Maria’s Thursday Three: Pandora, LACMA and Kisses

1. Pandora: When I tire of listening to my mix of songs on iTunes, I turn to Pandora online. Type in an artist’s name or a song and they play music that shares the same tempo and style as your entry. I’ve discovered and re-discovered good songs through this site.

2. L.A. Flash: LACMA is having another late night event this Saturday, Sept. 6, celebrating L.A.’s street style. Could be really fun, and you can be part of a bigger project and end up in the museum’s photo archives. From their site:

In 1973, LACMA commissioned five photographers to document LA street style. Thirty-five years later, we’re celebrating the project—LA Flash—by asking what your LA street style looks like today. Dress the part for this late night art event—photos taken during the evening will be added to the museum’s archives at lacmalaflash.org.

(Pic by Summer Is Ending.)

3. Hershey’s Pumpkin Spice Kisses: As fall approaches, Mike is always on the lookout for any place that would sell pumpkin-flavored anything. The new pumpkin spice flavored kisses are a hit at our house– it sort of taste likes a pumpkin smoothie compacted in a tiny piece of creamy candy. (Target also has Candy Corn flavored Kisses, and is rumored to have a new Caramel Apple flavor as well.)

Another 99 Cents Only Store Haul

I had heard about the mythical 99 Cents Only wine deals — but had never seen it with my own eyes. Until Wednesday night.

We were in Bellflower — yes, Bellflower. It’s off the 105, near Norwalk. Look it up — Wednesday night to visit our pals Anthony and Candice, who just gave birth to Baby No. 2. Across the street from the Kaiser Permanente sits a strip mall with the two beacons of close-out shopping: Big Lots and 99 Cents Only. We, of course, headed straight to the promised land.

And there it was — a full shelf of a wide variety of wines. None of which sounded familiar, and most of which came from Australia.

What the hell, it’s 99 cents. We’re gonna experiment. We picked up a shiraz from South Africa (Matuba) and a sauvignon blanc from the California Central coast (“Thirsty Fish”). I can’t find much info about either brand — particularly the mysterious Thirsty Fish — on the Internet. Hmm. Not a good sign.

Our candy intake was small this time, and all in the 59 cent range: Milka (which expires this week, by the way); a strange and pretty terrible (yes, I already tried it) 3 Musketeers-branded bar called “Generation Max”; “Monster Malts”; and a Vanilla Latte-flavored granola bar branded by Caribou Coffee.

The 3 Musketeers Generation Max bar was “Chocolate Strawberry Brownie” flavor — pretty much an insult to chocolate, strawberries and brownies.

One of our favorite and hard-to-find items at the 99 Cents Only store: Ink jet printer ink. Talk about saving money. Too bad it’s hard to find — this is the absolute only one we located at the Bellflower location.

Nectarines!

This is one of those things that we tend to buy then never actually use or eat. “Hey, I love chai, let’s buy this and drink chai tea more often.”

Cut to three years later, when I rediscover this container collecting dust in the back of the pantry.

The Koala Brothers! Not well known here in the U.S., but Evan was a big fan at one point.

The 99 Cents Only Store Shopper

As I mentioned in the past, I love hitting up the 99 Cents Only store for unusual products or flavors that didn’t quite work out in the mainstream. An early morning Easter run to the store resulted in these gems:

– Limited Edition Carnival Flavors Skittles: Cotton Candy, Candy Apple, Bubble Gum, Red Licorice and Green Slushy flavored Skittles! Eat your heart out, Jelly Belly!

– Mini Robin Eggs Milkshake, Strawberry flavor: From the makers of Whoppers. Malted milk candy, but with an artificial Strawberry finish.

– Chex Mix, Apple Cinnamon flavor: It’s like a breakfast version of the snack mix: Cinnamon Chex, Corn Chex, Apple Cinnamon Walnuts, Cranberries, Apple pieces, and yogurt-covered Chex.

– Vanilla Creme Hershey’s Kisses: Probably the most disappointing of the bunch. Like a Cadbury egg, just smaller.

Now, a bonus shopper tip: Target’s line of baked chips, which includes flavors such as curry and Jamaican Jerk (above), are just $2 right now. The Jamaican Jerk is nice, with a kick that doesn’t show up until you’ve scarfed down five or six.

Found Art: Candy, Put Some in Their Lunches Every Day!

Spotted at a candy store up in Healdsburg (north of Santa Rosa): Ahh, a simpler time when Dr. Pepper was a medical tonic, candy was a part of your kid’s balanced lunch and asbestos was a miracle material.

Break Me Off a Piece of That "Office" Gag

Last week’s episode of “The Office” (awesome, as always) featured a running gag in which office dolt Andy (Ed Helms, above) couldn’t remember how the old commercial jingle “Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that…” went.

Apple Sauce? Grey Poupon? Driven mad, Andy finally settles on “Fancy Feast.”

Of course, the joke’s funny, because everyone knows it’s “Kit-Kat Bar,” right?

Apparently not. I’ve noticed quite a few people hitting Franklin Avenue this weekend, Googling the words “Break me off a piece of that.”

So I checked it out on Google myself, and discovered why: Strangely enough, Franklin Avenue is fourth on the list, and the first to actually mention Kit-Kats (this post, about our love for obscure Kit-Kat flavors).

Our Allies in the War Against Boring Candy

My sister Ann Marie spent much of the summer in the U.K., and recently sent us some delicious souvenirs from her studies abroad.

Regular readers know we love, love candy from overseas, and Ann’s package didn’t disappoint. Mint Aeros (my favorite), Orange Kit-Kats (wow — “orange” is an understatement. These things were ORANGE), Galaxy Ripple, Cadbury Flake (dark), and more, as you can see above.

It’s been a good year for us in the overseas candy department; Santos gave us a wide variety of Kit-Kat and Mentos flavors this summer.

Flavor Finder: Peanut Butter and Banana Cream Reese’s

This has to be the weirdest flavor I’ve seen in a long time… and Franklin Avenue reader Chris Nichols didn’t even find it at the 99 Cents Only store, which (as you know) is the graveyard for spectacularly bizarro and stomach-turning flavors like this. Chris writes:

Not sure if these are new or old but I saw them last night at the Silver Lake Arco and thought of you. You know those Food Network shows where you see the glass beakers full of artificial flavoring? They taste like that.

I’m curious, yet repulsed. Elvis would indeed be proud.

Japan Gets Crunky

You think the Japanese chocolate makers had Lil Jon in mind when they came up with…

the Crunky candy bar?

(By the way, we picked up the Crunky candy bar at Marukai Market. Pretty good stuff.)

Japan Gets Crunky

You think the Japanese chocolate makers had Lil Jon in mind when they came up with…

the Crunky candy bar?

(By the way, we picked up the Crunky candy bar at Marukai Market. Pretty good stuff.)

Break Me Off a Piece of That Obscure Kit-Kat Bar

Thanks to Santos, who’s in town from Guam and her many travels. Santos passed along a treasure chest of Kit-Kat and Mentos flavors from overseas (esp. Japan) that are impossible to find here in the States.

Above, check it out: Bitter Chocolate, Strawberry, Cappuccino, Azuki Bean, Raspberry, Chestnut, Mild Bitter & Orange, and Pumpkin flavored Kit-Kats!

Mentos flavors from the Philippines (which you may be able to find at spots such as Arko Foods or Seafood City): Dalandan Fresh and Juicy Ponkan.

More Mentos: Fuji Apple and Grape.