I really thought that this box would be our last one, for the subscription. But then, another box showed up in the mail. So here is the review of the now next-to-last box – South Korea! Once again, Donna’s husband Richard was able to join us as our extra special guest judgeinsert favourite RuPaul’s Drag Race meme here.
This box looked quite promising, and it did not disappoint!
First on the list of snacks to be evaluated: the choco pie.
We all agreed we have tasted this confection in another form. Apparently this treat was given as a bonus to North Korean workers. It got so popular that the buzz-killevil dictatorship government banned them. No happy moments for you! So South Korean activists sent thousands over the border using balloons. There, now you know!
Next up: spicy chicken flavoured corn puffs!
Also known as KFC – Korean Fried Chicken! American KFC used to be a special occasion treat for Koreans, but now they can eat it whenever they want (in South Korea only, that is). And they have spiced things up, including with this snack.
Then it was on to some marscapone shortbreads (What a lovely combination of 2 yummy things!)
Individually wrapped cookies – lovely! And lovely to look at, too! This might be one of my favourite snacks; at least top 5.
These cookies have a weird (to us Westerners) backstory. Apparently Valentine’s Day in South Korea is the day for women to treat the men. And then came the sequel: White Day (March 14)…where men give white gifts to the women, including these cookies. Apparently this tradition originated in Japan – in 1978 – and spread to South Korea. Although LGBTQ+ folks appear to be left out of this celebrating, never fear Singletons! April 14 is Black Day, when you dress in black and go eat your feelings with all your single friends. Black-bean-sauce-smothered noodles is the preferred comfort nosh. All of this info according to the literature that came with the snack box!
Now onto some candy! Sweet and sour grape-flavoured chews.
Check out those super cool grapes ๐. Very flavourful!
Back to savoury snacks with the next on the list: Shrimp Chips.
I’ve eaten a lot of shrimp chips with Indonesian dishes. In fact, we used to have to deep fry them ourselves. It was exciting for me as a kid to watch the tiny hard chips expand into these airy delights when fried. I found the South Korean version quite “shrimpy” though…stronger flavour than what I am used to.
Last but not least were a bag of Peach Flavoured Gummies, to sample.
These were delicious!Isn’t the peach also known as the butt emoji, in social media? I can see the resemblance ๐.
I think this was my favourite box to date. So did Donna. Here is our scoring.
As usual, Donna treated us to a fabulous lunch afterwards. She wrote all about it on her latest WOYPBC post, here.
Yeah, you could say we were pretty excited about those cookies ๐คฃ.
One more box to go! Stay tuned – we’re going to Italy next.
The catch-up binge of snack boxes is behind us, and I was relieved that there were only 3 more boxes to go through, to be fully caught up. Imagine my relief when the next box I opened was a duplicate of one we had just tried (South America)! I didn’t even want to complain to Universal Yums about getting a duplicate…I was just glad we were now down to only 2 more boxes to review. Oh the pressure I had been feeling, seeing those boxes pile up!
The next box I opened (the October box, I believe) takes us to Spain.
Contents of the Spain box
Once again, Donna hosted for this box devouring sampling, and we even had an Extra Special Guest Judge on hand. I will reveal who later in the post!
Also, this rascal joined us (but did not get to sample anything):
Bowser: ready for my walkies!
First up:
The writeup says that these are Spain’s famous caramel candies. Think extra special Smarties.
Next up were corn puffs, but with a sweet instead of savoury twist:
Honey butter flavoured corn puffs.
Forgot to take a picture of this before it got unwrapped:
Pistachio-flavoured Toffee.
This next one was, well, something else.
The sulphurous fumes hitting the roof of the mouth as you tried one of these fried-egg flavour chips was quite the experience. Very eggy and not in a good way, we all agreed. Supposed to be indicative of the “classic Spanish huevo frito“. Esto no sabe bien. Pass.
Next up: a peanut flavoured confection.
Spain’s favourite treat for over 400 years, apparently. Delicious, even though I was still getting hints of egg in my mouth from those damn chips.
From sweet to sour:
Another winner. Who doesn’t love a sour gummie? One of us, apparently ๐.
And finally:
Pardon the out-of-focus shot of this chocolate pine nut candy. Made from an 80 year old recipe, apparently. A man had a surplus of pine nuts and gave them to his neighbour, who mixed them with sugar, milk and coffee to make this delightful candy.
