'm going to be a slave to my "to-do" list in preparation for moving back home.

So, too, this post is my last post "from" France. Meaning, the last post I will write/post while physically being in France. Backdating is my friend, however, so you will be hearing more from me.

As my departure day has approached, I've been frequently asked what I am looking forward to, what I've missed, etc. Even though I should probably be doing other things (packing or cooking, cough cough), I've taken the time to write up a list.

There are three categories: "Things I will miss from France/Dijon," "Things I have missed about home and am looking forward to getting back to," and "Things I have not missed about home." Here we go, with the items listed in no particular order!

"Things I will miss from France/Dijon"

• Pétrin bread, pastries in general
• Being greeted by "Bonjour" (and greeting them back!) when you enter any store or pass by people in a room.
• Being able to have small side conversations with friends in English. Kirsty mentioned to me that she ran in to this problem at home as well: "Shush, she can understand you, stop criticizing her outfit."
• Burgundy wine!
• Affordable French cheese (je sais que les prix sont élevés en France récemment, mais ils sont quand même moins cher qu'aux Etats-Unis) 
• All the friends I've made in France, whether French, British or American
• Walking everywhere
• The Dijon owl (does he have a name?) on the tourist plaques
• Les toits vernissés
• British accents. Do you want a glass of water with your banana yoghurt?
• House parties in Chevigny
• The hot chocolate from Le Comptoir des Colonies
• Taking the train everywhere, and having it be faster than driving.
• ETA: French immersion.

"Things I have missed from home and am looking forward to getting back to"

• Broccoli (yes, I do know it exists in France)
• Milkshakes. Real milkshakes. I understand, France, that it seems like the obvious way to make a milkshake would be to take milk and shake it. No. Frothy milk is not a milkshake, it's just frothy milk! A milkshake is creamy and somewhat (if not very!) viscous. The creaminess comes from the ice cream; not much additional milk is required. Needless to say, a trip to Cookout is in my future.
• Managable plastic wrap (and aluminum foil!). Oh my goodness, France, please design/produce plastic wrap boxes that are useful. Instead of birthing this mess with your useless cardboard teeth, please evolve toward this design or at least this one! For my sanity, please.
• Not having to worry about stepping in dog poop. I believe this book covers the topic pretty well.
• My friends and family at home, of course.
• Netflix instant watch
• ETA: sweet potato fries

"Things I have not missed about home"

• Loud, obnoxious Americans (they exist elsewhere, but at a tolerable density). Yes, I'm assuming I am not one myself.
• Having to drive pretty much everywhere.
• High fructose corn syrup
• ETA: Traffic. Cars. Oh my goodness, so many cars.

I will keep adding to this list as I think of other things. But for now: merci à tous de mes élèves et des profs à HF et à C pour une bonne année scolaire - bonne continuation!; merci à aux assistants et aux amis (français et d'autres nationalités) à Dijon pour les amitiés chers que nous avons développés et que je voudrais garder - sans vous ce séjour aurait été solitaire; merci aux autres amis qui j'ai visité ou de qui j'ai fait la connaissance pendant mes voyages; merci à ma famille d'accueil (host family) pour votre accueil chaleureux pendant toute l'année, je l'apprécie vraiment. A tout le monde, je ne dis pas adieu, seulement "à la prochaine!"

That's it for now, Julie out.

A change is on the horizon...

With less than one month left in Dijon, I can feel that time here is getting short. Particularly with other assistants leaving Dijon for "good," it's starting to not quite feel the same here as it did a month ago. Many of those who are still here are thinking of packing and bank accounts and last trips to the cookie store. Some days I even have to remind myself I'm in France! I'm not speaking French as frequently as before, since I'm now legitimately teaching only in English and Erica and I often revert to English. Fortunately I at least have some obligatory French interactions in the household.


I'm preparing myself step-by-step, as it were, to return to the US, and certain things recently have made it easier for me to accept. In my opinion I've done a thorough job of visiting the Côte-d'Or (Dijon's department) and a decent job of visiting Burgundy (Dijon's region), and these three-or-so weeks I have left here will give me enough time to round out a few other objectives. I've done enough things that I can accept my nine months here as nearly 'complete' and well spent.

