Q.bel Crispy Rice Bar: Milk Chocolate

I like a good crispy rice bar. There's something about their texture -- even more so than the taste -- that does it for me. I like when you bite into something and it's crunchy, yet smooshy at the same time. (Does that even make sense?)

Q.bel's version consists of two bars that are comprised of layers of chocolate, wafers, then topped with rice and covered in milk chocolate. And the whole thing is all natural. Sounds promising, right?



Each of the two fingers that form the serving are generously sized. The bottom layers of the bar are alternating layers of wafers and chocolate. Sprinkled across the top are grains of puffed rice.

The bar smells sweet -- sort of like chocolate covered Frosted Rice Krispies. I liked the wafer layers a lot. They were crisp and fresh and tasted sort of like a cake-style ice cream cone (yummm...). The puffed rice on the top brings extra crunch, and -- shock of all shocks -- it does in fact taste like cereal. And golly gee, wanna take bets if me and my Seinfeld-like cereal addiction liked it? Of course I liked it!



It was really only the chocolate I that didn't love. Now, don't get me wrong; it's not bad by any stretch. It's just sweeter than I prefer my chocolate. It's very milky and creamy, but it does seem as if "sweet" is the strongest part of the flavor. I have a feeling that I am going to love the dark chocolate version, because I loved the rice and I loved the wafers. I just needed something a bit more bitter to tie it all together.



PURCHASED FROM:
Sample From Company

PRICE:
$1.29 MSRP.

CALORIES:
180 calories per bar

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Made on equipment that may have processed peanuts or tree nuts. Contains wheat, dairy, soy, and eggs.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
qbelfoods.com

Golia Caramelle Respira

One of the good things about moving back home to SoCal is that I have been able to revisit many of my old foodie stomping grounds.
One of which is a long standing chain of Italian groceries in the L.A. area called Claro's.

Claro's has a rather impressive candy selection at my local store and I picked up a bag of what I thought was licorice.

The small semi-hard lozenges are indeed made with licorice but imagine my surprise when I realized they were very, very strong to the point it made me think they were mentholated!
What I didn't notice on the bag until I had one in my mouth is that it also says "respira" Yes, my lovely bag of licorice was actually a lovely bag of cough drops!

The thing is a mentholy licorice is oddly addicting. Oh, sure I had a pretty big "WTF?!" moment at first but once you get over the shock the licorice it's self is dark and has a deep molasses note to it (yes, once again it reminded me of Panda) there is a little anise working around in there as well. As best I could tell from my limited Italian and the help of Babel Fish there is no actual menthol in the drops but it does have licorice juice (which accounts for the strong flavor) and once you are used to it, it actually reminded me a lot of Sambuca or Anisette. Minus the fact that it stains your tongue a lovely dark brown it did leave my mouth feeling tingly and clean. And while I had no cough to start with I would certainly prefer these over a standard drop any day.

Even if they weren't what I expected I am going to keep a stash of these on hand,

PURCHASED FROM:
Claro's Italian Market

Avon Heathly Remedy Detox Patches

Ok so this isn't a food review
But since I am on my feet all day long at work (like everyone else in the food service/beverage industry) my feet tend to swell to epic proportions and hurt like hell. There is pretty much nothing I wouldn't try to get even a little relief.

The idea behind the patches is that they contain an "Ancient Japanese Secret" formula of herbs, wood vinegars, minerals and pixie dust that supposedly after wearing over night on the souls of your feet will draw toxins out of your body. In the morning when you take the pads off you will notice that the clean, dry, white pad you put on the night before are now sticky and brown with "toxins" that have been pulled out.

Uh yeah... So even though I believed in the whole toxin thing about as much as I believe Brittany Spears is a good mother I ordered the pads anyway. Again, I would try just about anything if I thought it would help.

So after laughing at me for ordering the pad's my friend/Avon lady got me my pads.
Once I had them in my hot little hands it is amazing how bland they look. They look like what would happen if a Band-Aid and a Tea Bag had a baby. After a weekend of working almost 35 hours I slapped them on and settled in. I can't say that the patches actually made my feet feel any different. Minus the fact that I was not used to having anything on my feet once I am home (I am a foot nudist) it was basically uneventful.

The next day when I took the patches off they were indeed brown and sticky. It did seem like my feet had perspired more then normal. Personally I think the color change is due to the combination of sweat and the vinegar and herbs in the pad. I still don't buy into the whole 'detox' part- BUT what the pad's did do an excellent job of was helping to ease the swelling in my feet. There was a noticeable difference in how rapidly the swelling went down versus not wearing the pad's. Again I am thinking this is due to the fact that the pad's do seem to cause excess sweating. bottom line I don't really care what in the pad's made it happen I am just glad it happened.

If you are on your feet long hours or have swollen feet I would say the pads are worth a try. If you choose to believe the detox claims that is all on you (again I still call shenanigans on it) but they did give me some relief from my swelling and it has worked each of the half dozen times I have used them.

PURCHASED FROM:
Avon