After all of those rich treats, Donna treated us to some fresh fruit and veggies.
Post-judging nibblies.
Have you guessed the extra judge yet?
Our esteemed judging panel (ignore Bowser), including guest judge hubby Richard – who was born for the role!
And here is our scoring:
One more box to go (I think?) and the gift subscription is complete. Any guesses as to where that box is from?
Whoo boy! It has been a time since Donna and I reviewed a Universal Yum box, hasn’t it? Between my summer of endless moving/renovating and Donna’s summer of endlessly being away from home, I think we saw each other once in 3 months. The Universal Yum boxes continued to keep coming of course, and I managed not to lose any in all the upheaval. When Donna and I finally got together in August (briefly), we cracked open the May (yes, May!!!) box, which happened to be from the UK.
UK box contents
Now, I usually show pictures and writeups of each individual item when I do a box but not this time. Because I would be at my computer all day creating this post, and you would be on your devices all day reading this post and no one wants that to happen! Because gentle reader, there are 3 more boxes to come!!!
Our scoring of the UK snack box.After all of hard work, we walked to my new “local”, for a pint (and a curry). In keeping with the theme, ya know ๐.
So, due to all the craziness of the past couple of months (moving, helping my sister move, more moving, hosting a friend for a week, still more moving…) I never did get around to posting the May in August box. Until now that is. Last week Donna and I were able to get together again for the first time since August, and I brought over the June, July and August boxes (and I still have September and October in my closet, with a notice to pick up November at the post office!).
Thailand, India and South America (June, July, and August).Ready to begin! Thailand scorecard. Me: The box only has 2 things in it! Also Me: Thank gawd…India scorecard. Also several items missing in action.South America scorecard. A complete box, at last.Donna whipped up a delicious board for us to nosh on, afterwards. To balance all of the sugar. We forgot to take a selfie for the 3 boxes. Blame it on the snack overload. I did.
Four boxes down and 3 more to go. I’m actually glad the subscription is coming to an end, even though I’ve enjoyed it, enjoyed sharing it, and enjoyed blogging about it. Seeing all those boxes pile up though…overwhelming!
If you’re dying to know about a particular snack, please let me know in the Comments and I’ll give you the deets. Otherwise, please accept this half-assed offering for this month’s WOYPBC!
Please share with Donna and/or myself what’s on your plate this month! I’ve cheated with this month’s post, and Donna has done the same (yet differently). Please check her out here! And here’s the Link Party, if you are so inclined.
Last week, Donna and I got together to sample the next box in my Universal Yums gift subscription (thanks again, Kenn and Jonathan!). I had meant to post this earlier but – as I explained to Donna – feeling sorry for myself for injuring my IT bands in both knees was taking up all of my time, doncha know?๐. I’ve seen my nurse practitioner and my chiropractor already, and I am seeing a physiotherapist tomorrow with hopes to resolve the problem as fast as possible. I am mightily miffed that I have had to curtail my exercise program for the time being, lest I make things worse. All those hard-won meagre gains will be lost! ARGH! OK, Pity Party over…
Donna decided to make us a delicious chicken shawarma lunch to accompany our sampling of Israeli snacks, and I decided to make an Israeli drink to go with our lunch (recipe included in the box) so we were all set for another fun morning.
Box contents
First up: Falafel sticks
These really captured the flavour of falafel, nicely although they did not contain any chickpeas whatsoever. I guess it’s all about the spices.The only issue I had with them is that they reminded me of something I have fed to a pet in the past (I think it was my hamster). ๐
This was followed by another savoury snack.
Lemon flavoured corn snacks? Sounds good!These were a hit with the both of us as well. Not spicy at all, despite the chili pepper depicted on the bag.
Next up – a sweet candy bar.
The name of this bar means “Time Out”.White chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel wafers and milk cream. Very rich and very sweet.
Back to savoury (and sweet) with some pretzel bites.
These tasted and looked exactly like what you can get in North America. Nothing unusual about these.
The next sampling was also nothing new – marshmallows.
Your basic marshmallows…Israelis apparently eat more marshmallows per capita than Americans. And the package proclaims they are made with fish gelatin. Maybe to keep kosher? Although there is no dairy listed in the ingredients…hmmmm, a mystery.