In particular, some subconscious "goals" I hoped to achieve have been met recently. Why the quotation marks? They're not goals, exactly, in that I can't necessarily affect whether or not they will happen. But their completion makes my trip well well-rounded.

I have:

1. Been asked for and given directions (multiple times!) in Dijon, in French. And I was useful! Not only because I carry a plan de ville in my bag, but because I know the city.
2. Bought a fresh, super-hot baguette from the boulangerie and eaten it for lunch (oh my goodness, deliciousness). This was in Paris last weekend.
3. Talked to random VT students on the bus.

... wait a minute, what?

Yup, today on the way back from teaching in Daix I was on the #5 bus and three VT students got on the bus. I did a double take when I first saw them, particularly because one of the girls was wearing a sweatshirt almost identical to one Elaine has. They were eating MacDo (lol, nice guys), and I was easily able to strike up a short conversation by saying I was a fellow Hokie. They were on a summer exchange program, and I recommended that they taste the mustards in the Maille store before they left town because mustard actually is a significant part of the Dijonnais culinary tradition. I know the town name kind of implies its importance, but I didn't believe it at first.

Is it odd that since last fall I've hoped to randomly see people from VT in Dijon? I'm super glad this "goal" was achieved, as implausible as it was. Somehow I had a feeling that I'd see someone wearing a Hokies sweatshirt before I left France, and I did.

Winning.

Day trip to Paris

Every Saturday, there is a round-trip train ticket available that goes from Dijon to Paris for only 18€. Even though it used to be 15€, it's still fantastic to be able to say that you've been to Paris "just for the day." After all these months in Dijon, I still hadn't made this aller-retour journey. So today, exactly one month before I move back to the US, I finally visited Paris for a day trip. Erica was our (Salvatore's and mine) unofficial guide, and I was also able to meet up with Aliette and Tanguy in the morning.


The catch? The required train departs at 5:45AM, and it's a TER (Transport Express Régional) so the journey takes 3 hours. If you're at all familiar with the French train system, you've probably heard of TGV's, which are the trains that go up to 320 km/hr and complete the Dijon-Paris trip in just over 1:30. What I'm trying to say is, the cheap aller-retour ain't one of these fast trains. But it was a double decker train, woo!


My day trip to Paris was a definite success, but, as I just described, also very long. I had one of the best - if shortest - trips to Paris I've experienced. I spent time with friends, I ate good food, and I saw some really interesting things. And I expect to sleep well tonight.


If you had ten hours in Paris, and had already visited most of the main sites, what would you do?


For me, the first order of business after a brief stop at the Gare de Lyon consignes (lockers), was the Catacombs. The Catacombs of Paris (Fr/E, and a historically in-depth E-language website here) were originally limestone mines, but in the late 18th century they were transformed into a giant ossuary because the city's cemeteries were filling up. They have been open to the public for visits since the early 19th century (the pamphlet proudly mentions that Francois I the emperor of Austria and Napoleon III visited this curiosity of an attraction) and are comprised of roughly 2 kilometers of paths, 20 meters below the surface. That's about 66 feet. Wow! Down inside the catacombs, it is cooler and more humid than the rest of Paris; we even got dripped on a few times due to water condensing on the low ceiling. 


Upon descending a lot of stairs, you wander along narrow, sloped pathways until you reach the untransformed limestone quarries. There were multiple small, 18th century gallery rooms in the quarries, where one of the workers (a M. Décure) carved buildings into the stone. Apparently he had plenty of time to memorize the architecture of the originals during his imprisonment in Majorca by the British. Next along the path, you arrive in the ossuary. It was Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury who decided to make the quarry-turned-ossuary into a proper mausoleum by arranging the bones into sort of wall sculptures. Mostly craniums and femurs were used to make the walls, but I'm sure each person's other 204 bones are here too.

Gates have been put up and cement divider walls erected to make sure tourists don't get lost wandering among the bones. Thank goodness for that.

