Marine Boy [review by @NLi10]

Ah - the snack-log. The large pile of unconvincing things that I've never gotten around to reviewing that March onwards towards their best before date.  Today's offering to the gods of suspicious foods is Marine Boy. I totally bought this because of the cool box, and then thought about how I'm not really a fan of fish.

I'd hoped they were seaweed cracker style things but a quick read of the Polish writing suggested that they were very fishy indeed. So I put them in a draw for a year or so.

I'd long ago opened the box and found the cool battleships game to play. The packaging certainly doesn't disappoint.  Today I was feeling adventurous, and realised that there was only a month left on the BBE so I ripped them open. 

They are quite inflated and very reminiscent of crisps that I liked as a child that are no doubt now banned in the UK due to the fat content per gram.  They were lovely and crunchy too - and the texture was quite nice.  The flavour was as suspected very fishy indeed. I'd go as far to say that it's practically scampi crisps.

It's not an artificial fishy flavour either. Those that aren't fans of the fish market didn't like them at all, those that love that kind of things ate them by the handful.

My love of the crisps only let me get about 8 into the bag before I gave up and donated them to those that loved the idea.

Not a surprising result, but actually a well made snack that is no doubt really popular somewhere on the globe.

Granny Goose Tortillos Barbecue Flavoured Corn Snacks (Pinoy Foods) [By @SpectreUK]

The Philippines are having a rough time of it at the moment with their latest tropical storm, so I thought I'd do a blog about one of their favourite snack foods. It stated on the bag that these Granny Goose Tortillos Barbecue Flavored Corn Snacks are made from the "finest ingredients", but one could be mistaken that some of them had been grown in a laboratory. Not a good start to the blog I know, but I'm a big fan of natural ingredients so looking at the back of the bag had been my first mistake. Hopefully there would be no others. Although it did state; "Outrageously crispy, perfectly spicy and totally smokey", which encouraged me a little. So I flipped back to the front of the bag and noticed the rather nice picture of well rounded Tortillos. They say being able to draw a perfect circle is a sign of madness... Well, never mind. It did state that these Tortillos were "rolled extra thin for extra flavor" and extra crispness I presumed, as I desperately tried to ignore the missing "u" in the word "flavour"!

On eventually opening the rather tough bag with the aid of my snack-worn teeth rather than my pathetic grip since my recent shoulder operation, I noted the delicious sweet and smokey barbeque smell from the not so rounded Tortillos. Excellent start, not only had I found out from opening the bag that Granny Goose wasn't "crackers" from perfect round Tortillos making, but she could produce a barbeque smell that made me want to stop writing and start eating. Pouring the huge bag out into a bowl seemed a good start. These Tortillos were indeed crispy crunchy and moreish. Once I'd started eating them it was difficult to stop and get back to my lunchtime sandwich. They had a sweet barbeque spice and a light smokiness that made my mouth water, whereas some Tortillos can dry my mouth out. They didn't taste like they had been grown in a test tube either, they had a healthy feeling crunchiness that made me forget the ingredients as I munched away. I reckon these Tortillos would be the perfect accompaniment infront of a good movie with a light beer or two or three...

Information on the packet;
100g bag. Manufactured by Universal Robina Corporation, Philippines. Ingredients are fortified with iron and included; corn vegetable oil, yeast extract, spices, silicon dioxide, caramel, sugar, iodised salt, hydrolysed vegetable protein, tricalcium phosphate, maltodextrin, monosodium glutamate, and ferrous sulcate.

By Spectre

Image On Food - Gingerbread (@Imageonfood) [By @Cinabar]

Image On Food specialise in gingerbread, and very kindly me sent me a couple of their christmas goodies to write about. I have to say I was rather impressed by their packaging, the gingerbread comes in a protective box all wrapped up with pretty red bow. Each item of gingerbread is hand decorated, and absolutely stunning.

We and the gingerbread man and a christmas elf, and both looked fabulous. The gingerbread base has a lovely texture to it, there is a crunch, but it isn’t overly hard gingerbread and there is a slight give and softness in the centre. The taste has a good balance of sweetness and ginger, with enough spice to be warm without being hot.
The icing flavour was nice too, it was more noticeable on the elf as there was more of it, and it was pleasingly thick and sweet. I have to admit I felt kind of guilty breaking parts of the gingerbread men and elf off to eat, but not gulty enough to stop me!! :-D

We have a competition running to win a beautiful gingerbread hamper from Image On Food, click here to enter (but get your entries in quickly): http://www.foodstufffinds.co.uk/2014/11/competition-imageonfood-christmas.html

The Image On Food website can be found here, there are all sorts of gingerbread goodies, and they even do personalised items too, if you are looking for an extra special gift: http://www.imageonfood.co.uk

By Cinabar

Competition - Win a Brain Box Candy Apron and Tea Towel (@brainboxcandy)

The lovely folks from Brain Box Candy have got in touch and have offered up this fabulous competition prize to Foodstuff Finds readers. They specialise in making all sorts of fun cards and novelty items, perfect for gifts at this time of year. They all have a fun sense of humour, and the slogans will make you smile.
Have a look on their website to see what I mean: http://brainboxcandy.com
If you want the chance to get your hands on an Apron and Tea Towel from their site, simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good Luck!!

Terms/Conditions
• A winners will be chosen at random
• UK residents only
• If we can’t get in touch with each winner in a reasonable amount of time to obtain an address another winner will be selected
• If you have any questions about this competition, please send me an email or leave a comment below

Jus-Rol Pan Au Chocolat (Sainsburys) [By @Cinabar]

Having had such a brilliant success making Jus-Rol Cinnamon Swirls, I thought I’d explore the range a little further and found these Jus-Rol Pan Au Chocolat. These are a chilled product and contain all you need to make six Pan Au Chocolats in around twenty minutes. Despite being from the refrigerated section the use by date was still a good couple of weeks away, so you can keep them in the fridge until needed.

Inside the box was the Jus-Rol tin I’ve become accustomed to, and a pack of chocolate sticks. The most complicated part of the Jus-Rol process is opening the tins, You have to pull at the red tab and watch it unwrap and split open in the middle, and then prise the rest apart. Once you do you get a roll of dough which you then unroll. The pieces are perforated and split into six sections.

Following the instruction you add two chocolate sticks to each piece at the ends and roll them inwards until they meet int the middle. Turn them upside down and place them on a baking tray and then you bake them for 12 minutes (or until golden).

They smelt lovely while they were cooking, and ours took just over the 12minutes to look like they were golden and done. We let them cool a little while, but still tucked in while they were warm. The pastry was spot on, crisp but the all the layers made them fluffy too. The flavour was very rich and buttery, and the chocolate was perfect, gooey but dark with lots of flavour. Again these were a total success and so quick to make. I enjoyed them so much I was scouring the supermarket website to see what else they do. I’ve added the Apple Danish kit to next week’s shop!

By Cinabar