Black Snacks Matter #BlackLivesMatter (by @NLi10)

There is a lot of history happening at the moment.  With the virus (which I'm directly involved in due to counting numbers for the NHS) I know what to say (stay local, stay safe) and what to do.  With the other thing, the race thing, it's not as clear.

Whether it's the place of a white, Anglo-Irish snack food critic to advise about the problems facing Black communities isn't really up for debate - it's not my area of expertise or experience at all.  But as my wrestler friends have shown - if you have a platform (no matter how small) then use it for good.

Black Lives Matter

Snacks are an odd place when it comes to nationality and stereotypes.  We've reviewed lots of food with 'Jamaica' or 'Caribbean' in the name that have very little to do with those places.  There are lots of local stores which have all kinds of import goods from Black backgrounds - I do love some of the drinks and we've eaten in Summit on the Dudley Road (Birmingham is great for multiculturalism) although its always very welcoming I've never been brave enough to try the Sexy Juice (pineapple) or Irish Moss (seaweed?).  I need to remedy this.

Shamefully I've not really found many African snacks (does Guinness Malt count?), but I've eaten in a lot of the local restaurants.  I need to make a special effort to go more often.

There is a definite Middle Eastern tilt to the food shops nearest me (especially Persian/Egyptian) and I've not really been in as much as I should.  I know the Iranian lemon kebabs are great but what about all the other scary stuff?

I think the point I'm trying to make is that we can all do better.  We can all talk to new people from different cultures and say "what's good" or even "I'm new, What should I try first?".

Business have been hit hard by the Covid (and will continue to be so - this isn't over - not by a long shot) and a little local friendliness can go a long way towards not only showing that you are interested in other people and their cultures, but that you value all colours of your community.

wasabi - Vegetable Gyoza (@NLi10)

Sainsbury's often have lots of fun little snacks - and here is one of those that we saved for a tasty weekend lunch.

Wasabi is an odd choice for a brand name seeing as it's free in literally every meal kit - but the branding is clean and the packaging very good so we will give them a pass.

Inside the compostable cardboard tray are 5 sweet little gyoza and a sachet of sauce.

These are veggie - and you can zip them in the microwave for a minute which makes them very lunch friendly.  The sachet oppened terribly and went everywhere, but I'd already spotted that the dressing is soy sauce mixed with rice vinegar so I made my own too.

They are still crispy after microwaving, and the veggies inside are recognisable.

And the weather was lovely so we say and ate them outside.  I'd certainly have these again and try more from the brand, but it's not exactly something you can Google to look for!

Tesco Chilli & Lime Nibble Mix (@NLi10)

It seems to be pub snacks week on FoodStuffFinds. For me - I’ve not really been out this week, and I have a pub party on Zoom in 30 mins so I’m getting in the mood.

We’ve had these for ages, probably a year or more, just sitting in the kitchen waiting patiently.

They are peanuts and cashews, but also soy and chilli and lime coating - not ideal for board games which involve touching the pieces. This is why they got neglected. Perfect for a nice beer though.

Here Luna majestically presides over the snacks, having already decided that they are not for cats. 

The cashews have absorbed the flavour a lot, very soft and lovely. The peanuts are un exciting. The soy is maybe a little dry, but if you go for the ones with more topping on the outside are actually the highlight.

Great for the cinema (or movies at home) as well as beer nights.  I will have to top up before the call!

DOX - Prague, Art & VIGO Kombucha (@Nli10)

A short trip out of town on the underground, DOX is an absolutely lovely art place.  It took me three attempts to find the front door though, but I think that was the heat and my heady bag messing with me.

To say the Cafe is well stocked would be an understatement!

It's safe to say that had I been staying close I'd have tried all of these - heck if it wasn't for the fact I was going to the airport after this I'd have stocked up on glassware!

I'd never seen Vigo Kombucha before - so I chose the ACAI flavour and discovered that they have decided to go with the health angle.

Some of these claims are very vague guys!  As someone with an overactive immune system do I want to consult a doctor before I drink this? Of course not! It's water and fermented tea - while I don't doubt that it helps fuel my 'friendly bacteria' I think that the fact you put a load of vitamins in it is the main way it'd help someone (but only if they are deficient in those things already!)

Thing is - it tasted great and has the pleasant tingly sensation that I love.  I'd drink more of these given the chance - and luckily the flights to Prague are quite cheap (the tax was more than the flights) so maybe I'll be back one day.

Soup & Nuggets & Beer in Czechia (@NLi10)

Sticking to local drinks I had my customary large beer - after all it was a very hot day.

And then I ordered the very hot, local style soup which I think annoyed the kitchen as they took a while to come with it.  Guess that only tourists have the soup in almost 40 degree heat.

Good though, the meat is hiding here, and the veggies and flavours were all good.

And for main I had the schnitzel style thing although they looked a little more like chicken nuggets than I'd expected.  All good and very filling though.  Maybe I should stray from the bars into more traditional restaurants if I make it back.

Iberian Eurovision 2 - Peri Peri crisps & Chocolate (@LidlUK) by @NLi10

Today we return to our Eurovision haul, on the day that Britain goes to the polls to send some politicians (and some clueless populists) to sit in the EU parliament.