The view beyond one of the gates in the quarry area

SILENCE MORTAL BEINGS: one of the many inscriptions posted on the walls, doorframes and pillars

All-in-all the catacombs are quite interesting and worth visiting (get there early because lines form fast!), but being able to read the French and Latin inscriptions and quotes decorating the (bone free) walls makes it more of an immersive experience.


Emerging from underground after climbing an 83-step, clockwise stairwell, the next order of business was lunch. After saying goodbye to Aliette and Tanguy on the metro and walking to the Jardin du Luxembourg, Salvatore and I met up with Erica (who had previously visited the catacombs). We bought sandwich fillings at Monoprix and baguettes de tradition at a boulangerie: the makings for yummy picnic in the park! The baguettes were hot, fresh out of the oven, and they were absolutely delicious.

Part of our lunchtime view in the Jardin du Luxembourg

The metro is the most economical way to get around Paris, and quite easy to navigate. Multiple of the station entrances were designed by Hector Guimard; his art nouveau édicules/canopies are one of the many symbols of Paris.

After lunch, fighting the desire for a nap, we made our way to Montmartre. I have never been to Montmartre so close to high tourist season; I can only imagine how busy it must be in July! A tip for first-time visitors: don't let a vendor tie a bracelet on your wrist as you'r trying to walk up the steps. I'm told that the bracelet is tied in such a way that it can only be cut off, and of course once you are wearing the bracelet you are obligated to pay for it. Also, the shady, prettier stairs up to the Sacré Coeur smell of urine. Ah, Paris.

After a brief visit of La Basilique du Sacré Coeur and the hilltop district of Montmartre, we headed back down toward the center of Paris. I split off from Salvatore and Erica in order to see Musee d'Orsay, because I had not been in the last decade and I'd heard the Manet exhibit was pretty cool.


There was only one hour left before it closed, and the Manet exhibit was not free (unlike general admission with my Pass Education), so I restricted myself to the first floor and tried to see as much as possible in that hour. I spent the most time looking at the impressionist paintings, wandering around and trying to solidify in my mind the traits of a work that indicated its author. I focused on the works of Renoir, Degas, Manet and Monet because I have studied their work before, and their paintings are the most numerous in these galleries, allowing for a broader comparison. I don't claim to be an art history buff, but it was an interesting way to approach an exhibit, and the most fun I've had in an art museum in a while. I definitely want to head back to Musée d'Orsay after it finishes its renovations this year! 


As the museum closed and guests were finally forbidden from entering new galleries (a full 45 minutes after the first "The museum will be closing soon..." loudspeaker announcement) , I took the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor over the Seine and passed through the Jardin des Tuileries in order to meet up with Salvatore and Erica at the Café Angelina. 

Until next time, Musée d'Orsay!

At 226 Rue de Rivoli, in the heart of the 1st Arrondissement, the prices are expected to be high. But Erica kept on telling me that Angelina's hot chocolate was life-changing, so I was willing and prepared to spend 4,70E on a to-go cup of hot chocolate (getting it there costs more, but you also get whipped cream. We were short on time, so the decision was made for us). Erica did not lie. A cup of hot chocolate from Café Angelina is indeed life-changing in its deliciousness. Words cannot fully describe this beverage, but try to imagine the best European bittersweet chocolate bar melted, mixed with cream, and served to you in a smooth liquid form. It was so rich I could barely finish it, but there was no way I was going to waste any.


I finally finished the last drops of my hot chocolate in the Gare de Bercy while waiting for our TER home, and the three of us agreed that it had been a day well spent. 


After being in Paris all day, walking home from the Gare de Dijon on a Saturday night was really quiet. I know Dijon isn't large, but I'd never before though of it as a small, sleepy town. A question popped into my mind on the way home from the train station, as I compared Dijon to Paris and its 15th place on the list of France's biggest cities had never been so obvious. And so I offer this question do you, readers. How did you know when you find your ideal place to live?

Sunrise, sunset

It's springtime, and that means that everyone wants to be outdoors as much as possible. The sun is being welcomed back into our lives with open arms, and going on daylight savings time/summer time means that we're seeing more of it in Dijon.

