I have a sweet tooth. Some studies say that it's genetic, but I have a hard time believing that, since my mom has less of a taste for sugar than anyone I've ever met.
I've tried to eat less refined sugar in my meals (for example, we eat very little bread, especially for Americans), but when it comes to sweet treats, I've had to make allowances. That said, since we've been in Korea I've worked very hard to retrain my palate. I don't crave junk food anymore and I feel completely full and satisfied after a meal without any simple starches. I think some of that has to do with Ian and my nightly "dessert" of some kind. We make (caloric) room for a treat because deprivation simply doesn't work.
My love of candy gives me a nostalgia for an era that is not my own. I wish that I had experienced the time when kids could spend a handful of change and get a big bag full of assorted candy in return. Candy is much more corporate now, and much more expensive.
In Korea, there is still some very cheap, simple candy. You can buy it at any of the one off marts (the big chains just have brand name candy).
Two types of 100 won (dime) candy from the mart next to the Goam campus. The round one is a citrus hard candy and the flat one is a pumpkin chew. The pumpkin chew is (very) lightly dusted with rice flour so that is doesn't stick to the plastic. This gives it a flavor reminiscent of the Japanese Botan Rice Candy that you can buy in the foreign food section of most Safeway stores.
I love that stuff.
Good night!
I don't know if I ever told you that when I was a kid and would visit my cousins or they would visit us, we would walk to town and spend .25 or.50 cents on penny candy. Yes, we would come home with a whole bag full. I remember we would stand in the store for the longest time choosing carefully just what we wanted. Some of the things included bubble gum, neccos, licorice,(you could buy it individually back then). Even if we would spring for a full size candy bar, like big hunk or Look,which was a big hunk covered in chocolate, it would only cost .5 cents. Then we would walk home and enjoy our treats all day long.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the trip down memory lane!