American Screwball Dessert (Hickory’s) By @Cinabar

We’ve been going to Hickory’s a little more often than usual recently, as it’s one of our favourite restaurants. They’ve just launched their Autumn/Winter menu, and the Gumbo is back, always a highlight. It’s a hearty stew with sausage, chicken, rice, and beans, and it’s a firm favourite of ours. It returns every year and never disappoints.

We don’t usually order dessert, but today we decided to make an exception when I spotted the American Screwball on the menu. When it arrived, it looked fantastic, ice cream covered in red and blue sauce, with white marshmallows completing the colours of the American flag.

A British ice cream Screwball usually hides a gobstopper at the bottom, but this version didn’t. Instead, it featured plenty of fro-co (frozen custard, or vanilla ice cream) and lots of marshmallows, which made it fun to eat. The red sauce was fruity, while the blue had a more tangy, sour edge. I suspect the blue colour might have come from melted sprinkles, though I can’t be sure. Either way, it was bright, cheerful, and very enjoyable.

By the end of the dessert, I realised my tongue was blue, which made me laugh. It’s nice to be reminded you’re still young at heart sometimes!

TGI Fridays Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Sticks (Iceland) By @Cinabar

It is Friday, so I felt like having a TGI Fridays treat. The shop Iceland stocks TGI Fridays branded goodies, and the latest addition is these TGI Fridays Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Sticks. I love peanuts, so I was excited to try what feels like a classic American food combination, but in ice cream form. I don’t think I’ve ever had a peanut butter and jelly (jam) sandwich, despite growing up with a lot of American television.

 

I opened the box and found three individually wrapped ice lollies. I unwrapped one and found a peanut-flavoured chocolate coating. My lolly had been damaged a bit on one side, but otherwise looked fine. I bit in and gave it a try. The main flavour is a lovely, sweet, creamy, almost salty peanut taste. The shell was wonderfully nutty and I really loved the flavour. The ice cream inside is peanut too, but creamier, and it contrasted nicely with the sweet fruit jam. What a lovely combination. I really liked the taste, and the texture from the nuts added something extra. These were a delight and a perfect treat after finishing work on a Friday.

Swiss Miss Cinnamon Toast Crunch (Amazon) By @Cinabar

I’m not sure what I’m drinking. I’m also sure it wasn’t what I thought it was when I bought it. I love Swiss Miss hot chocolate; it is sweet and flavoursome despite being made with hot water and not milk. I have a sweet tooth; their drinks are sweet; they are my thing. I decided to google what interesting flavours they make, and I stumbled across one called Cinnamon Toast, and I was in. My favourite spice is cinnamon. I ordered it without paying much more attention.

 

I was expecting a hot chocolate-based drink with cinnamon flavour. I thought that right up until the moment I opened the first sachet and poured a white powder into my mug. It looked a bit disappointing. 

I added the water; it didn’t have a particularly strong aroma; it was just sweet and milky. I was still a bit disappointed. I opened up the second sachet of marshmallows, and I got a massive hit of cinnamon powder mixed in with the marshmallows. I added it, and it changed the milk base to a cinnamon speckled drink.

I gave it a try, and oh my word, this drink is amazing, not at all what I thought I’d bought pure heaven in a mug. I have since googled and found that cinnamon toast is an American breakfast cereal, and this drink is supposed to be a hot version of the milk the cereal leaves. I had no idea, but the taste is sweet, milky, and has lots of spice from the cinnamon, so I thought it was heaven. All the disappointment was gone, and now I’m just hoping I can get another box. 

Hostess Twinkies Flavoured Popcorn (Iceland) By @Cinabar

I did an online shop with Iceland, and I was looking at their new products when I spotted this bag of Hostess Twinkies Flavoured Popcorn. I paused before putting it into my basket as it was quite pricey for a bag of popcorn. I went for it anyway in the end, but I did think it was expensive.

When the order came, I realised that I had been paying for a large bag of popcorn, which was actually a very large bag and probably made it much better value for money than I thought it was. I opened the bag and poured some out to give it a try. Twinkies are snack cake bar popular in America (but can be found in the UK), and they have a vanilla cream running through the centre. This popcorn is flavoured after the cake, so I was expecting a birthday cake sort of taste. The flavour is actually a bit milder than that; the pieces are sweet and creamy with plenty of vanilla, but they don’t have the overly sweet birthday cake taste. The pieces of popcorn have a lovely texture too; they are big and fluffy, but with a nice crackly coating to mix up the texture.