So without further ado, two time-lapse videos that I took of the sun! The sunrise of April 3rd, and the sunset of April 4th. Both videos are in HD - best viewed in full screen mode ^_^


"Hey Julie" by Fountains of Wayne (Thanks, Paddy, for help selecting the music). The shift at 1:43 is due to my camera battery dying and needing to be plugged in; only about 10 minutes were lost.


"Son of Flynn" by Daft Punk, from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. This particular Sunday morning, I woke up at 7:55 AM for no apparent reason, and I was immediately very awake. If you know me, you realize how bizarre this occurrence/early wakening is. So I filmed the sunrise while reading a book, then eventually went back to sleep.

Apparently the sunrise video, because of my choice of music, is currently not available in the US. Sorry :-/

CANDY CANDY CANDY: my raid on Tesco

While in England, one (of the more important) things on my vacation to-do list was visit grocery stores in England. Oh man, was I successful!

In Paddington Station Katie and I bought breakfast (hot cross buns!) at Marks & Spencer, and then in Bristol we went to Co-Op, Tesco Express (where most of my buying took place), Waitrose, and in Bath we went to a big Marks & Spencer.

I bought a whole bunch of English sweets (candy/sweeties), and after bringing them safely back to France I’ve been sampling them bit by bit. Here, for your interest (or at the very least my own) I will be reviewing all of the English goodies I bought.

My collection of English sweets! The vast majority of it, at least.

The rating system: 0 to 4 s, with accompanying descriptions.

In order to give you some reference as to how my tastes typically fall, I’m going to review some American candy as well. Normally, I’m not a picky eater except that I don’t like salty things, and as for candy I’m no longer a super fan of sickly-sweet things.

Preliminary reference reviews:
Reese’s peanut butter cups
Though the peanut butter is way too sweet to use on sandwiches, this combination of chocolate and peanut butter is amazing. I prefer the ration of chocolate/peanut butter in the regular sized cups to the mini-cups. Hershey.

Hershey’s (milk chocolate) kisses
Tasty as a snack of 1 or 2, but – let’s face it – there’s so much better chocolate out there that these can only be a 2-star candy (yes, Katie, it’s still candy even though it’s chocolate). I can definitely see how some people might find Hershey’s chalky, but I don’t find it as such, perhaps because I grew up with it. Hershey.


Now let’s move on to the English food/sweets! Maybe I still have a few interested readers at this point, who knows.

Maltesers Bunny (MaltEaster) 
This little guy didn’t even make it home; we stopped for coffee/hot chocolate and he was eaten immediately. Cute and delicious, I want more. Americans: Maltesers are like Whoppers except with a lighty sweet, pleasant tasting crunchy and a chocolate outer coating that is not waxy and melts in your mouth. Mars.

Munchies
I almost love the packaging (“You Want Me,” mine said. Why yes, you are correct) more than anything else, though the crunch of the biscuit inside the caramel and chocolate is very nice. Tasty, but the caramel is sickly after a few. Americans: think of Munchies as Rolos with a cookie in the middle. Nestlé.

Maoam
Though I haven’t opened my own package yet, I tried Maoams in London during the theatre performance intermissions. As fruity chews (plus the cola flavour) go, they are very tasty! Other things unrelated to their taste: I really like that they are all white – coloring the chew itself is an unnecessary use of food dye – and that the name is an palindrome. It’s an interesting choice (and one I find kinda weird) for the drawings on the chews to be so suggestive. Haribo.

Aero bubbles (mint)
Adding air bubbles (“smooth milk chocolate filled with minty bubbles”) sounds like a genius idea, but with a slogan like “feel the bubbles” was expecting something more along the lines of Pop Rocks-filled chocolate instead of just having small holes in my chocolate. Tastes good, but the bubbles made it almost cake-y for some reason. Fun to put in hot beverages, because the air expands and the bubbles *pop* through the outer coating of chocolate. Nestlé.

