What I like to eat... anything MELON!!! Yubari Melon Sherbet!

I'm fortunate in that I live in Japan, so there are lots of opportunities to try things that aren't normally available in America or other countries. One of these is one of my favorite things... I love (love love love) love melon. Japanese people seem to be very fond of all things cantaloupe, or more generally- melon. That's a happy coincidence because, so am I! When I go to an ice cream shop, often times there are the standard flavors there- green tea, black sesame, vanilla, chocolate, sometimes strawberry or blue soda... but what makes me really excited is when they offer melon flavor. All of those flavors are delicious and there are definitely times when I get the green tea, but not if melon is available! Melon! :-D

But what am I to do when I need my melon fix and I'm stuck at home, or the ice cream shop nearby which sells melon soft serve is closed...? Enter Yubari Melon Sherbet bars. The box advertises a decadently rich melon sauce which oozes from your sherbet. Does it? Ohhhh yes!

Picture of me eating one... Oh BABY!! <3

Futaba has a website which is printed on the side of the box... I've even found the right product page for you. Too bad that you might have to fly to Japan to give one of these a try... click on the link and drool in agony!
http://www.futabafoods.co.jp/products/ice_cream/multi/m_noukou_yubarimelon.html

These tasty little bars pack a ton of delicious melon punch! The top third is filled with melon filling and the rest is filled with a melon ice cream center, all encased in a tasty melon sherbet casing. Yubari is a city in Hokkaido which is famous for their delicious cantaloupe melons. Yubari hit the news big time when a pair of melons were sold for 2.5 million Yen. Do you know how much that would cost in US dollars? That's over $30,000 dollars for a pair of cantaloupes (depending on the current exchange rate).

These aren't the boring tasteless cantaloupes that your grocery store pedals to you, these are fantastically flavorful melons that would make your brain explode with melon flavor and cause rainbow confetti to explode from your eyeballs while the Nyan Cat music plays through your head.

 It will look like this, more or less. Meaning more or less blood and melons flying out of your brain. 

Warning: Brain explosions are not advised but very delicious.

Ooooh Melon!

Think that you don't like melon? Think again. Add this to your bucket list, because you don't know what you're missing. Time to fly to Japan, people! Land of the tasty melons!

Mmmm! Makes my mouth water to think about. It makes me think that it's about time to take a weekend getaway to Hokkaido and gorge myself on melons. Of course, I'll have to wait until they're in season, but wouldn't that be a delicious vacation? :-D　Fully worth the wait and train fare. Time to change the blog to Melon-aholic! Just kidding! Or wait... am I? Melon is pretty darn delicious! 9_9 Mmmm!

Cinnamon is not for everyone...

In reflecting on the deliciousness of cinnamon I came to the realization that cinnamon is not for everyone. How can that be? you wonder, That's not possible! Everyone loves cinnamon. No, well even if everyone loves cinnamon, which we know to be a sign of sanity and good health... even then there are cases when someone should not ingest cinnamon. Case in point- if you're a rat. I know, I know what you're thinking. Cinnamon is too delicious. Why am I advocating that rats not eat cinnamon, do I dislike rats? Am I rat-udice? The answer is that yes, maybe I am rat-udice, or maybe it's because I care.

So imagine that you are the happy owner of a delightful pet rat which you have affectionately named "Squeaky" or "Fluffy" or some other uber-cutesy name that puts your pet rat in his place- as a pet not some wild and free sewer rat with a cool sounding name, but a lame rat with a pet sounding name. Now one day when you are eating a delicious piece of cinnamon toast, you look over and your pet rat "Squeaky" is curled into a cute little rat ball, sleeping or glaring at you- it's all the same. Your rat is bored and deprived. His life is boring and it sucks. Maybe he has a rat wheel, maybe he doesn't but he's tired of it and wishing that he didn't have to be your lame-ass pet.

Then it happens. You get a brilliant idea! What if you added sparkles to his life through the wonder of cinnamon? Why not? Everyone loves cinnamon! It smells like Christmas cookies and happy memories. It's fantastically delicious! You bet that your rat would love cinnamon too, so you decide to share. :D

It's a success! Your rat loves it! He dances around his cage happily throwing sprinkles of cinnamon into the air like confetti. But that's not all. Now that he has cinnamon, he has to try some and he discovers that it's delicious. He begins to gobble wood shaving after wood shaving covered in cinnamon. He doesn't even care anymore that they're wood shavings because they taste like cinnamon rolls!!

His fate has just been sealed. Little do you or your rat know that cinnamon is not for everyone, especially if you're a rat. It is only a matter of time before you find this out, but by then it's too late. You find your rat, his stomach stuffed with wood shavings and cinnamon. His lifeless body is still in the position of eating the delicious delicious cinnamon. There is probably a happy smile on his ratty face as well, though you are too busy crying to notice. What a way to go...

And that's why cinnamon is not for everyone...

**disclaimer cinnamon really is poisonous for rodents, do not try to reenact this story with your pet or else you are stupid**

Cinnamon Toast with... Saigon Cinnamon!

Today was a day of delicious cinnamon enjoyment... 

I had Saigon Cinnamon (made by The Spice Hunter) on my toast and it was amazing. For many of you who haven't tried Saigon Cinnamon, I can heartily recommend it. It is by far the strongest flavored cinnamon out there with an amazing 1-5% essential cinnamon oil, of which 25% is cinnamaldehyde! Translation: it has that amazing zing that you usually reach for cinnamon gum to get.

In my opinion, one of the simplest and most enjoyable ways to devour cinnamon is sprinkled on a piece of buttered still warm toast along with just a bit of sugar. I think that I would happily devour Saigon Cinnamon all day if not for the Coumarin levels that it contains. For safe all day consumption, I would need to acquire some Ceylon Cinnamon, or true cinnamon as it's called. But in terms of strong and delicious flavor, Saigon Cinnamon is the winner!