Showing posts with label sweets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sweets. Show all posts

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Nutella Consumption Guide




Nutella! My favourite source of chocolatey goodness. 

Nutella has been produced since 1964, and if you want to read more about that kind of thing the Wiki article is here

Ferrero were sued last year, because "Nutella's misleading promotion led consumers to believe that Nutella carries nutrutional and health benefits, marketing it as part of a nutritional breakfast" but to the Fererro family $3m is nothing so they took it in their stride, and contnue to produce the pure chocolate ecstasy that is their hazelnut spread.

If you believed that liquid chocolate was part of a nutritious breakfast you deserve a slap for being a fool. Nutella, in all it's delicious awesomeness, doesn't have to be a source of nutrition to make it to people's breakfast / lunch / dinner tables, computer desks and small tables next to the sofa for perfect access while playing video games.

I have in the past not answered a phone call on more than one occasion because I was wrist deep in a jar of Nutella, and well.. priorities.. 

750g jar of Nutella
Anything less than a 750g jar is easy work in a mere hour or two, sometimes minutes, so obviously the 750g is the best way to go, and if you are not sure where to find this happiness in a jar, check your local supermarket, E-Mart, Costco and Sainsbury's have it for sure as that is where I go to feed my addiction. 

Consumption Guide! :D

Preparation:
You will need a knife, a spoon, and freshly thouroughly washed hands.

I suggest settling in front of the TV or computer or wherever you watch things, and put on your favourite TV show or anime series for eating this (doesn't matter what it is, the taste of Nutella even negated the gore I was exposed to while watching "The Walking Dead".) as getting up and moving around can impede the consumption process, (although if you have access to this than you can get over that problem). 

They suggest breakfast as a good time to eat Nutella, but that is way too limiting, and I rarely eat breakfast. Especially now I am unemployed breakfast = lunch anyway. Sometimes eating while playing games can be OK  but you will need both hands or the great speed and coordination to lick a spoon clean in seconds while simultaneously gripping a 750g jar between your knees and holding a console controller in the other hand (I have this coordination).

1st Stage of Nutella Eating
It all starts in a reasonably civilised way, with a nice loaf of bread or a crumpet, and a knife for application. When you run out of bread, progress to the 2nd stage.

2nd Stage

At the 2nd stage only a spoon is needed, often at this point you get thirsty so you need a glass of water at hand for this stage. Scoop mountains of Nutella out with the spoon, the more you can actually pile on the spoon the less energy you will have to waste dipping the spoon in the jar. It's all about efficiency.




After the 2nd stage you will start to find that the spoon comes back less than completely coated more often and then you need to progress to the 3rd Stage.

3rd Stage

The next stage requires one to revert to ones most basic hunter gatherer skills, the gathering eating part mainly. Before one undertakes in this part of the eating stage, although I am sure that most people would have done so already, washing your hands is essential because licking unwashed hands can lead to all kinds of sickness. 

The use of ones finger will result in the removal of all but a small trace of chocolate love from the jar. I find it is better to keep a fingernail short for this purpose, as getting chocolate out from under nails can be difficult and result in tongue cuts.


As you can see the jar opening is just wide-enough to allow an adult hand to get in there. I see this as the makers of Nutella encouraging us not to waste any of this chocolatey goodness.

I hope this guide can help you to enjoy Nutella.



(NB: Excessive consumption of Nutella could possibly lead to high sugar related disease like diabetes and obesity, and in my case eczema outbreaks but I think think there is anything wrong with a treat every now and again!!!)

Monday, 21 January 2013

Beware the non-sour sour Skittles!

As a sugar addict being in Korea was a blessing and a curse at the same time. Most of the sweets and chocolate, cookies, cupcakes, flapjacks, brownies, cakes etc. that I used to snack on in England were either absent or tasteless replicas in Seoul. 

I thought the cakes were generally kinda tasteless, and bread was always sweet. Of course if you wanted to spend big bucks and go to a specialist bakery it was possible, but I don't think you should have to pay through the nose for a loaf that isn't sweet tasting, when as far as I knew bread wasn't supposed to be sweet and cakes weren't supposed to be bland. Koreans often commented when eating cake with me, "oh.. this is too sweet" and I often wanted to point out that, as a cake covered in chocolate, it is supposed to be sweet, however I just put it down to cultural difference and held my tongue. 

Cupcakes were the biggest fail there, even cupcakes from shops that were dedicated to only making cupcakes. If I went to the right places and searched enough I could find really great bread, cheesecakes were almost always delicious, brownies were great, but cupcakes were always terrible, without fail, no matter how pretty they looked, or how expensive they were. There were cupcakes that looked really fluffy and well made, and every time I bought one I felt like I was cheated into buying something tasteless.

I really liked Korean snacks though, with rice cake (떡) being one of my favourites, 



and in the summer ice-flakes topped with fruit and sweets, sometimes nuts and cereal (삥수) was a nice snack, especially if the ice was flavoured. Bingsu also often contained rice cake although the toppings varied from place to place.

Cafe bene's bingsu

Found this bingsu in a google search and now I really want one.


That aside, I noticed a difference in one of my favourite sweets; 'Skittles'. 

Anyone who is serious about E numbers and sugar knows the really good Skittles are the sour ones. 
But when I bought sour Skittles overseas I noticed they have a sour coating but the actual Skittle isn't sour at all! What a con!

"Sour Skittles"
"Skittles Crazy Sours"

The lack of my favourite sweets etc. also probably contributed to the huge loss of weight I experienced when I first moved abroad, and was not a terrible thing. However now I am surrounded with all these treats again can I hold back?

Where can I find bingsu in London......??  (ㅡㅂㅡ)/