M&S Mini Eggs are bigger than Cadbury’s [@NLi10]

 This appears to be review 6,500 on this blog - that’s mad!

We’ve spent the weekend visiting relatives in Saltaire near Bradford, so consequently have done a bit of driving and a few cafe visits.

For the trip from the services I picked up a decent sized bag of Marks & Spencer’s Mini Eggs - £3 for 150g. Even radio 1 are saying it’s too early for mini eggs, but these aren’t Cadbury so I’m saying it’s fine.

And turns out they are chunkier too - must be a different breed. In fact, these are big enough that you could believe they are the size of small bird eggs.  We saw some luxury (chocolate) kingfisher eggs in one of the shops by the Brontë church but it was £15 for 12 which is a bit much just to eat in the car. 

I also declined the crisps that are literally just bacon, in a car with vegetarians it felt mean.

Sound nice though- more of a with olives kind of snack.

Also had a Polish blueberry thing in Saltaire itself

Great stuff. It has a lot of arty cafes, and lots of actual David Hockney art

Like this bigger wonkier chair.

Even the Costa services on the way back were happy to give me some kind of pistachio slice which was sold as Dubai style but can’t have been as it wasn’t double the price of the other cakes. Like a shredded wheat nest slice. - which was good

And I had a Spanish coffee which had some kind of custard at the bottom

A bit sweet, and quite nice but I don’t think I’d need to have another of the hot ones - maybe I’ll try the iced one 

A fun night away, but a lot of sugar and snacks.

Mesi Kapp - Estonian Choco Snack [@NLi10]

My partners sister picked these up in Estonia - this cheerful guy is. Mess-Kapp!

He’s a no nonsense rodent of some kind, and has four chocolate snacks.

I mean- probably - but Google lense does help

Milk bars with wafer

Choc bar with waffle

Cocoa bar in chocolate 

And a waffle candy

I had the double chocolate first

The top bit just means bars? Very odd

Very nice though!

The wafer one was less special 

No less nice though ~ and pretty sweet!

Overall, unusually high quality for holiday snacks and ones I’d buy again if I saw.

Cakes From The Lakes at the Sawmill [@NLi10]

 We are still in the Lake District so today hopped on the Wasdale Express (a free bus!) up to the lake and to the snacks.

Needless to say we got a bit wet

It's all part of the fun though - we had the right gear and this photo was actually taken about 100m away from a lovely warm pub that sold us cider and sandwiches

The bus dropped us off at this little centre which had the sawmill café, a bigger car park and some accommodation

They also sold all the cakes from the lakes range - which was most welcome with a lovely warm cup of tea.

Even our new sheepy friend enjoyed it.

They do a lot of lovely locally made exotic things, but a simple tiffin was required to get our energy levels back up

And the cafe overlooked a river (being an old saw-mill) and gives me the opportunity to prove we dried off (my cap is still damp though).

A lovely day with only a little walking but loads of scenery to appreciate.

The many colours of Costa Rica (black & purple ice-cream?!) [@NLi10]

 We've been in Costa Rica for 3 weeks which meant it was very hard to blog (I didn't take my mini keyboard) but I ate a lot of odd and fantastic things - and many of them were very vividly coloured! 

A lot of the food colours are banned by the EU because they send some kids a bit wild - so when a European visits the Americas they see some new sights.

Here we have the Black & Purple ice-cream - and the flavours were listed as Cahuita Special (black) and Exotic (Purple) which doesn't explain much.

They were both sorbets - so dairy free - so I figured it was worth the risk.

And they were both essentially fruitiness.  The black had a deep fruity flavour, with the exotic having a familiar blend of dragon-fruit and maybe Lychee in there which actually balanced it out nicely.

My partner had the traditional dairy versions - which melted a lot faster and was funny to watch - she had coconut & chocolate.

Lovely little place - right outside a national park - and frankly the ices didn't need to be anywhere near as high quality or decent taste as they were - and the prices were fair too!

As a contrast I saw these iced teas at a nature reserve and had the black one to try

It was just very expensive, weak black tea! Can't win them all.

Takis or Taqueritos - Costa Rica Style [@nli10]

 Ola from Costa Rica!

We are over here for a few weeks trying all the local foods, but also finding familiar friends. They get original recipe Takis Fuego here! A lot of the English stores are using oddly muted imports, but here the lime and fire is in tact - and it has competition 

The biggest seems to be Taqueritos (which may even predate Takis) and it’s a fairly close contest. The flavours are similar enough, but the texture and crunch is much harder (like a Nik Nak) so some will prefer these

They appear to have a lot of the flavours here too so if I can find normal supermarkets and pay under 1000 colones per bag (£1.50) then I might try more - but it’s far too hot really!

OG on the left, crunchy versions on the right.

Cornwall Holiday Treats - Orange Shortbread & Eton Mess Waffle Pot (@NLi10)

Holiday time is here again, and in the special Gloucester services on the way down to Cornwall I had a giant Orange shortbread and a lovely Gusto Cola.

Look at all the lovely botanical sediments!

We have more of these at home but i've not got around to writing about them.

We also picked up a HUGE Birthday cake for later today (shhh).

While out walking earlier in Wadebridge we fancied a snack so I went big and ordered the Eton Mess Waffle

Super luxurious portion of my 5 a day - and interestingly Gelato but I loved it!