The Vanilla Circle

Not long ago I read this post in which Sandra showed some very nice old posters. In that post she also organized a give-away with a cute magnet of a Danish old-fashioned vanilla sugar package. To this point, nothing new. But later on that November I was visiting Sweden and doing my usual supermarket-safari when I recognized this nice old-fashioned package on a shelf, the one I had first seen at Sandra's blog and which I probably hadn't noticed if it hadn't been for her post (that's the funny thing with perception, it is more likely to see things -at all- when you already know them). So I suppose you know what I did next: I had to buy it (as this brand is not known here in Germany). A couple of days after that, back home, my good luck closed the circle when I won Sandra's give-away, lucky me, huh?

The cute little magnet of the vanilla package has just arrived, and is now keeping company to the original vanilla package I brought from Sweden.

My own private goodies

Every time I visit my family home in Spain I follow the same pattern: I go to one of the many sweets kiosks in the barrio and buy a bag full of my favorite Spanish goodies, the ones I used to eat when I was a kid, back in the 70's. They may be not the most popular if you ask other people in my generation, but here they are, my Top 6.

Chocolatinas: chocolate bars from Nestlé, filled with a sticky fruit creme with flavors like strawberry, orange or pineapple. The only chocolate bars I knew before Mars, KitKat and Co. made their appearence.

Conguitos: delicious chocolate-covered peanuts, with milk or white chocolate. The logo of these sweets has undergone a slight change after some protests regarding its political correctness. You can read some interesting thoughts about it in this article.

Nubes: meaning "clouds" is just the Spanish name for marshmallows.

Moras: blackberry jellies.

Caramelos de nata: "cream candies", white and very sticky candies that are hard to get off the teeth once you bite them. I used to get them free from the bakery woman when my grandma sent me to get bread. The bakery closed sometime ago but I cannot eat them without remembering that bakery woman.

Corazones: heart jellies peach-flavored.

The reason about eating these goodies now is of course more the memory they recall than the taste they have (actually, some of them have a quite artificial taste for our current liking), but they just belong to our cultural references.

As a curiosity, while reading some stuff for this post I came across a nice shop with lots and lots of sugar goodies from all around the world.

Can you find your Top 6 too?

All ready for the new year

There are some rituals which must be followed when starting a new year. And even if you are not a superstitious person, you will probably do it... just in case. In Spain we start every new year with a mouth full of grapes, because as the tradition says, when the clock strikes twelve at midnight, you have to eat 12 grapes, one for each stroke.

Berlin people are not that delicate. They also have a ritual to follow but instead of eating grapes, this is what they do.

But don't worry, the tradition doesn't say that you have to eat one Pfannkuchen, aka donut, with each stroke. Is there any special tradition or ritual that you follow?

Happy New Year!