Sunday, January 30, 2005

Lotte Big Waffle - mmm



I don't know why I went in, just curious I guess. I like to investigate. Maybe there's something I've never seen before. Especially when then there's stuff from other countries. Stuff you won't get in the everyday shops. Plus I like to keep up with what's out there in the confectionary game.

A lot of the time in Australia the new chocolate bars, biscuits and icecreams are what retailers call Extended Lines. E.g. Tim Tam biscuits; for decades there was one type, now there is Dark, Double Choc, Caramel, Tia Maria and others. Nothing new here. Just variations on a theme.

But I always hope. Maybe there'll be something new! So I went into the Korean/Japanese Convenience Store across from the Vic. Market in the city, not downtown, if you get my drift. I wasn't sure what I was looking for as I squeezed 'tween the aisles sniffing like a dog for something new...I grabbed a box of those Pucky sticks, they're like pretzels dipped in creamy icing, mmm. Seen 'em around, had 'em before.

But as I'm heading for the counter I notice the icecreams. For 9 months of the year I don't even look at icecream, the Iceman doesn't need cooling off...but it was a hot day, I'm in shorts and a look won't kill me, right?

Inside the freezer there's the usual suspects; Heaven, Drumstick, etc. but wait what's this? Some shiny brown block I haven't seen before. Big Waffle? huh? There's a picture of it on the wrapper, looks good. It's been bitten and you can see inside. There's a waffle that totally wraps a slab of chocolate ice cream that has a layer of chocolate stuff in the middle. I know what I have to do. I put the Puckys back and buy the Big Waffle. The guy at the counter says "You had one before?" "No, thought I try one, it looks good. They good?" The guy gives me a the look of someone who knows and says: "They're good".

I was hopeful of a top icecream experience before, but now I'm confident. I pop open the wrapper to take a look 'cause I've been burned before. You buy something with a cool picture and when you open it its tiny or has crap chocolate all over it... But it actually looks like the picture. So far so good. I take a small bite to check out the insides, mmm, again it checks out. But I can't risk a frozen treat so I rub it in its wrapper to try and melt it a bit. I realise the ingenious waffle is protecting the ice cream from melting and I decide to put in my pocket for awhile. When I resume its softened a bit and I go at it.

So what are they like? They're good.

Something Out Of Nothing


Doing nothing can be fun. It gives your body time to catch up with your mind.

I've been doing nothing for 9 weeks straight and I'm loving it.

When you do nothing, little things stand out more than they probably would.

There once was a slogan for a chocolate bar called Aero:
"It's the bubbles of nothing that make it really something". It only came in 2 flavours for years; plain and mint and it was shaped in rounded sections that you could break off to reveal the bubbly insides. The mint one was light green inside. That was my favourite.

But then it changed. The shape became a sort of triangular log with thin chocolate coating over the bubbles. It sucked. But eventually sanity prevailed and Aero was reborn in it's original chunky self.

Now that's something.