I can’t tell you what it tastes like because I’ve been unable to procure a box. If I wanted 14 boxes of it I would be all set, because that’s how Amazon sells it. But considering when I manage to get a hold of Christmas Crunch I don’t even finish one box, 14 seems like it might be a bit wasteful. I’ll try to take one more look for Halloween Crunch when I go grocery shopping this weekend, but I’m not hopeful. I’d rather have Christmas Crunch anyway…

When it comes to the Cola wars I am generally allied with Coca-Cola. If given the option between the normal versions of Coke or Pepsi I will choose Coke every time. My allegiance to Coca-Cola only wanes when presented with the option of real sugar Pepsi. Throwback Pepsi has been available sporadically since at least the summer of 2008. I always by a case or two when given a chance. Mexican Pepsi is something I’ve only found recently at one grocery store in Bellingham, WA that stocks a large amount of Mexican foodstuffs. I’ve been buying cases of Mexican Coca-Cola from Costco in Bellingham for years now, but I had never seen Mexican Pepsi until just last month.

Pepsi Showdown!

For pure appearance it’s obvious that Mexican Pepsi is the winner, glass bottles are superior to aluminum cans. Although for nostalgia the can does remind me a lot of the Pepsi cans I would see as a child. In terms of taste I’m still undecided, I’ve had a lot of cans of Pepsi Throwback but only have drank two bottles of Mexican Pepsi. They both taste much better than normal Pepsi, but I’m having a hard time declaring one the winner.

Actually, scratch that, I already knew the winner before I even started:

The Winner: Mexican Coca-Cola!

I choose Mexican Coca-Cola as the winner of the Pepsi battle. I can do that because I made up the rules of my taste test. It has the classic Coke bottle look, and the best taste of any of the real sugar soft drinks I’ve had. Check Costco near you, or go to Mexico, to find some and taste for yourself.

Magic Milk Straws!

got milk?

These are plastic straws full of magic flavor balls, use them to drink milk and you have flavored milk. Simple. We have two flavors here, cookies & cream and cocoa. With the cocoa I was expecting chocolate milk, instead I got cold hot chocolate, or cocoa. I really should have expected that. As for the cookies & cream, you would have to ask Tal because I didn’t try it. They also had strawberry, but I didn’t get those because fruit flavored milk is just weird. I have my standards.

straw full of flavor!

I found these at the grocery store, so keep your eyes open if you want to try some. Just don’t buy the strawberry because it’s weird.

Time for the first post of the year. Starting with frozen cheeseburgers: 

White Castle Cheeseburgers

Now most people have at least heard of White Castle, most people from the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. White Castle is the oldest fast-food burger chain in the US. They only have 422 location across America, mostly in the Midwest. For everyone outside the 11 states featuring actual White Castle restaurants they produce a line of frozen burgers. They are the same as the fresh ones minus the pickles (pickles do not freeze well apparently).

Cheeseburger!

They taste better than they photograph. I used to get these all the time when I was a teenager. The Cost Cutter in Blaine, WA used to only carry the Hamburgers and I would have to add my own cheese. Sometimes I would use spray cheese. The best part about White Castle burgers are the little onions, they taste delicious.

Christmas Wrap-up:
Christmas kind to me this year. Tal got me an amazing back massager. It is a shiatsu massager with heat. Feels so good for my back.

Back Massager

I was going to write more but it took me like twenty minutes to get that last picture to appear correctly, so I’m going to call it a post.

Christmas Crunch (2010 Edition)

Back of the box

Bowl of Christmas Crunch

Tal was sweet enough to bring me this the other day:

Growing Reindeer

A Christmas Reindeer that grows to 600% of it’s original size! It looks vaguely like a certain famous red-nosed reindeer whom we all enjoy seeing on TV this time of year. I realize I should have measure him or put something else near him so as to give you a sense of scale so it would be more clear about how much he’s grown. Oh well. Here’s some pictures of him growing:

Just dropped in the water

The next morning:

After 12 hours in the water

After 48 hours in the water

Well the other week was my first sighting of a Hickory Farms gift box, and of course I bought one:

First Hickory Farms of the year

Looking at the photo I realize two things, 1: It is a crappy photo, 2: It is the exact same assortment I photographed last year, right down to the not featured in this year’s photo spreader and strawberry candies.

Last week I ate it all for lunch:

On Remembrance Day Tal and I went to Bellingham and checked out the Hickory Farms kiosk that is temporarily in Bellis Fair mall. Of course I had to buy something, so I got this:

Second Hickory Farms assortment of the year

I haven’t eaten this one yet, but I can’t wait to use the mini cleaver when I do! If you will notice I also have a new tablecloth featured in the background. It was one of my many purchases from Target’s holiday selection. The rest I’m saving for a future post.

Christmas Crunch Update:
No sightings yet this year. I’ll be checking again soon. If I find any this year I will be buying fewer than three boxes this time. I didn’t even finish one box last year.

If you haven’t heard of the McRib, where have you been? I mean it’s even been parodied in a Simpsons episode.

So I ordered one:

McRib box

And then I ate it. I liked the pickles on it, a nice contrast to the flavor of the barbeque sauce. The meat tastes extremely processed, which I’m sure it is, but it doesn’t even taste like meat. The bun was ok though.

McRib (thanks to Tal for the picture assist)

Go get one if you want to be able to say you had a McRib like I did, or if you just like heavily processed food stuffs.

And I got a pretty sweet souvenir:

A Swiss Family Treehouse attraction poster with original leaf from the attraction all in a bamboo frame. The Swiss Family Robinson is one of my favorite movies, so of course the tree house would be one of my favorite Disneyland attractions, had they not replaced it with the lamer Tarzan Treehouse in 1999. Thankfully when they replaced it they kept some of the leaves so I can have a cool souvenir like this, and they left the Swiss Family Treehouse in Florida alone so I had a chance to see it back in May.