Universal Yums Favorites - August '16 (Brazil) through January '17 (Ukraine)

This isn't a review of the Internation Yums boxes.  Those are a dime a dozen on YouTube.  This is just my way of remembering my favorites for future reference.

Brazil 

August 2016

Torcida Pimenta Mexicana

• These are like jalapeno flavored goldfish with a thinner shell and more air in the middle.  Crunchy, savory, and adddicting.

Thailand

September 2016

Fashion Food Tomato Flavored Cracker

• I was surprised that I liked these.  They look like chips but have a styrofoam-like texture similar to some crackers, and they taste like ketchup.  Seriously amazing.

Sanghai Strawberry Cream Wafers

• Just like the strawberry wafer cookies here in the states, but better somehow.

Hanami Shrimp Crackers Hot Chili Flavor

• Less of a cracker, and more like Andy Capp fries.  Spicy and not really all that shrimpy.

Russia

October 2016

Skazochniy Strawberry Mini Sponge Cake

• Cakey outside, slightly tart strawberry filling inside.  More like a muffin than a sponge cake.

Indonesia

November 2016

TicTac Spicy Crackers

• Not at all spicy, and super hard (therefore loud to eat) but tastes almost like an Asian version of BBQ and gets tastier the more you eat.....

Chiki Cheese Balls

• Like cheesy poofs, but with a corn base (or so it tasted) and in weird colors!

Germany

December 2016

Fritt Karamell Toffee

• Such a weird flavor, but strangely delicious.  It's like caramel and toffee flavors at the same time, but then in a taffy consistency.  So weird.

Ukraine

January 2017

Flint Bread Sticks/Bread Snacks
Sour Cream with Herb flavor and Red Caviar flavor

• Kind of like hard Gardetto's breadsticks.  Flavoring isn't consistent on each breadstick (some are stronger than others) so it's best to eat it by the handful.  The left tastes like sour cream & onion and the left only tastes slightly like roe, mostly like salt.

Svitoch Peach Yogurt Milk Chocolate Bar

• Like orange chocolate, but peach.  VERY peach.

Fizzy Boom Hard Candies

• Normal, pleasant hard candy outside, surprisingly sour inside that shoots out like a soda bottle that someone shook up.

Non Universal Yums International Favorites

Nestle Toffe Crisp

• Even though these are Nestle, I only ever found them in the UK.  My favorite international chocolate bar yet.

Island Bakery Lemon Melts

• I had these on a couple of British Airways flights, and I loved them so much that the air hostess gave me 8 or so bags!

Tao Kae Noi Tom Yum Goong Flavor

• Like a potato chip, but made from toasted seaweed.  

This Curse I Suffer

My precious....

Fucking Panera.

I've known for a long time that I'm cursed.  The curse of disappearing food favorites.  Baked Lays had the best chip ever to be made.  Southwestern ranchflavor.  These chips were out of this world, and I freaking loved them.  They were doomed to meet the fate my curse brings.  You won't find southwestern ranch Baked Lays anymore.  THEY DISCONTINUED THEM.
 

You wiley corn chowder, you!

So, Panera.  They're pros at this.  Their best soup is by far the most elusive: the amazing corn chowder.  How about replacing that broccoli cheese soup that tastes like baby food with the corn chowder of my dreams?

RIP asiago roast beef

At least the soup makes a rare appearance.  The worst, though, are their sandwiches.  My first love was the asiago roast beef sandwich.  First, they did away with roast beef altogether and replaced it with steak.  I should have seen this as the first sign.  It wasn't long after the steak switcheroo that the sandwich vanished completely.  I mourned and moved on... to the sierra turkey sandwich.  We went to Panera yesterday, and guess what is no longer on the menu.  Yup.  My beloved sierra turkey.  Fuckers.

You'll be missed, sierra turkey

I have tales of my curse occurring in other restaurants, as well.  It's a dismal culinary fate.  I will never understand why anyone remakes good movies and why anyone discontinues the best menu items.... but it will continue.