Another sweet offering was next on our agenda – grape toffee sticks (found in the Yum bag).
This was interesting. Nice grapey flavour I remembered from grape candies in my childhood.
Our last Yum from the box (and the Yum bag) was the Strawberry Banana Swirl soft candy.
Neither of us like these types of candies. Flavour was good though, and candy interior was pretty.
Another delightful box. Our scoring:
No surprises here…
Now on to the Israeli drink – Limonana!
IngredientsAssembling the LimonanaThis drink was absolutely delicious and refreshing, as promised. We couldn’t be bothered to separate out all the membranes from the lemons so our drink was cloudier than in the recipe (bonus fiber!๐). I will be making it again this summer – you can count on it! I bet it would go great with gin or vodka.
We capped off our tasting session with a delicious lunch prepared by Donna. Thank you again, my friend!
Wow! What a beautiful spread.Slow cooked shawarma-spiced chicken with veggies and a liberal helping of baba ganoush, in a pita. Amazing flavours!We didn’t try to dress like Israelis because a) we didn’t know how and b) we had to skedaddle immediately after lunch to an outdoor class on trees (where we were rained upon, per usual ๐คฃ).
I wonder where the Universal Yums box will take us next month…Any guesses?
This month – instead of visiting just one country – Universal Yums provided me with a “smorgas-box” (their words, not mine!) of Scandinavian countries to sample snacks from.Off we go!
Donna and I had so much fun dressing up and setting the tone for France last month and we wanted to do the same for this (and all subsequent boxes). I had a plan for music and setting, and Donna researched how to dress Scandi-style (lots of black and they love plain white shirts, apparently). We were set to start snackin’!
ABBA was the first group that came to mind, natch.
The box included this cute sticker:
Edvard Munch is probably rolling in his grave about now.
That sticker inspired me to change the artwork on my Frame TV to this:
This painting always reminds me of the scenery around my new home.
Here are the contents of this month’s box:
Looks promising!
The very first item to try was the Danish Yankie bar – a weirdly wonderful pairing of Nougat and (salty) Licorice, in a chocolate bar. I have to say that even I – a salted licorice afficionado – was taken aback by this pairing.
Yep. That is a ribbon of salted licorice, folks where the caramel should be.
We gave this first treat the ol’ college try what even does that mean.
How it started…How it ended…(note IKEA Kallax unit under the Munch artwork…Scandi, Scandi, Scandi!)
As you can tell from the above photos, it nearly came to blows surprise! We both really really liked the damn Yankie bar. ๐ Oh – and nice gun show, Donna – your online gym sessions are really showing results!
Next up was the Cheesy Corn Puffs, also from Denmark.
Cute packagingNo surprises hereThese were good. Did not leave much of a cheesy residue on fingers, either!
Then, another savoury Danish snack…these tasted like very nice BBQ-flavoured chips:
Lucky potato? WTH?Donna deals out the chips. Mine is the lower right one, according to her.Note to self: Who put Donna in charge of apportioning the snacks, anyways?!?!
After this, it was the biggest package in the box: the Oat Cookies.
Low key disappointed they weren’t heart-shaped like the box photo.I soon got over that, though!These cookies were absolutely delightful! Very crunchy. Bittersweet chocolate filling. Karen Volf, born in 1864, rose from very humble beginnings to become a household name in Denmark for her delicious baked goods. Ms. Volf, we salute you!
So far, so great! Everything we tasted up to now was wonderful. Next up, the Cocoa Mud Cake Balls.
Looks promisingSorry for the blurry photoUhhhhh…not a favourite of either Donna or myself. A bit too sweet for our tastes. Apparently this is based on a classic Swedish dessert called Delicatoboll that is so simple it is one of the first things children learn to make.The guidebook included the recipe, in case anyone wants to try their hand at making Delicatobolls.
Wild Strawberry Toffees (Sweden) were up next in our snack travails travels. Apparently this candy is reminiscent of the start of summer (Midsommar) festival, where locals go “to the countryside to eat strawberries, wear flower crowns, and dance like frogs around an ivy-covered pole called the midsomar staang”. Dance like frogs????
To the point packagingI wasn’t expecting them to be red, but OK.I thought these were quite delicious. Strawberry and caramel pair well together – who knew?
