"The Fab Fair"- SD Fair 2014 Part 2 - The Food

As promised, the SD Fair Food Post but be warned that it's not as exciting since we didn't really indulge in the more outlandish items...

Aaaah...the calm before the storm...

Bert and I perused the different booths before deciding on our first "snack" of the day...

Watermelon Oreos & other wierd flavored snacks

A week or so ago, we were in Target in the Convoy area looking for some bandaids.

While Bert went off to the first aid section, I headed towards the snacks where I saw and eventually bought the Watermelon Oreo cookies...

They're baaaaack....

After much hoopla and all that crap about bankruptcy...

It's the return of these...

I wonder if that's a good thing or not?  For junk food lovers, it would be the former. For the granola/slow food/farm fresh/holier than thou healthy food freaks, we're all going to hell in a handbasket if we even gaze upon these cellophane wrapped monsters...

But hey, I'll take my chances...

Free Slurpee Day 2013

Hey now...

It's that time of year again...

"Game On!" - The SD Fair, Part 2 - The Food

We saw the sights!

Now it's time for the food!

Snacks and gifts...

This is why it's awesome to have friends who are into food just as much as you are...

It's always lovely to receive gifts of food...

Pringles Limited Edition flavor...

While at Wal-Mart today, we found a flavor of Pringles we'd never seen before...it reminded me of this classic SNL skit...

Well, after seeing that, that flavor could only be...

Return to Otay Farms Market

After our lunch at Boll Weevil, we headed just a short distance up the 5 to the Main St. exit. Hang a right on Broadway and you will see this...

I wanted to see if they had still had a particular potato chip flavor...

More odds and endz...

Just a few random photos from the past month or so...

These were unusual flavored sodas I bought from the new Bev Mo last month - Pineapple Coconut Nutmeg (not a fan, I was), and a really intense blueberry soda.

I would have liked the fruit soda better without that nutmeg taste in my mouth...Ugh!

A compendium of random photos...

I've got quite a few photos lurking in my files that are pretty random and don't really warrant a full post.

Retro Bubble Up that Bert was compelled to get at Marukai Living, of all places...

These were in the "Hawaiian" section

SD Fair 2012 - The Food!

We were able to attend the SD Fair this year (thanks Darlene and Cathy!)...

It was our lucky day. No traffic on the way up. Easy and FREE parking at the Horse Park. Got there by 10 am and in by 10:15 through the Will Call gate.

Oh, and the SD Fair didn't open until 11 am, so yay special tickets!

This post will focus on all the crap food we tried...part 2 will feature the exhibits...

McBite this...

It's been so long since I've been at bad ol' Mickey D's.

I had some time to kill before going to TC's soccer game..

"The Secret World of Arrietty"

This past weekend, I took TC and her friend (the younger neighbor girl) to see the new Studio Ghibli film, "The Secret World of Arrietty"...

This was the Japanese remake of Mary Norton's classic children's book, "The Borrowers" which was first published in 1952 and later made into a made for TV movie in 1973 (which I vaguely remember)...

Health food? Au contraire mon frere...

When there's salt and pepper wings, you know it's a Filipino partay!

Our daughter's dance troupe recently held the annual Christmas party and gift exchange (Secret Santa for the kids and White Elephant for the adults)...

Food Fair

Recently, the students had a food fair at the school. All the different clubs sell a variety of food items (mostly junk food) like Tostilocos, Carne Asada Fries, Lumpia, Krispy Kreme Donuts, In-n-Out Burger, Ice Cream, and so on...

Of course I had to ""the clubs so my co-worker and I perused the tables for our lunch...

Tutti Frutti and snacks

[Update - This place is now closed as of 5/2012]

Sometime last week I had to run a few errands with TC. We rarely go out on a weeknight so this was a special treat...

We were also quite lucky the girl working at Tutti Frutti let us use this coupon...

The SD Fair 2011

We had a blast yesterday at the San Diego Fair (it will always remain the Del Mar Fair to me)...

This year's theme, "Race to the Fair"...well, since I'm not really into cars and shit, I didn't bother checking out the car exhibit. Look at the statue of Don Diego, all dressed up! I love how they change him up every year!

We were able to get in EARLY (20 minutes) courtesy of our Media/Sponsor passes (thanks Darlene!) and practically waltz through the Credentialed gate (next to Will Call)...

McD's...

Hey, I'm not above an occasional visit to the devil chain known as McD's...this was a recent fundraiser for TC's school.  As soon as we walked in, the smell of fried STUFF filled the air. Plus it was chock full of noisy kids. Not a pleasant place to be, for antisocial me at least.

Stuff bought at Foodland

Time to unload our packages from the store...

Here's those cool milk in a bag things. Farquhar's Milk for C's family:

C bought us some Ringolos and Compliments brand cream soda (I belive it's the store brand for Foodland). Now, whenever I think of cream soda, I think of A and W and the soda is kind of a beige color, for lack of a better description. C has only known cream soda to be pink. When I see pink soda I think of those artificially flavored Strawberry Nehi's or something but not cream soda. The cream soda was super sweet. I kept thinking it would taste fruit flavored because of the color. I just can't get over that bright pink color!

I had to include this. Not only does C make her own maple syrup, but she also makes her own vanilla extract. It's easier to make than syrup - I believe it's just vanilla bean pods steeped in brandy.

I thought this was a rather nice gesture. One of C's friend's (whom I met earlier that afternoon, although very briefly) gave our family a bag of Nana's Kettle Corn; the brand is based out of Sudbury (a town two hours away and off the island). The snack was enjoyed while we were at the airport and on our last day in Toronto.

