Monthly Archives: April 2019

Ma-ka-rohn

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France

What’s this you say? That’s not the correct spelling of macaron. Well you are correct but that is the spelling of the company name that I got this box of assorted macarons from.

I was enticed to trying these because being originally a French confection so that put them squarely in the culinary-passport purview and they were colorful plus unusual flavors not to mention sprinkles and gold leaf. I had a lot buttons being pushed here people.

There were nine distinct flavors and all of them were quite sweet and most of them had additional qualities that made them worth mentioning. Two of the macarons were March specials and not on the card, there were the Irish coffee couplet in the back of the middle row and the Lucky Charms dark green one in the right hand row.

The Irish coffee tasted of coffee but not that much like whiskey but that’s ok it was still a favorite. Lucky Charms surprisingly tasted a bit like the cereal bits in the box but not so much like the charms so as you might imagine it didn’t rank among the top. It was sharing basement space with the Fruity Pebble macrons. I didn’t like them when I was a kid and that didn’t change by morphing them into a fancy cookie. Those flavors kept Pistachio from being the least favorite. It had a mild pistachio flavor but it was a nice color so it had that going for it.

The cotton candy and birthday cake both lived up to the names on first bite but the sweetness hit hard. The galaxy and brownie batter were both great and they had gold and silver shiny bits respectively. They shared their blinginess with the Ferrero Rocher macaron and all three had chocolaty goodness going for them. I expected more from the Ferrero Rocher but it really didn’t have much hazelnut flavor. In spite of that it was in the top half of the group.

If you want to try some interesting flavors you might not get at your local French bakery you can check these folks out at ma-ka-rohn.com. I’m glad I did but I think I’ll support the local bakery next time I have the urge for a macaron.

P.S. I tried something that falls squarely in the France category so I’m throwing this postscript on the blog.

I enjoy going to the grocery store Lidl, which is a German based grocer that often carries European sourced products. They have things you just don’t find in the domestic based stores. As I walked through the other day I saw they had this:

“James we don’t know what that is.” I hear you saying so let me tell you. Those are puff pastry stuffed with escargot topped with parsley garlic butter. Some of you are now gagging and others are going “Yum!”.

In spite of living in Geneva for almost 3 years and eating at more than one French restaurant in the many years since I’ve never tried these mobile home carrying slugs. I figured I might as well bite the bullet in the privacy of my own home in case I felt the need to regurgitate. After baking they came out looking interesting if not exactly appealing.

I steeled myself and tried the first one. It was almost a disappointment because I think I wanted it to be gross so I could feel justified in my years avoiding this garden pest. Turns out the puff pastry and garlic butter overpowered any flavor the snail might have had so the only contribution of the snail was a bit of chewiness in the center. The snail was like a fried clam or maybe a piece of calamari after it starts to cool down and get chewy.

Having cleared this hurdle I might try them in a restaurant in the future where I’m sure digging them from the shell with a tiny fork will be a treat.

Ukrainian Yum

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Ukraine

The March box of goodies hailed from the country of Ukraine and looked promising right off the bat with the amount of chocolate I could see. Before I get on to the snacks let me say that the little booklet that comes with this as well as the intro card are educational and interesting so if you have kids at home these boxes are educational as well as mostly delicious.

Now on to the goodies. The one I liked the best was a pack of little chocolate squares that had a caramel and cinnamon filling in the center.

I was kind of skeptical at first but the bitterness of the dark chocolate paired with the sweet caramel was a given winner and the hint of cinnamon was a very nice add in. The number two snack was also a chocolate based snack.

I had not read the description in the booklet and took this at face value expecting nothing more than a milk chocolate bar. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to have a creme brule center. That was the kind of unexpected good fortune that cements a high rating in the snack competition. Another surprise, without the same result, garnered the middle of this trio the weirdest snack title.

If you look closely you can see a dark spot in the center. The outside of this was like a cross between a jellied candy and a gummy worm and in the center was a viscous liquid artificially flavored core. There were a mix of flavors and none were bad per se but just an odd combination of textures and flavors. No the only bad snack was the hands down winner of the worst snack moniker.

I had mixed feelings going into this trial. When I saw the flavor was meat jelly I recalled the Russian snack that was meat jelly flavored and how unappealing that was. On the other hand I was hoping the novelty of the potato planks and horseradish might redeem it. My hope was for naught. These smelled disgusting as soon as the package was opened and the flavor was every bit as noxious as the Russian snack had been. It left a foul aftertaste and gave me heartburn even though I only powered through a couple of the chips.

There was another box of chips with dill and sour cream flavor and they at least redeemed the company’s name and let me enjoy the unique chip. I have to say I was digging the packaging and long slender potato crisps. They were kind of like Pringles in texture but a touch thinner. Very little wasted space unlike our 1/3 filled bags of chips.

Other snacks in the box included french fry shaped snacks made from corn with potato flakes added. Two varieties were included, one onion and one veal and adjka flavored. There was a pack of really nice caramels with a great dairy taste. For breakfast one morning I had the ham and mustard corn puffs. Aside from the little candies there was a big bar of dark chocolate with bits of dried fruit stuck to the outside.

Overall the box was a winner in spite of the meat jelly assault. I can’t wait to see what’s in the April box from Israel.