Lastly came another sweet treat: the mixed fruit licorice (again with the licorice???) stick. “Copenhagen’s chewiest, fondant-filled secret” the booklet proclaimed.
Not wowed, so far.PrettyThis one also really surprised me. I loved the chewiness and the bright flavour (thank you, spritz of lemon!)
This Yum package was another winner. It was difficult to pick amongst so many favourites, but we managed to come up with very similar rankings for the Scandinavian box.
Donna’s rankingMy rankingFinished score card.
Thank you for joining us on this snack trip through Scandinavia! From your frog-dancing fools friends…
…Deb and Donna. (If anyone knows what actual frog dancing is supposed to look like, please comment below!)
While waiting for the next snack box in my gift subscription to arrive, I received an email from the giver of such deliciousness advising me that the upcoming box would be from Russia and that Universal Yums was offering to switch that out for another country instead. I didn’t feel comfortable receiving and blogging about a Russian box given the current situation with Ukraine so I said yes please to the switch. Barely 2 days later my box arrived and I was a bit apprehensive that there hadn’t been enough time to sub in another box. Luckily though:
Hoorah! The switch was made!
Once again, I enlisted the snack-judging prowess of my blogging partner-in-crime Donna, and a date was set. Then I had a thought and texted her to see if she had a French beret or two hanging around her place. I thought it would be funny to dress stereotypically “French”, while we sampled the goods. Of course Donna being Donna ๐ , she had to take it much further including a soundtrack while we “worked”.
I have to admit, it did really add to the ambience.Yeah, yeah. I know these aren’t actual berets. They are “beret-ish”, and all we had to work with. And we don’t have actual Breton sweaters on either, but hey, we have a very limited budget here at Chez Badass and Chez Retirement Reflections. P. S. I wanted to draw on a Hercule Poirot moustache with eyeliner, but Donna wisely talked me out of it.
Here’s what was included in the box, besides the guidebook:
Map of Deliciousness on back of scorecardCute stickerSnacks and front of scorecardLooking very promising!
First up, a bag of French strawberry chews. According to the book, we have France to thank for strawberries, and these particular candies were the top-voted Yum in the last two French snack boxes.
We were immediately put off by the labeling of “artificially flavoured” (France, how could you???) but the taste was really good. We both thought they tasted like something we ate in childhood. Ahhhh, that sweet nostalgic time of artificial everything and cancer-causing red dyes… Donna was reminded of a candy called a Mojo. I don’t remember those, but do any of you?
Next up was a bag of French Cheese tubes. The book advised us that French cheeses are better and so are their cheese snacks. We both agreed. So far, two winners!
Think of a really good cheesy Bugle-type snack.
We left “Savoury Town” and headed back to “Sweetsville” with the next offering: Pure Butter Sablรฉs. The book explained that the name “sablรฉ” (French for sand) came from how these cookies are made: by rubbing cold butter into flour and sugar to form tiny particles that look like sand.
Yet another winner! How long can this go on????
After the cookies, it was time to try the other savoury snack in this box: Garlic Aioli Potato Chips. “Yes, you will get garlic breath. And yes, it will be worth it” the brochure opines. We have to agree. These were amazing. (Apologies to my hairdresser, who I met later on in the day. Thank goodness for masks, non?)
Can we get these here, please???Fresh and delicious!Please France, we want some more.
Salted butter caramels were next in order. Confectioner Henri Le Roux created the first salted caramel in 1977. Sir, we salute you. Hopefully in Brittany they have erected a statue of this god amongst men.
Donna and I both agreed on the flavour but Donna found them “too chewy”. I like to make them last as long as possible so that means very little chewing is involved – full marks from me!Donna took this artful picture of me hard at work. ๐
After waiting forever for me to finish my damn caramel, it was time for truffles. Apparently truffles were a happy little accident (RIP Bob Ross!). In the 1920s Paris Confectioner Auguste Escoffier mistakenly dumped hot cream into the wrong bowl, which contained chocolate. Rather than waste it, he rolled the paste into balls and coated them with cocoa powder, and named them of what they reminded him of: mushroom truffles.
Pretty packagingBehold the truffle!I haven’t ever seen a mushroom truffle, but I’ll take Escoffier’s word for it. I have had truffle-flavoured french fries though…and they are heavenly (and I don’t really like french fries, so that is high praise indeed!). Anyways, I digress…these chocolate truffles were rich and sweet flavour bombs.
