Mystery crackers from Japan, Pocky and books

Hey, just noticed from traffic logs that Blatherings comes up as the #1 result if you type Lord of the Rings Musical review into Google.

Anyway, I promised Jeff I'd post this photo and question:



My Dad brought the above package of crackers home with him from Japan. They are very good: crispy, salty and sweet. Jeff is totally addicted to them. In fact, the last time my Dad brought them home, Jeff hid the last package at the bottom of a small box of other snacks in our one of kitchen shelves. Except I didn't know he was hiding them when I found them, so I ate them.



Hoo boy, did I regret it.

Our question: Has anyone in North America seen these crackers before? Please click on the photo above to see a bigger version.

One of my favourite decadent snacks (other than chocolate, of course) is Pocky. Anyone else out there a Pocky fan? I know Dave Weingart is. :-) Jeff and I recently discovered Black Sesame Pocky...yum.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on "pocky", if you're interested: it's basically a long, thin biscuit stick covered in chocolate. The next time we go to Japan, I'm determined to try all the Pocky flavours I've never had, like Pumpkin, Giane Mikan, Yubari Melon, Powdered Tea Azuki Bean and Kobe Wine.

And now, of course, I'm craving Pocky.



Recent read: Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli. I enjoyed Spinelli's Maniac Magee, so picked this one up at the Flying Dragon bookshop the other day. Good book, but very sad. It's about a young boy living on the streets of the Nazi-occupied Warsaw during World War II. The main character reminded me a great deal of the little boy in the movie version of Empire of the Sun.


I've just started John Dunning's Booked To Die, recommended to me by Mark Berstein in LJ comments as well as Inside The Business of Illustration by Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman, which I found in a small design/advertising store in Toronto called Swipe. I bought the Dunning book in a mystery bookstore called The Sleuth of Baker Street.

There are so many good bookstores in our new neighbourhood! My main challenge is not to buy more books than I can read at a time. Since Jeff and I got rid of cable tv over a year ago, I've been reading a lot more than I used to. I also love the Northern District Public Library, which has a good young people's fiction section.

So many books, too little time. And to think that when I was very young, I used to honestly think I could one day have read ALL THE BOOKS IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. At this rate, I'll be ecstatic if I manage to read all the books on my entire shelf!

:-)

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