I really liked this Hostess Twinkies Flavoured Popcorn; the only problem I have with it is the size of the bag. Any ideas on how long popcorn stores once opened? Or am I going to have to pig out?

Mr Beast Feastable Bars - in the UK! (Spar) [@NLi10]

 I like Mr Beast’s videos - they are the right balance of silly and generous to push all the buttons that a good background video on YouTube should.  For those who don’t know he basically makes silly games up and people win money or cars.

And he’s decided to go to war on America’s terrible chocolate.  This too is a good cause, to Europeans American chocolate has a certain vomit-like aftertaste. So - he’s released these Feastable bars.

At 60g each they are pretty slim, and at £2.50 each thats luxury pricing.

You can win one free on the spar spin website - see my video review for the link :) (When I’m not in the car I’ll probably put it below too)

I bet if you scan the code here you get the same result!

The coco percent is higher than Dairy Milk, but the milk is lower.

They are modern, textured bars - very flat - nicely snappy.

The ‘milk’ one isn’t very exciting. Both my partner & I’s first response was ‘advent calendar chocolate’ - decent quality for that genre - but still exactly what you’d expect there

Luckily the peanut one is more interesting - the extra saltiness really helps bring the flavours to life.

But - at the luxury price this really is a hard sell - it needs to be about £1.50 to justify the slight portions and lack of excitement.

All this taken into consideration it’s probably the new king of American chocolate, but it’s not near the top ten in Europe.

Slo Poke (Candy Mail) By @SpectreUK

I have to admit that when I was asked if I fancied a Slo Poke in the afternoon, I thought my luck was in. However, I think Cinabar just wanted to save her teeth from this Chewy Caramel Candy bar. I haven't been to the dentist for a while, so it may be worth a visit after this snack. There was some suggestion of sucking on a Slo Poke, but there were just too many euphemisms after that.

After reading "An American tradition for more than 80 years. Same great flavor, longer chew" on the packet, I worried a little more for my poor old teeth. To be honest with you, I wasn't sure I wanted to suck on a Slo Poke for an hour and a half. I think I'd prefer a Fast Poke.

On opening the packet you can see from the photograph that it was a fairly featureless flat blob of caramel. Taste wise it was slightly different. I decided to risk my teeth and instead bite and chew rather than suck on my Slo Poke. The chewy bar tasted pretty much exactly like slightly chewier fudge. It was sweet, sugary and gorgeous. So I rather enjoyed my Slo Poke in the afternoon after all.

In fact, I wouldn't mind a Slo Poke every afternoon, if one was on offer.

Information on the packet; The 43g bar had 180 calories, and at 100g it would have 418 calories, with 12g of fat, 47g of sugar, 2.3g of protein, and 0.76g of salt.

Cardiff Tim Hortons & Shake Shack (@NLi10)

While we were in Cardiff for the wrestling we happened to try a few North American chains we don't see as often in the Midlands.  We do have a Tim Hortons in Birmingham, but it's so rare I need a chain cafe when home is a short bus ride away. 

The store is very well decorated - like every branch in this Canadian chain, and had a decent range of treats on offer.

see!

We popped in (with Teddy from the last review) and got a basic tea and an exciting apple cinnamon fritter thing.

The tea was decent quality but not exciting, The fritter was kind of a rolled and layered pretzel doughnut

And wasn't that exciting really, but was very nice.  I'd been spoilt by having an Auntie Anne's Pretzel the night before.

I also got maple bacon pancakes in the Wyndham Cafe in the Wyndham arcade, but that's a Cardiff only thing.

As is (apparently) the Shake Shack where there are only a few of them in the country.

And it was fairly expensive for normal chips and a cheese burger.  I enjoyed them but like 5 Guys I wouldn't rush back.

We had the normal tea and the 50:50 lemonade tea but neither quite hit the spot.

We made 75:25 tea to lemonade with our remaining half cups and preferred that, but it wasn't great tea or lemonade.  I guess I should have had the Shake in the title.  I'm not mad on American food like the Young Team are and they all seemed keen to return so maybe if they open in town I'll try again.

