|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 19, 2021 6:22:54 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Mar 19, 2021 14:01:22 GMT
Do you have a heart doctor on speed dial?
|
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Mar 19, 2021 23:48:25 GMT
Kerouac was this from a website? If so, I would be interested in it. I remember years ago seeing a site that had treats from around the world but could never find it again.
|
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 20, 2021 16:05:43 GMT
Indeed it was from a moment of weakness. I have been following the French owner of this place on YouTube for a few years. He has been living in Tokyo for about 15 years (with Japanese wife and child) and posts all sorts of things about life in Japan, the good and the not so good. He started his own business selling weird Japanese items to the rest of the world, and it has been very successful. But a couple of weeks ago, something bad happened -- there was a big fire at his internet host in Strasbourg and most of the records were destroyed. Not just his company of course, but about 50,000 other websites around the world -- tourist offices, small businesses, hospitals, message boards... You are always supposed to have a backup or a retrieval system for your stuff, but this is not always the case. Anyway, an emergency website was set up while they tried to put the pieces back together. And that's why I placed an order. Not just to help him but because it's fun to receive strange items that you would never see otherwise. Here is the official website, which you will immediately see is not yet online again: www.candysanbox.com/ (If you click in a month, it will probably be back.) Anyway if you click on the next link, it allows you to order their basic discovery pack, which is that I received. I know they have a lot of Canadian customers, mostly in Québec. |
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Mar 20, 2021 17:58:27 GMT
What a terrible loss that fire caused!
I do like the idea of products from other countries, after all one of my first stops when on holiday is grocery stores, yes for a few supplies but mainly because I have a fascination with them.
I will indeed keep a watch for this website to come on line. I did do a search after I posted last night and I did find a few worldwide treat sites.
Let us know what you enjoyed and what was the most surpising!
|
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Mar 20, 2021 19:52:20 GMT
The place my son works in Bordeaux has their servers in Strasbourg and lost several weeks of recent work in that fire. Their stuff wasn't in the section with the worst fire, but next door. Not everything was backed up with people mostly working from home and not always coordinating.
|
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 21, 2021 9:42:52 GMT
When I was a child crisps or sweets were an occasional treat. Nowadays we have 'meal deals' in shops that include a sandwich, drink, packet of crisps and a bar of choolate. In the tea room at work most people had crisps and chocolate as part of their packed lunch..and we always include multipacks of crisps in our grocery shop. I sugested that we stopped eating so many crisps, nuts and chocolate....but I was outvoted. However...guess who does most of the grocery shopping ?  Russ has a delivery tomorrow...his turn altho I've piggybacked fruit, veg, yogurt and salad onto it....he will have odered tons of crap...but I dont have to eat it... |
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Mar 22, 2021 13:45:41 GMT
Cheery - Maybe watching a person who really knows about nutrition and scares the hell out of me with his knowledge, is Dr. Ken Ekberg. It's a long time since I paged through Patrick Holfords Nutritional Bible', so this was a wake up call for me. We always think :" Oh I'm too old to change now". Maybe we are, but that does not get away from the fact we are poisoning our younger family members through ignorance.
|
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 22, 2021 14:04:18 GMT
A lot of products in France now have a "nutri-score" rating from A (excellent) to E (terrible). All of the snack foods are rated E except for a few that manage to get a D. But we all know that anyway, right? As long as it isn't the main course, I don't see much of a problem. Just about every cheese is also rated E. I also often amuse myself by scanning the codes of products using the Yuka application which uses a 0 to 100 rating. It has a lot of surprises because it gives excellent or good ratings to certain products that I expected to be lethal. And the opposite is also true sometimes -- you can't always tell what is healthy just by looking at it. The app works on food and cosmetics but not on things like alcohol. yuka.io/ (I think it works in about 30 countries now.) |
|
|
|
Post by casimira on Mar 22, 2021 14:54:51 GMT
During the first 6 months of Covid confinement I found myself over indulging in all manner of snacks. Lots of cookies, chips, and the like.
I finally was able to put the brakes on doing this because of weight gain and my cholesterol level.
Now, the only snack type food I occasionally allow myself are Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers that I nibble on while watching online movies.
