Food In The Fort

This Nestle product tastes and smells like Swiss Miss instant hot chocolate mix or the really cheap chocolate “flavored” Easter bunnies. If you’re craving chocolate, you would be hard-pressed to do worse. Needless to say, we didn’t like this one, which is kind of sad since Carlos looks like such a jovial monarch. We can only conclude that he has been corrupted by the high-pressure world of candy endorsements and forgotten his people. Viva la revolucion!

 This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here

These little pecan flavored toffees by Canel, while very tasty in a sort of old-fashionedy way, were not what you might expect. They are very hard and the pecan flavor is not strong at all. However, we liked them a lot and, if you’re not concerned about chipping the enamel on your teeth, you will too!

This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here.

If the long name and curiously Hispanic looking Bruce Lee don’t intimidate you, then the La Brea Tar Pits-like texture and chemically enhanced lemonosity will. Safety precautions are recommended as we needed to stab the package with a sharp knife to get it open. Once opened, the dog seemed to fear he would be sucked in, trapped and preserved for all eternity. He refused to have anything to do with the green jelly, instead retreating to the corner of the kitchen to eye us warily. As for the taste… Catherine described it as lemon-flavored Vegemite while Leo was reminded of a trip to the dental hygienist. Admittedly, the name is fun to say but you are advised to stay away. Stay far, far, away.

This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here.

This incredibly crumbly and cloyingly sweet, peanuty, marzipan-like treat is made by De la Rosa, a major Mexican candy manufacturer. Leo likes this stuff, as does my daughter (although she’s never actually eaten a whole one because it is so intensely sugary), but I find its sweetness overwhelming and its texture off-putting. Nevertheless, I must be in the minority since you can find it wherever Mexican candy is sold.

This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here.

A couple of weeks ago Catherine and I paid a visit to Dulceria Fiesta. You’re going to have to wait a little bit for our profile of this wonderful little Mexican candy store on Calhoun Street but while we were there we bought a giant bag of candy that we’ve been bravely working through all this time. And why would we subject ourselves to such a grueling regimen? Why, it’s all for you, dear reader so that you too can be prepared to sample the strange world of Mexican candy.

While the rest of the world gets by with boring old milk chocolate, caramel, nougat, berry flavors and gummi (soon to be listed as a new element on the periodic table my scientist friends tell me), Mexican candy dares to be different. When you enter a Mexican candy store, you enter a world where tamarind, mango, coconut, chili, and tabasco rule. Yes, you will find chocolate too but you might not recognize it as such. In fact, there will be plenty of unrecognizable ingredients. But that’s OK, because if you’re bold you’ll discover a whole new range of tastes that will be well worth traveling outside your comfort zone.

So follow along with us for the next few days for our Mexican Candy Shootout! Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday, April 12th you can sample the cooking of 70+ local businessmen, including Councilman Mitch Harper and Mark Carboni, all the while supporting a good cause. The Parkview Foundation’s Cookin’ Men 5 will be held 7 pm at Fort Wayne Memorial Colliseum, Expo 1. Proceeds of the charity event go to support Parkview Hospital and Francine’s Friends mobile mammography unit. If you’d like to reserve tickets give the Parkview Foundation a call.