Monday, June 7, 2010

What kind of candy makes you feel like a kid again?

My boyfriend doesn't get a chance to make it back to London often, so whenever I see something in New York that reminds him a little bit of home, I get waaay excited about it. Take this English candy for example. I spotted it yesterday at Java Joe, the cutest little coffe/tea shop in Park Slope, and insisted that we buy some. (OK, so maybe part of me just wanted an excuse to eat candy, but that's besides the point.)

Doesn't it look kinda funny? Yummy nonetheless. Ohh and on the back of one of the packages there is a little reminder to go to the dentist, which is just pretty ironic since English people aren't exactly known for their pretty chompers! (Sorry hun!)

The licorice was my fave. And look how cute it is!

So in this post I wrote the food diary of my life, and my candy diary would look something like this:

Three Musketeers: Remember this Halloween costume? We were pretty much forced to like this candy from a young age. I actually like it more as an adult 'cause it's chewy and low in calories!

Mini Reeses Cups: These make me think of my obsessive/psychotic/totally unhealthy crush I had on my friend Ross all through elementary school. Every Friday after school a group of girls and boys would walk to Wheeler's to get candy (on opposite sides of the street, of course.) I always got a handful of my favorite chocolate/PB treat as I plotted ways to flirt with R. I'm sure I looked totally hottt with brown sticky stuff smeared all over my mouth!

Sour Patch Kids and Fireballs: At 10 years-old the biggest way I could think to rebel a little was with candy. Pretty crazy huh? So I'd stuff as many SPK and Fireballs into my mouth as I could stand. When I got bored with that, I moved on to...

Big-as-your-fist jawbreakers: I got these after swim meets at Cracker Barrel, and I'd lick them so hard and fast that my tongue would start bleeding, which obviously I thought was way rad.

Twizzlers and Peppermint Patties: In high school my pal Lalla and I ate these like nobody's business. No.body's.BUSINESS. It's pretty much all we ate, except for the days hours when we decided we were following the Cabbage Soup or Atkins diet.

Candy corn "Autumn Mix": So now as an adult, I get ridiculously excited for this bag of sugar crack that hits drugstores for about a month or two every fall. I just love biting off the tops of the pumpkins--someone else does this, I just KNOW it!

Tell me friends: What would your candy diary be? What kinds make you feel like a kid again?


20 comments:

  1. I love how candy automatically equals happy childhood memories. it also always makes me think of that episode of seinfeld, where george did the "candy line-up". "free candy!" will always be a joke me and my wife (college roomie) liz will share. always!

    snickers. yesterday, today, and tommorow. i totaly found a fun size snickers on top of my refridgerator and ate it for breakfast this morning. YUM

    peanut chews. you could buy them individually for 5cents at the corner store.

    peach rings. mmmm i'm a sucker for gummies.

    hershey's cookies n cream. almost up there with snickers.

    laffy taffy. remember the ones with pink and purple sugar sprinkes?

    pixie sticks. the real starter drug.

    last but not least. candy cigarettes. i always hung out with older kids (cuz i was so mature) and they would pretend they actually lit them up and puff smoke. i was too young to realize it was powdered sugar. the irony of this is I actaully work in tobacco control, and am now fully aware that candy cigs were a marketing tactic of the cigarette companies. SMH

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  2. I grew up in the UK, so those candies you're showing there are making me pout. Especially the fruit pastilles. I love those things. Now I have to coax a relative to send me some. See what you did? :) Holy crap, I'd take the licorice Allsorts as well. Ask your boyfriend about Caramac. I still have my mum send me that stuff regularly. Mmmmm, Caramac...

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  3. Ellen! Our peppermint patty obsession was out of control! I believe you hid 16 full size pep patties in my room for my 16th birthday!! Thanks for the mention! : )

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  4. Oh and that cabbage soup diet was gross - why did we do that??? (And weren't we both swimming still too? Unhealthy!!!)

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  5. toblerone, milky ways (seriously sucked the caramel out of those!) and....hmmm. warheads!, licorice, candy corn.

    girll, i'm here to MOTIVATE you! if you want i'll totally call you and be like LEMME HEAR YOU DO YOUR BURPEES! =D

    man makers. they make you...beat up men! =D i was actually thinking of you today..wondering if you were still doing what i gave you!

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  6. So crazy how candy holds memories! (eventhough I wasn't allowed to have candy until I was probably 10 years old!). Here are a few of my favorites.

    Reeses' Peanut Butter anything will forever be my favorite. A friend of mine once mailed me a gigantic tin shaped like a peanut butter cup filled with every Reeses candy ever made. I still think this may top the list of all time favorite birthday presents.

    Godiva Chocolate - My dad always bought my mom the big box and my sister and I tiny boxes for Valentine's Day. I still love that gold box.

    Butterfinger Bars - I got one of these after every dance class when my Mom was bribing me to go. Healthy right? This was about the time she gave up on the "no candy" rule.

    Yorks - I too went through a phase in college where all we ate were Slim Fast shakes and Yorks. So gross! But, I still love yorks!

    Cadbury Cream Eggs - Best time of year! My college roommate and I used to see who could be the first to find them in the store every year. To this day, I still call him the first time I see Cadbury eggs in the Spring!

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  7. Tootsie Pops: Loved these! They were my favorite thing to get in my Halloween bucket!