USA TWIX - Creamy Peanut Butter (@NLi10)

I don’t like overpaying for import snacks, and luckily the MR Simms stores don’t like overcharging either. These Twixes were in the bargain box at half price as their best before was a whole week ago!

I think UK twixes are almost a pound now so this is worth a try

The ingredients are typically American, including Palm Oil which isn’t great to see.

And the calories are in nice big text but hidden under the huge flap - loophole!

The bar has snapped on the way to work and the chocolate is so thin you can see through it.

The biscuit is a little odd looking, as the packaging says - it’s a cookie... And the biscuit does indeed taste totally wrong for UK Twix eaters. The crunch is far too hard, no lovely crumble at all. The peanut butter is fine, it’s American style as you’d expect so doesn’t actually taste of peanuts, like banana sweets don’t taste of bananas.

And it’s fine, but it’s not even close to a real Twix. I hope someone has made a killing exporting our Twix to America as they might like to taste a chocolate covered biscuit bar that actually has chocolate and biscuit inside.

Reese's Peanut Butter Egg (@NLi10)

Way back in 2015 Cinabar reviewed this peanut butter egg - that isn't really an egg.  And I've only just caught up.

It's simple enough - a little flat packet

Which seems to think it's a Reester? But maybe that is it's name in the Netherlands

American's seem to need less information - and spelling lessons.  No wonder they are obsessed with carbs - it's basically the only other thing on the packet.

And here is the 'egg'

It's not as big as it looks.

It's nice though - and i'll be buying more, but it's not all that Easter themed and not really that different from their other offerings in the range so I felt fine reviewing it early.  I like American style Peanut snacks so it works for me!

OREO - Choc'O Brownie Flavour (Co-op) by @NLi10 #OreOfLavOurs

We like Oreos and we like new - so here is the newest flavour of Oreos!

It's an American Themed chocolate brownie one - just in time for that most American of 'holidays' Halloween!

Here we see their fantastic hashtag #OreOfLavOurs which probably means that there are lots of other things just like this...

...which is to say Oreos that don't taste any different to existing Oreo versions.  If you'd told me that this was the chocolate creme/double chocolate Oreos I'd have believed you - probably a subtle difference that I don't know about.

And they are produced in Spain!  I mean I'm happy to have Spanish themed Oreos from Spain (Tapas? Chorizo? Paella?) but American ones?

Reminds me of this cool American style drink a friend of mine managed to pick up for £1 - that's pretty cool for an Import - right?

Made in the UK. Suddenly it just becomes a bottle of sugar water again! Not even got corn syrup in it!

The language on the bottle however makes me think that we export this to the USA to sell to Americans starved of real sugar.  The world of snack food is very crazy...

Hostess Chocolate Peanut Butter Flavour Twinkies (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

Twinkies are difficult to find in the UK, and always remind me of my love for American films and TV. They do occasional turn up in import shops, but I found these “new” Hostess Chocolate Peanut Butter Flavour Twinkies in a regular supermarket, which seemed a bit strange. I quickly put the box in my trolley, and tried to remind myself I had only popped in for milk and bread. Oh well.
Although these say “new” on them I have to admit I’m not sure how new they are. In terms of newness to the British market they totally hit the mark, but I’m guessing these could have been out in the States for some time before making it to the shelves here.

I’m going to try and ignore the fact that I failed the intelligence test on how to open the box. I ripped where it said to rip and then the box just didn’t open properly. I did mange to get an untidy way in though. Inside the box were 10 individually packed dark brown Twinkies. I broke one in half and noticed there didn’t seem to be as much peanut butter filling as the picture suggests, but once I had bitten in properly I realise it was just unevenly distributed and that there were some large blobs.

I liked the chocolate sponge flavour, it was sweet and pleasant, and the texture was light and moist. The peanut butter filling, even where it where it was generously heaped within was very mild in flavour. It added a gentle nuttiness, and it worked well with the rest of the cake. There are light and easy to eat, and deliver a nice chocolate hit, with a hint of peanut too. These made a lovely sweet treat, especially to nibble on while catching up on favourite American TV like The Big Bang Theory.

Twinkies Key Lime Slime Ghostbuster Edition (B&M) [By @Cinabar]

I picked up these new Ghostbuster Edition Twinkies at a very modest price. I can’t help thinking if I had purchased these from an import store the box would have been around £10, so I’m pleased to say these were an absolute bargain in a discount store.
Twinkies are a cult sponge cake in the States and aren’t easy to find in the UK, so finding the Limited Edition Ghostbusters version was rather exciting. The flavour is Key Lime Slime in honour of Slimer from the film franchise.