Last (and probably least) were French Fruit Chews. I had the raspberry and Donna selected the orange one. Made by Confiserie du Nord, this family-owned company has been making bon-bons since 1912. These French “Starbursts” are supposed to be bigger, chewier and juicer than the American candy. It’s probably been decades since I had a Starburst so I can’t compare but I have to say my raspberry chew was excellent.
Donna selected this one.Which left me the raspberry to try.Sorry to get to the end of this snack box!
And here are the results:
Filled-in scorecardDonna’s rankingMy rankingNot a loser in the bunch! This one was hard to rank (they were all good!) but we persevered.Just two French chicks, hanging out in front of the fire. Not to brag or anything, but someone has perfected the French tuck. N’est-ce pas?
France, you are a snacker’s paradise and we salute you!
In my post on my WOTY (Limber – in case you were wondering and didn’t have time to click on the link), I posted a photo of the January habit tracker page I created in my 2022 journal. This sparked a few comments as to the process I use when I journal. I use a dotted journal because I can’t stay between the linesmy handwriting is abysmal I find it more freeing. I use a very simple method of journalling, based veryloosely on a system called Bullet Journalling, created by a designer named Ryder Carroll. So many people love this system and you can go down a YouTube rabbit hole for days watching how people create and personalize their BuJos, not that I would know anything about that. ๐ It is supposed to be a very good system for personal productivity. I am so damn relieved and happy to be able to put personal productivity in the rear-view mirror of my current life so I don’t use my BuJo for that purpose but instead for habit-tracking and as a diary.
Prior to my current way of journalling, I was using a very fancy (to me, anyways) Japanese journal system – called a Hobonichi – that I really loved. But once I retired I found the format and size a bit limiting, and wanted something I could customize.
Last entries in my beloved 2021 Hobonichi journal…
Some people turn their bullet journals into literal works of art. They are gorgeous but I would never be able to maintain something like that. My journal is so basic, I don’t even use a ruler to create my lines. I freehand it. And I use purchased silicone stamps for the dates because my life span is too short to write out the days of the month over and over again it looks better that way.
It’s almost March 2022 as I write this, so it is time to create my March spread. I create only a month at a time, because I am fickle I am constantly refining my process. Follow along, if you like!
Step 1 – gather the goods.
Assemble the tools: journal, pens, highlighters, stamps, ink pad.
Step 2 – pick a highlighter pen colour for the month.
Green is very spring-like and perfect for March.
Step 3 – Pick a stamp for the month. (Snap-together set ordered from Amazon)
Step 4 – start the spread.
Open the journal to a fresh 2 page spread and stamp the month. I then freehand a line at the top of the page.
Step 5 – put together the date stamp for the month.
I purchased this set from Michaels; also available on Amazon.Affix the silicone stamps to an acrylic block, and you are ready to stamp your heart out. Pro tip: practice on scrap paper to get the technique perfect before you attempt it in your journal.
Step 6 – continue to fill in the spread for March with whatever you feel like tracking that month.
You will see that I added a couple of extra days of the month stamps, in case I dream up other stuff I want to track as I progress throughout the month.
The system I am using now is to have the left hand side of the spread for noting things like when I last watered the plants, flipped the mattress, vaccuumed underneath the sofa cushions, etc. In other words, my haus-frauing. I live alone and stuff doesn’t get dirty very fast so I like to keep track of when it was last done because my memory is faulty especially for stuff that doesn’t really interest me like housework. My mom had a rigid daily routine for housekeeping that my rebel heart has just never accepted as the way to do things. I like to work my cleaning schedule around the phases of the moon and when I damn well am in the mood to do so or I can’t stand the dust anymore or it’s raining or company is coming, whatever comes first. Take that, all my Dutch female forebears!
The right hand side of the spread is for the fun stuff I want to keep track of, and good habits I want to keep going or to build on. Under my habit tracker for this month, I am checking off (approximately) how many steps I have logged on my Apple watch, had I eaten at least 3 fruits and vegetables that day (F/V), and did I do my oil-pulling mouth hygiene routine (O/P). I am also including a space to record my occasional blood pressure readings because my nurse practitioner ALWAYS asks for this info. (I haven’t had a mini-stroke since 2016 – hoorah!!!!) On the calendar side, I mark off with highlighter the days that I have achieved those particular activities as I work towards certain goals.
