Nancy finally found the Asian brand wasabi rice crackers
that she'd talked about. These were pretty decent but
rather salty, as most such are. They tasted okay and
had a crunch not so objectionable as the hard crackers
one usually gets nor so suave as the ones I love but
almost never find.

Goetze's caramel bullseyes (also from Nancy) were a
pleasant blast from the past. The somewhat too starchy
caramel was almost as comforting as in days of old, and
the white fondant filling was almost - but not - as
cooling and smooth.

Tasteoff: Voortman (Canadian) vs. Osem (Israeli) wafers
Nancy brought three flavors of Voortman - vanilla,
chocolate, and strawberry. All were way too sweet,
a bit soggy, and with little flavor. In fact, it was
hard to tell the vanilla from the strawberry. The
fillings seemed to have been perhaps introduced to a
vanilla pod and a piece of fruit respectively, but
clearly they had not gotten along. The chocolate might
have gone on a few dates with a cacao bean, but they must
not have been intimately connected. The resilient and
uncrisp wafer part reminded one of styrofoam packaging.
The fact that they'd been from the bulk aisle at Wegmans
might have had a bit to do with the texture issue, but the
lack of flavor goodness can't be excused that way. The Osem
ones, vanilla and chocolate, came from sealed packages which
had protected the cookies well in their thousands-of-miles
trip from the motherland. They were pleasantly crisp still,
with a good snap and mouthfeel. Unfortunately, though the
flavors were better, they were muted and not exciting; also
the wafer part tasted a bit cardboardy. In the shortest
possible precis: Voortmans vile; Osem okay.

Ruth made her peach yum-yum, a concoction of fresh fruit,
Cool Whip, and cream cheese. Pretty nice if you like that
sort of thing. I was okay with it until I got a big blob
of cream cheese, a substance I like but that doesn't like
me. I think this has Jell-O in it; I didn't detect any
of that presence in it (thankfully).

Wines
The Provisioner Arizona white table wine 14 - a blend of
mostly Colombard, fragrant in a grapy way. I found it
acceptable and refreshing enough; Bonnie found it too
sweet. I fed others a mixture of it and peach juice,
and that went over pretty well. I brought this from the
house but don't recall having bought it myself. Maybe
Swisher gave it to me to bring to last year's picnic?

Ch. Rocher Bonregard 11 (Pomerol) - I brought this to feed
to Burton last year, but that didn't happen. Another year
of bottle age actually helped it, and even so yet another
year might have helped. Flavors of brown spice and a muted
currant and cherry fruit, good cedary cigarbox and oak. A
little acidy and young.

Ch. Gaudin 05 (Pauillac) - Burt abd Shirley brought this -
it had been a gift from their son, who doesn't stint and
does it well. On pouring, this was clearly quite a bit
lighter and older than the above, a nice rose with a tinge
of brown on the edges. I got blackberries and plums and a
bit of coffee-caramel, this latter going with considerable
oxidation - the wine was still pleasing but probably 2-4
years past prime.

Preferences were mixed - Bonnie, who despite her young years
has good experience with wine, preferred the older, finding
it more complex, which it was. She didn't seem to mind the
touch of maderization, which I found borderline obtrusive. I
didn't get a strong preference for either from most of us.
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Quoting MICHAEL LOO to ALL on 15-Sep-2018 01:35 <=-

Nancy finally found the Asian brand wasabi rice crackers
that she'd talked about. These were pretty decent but
rather salty, as most such are. They tasted okay and
had a crunch not so objectionable as the hard crackers
one usually gets nor so suave as the ones I love but
almost never find.

If you find the sort you love, you should bring some for the rest of us
to try.... :)

Tasteoff: Voortman (Canadian) vs. Osem (Israeli) wafers
In the shortest possible precis: Voortmans vile; Osem okay.

I almost went back to the cookie/cracker aisle to look for Nabisco's
version to add to the selection... but decided against it... Dunno if they'd've been any better, though... might have been like the Goetze's,
a bit of disappointment from those remembered of old.... Also Voortman
has packages of various flavor wafers, but in sugar-free... I decided
against them also....

The Provisioner Arizona white table wine 14 - a blend of
mostly Colombard, fragrant in a grapy way. I found it
acceptable and refreshing enough; Bonnie found it too
sweet. I fed others a mixture of it and peach juice,
and that went over pretty well. I brought this from the
house but don't recall having bought it myself. Maybe
Swisher gave it to me to bring to last year's picnic?

That would sound plausible... It was tasty with the peach juice from
Lydia's leftover sliced peaches.... ;)

ttyl neb

... Don't hate yourself in the morning, sleep till noon.

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