Now I know there were some clues on the front of the box, but the greenness of the filling still took me a few seconds to become accustomed to. As I get older I haven’t lost my love of sweet tastes, but I am developing a slight aversion to food colourings that are garish. I know green is the colour of movie slime, and I tried to let it go.

The cakes themselves are lovely, they are soft spongey and slightly moist and sticky. The filling is thick, creamy and well shipped. Although there is still plenty of vanilla, the Key Lime Slime element adds a nice citrus twist. The added flavour isn’t very strong, it is just enough to give them a fruity taste, which is acidic and has a nice hint of lime. I liked the taste far more than the colour! Really looking forward to see the movie though, hope its as good the original.

By Cinabar

Flipz Birthday Cake Covered Pretzels (@GobstoppersUK) [By @Cinabar]

We went for a shopping trip in Birmingham and spotted in the new Grand Central centre a new import shop called Gob Stoppers, it was stacked with interesting candy and goodies. We couldn't resist exploring and thought we'd pick up some chocolate coated pretzels. I love the combination of chocolat and salty pretzel but they aren’t easy to find in the UK sadly. More shops stock them at Christmas, but this time of year they disappear again.
When we saw that Gob Stoppers stocked Flipz Pretzels in birthday cake flavour coating, my head almost exploded in excitement. Remember chocolate pretzels are exotic here in the UK market, so consider my mind blown. :-D

Once home we opened them to give them a try, and they looked pretty too. The pretzels are covered in a white coating speckled with colour, rather like cupcake sprinkles. The sprinkles on ours were predominately red and blue.
The flavour worked like magic. They have a strong sweet vanilla taste, just like a proper cupcake frosting. When this combined with the salty crunchy pretzel underneath it created a taste sensation, stand aside sweet and salty popcorn we have a new player in the field. This is one of the nicest sweet and savoury combinations I’ve tried, lush vanilla and salt, who'd have though that would work so well. These Birthday Cake Flipz Pretzels may be hard to track down in the UK but they are worth hunting out. I know I'm going back for another pack!

By Cinabar

Pizza Dog (@FrankieNBennys ‪#‎FrankiesFav‬) [By @cinabar]

After a very nice day off work, we stopped for lunch at Frankie and Benny’s. The place was quite quiet on lunch time a weekday lunch time. As there isn't a branch of Frankie and Benny's near where we live, I'm not that familiar with their lunch menu. Trips to Frankie and Benny's are a bit of a treat, although I do keep hoping they will open one closer to home.
Anyway one quick browse of the lunch menu and I spotted the option of "Pizza Dog". I had sort of been planning to have a pizza when I went in, but suddenly this sounded too intriguing to miss, I am a food blogger after all. To be honest we hadn't gone in with the intention of blogging about the place, we had gone in just for lunch, but when the friendly waitress came over and said it was a new item on the menu, the camera came out. Spectre had fancied a burger and fries, and couldn't be shifted on this!

My Pizza Dog arrived, complete with coleslaw and fries (salad was an option, but it wasn't really if you see what I mean). The hot dog looked quite chunky and was wrapped in pizza dough and tomato sauce. I did attempt to pick it up but it was a little hot on the fingers, so I decided to munch some fries while they were hot too instead.
I went back to the Pizza Dog and gave it a try after it cooled a little, wow it worked. Now it seems obvious that a hot dog sausage would go really well with tomato ketchup, but if you up that to a proper rich Italian tomato sauce, mozzarella, and lashings of basil you are still onto a winner. The Italian / American combination was spot on. I loved the herby flavour and stronger tomato. The pizza dough base was like a doughy wrap which worked well, and had a good flavour. It added to the satisfying feeling as it made the hot dog quite substantial especially for a lunch time.
So in conclusion the fusion food that is the Pizza Dog, as done by Frankie and Benny's, is a complete success. Perfect for those that can't decide between hot dogs and pizza, and for those that like to try something a little different. I always think that is the point of going out, but Spectre pointed out that his burger was fantastic and felt like it had been “made with love”, so I guess they've got their bases covered too.

By Cinabar