This time - crisps!

Peri Peri is still very popular due to Nandos and these have a nice flavour to them but they are less spicy than Medium.

They are made in the UK which I'm fine with, the spices probably aren't.  They are also vegan friendly which is nice.

Decent second tier crisps too - not quite Kettle Chips, but not Walkers.  And mostly they were intact for maximum crunch.

This was also intact.

Look at those lovely sliced up tiffin-style fingers (in front of the Italian entry that came 2nd)

They didn't slice ours for us though - its one chonky block!!

Adding violence produces something similar to a rice-rispy cake and it's very easy to eat a lot in one sitting!  It's big enough to share though.

And that's Eurovision over for another year.  Neon shutter shades now have to be stored away, ready for next year's voting controversies in Amsterdam.

Iberian Eurovision part 1 - Spanish bread & olives (@LidlUK) by @NLi10

We love EuroVision.  Even with it's vote swapping jurys and our delegations insistence on sending media students instead of viable acts.  It's all about coming together with friends and celebrating diversity.

Lidl had a big range of Iberian snacks with lovely bright packaging and exotic names. 

So - with neon glasses on - we are ready for Eurovision 2019!

First up we tried the tomato and oregano toast.  It's like a pizza without the cheese, and much crunchier.

Just like the neon shades the bread isn't as exciting in person - but it does taste great.  The tomato is more like a soup flavour than the fruit so I suspect they have tweaked it a little, but it tastes fab!  

There are more of these left to eat and I'm looking forwards to them which shows that they are decently compelling snacks, if only bread and tomato.

We also had a mighty jar of olives!

This represents 22 servings of olives, but we got no where near this far as these are 'whole' with stones and not chopped and stuffed and marinated like the other olives on the table were!

One for further investigation in the future then, but largely untouched on the night.

Mini Dinosaurus - Choc Biscuits (@NLi10)

We talked last time about one kind of Portuguese Dinosaur Biscuit - now lets look at a second!

These are basically crunchy shortbread dinosaurs, called Dinosaurus so they can trademark it, and probably have  acute advert with jingles.

There also appears to be an app that i'll never try.  The captions for all the dinosaurs refer to how tasty they are and how short their lives will be.

Individually sealed for freshness (and lunchboxes again - I think I shopped in the school section).

Graphed out in a RARR-chart this bag is heavy on the T-Rex and low on everything else.  I'd not spotted there was a reverse T-Rex too - makes me wonder if there are rare mirror versions of them all.  My first bag was mostly Stegosaurus and as the best dinosaur that was a pretty good treat.

They taste chocolaty and like many of the churches we visited in Faro were pretty Moorish.

Not one for adults to necessarily hunt out, but a reasonable option and very easy to finish a bag in one sitting.

Biscuits with print on them - Portugal (by @NLi10)

Finally! We escaped from the anglicised resorts into real Portugal (Faro) and found some genuine Portugese things to buy.  Granted they look a lot like the rest of that part of Europe, but there are at least some interesting things.

Behold - the biscuits section!

These are clearly designed to stuff into the lunchboxes of children, but we don't care.  Your tie-in two-way marketing is valid here sirs!

As well as the typical things (look - FINAS is thins!) there are  lot of Dinosaurs which is fine with me.

And Tosta Rica seems to be a popular brand - so let us snack at their intersection.  

Wait - these aren't the biscuits we are looking for - these are Salad biscuits with Star Wars characters on them? You're tearing me apart George Lucas!

That's better.  Safely on a bus we can eat our Jurassic World split choc biscuits.  They have puffy light biscuit on top and bottom, and not that exciting creme in the middle.

And they are of course lunch box sized.

Here we see a generic carnivore - probably a T-Rex

Here is a Cupasaurus called Dario.  I'll bet these are the ones from their adverts that show up on all the branded ranges.

The dinosaurs have certainly left their mark.

And they are nice - crispy enough to be satisfying, creme enough to not need a drink - and more importantly they don't melt in the sun!

They also have other brand tie ins as we found out later in the trip

Spiderverse is really good - if you can still catch it in a cinema do so! The recent JP films, not so much.  The biscuits however are perfect for travelling snacks.

Lipton Matcha - And other Portuguese drinks (@NLi10)

Look at the tiny Strongbow! It almost looks civilised. Almost. Still tastes like Strongbow though, so never mind. There was a fruit one too, but I’ll save those for the Wrestling shows. Effective thirst quencher.

Over in Portugal Captain Birdseye has conveniently changed to Captain Iglo. Maybe he’s hiding from Interpol.

 

 Still in the supermarket we find a huge stash of Lipton teas. While they are Eurotrash compared to the Asian brewed teas these will do on a hot day - especially when there are new flavours to try.

 I think I maybe should have got two smaller ones for the contrast, but we just went for the green matcha. This was the Yuzu version.

Unfortunately the percentage of Matcha was so low that the percentage in my blood is probably usually higher (not on holiday, I’m getting Jasmine Tea withdrawal symptoms). Still, it’s their nice if not a bit watery green tea so has its own charms and keeps the dehydration away. I mean I’ve got some sunburn, but that’s not the drinks fault.  And we located some actual snacks too!

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...