I did overdo it this past week on St. Joseph's Day when T. and I went to an Italian bakery and bought a few bags of cookies. I justified it by telling myself it was a "special occasion".
|
|
|
|
Post by onlyMark on Mar 22, 2021 15:19:37 GMT
That Yuka app I downloaded a few days before returning to Germany. I've been checking out the foods.
Some stand-out readings are that Chocolate Weetbix are better than I thought at 84, maize crispbread type thingy gives a reading of 100 - but the shocking one is that Bisto gravy granules, which I'm sure make you big and strong as a kid and are completely healthy, gives a score of zero.
The anomaly is dried peas - I have a packet of mushy peas which is just ingredients of dried peas and a tablet of baking soda/sodium bicarbonate/bicarbonate of soda (Natron in Germany) - the Yuka reading for this is 45. I also have a packet purely of dried peas from Germany. This reading in 89.
I can only assume that as the mushy pea directions are to add a little salt and sugar, this drops it way down - but I don't add them anyway so I think I'm quite safe with that.
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Mar 22, 2021 16:03:21 GMT
I am very happy to know about the Yuka app & will start using it. But there are things that need double-checking or at least thinking through, as Mark points out. I was horrified to see on the Yuka page that Carmex balm is considered bad and that Burt's Bees is considered excellent. Really? What is that based on? I went to Snopes, which marks as false the bad raps that Carmex gets. Whew!
|
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 22, 2021 16:05:12 GMT
I've eaten a number of things rated at zero and I am still alive.
|
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 22, 2021 16:06:16 GMT
Yuka always gives you the list of bad elements if you scroll down. |
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Mar 22, 2021 16:16:35 GMT
The "bad" elements in Carmex seem to be stuff like menthol which "can irritate sensitive lips".  |
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 22, 2021 16:18:42 GMT
Sounds like the AstraZeneca vaccine.  |
|
|
|
Post by casimira on Mar 22, 2021 16:24:24 GMT
That swipe at Carmex is absurd!!! I find it to be superior to Burt's Bees by far and at half the price.
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Mar 22, 2021 16:45:41 GMT
See there! Effing Burt's Bees is over-rated and its pretensions are excruciating. Why would an American product feel the need to have French (& only French) printed on its products? And like so many of those New England products, it involves a caring, folksy proprietor and inflated prices.
The only thing I have against Carmex is that they stopped using the darling little milk glass pots.
|
|
|
|
Post by casimira on Mar 22, 2021 16:55:21 GMT
I completely agree.
The Burt's Bees balm is too waxy for me.
And yes, I do miss the old pots it came in.
|
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 22, 2021 17:10:55 GMT
Since I had no idea what Burt's Bees was, I looked it up. All of the photos I saw had everything in both English and French, just like any product sold both in the United States and Canada. You can blame Québec, but you can't blame France for this.  |
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Mar 22, 2021 17:51:41 GMT
I have quite a few of the Burt's Bees lip balms and agree that some are too waxy, but I found one that is not!
They all have different colored caps, the silver one is the best! It is named Burt's Bees Ultra Conditioning and is made with kokum butter. It is fantastic. My blue cap one is waxy like caramex. So if you can find the silver cap one you will be surprised how different it is from all the other colored caps.
|
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 22, 2021 21:17:42 GMT
I'm given Burts Bees sets every Christmas. Not because I like them but because the products mention the word 'bees'. I usually give them to my DiL. The grocery order arrived this morning. Russ had ordered 24 cans pepsi max, 48 packets of crisps and nuts....but he also ordered a big pile of fruit, veg and salad. Also he got the wholemeal flour i like to use to make bread...so 6/10 |
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Apr 8, 2021 14:14:08 GMT
Kerouac was this from a website? If so, I would be interested in it. I remember years ago seeing a site that had treats from around the world but could never find it again. Here is a British site that sells snack boxes from around the world: snacksurprise.com You can apparently get 15% off by using the code: maverickbaking15
|
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Apr 10, 2021 17:41:52 GMT
Here is a British site that sells snack boxes from around the world: snacksurprise.comThank you for the information! |
|