C insisted that I try these Dare Maple Cookies. I ended up buying several packages to give as gift to friends. I really liked these cookies. Later, I found out from Lotus that Trader Joe's had a similar product but when I tried their version, it wasn't quite as good as Dare's. I liked these so much that I ended up buying some off amazon.com to give as gifts (I love giving food/candy/snacks as gifts by the way). I noticed there were a ton of maple flavored EVERYTHING in the store.

All right, here's those Ketchup flavored Pringles. A very interesting flavor but one that I'd rather eat than something that's dill pickle or vinegar flavored. The ketchup powder was also very very red, which I liked.

Of course, I had to stock up on some candy too. These were 4-packs of Aero bars (the chocolate with bubbles in it), the highly addicting Coffee Crisps,  and one box of the Junior Caramels for Bert. I was told that buying only one bar of Coffee Crisp would not be enough and it was better to buy them in bulk! C has been my, uh "supplier" this past year. I have about 1 1/2 packs left from her.

This was a Mirage candy bar and two kinds of Kit Kat. The Mirage bar is manufactured by Nestle and is related to the Aero bar in that it also has a bubble texture. This flavor happened to be milk chocolate. I bought it mainly for TC because she likes milk chocolate more than the dark. Speaking of dark chocolate, I loved that version of Kit Kat Noir here. That's pretty hard to find in San Diego. The other was a Kit Kat Senses bar; these were not the wafer sticks but rather an actual bar with hazelnuts inside.

Maynards bagged candies - The Fuzzy Peaches and the Sour Gummy Worms. I liked the worms the best, especially the pink and blue ones (better than the orange and green striped). The flavors were nice and sour with that gritty sugary coating. 

This Van Houtte Coffee was for Bert; the brand is based in Montreal.

And yes, more of that Coffee Crisp! This has got to be my favorite candy from Canada!

This "nice light snack" (as seen on the package)  is not really nice healthwise though. It's over 200 calories and has a ton of transfats in it. There's something about wafer bars that I really really like. These are much bigger and thicker than, say a Kit Kat (also a wafer bar). There's more heft in the coffee crisp. If you like a light coffee flavor, this bar has that. It's also a big sized bar. It's not easy to bite gracefully either like those thinner candy bars. But I figure, who cares about looking dainty when you're horking down one of these, right?  I haven't really seen these here in San Diego, but a fellow blogger commented that she'd seen them at Fry's. So I guess I will be checking out Fry's really soon to see if they have that!  C, if you're reading this, send me that package soon! Ha ha! Strawberry Pocky for you and Coffee Crisp for me!

Readers, do you have any favorite snacks/candy's that really like? U.S. or foreign brands?

Foodland in Mindemoya

Because I love going to grocery stores during vacation, C thought it would be a good idea to check out Island Foodsin downtown Mindemoya.

I loved their covered shopping cart return, just like Super H-Mart in Niles!

Yes, thank you very much!

OMFG - French Crush (okay, Canadian, but it's in French!). Raisin is "grape" and "soda mousse" is creme soda.

Maynards brand candies. You can also find some of them here at North Park Produce. The name "wine gums" doesn't sound appetizing to me. Sounds like a gross dental problem. I picked up the Fuzzy Peaches and some sour gummy worms for TC.

Mini bagged versions of various candy bars.

Smarties are the UK equivalent of M 'n M's. Personally, I like the more varied color palette (they have a periwinkle color and pink too!) but the taste is a bit too chalky and not as chocolatey as M 'n M's.

Ooh, "Os de Poulet" aka "chicken bones" by Canadian brand, Robertson's Candy. Remember to pronounce all of the French words in an exaggerated Maurice Chevalier accent. R'oh r'oh r'oh! Ugh, chocolate and cinnamon hard candies.

Man, they fkg love Ketchup flavored chips over here! From Lay's to Pringles and Old Dutch. Of course, I picked up a can of these Pringles! You know, for "research". I liked the tomato powder on those chips!

Old Dutch brand chips. Check out the Dill Pickle flavor. Ugh, I just cringed. And hey yo, what do you know? They have KETCHUP! I remember seeing Old Dutch popcorn and pretzels at the Walmart in Wisconsin Dells.

Humpty Dumpty brand snacks is a Canadian company. "In 2006, the company was acquired in a takeover bid by Old Dutch Foods. Many Humpty Dumpty products were rebranded as Old Dutch Foods on the potato chips side, whereas other snacks such as Ringolos retained the Humpty Dumpty name." (info from wikipedia's entry on "Humpty Dumpty")

Speaking of Ringolos, here they are. C picked up a bag for us. These are like corn chips, but in ring form. I think C said she used to put them on her fingers when she was younger and eat them.

For Bert, I picked up some Junior Caramels, which I'd never seen before. Junior Mints yes, but not Junior Caramels. They tasted kind of waxy to me, but he liked them.

Here's something I haven't seen before either, milk in a bag. The dairy company, Lord Farquad Farquhar's is local to Manitoulin Island.

After having a field day spazzing and  checking all of the Canadian and French brands of foods, we finally headed back to pick up Bert and TC from the Kicking Mule Ranch.

I had a total blast checking out the store.  The snacks flavors were so different than what I'm used to. Same with the soda flavorsI also love how everyone knows each other here. Whenever I was introduced to a local, I was described as "my friend from California"! Time to head back to C's.