Turkish Delight 0 stars
Maybe it’s because I had only had Turkish Delight for the first time last Christmas, but the texture was unexpected and one I didn’t enjoy. Very jelly-like (er, I think I mean the British jelly?) and super sweet, with a low-quality chocolate coating. If I ever get any more of these, Kirsty, I’ll send them to you. Fry’s.

Flake
I first tasted one at Costa with a mocha (Mocha flake!), and it inspired me to go across the street to Waitrose and buy some. A very simple idea – fold a thin sheet of chocolate so densely that it becomes like a bar – makes for a fun eating experience, though it can be a little messy. The packaging is cool, too: the ends of the aluminum wrapping paper are twisted instead of mechanically sealed. Though the chocolate by itself only gets 1 star because the quality is just okay, the concept gets 3 stars and deserves a picture! Aka, an average of 2 stars. Cadbury.

The ribbon-folded layers of chocolate in the flake and the twisted ends of the packaging paper are part of what make the Flake so interesting.

Ribena blackcurrant drink
I have a whole ‘nother blog post dedicated to squash, which in itself says something about this drink. It’s like a non-alcoholic kir! AKA, delicious. GlaxoSmithKline.

Smarties
Like M&M’s, but with a much thicker candy coating. Even when you bite through the coating, it’s so thick that the bland sugary taste interferes with the chocolate. The crunch is nice, and they certainly won’t melt in your hand, but I prefer more chocolate and less shell. Nestlé.

Revels
When Katie first described Revels to me and Erica – a grab-bag of Maltesers and other chocolate-coated candy, so you don’t know which one you’re going to get! – I was so excited that I ended up buying two bags. It was fun to go through and try all of the flavours at first (extra ‘u’ added in because this is a British-themed blog post), but then the sickly sweetness got to me. Also, you can usually tell which one of the “milk chocolates with assorted centres” you’re going to get, which takes out the mystery. In order of best-to-worst, my preferences are: coffee, toffee, raisin, Malteser (not as good as the regular Maltesers for some reason), chocolate, and orange. Mars.

Walnut Whip , or when eaten with a hot beverage
”Milk chocolate whirl with a vanilla flavour fondant cream centre” sounds potentially sickly sweet, and fondant certainly can be. I found it fun to eat off the bottom and use the “chocolate whirl” shape as a cup. Nestlé.

(Dairy Milk) Caramel Bunnies
Your standard caramel-filled chocolate. Bumped up to two stars from one because I ate both in one sitting, contrary to my original intent. Cadbury.

Haribo Tangfastics
I realized that Haribo is German, but I don’t know if you can buy this variety of Haribo outside England, as Haribo tends to be regional with their sweets. Not-very-sour gummies, with cherries, cola bottles, alligators with white bellies, and dummies (pacifiers). I would give the cola bottles and alligators 3 stars if in a bag by themselves. Haribo.

Marmite 0 stars
Katie thought I wouldn’t like this yeast extract spread, and she was right (but I still had to try it). VERY salty, with a spreading texture much like Cancoillotte cheese, this food is not for me. Anybody want some? Unilever.

Oat & Syrup Flapjack
One of the numerous lexicological discussions the Brits and the Americans have had revolved around the definition of the word “flapjack” – in the UK it’s similar to a granola bar, and in the US it’s a synonym for pancakes. So I was eager to try this other incarnation of a flapjack! It tasted like a cross between a granola bar and shortbread. Quite tasty, but more sugary than a granola bar; I’m not quite sure when is the most appropriate to eat flapjacks (breakfast? Not really as an energy snack…). McVities.

Twirl , or when “eaten” with a hot beverage
A Twirl is a Flake that has been covered in more chocolate (an outer coating). Same concept, same chocolate + more, less mess! How can that not be awesome? My Twirl package was another instance where I ate the entire contents of the package when I meant to eat just one stick. Twirls are especially delectable when used as straws (bite the ends off first). Yum! Cadbury.

