Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup

Two years ago, I discovered Reese's peanut butter cup via an American exchange student and it was definitely life changing.

Not being such a fan of peanut butter to begin with I was a little reluctant to try them at first but now I must say I am definitely HOOKED. 

Couple of months ago I heard of the existence of Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream and definitely had to try it. Luckily, American products are becoming more readily available in London compared to 4 years ago and it was easily found in local super market. 

Verdict: 

This ice cream is now one of my favorite at the moment. Compared to other Ben & Jerry's ice creams (for example Chocolate Fudge Brownie which I love but is too sweet for me) is that this one is not too sweet. It tastes like peanut butter but not too much (not being such a peanut butter fan, I found this perfect) and does not give you a heavy feeling afterwards.

Entire piece, YEY!

You can find pieces of the cups which is absolutely delicious (if you eat this ice cream you will fight with your family members or friends to get the cups :P). They are usually broken into halves but I was lucky to find have an entire one in my bowl! ;)

Overall, as a Nomster I would really recommend this ice cream despite the high calories :P

nom nom nom

Cancale Oysters

Oyster stand 

On my trip to France, I also went to Cancale, a commune in Brittany (North West of France). 

It is known for its fresh oysters, grown and collected there. You can buy them at stands and eat them right by the sea! (Freshness guaranteed!) It is also very cheap there, costing only 50 cents to have them opened. Many people just buy them and munch them away, throwing the shell away on the sand.

Oysters munched by everyone

I could obviously not go there without eating oysters... I hadn't eaten them in about 10 years and was not sure I would like them... 

I ordered 6 of them for lunch as a starter and turns out I LOVED THEM. It was so fresh and you could really taste the salt of the ocean. For those who don't like sea food, I wouldn't recommend though... :P
You eat them with a small special fork.


They were accompanied with some sliced bread, salted butter, lemon and a shallot based vinaigrette. Some people like to eat oysters by putting the shallot or lemon juice but I was always told that it kills the real taste of the oyster. It has such a special flavor that it would be a pity to drown the poor creature in lemon juice!
As a drink, the best would be some white wine (as I did) or pour the leftover sea water from your oyster into a glass and chug it at the end (apparently very healthy)!

Grape Fanta

Recently, in Atariya (a small Japanese shop in West London) I found a can of grape flavored Fanta for the first time. I cannot even explain the excitement when discovering it. I've been looking for it in different countries but never found it. Even in France where there is so much variety of everything, they did not have it.

As soon as I opened the can, I could smell the grape. The grape flavored candies and juices in Japan are very different from the ones in Europe and it also doesn't seem to be as popular. Personally, I LOVE Japanese grape flavored candies. If you would like to try some and you are in Europe, I would say try chewy candies called hi-chew. They are probably the easiest Japanese candies to find around and I would definitely recommend them (You can also find other flavors than grape, like strawberry, kiwi, apple flavor etc).

Going back to the Fanta can, it was very tasty. It immediately reminded me of when I was little in Japan and had a Happy Meal with nuggets, fries and Grape Fanta as a drink. Even though I think I appreciated it more when I was little, it is still a nice drink but maybe mainly because it brings back memories from when I was small :P