As for birthdays, special events, appointments, etc., I keep those on my electronic calendar (Google) so that they are always in the palm on my hand (i.e. in my phone).
Step 7 – start of daily journal pages.
After I have completed the March spread, I turn the page and line the top and add the words “Daily Journal”. I make a journal entry for each day of the month, noting all the banalities, rants and musings of my day…sometimes it is only a few lines…sometimes it is more than half a page. Sometimes I dress the pages up with stickers, washi tape or To-Do lists, and sometimes not. It is my journal and there are no real rules (rebel heart-approved). Towards the end of the month, I guesstimate how many blank pages are yet required for daily journal entries, and flip the next page over and start to work on the following month’s spread of things I want to keep track of. And so on, and so forth…
That is my journalling method…at least what it looks like for March of 2022. Next month – who knows where my rebel heart will take me… ๐
Do you journal? Do you track habits? Do tell please, in the comments. I would love to know what others do.
A lot of readers were interested in knowing what was in the next (and any subsequent) snack boxes I received with my gift of a subscription to Universal Yums (original post here). I could couldn’t just sample the snacks on my own so I enlisted the help of esteemed snack judge Donna once again, and off we went to Poland (snack-aphorically speaking).
Contents of Poland box, artfully arranged by Donna
First up on the scorecard was Poland’s iconic dark chocolate-covered marshmallow bar. According to the brochure, this is Poland’s most famous confection and the name translates to “an unobtainable delicacy”. We’ll see!
That tasted exactly like you would expect. Maybe it was “unobtainable” and a “delicacy” back in 1936 when it was first created, but it seems pretty average now. Marshmallow bar sampling. Photo by Donna.
Next, we were guided to a salty snack. Pretzels are Poland’s favourite salty snack, according to the writeup on this one:
Now you’re talking! (Donna and I are both salty snack fans.) Cheese and onion flavoured aka pierogi-flavoured, apparently.
Back to sweet, for taste test #3:
Chocolate-covered gingerbread sticks. I didn’t think this would be such a good pairing.But I am happy to report that they were quite good! Poles love gingerbread – especially at Christmas time – and their favourite holiday film is Home Alone, according to the brochure. KEVIN!!!!!
Next was something that intrigued both Donna and myself:
Too cute to eat…almost! These are considered a national treasure in potato and salty-snack loving Poland.
The next item came from the “yum bag” included in the box: a hard candy – fruit yogurt flavoured.
The bag contained 4 wrapped candies. Two of each variety. Jogusie tasted good but neither of us are hard candy fans (caramels excepted, of course). Seventy three percent of Polish people list yogurt as their go-to dairy snack, and Jogusie yogurt candies were created to “get a yogurt fix on the go”, apparently.
The next sampling I hoped would be good, since I liked the chocolate-covered gingerbread sticks so much:
However, neither of us found anything delicious about this particular snack. Frederic Chopin, however, sang the praises of gingerbread, as described in the brochure. Maybe he should have kept his opinions to music only.
Again, I had high hopes for the next offering – it even had a cute wrapper.
It was a disappointment, to say the least. Kinda crispy on the outside and blah on the inside. We’ve both had better caramels and better fudge. Apparently this is Poland’s most popular candy. Can I introduce you to a little thing called “Werther’s”?
Last but not least was a milk chocolate bar with a peanut cocoa filling.
I thought it had a nice nutty flavour but Donna was kinda “meh” about this. Manufactured by the company run by Jan Wedel, the “Willy Wonka” of Poland, who also created “the unobtainable delicacy”, seen previously. Jan Wedel was also famous for being a humanitarian by producing food for hungry citizens when the Nazis seized control of Poland’s food for themselves.Donna, in her snacking judging glory.
Here’s what the finished scorecard looked like:
And here are the Poland box snacks ranked by us, from favourite snack to least favourite snack (LEFT TO RIGHT):
My rankingDonna’s ranking
And the winners are…..
Us! Because we got to have a bunch of laughs and spend time together sampling exotic snacks! Photo by Donna
Where in the world will we go next (in terms of snack boxes)? Stay tuned!