Strawberry flavour laces
Fruity taste, easy to eat, and relatively low-calorie, these strawberry laces are like a milder flavoured version of Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel. I particularly enjoy braiding them together and then eating them.
Tesco brand: 
Co-operative brand: 

Smarties 
Smarties are extremely similar to M&M's, except that the Smarties have a very thick candy shell and the brand of milk chocolate is slightly different. They have a nice crunch because of this thick candy shell, and they certainly won't melt in your mouth, but there's much more of a chewing effort involved in getting to the chocolate compared to M&M's. Since I was raised with M&M's, in the end I found the crunchiness undesireable. Nestlé.

Wine Gums 
When I opened the package, a really weird - crayon-like? waxy? - smell was my first impression of Wine Gums. Some of the flavours tasted quite nice, but others were really weird, so overall I give them one star. Also annoying (but not the Wine Gums' fault) was the fact that the kitty here loved to try and steal the package for some reason. Cadbury.

Jelly Tots 
I really expected Jelly Tots to be sour, given their crystal coating. Turns out they're not; the crystals give a little crunch and an extra sweetness, I guess? The flavours are nice - and the cute packaging makes me want to like them more than I did - but there wasn't much taste. The frutiness wasn't very strong! The texture is gummier than Skittles, but I found myself wishing for a stronger flavor than just chewy with a hint of lemon, blackcurrant, lime, orange or strawberry.  Rowntree's/Nestlé.

Mint Aero 
After the Aero Balls, the mint inside the Aero bar was a surprise, but a wonderful one. Yum! Another candy unintentionally eaten in one sitting. The bubbles inside the bar made it noticably light and almost crumbly in a way that the Aero Balls were not able to achieve. Nestlé.

Tune in for more reviews as I eat more of my candy reserve!


ETA, 11/14/11 - in order to keep this British candy information all in one (long) blog post, I am adding the follow ratings to this entry even though I did not purchase them myself at Tesco. Thanks to Ellie for doing a care package swap with me! Here are more of my thoughts on British candy:

Crunchie: 
"Milk chocolate with golden honeycombed centre" is how it is described on the package, but I was not expecting the crunch and sweetness of the middle. Another candy that has no equivalent in the US; think of a Butterfingers, except the middle is very airy and breaks kind of like a crisp cracker instead of shearing off in plates. It doesn't stick to your teeth (unlike Butterfingers) because it's airy and less dense. The centre is very bubbly, with the sugar honeycomb getting denser toward the surface of the chocolate. Mars.

It's a very good engineering candy; it looks like a beam under stress, where the density of the sugar honeycomb is analogous to the stress magnitude (top picture in the linked image)

Happy Hippo Biscuit: 
Not as sweet as Kinder bars, the Happy Hippo Biscuit is a crispy wafer biscuit filled with a milky hazelnut filling. The contrast of textures between the biscuit and the filling is very nice, especially as the very creamy hazelnut taste has such a smooth aftertaste. The hippo shape adds cuteness, too. Kinder.

Twix: 
Maybe it's because I haven't had an American Twix in a while, but these were really good! The chocolate (Mars UK chocolate is made in Scotland, whereas for US candy it's Hershey's) was smoother and less sweet, and the biscuit seemed bigger. Yum! Mars.

Galaxy Bites (Chocolate Caramel): 
The closest thing I can relate them to is Milk Duds, but these are much chewier. Thin layer of chocolate over a nice caramel, but a bit sugary with not much lasting taste per bite. Mars.

Kit Kat Crunchy: 
Now this is a hefty candy bar! I think I do like the regular size better (aren't Kit Kats normally crunchy?), which is why this gets 2 stars instead of 3. The difficulty gained in chewing the larger bar didn't add up to additional flavour. However, I do like how you can actually taste the (creamier) chocolate on the edges. Nestlé.

Snickers: 
I occasionally eat American Snickers, and didn't find this one much different or any better. Always a very dense candy bar.

Malteasers:
So delicious, I have to be careful not to eat too many at once! Maltesers are like Whoppers except with a lighty sweet, pleasant tasting crunchy inside and a chocolate outer coating that is not waxy and melts in your mouth. Yum! Mars.

Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles: 
I was surprised at how much I liked these. Very fruity, with sweet crystals on the outside, these  pastilles are gummy in a way that makes them hard to bite through but pleasing to chew on. Nestlé.