Bubblegum was the stock and staple flavor of my youth. All the time I could be seen chomping and chewing on bubblegum of all sorts – gum balls, shredded gum, bricks and blocks and sticks of gum. The fruit flavors and juicy, gooey inner fillings were the delight of my life and the constant flavor of summer.
Back in my day, one of my favorite sources of gum was baseball cards. When I got a quarter in my pocket, I would go to the corner store and buy a pack of Topps cards and spend the afternoon looking at them with my older brother, who was better versed in the ways of the sport. The gum was hard and broke when bitten but the shards were quickly softened, made juicy and tasty in no time at all. The cards probably never lost that bubblegum smell, although they themselves were lost long ago to the perils of spring cleaning done by my mother.
This photo makes me think back to the colorful, fruit flavored days of yore, spent with bubblegum and carefree afternoons in the sun. Today it’s hot and humid here in Washington, DC, the perfect weather for a stroll along the Potomac River with some bubblegum. Perhaps I am a little old to blow bubbles but I still enjoy the flavor, anyway.
I picked up this giant foam finger from the Silly Ice Cream booth at the All Candy Expo last week. Silly Ice Cream is freeze dried ice cream pellets. It tastes like ice cream, looks like the inside of a bean bag and doesn’t melt in your hand, making it possibly one of the coolest inventions since, well, the giant foam finger.
This advertising tool is a classic because of its universal appeal. You can’t help but smile when you look at it and feel a positive sort of envy for people who sport them. As I approached the Silly Ice Cream booth, all I saw was elbows from people grabbing a foam finger to take with them. In fact, I purposely sought out this booth because of the finger. At any show, there’s the wow effect of, “I need that,” and the finger satisfied that role.
Granted, the foam finger does not sell the product, but it is sitting on top of my desk, and I am sure it is livening up the desks and offices of actual buyers and brokers, who went home with these too. It is a constant reminder of the product, which is exactly what the advertiser wants. In my book, this is a great way to advertise.
That’s Laura, in the photo. She was a good enough sport to model the foam finger for me. As a new hire, our new manager of regulatory and technical affairs, she got to start her job at the Expo, which must have been a great way to start off. Best of all, she is still feeling out the social makeup of the office and thus did not have the heart to tell me to get lost when I approached her with the giant foam finger.
The only thing that could make that finger better would be if it were edible, maybe made from licorice or marshmallow. Yum – marshmallow foam finger!
I recently hosted a dinner party for 100 or soof my closest friends. When my husband and I first met with the caterer, I told him that as a spokesperson for the U.S. chocolate and candy industry it was important to me to incorporate these foods in unusual ways during this dinner party. One of the things I really wanted to do was use cocoa and chocolate in savory ways during the dinner. Our chef, Gary Leach of Centerplate Catering for the Roland E. Powell Convention Center, scored a total hit when he presented me with a menu that consisted of Chocolate-Dusted Scallops with Vanilla Butter Sauce AND Chili and Cocoa Marinated Flank Steak with Chocolate Merlot Sauce.
John Dooley and Chef Gary at Centerplate were kind enough to send me the following recipe for the entree course. Thanks guys! You made our day very special and now you’ve helped me make today very special for readers of the Candy Dish blog.
Chili and Cocoa Marinated Flank Steak with Chocolate Merlot Sauce
Yield: Dinner for 6 – 7
Marinade Ingredients:
2 – 2.5 lbs Flank Steak
1.5 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ bunch Fresh Cilantro
¾ cup Chipotle Pepper Powder
¾ cup Cocoa Powder
4 cloves Fresh Garlic
1 Tablespoon Onion Powder
1.5 ounces Worcestershire Sauce
3 Fresh Limes, Zested and Juiced
Sauce Ingredients: 1 Medium Onion, Diced Small
¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 cloves Fresh Garlic, Peeled and Minced
2 Fresh Jalapenos (Roasted, Peeled and Seeded)
2 cups Merlot Wine
1 Beef Bullion Cube
1/3 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
Method – Marinade: Place garlic and cilantro in food processor and puree, then add oil in a stream while blending, then add remaining ingredients and process until well blended, this mixture will be thick. Coat the Flank Steak with puree and marinate overnight. Scrape off excess marinade and grill on a hot grill to sear and then move to a medium heat to finish to desired doneness. Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing (against the grain for the most tender eating).
Method - Sauce: Sweat the onions over medium heat in the oil. Add the garlic and pepper and sauté for 1 minute, then add the wine and reduce by half. Off the heat, add the chocolate and bullion cube and stir until completely melted and absorbed (you can puree this sauce if you like with a blender). This sauce has very intense flavor and just a little on the flank is best and quite delicious.
Usually when I think of sweets popular in other countries I think I will find something different. Even Canada has some treats we can’t find too easily here. However, this photo of treats, taken by a Flickr user in São Paolo, shows a variety of candies we enjoy here in the States. I like this photo because of the variety of colors but also because of the random arrangement of items. This can only come one of two ways – either by painstaking styling or by simply throwing everything in a pile, which is the look the stylist wants anyway.
Do you want your candy photos featured here? Submit them to the Candy Dish Blog Flickr group. We want to see your candy photos and so does the rest of the world!
Our latest candy giveaway was a huge success. Five giant bags of candy will be shipped out to our lucky winners. We even recorded it so you could watch the selection process.
Our winning comments, drawn randomly, are:
82. Kathy
75. Ann
62. Michael C.
52. Joan
19. Laura (finally!)
I will be contacting all of you to get your addresses so we can send out your prize packs. Thanks for entering!
The day is dreary here in DC, with rain pelting the red brick of Georgetown, and making the muddy, swollen streams flow the color of a medium hot chocolate. It all makes me wonder: was it a dream? Was the All Candy Expo all just some wild candy-encrusted fantasy or did it really happen? I guess there’s the proof in the candy giveaway we are wrapping up, along with the hour-long post-show meeting we had this morning here at NCA, but it seems so long ago and remote, like a daydream, like that moment between sleep and wakefulness that John Keats described in his Ode to a Nightingale or that elation Homer Simpson feels in the “Land of Chocolate” episode.
Even looking at the photos is a problem, as it looks larger than life:
Of course it was real – it did happen – but as it was my first Expo, it was a bit dreamlike, so forgive me if I go on a bit about it. And forgive me, John Keats, my favorite of all romantic poets, if you are rolling over in your grave at being mentioned in the same sentence as Homer Simpson.
In front of McCormick Place, where the All Candy Expo took place this week, I was always amused by this giant M&M, which was tethered to sand bags to keep it from blowing away in the windy city. It almost looked like he was being restrained, which was sad, but at the same time, we don’t need giant M&Ms wandering around, as loving and friendly as I am sure they are.
So – what did you do this week that was fun and exciting? Did you sign up for our massive candy giveaway yet?
Bubblegum was the stock and staple flavor of my youth. All the time I could be seen chomping and chewing on bubblegum of all sorts – gum balls, shredded gum, bricks and blocks and sticks of gum. The fruit flavors and juicy, gooey inner fillings were the delight of my life and the constant flavor of summer.