    Fun Dips: I used to BEG for these when I went to the ballpark to watch my brother play little league.

    Chocolate covered esspreso beans: my mom aways put these out over the holidays and I would suck them down! No wonder I was always so off the wall!

    Hershey's Minatures: My brother loved the krackel and I loved the dark chocolate so we would always swap. Neither of liked Mr. Goodbar but my mom took care of those! hehe!

    Starburst: HIGHSCHOOL!

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  8. In elementary school we'd get those massive jawbreakers and they would last a week. We would hide them in our desks. At the time it was awesome, bu looking back on it I just get queasy!

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  9. My dad is From England. His mom would send us candy like that when I was a kid. So actually your pictures of candy remind me of when I was a kid : )

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  10. Skor bars - totally a candy for old men, but that works because my Grandpa used to buy them for me.

    Reeses peanut butter cups - Again, Grandpa.

    Warheads and oversized sweet tarts - My best friend and I used to buy penny candy and buy the NASTIEST stuff, including these two!

    Milk duds and Raisinettes - To this day, my top two choices at the movies

    Mary Janes and Bit O Honey - Most people don't know what these are, but they're BOMB and remind me of my mom. We used to split them!

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  11. Well, I'm allergic to chocolate, so sadly I don't get to experience a lot of what is on this list. But I think if I had a candy diary it would look a little something like this:

    skittles - I could eat these all day every day for the rest of my life. I love all the different types: regular, baja, tropical, sour. :)

    twizzlers - my go-to candy for the movies. I love the ones you can pull apart and eat.

    starburst - the candy I eat after a bad day and I need a little pick-me-up.

    and if I'm feeling particularly daring I'll eat Sour Patch Kids. :)

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  12. I was never the biggest candy eater but I remember when we would trade candies on Halloween the reeses would always go for the highest price, and rightly so!

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  13. Hi Ellen,
    All the sweets in your pictures make me feel like a kid again, but the ones that reall do it for me are Flying Saucers. Do you get these in the states? Flying saucer shapes made out of coloured rice paper and filled with sherbet.

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  14. Ellen, why don't you and the boyfriend take a trip to London? I lived there for four months and I fell head over hills in love with that city. It is similar to New York though so it might not be as exciting to you.

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  15. Mmmmm Halloween Sugar Crack is the BEST, especially the pumpkins.

    Also add Cadbury Eggs, Petit Fruits, and anything Marzipan.

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  16. Oh my gosh, YES, Nadette...I used to love those Laffy Taffy with the sprinkles. And did you do that "trick" where you flapped them up and down fast and POOF they got smaller? I thought that was SO.COOL.

    Ohh I'll have to check out Caramac, Vegetable Assasin. Not that I need to find another sweet to be addicted to, but it sounds like it's worth it :)

    Oh my gosh, Lalla, I remember doing that! So funny. And yeah, we did those crazy diets, but we never had the willpower or discipline to do them for more than like a day...or a few hours. Which yeah, is a really good thing bc it's so unhealthy, especially for the amount we were exercising!

    Trayn, I just might take you up on that phone call...I need SERIOUS motivation right now!!!

    So funny about the Butterfinger bribe, Alison. My mom rewarded us with M&Ms for using the "potty" when we were little...whatever works I guess!

    FUN DIP! I had one every time I went to watch my brother play baseball, too, MHP! Loved it. Big League Chew was pretty awesome too.

    Greensandjeans, my jawbreakers lasted like, a day..maybe two. That's how diligent I was about getting to the center! Ouuuch!

    KetchupDiaries, I love Bit O Honey and MJ, too! So did my mom...must be a mom thing :)

    ALLERGIC to chocolate, Trainwreck?! That is quite the tragedy. Just don't become obsessed with Gummy Bears and sugar candy like Kelly Bensimon...I think it's effecting her ability to ummm, THINK. But yesss, the pull apart Twizzlers are the besssst.

    Yep, Almondbutter, I think Reeses counted for double, for sure.

    Gary, these flying saucer things you speak of sound AMAZING! Filled with sherbet? I MUST find them!

    Hi PNM, I've actually been to London with the bf a few times...Love visiting! We usually go every summer, but sadly, don't have plans to visit yet this year. Maybe we'll do a Christmas in London?! Now that would be cool. And I don't know why, but I like places that remind me of NYC. I guess that's the unadventurous side of me coming out...I'm a creature of habit, I like familiar things :)

    I'm not a huge fan of Cadbury eggs, B, but I know I'm probably in the minority on that one!

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  17. Oh geez...married to a Brit I always have to hear about how lacking the candy is in this country compared to the U.K. and also how we don't have any good "crisps" a.k.a potato chips. So when the husband has a hankering we head over to Myers of Keswick on 13th & Hudson. I hate to even get him started on bacon. Ha.

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  18. i used to LOVE sweedish fish!

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  19. Rain, I FEEL YA! Next time the hub brings up the candy/bacon/crisps debate, see what he has to say about CEREAL. Weetabix is total bollocks! haha

    Totally with you, Jessica...I STILL love those little red fish. I like to smash three together to make a little sandwich...I do the same thing with SPK.

    And Holy cow, I love how we all go WAY more excited about the candy post than the gym post I did today. Wow, readers after my own heart :)

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  20. milk duds, gushers, and laffy taffy (no banana)

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