Event # 9 international snack box

For my 9^th and final event, I ordered an international snack box from Amazon. The box contained 17 snacks from at least 12 different countries maybe 13.  We each sampled all the snacks.  Some were just big enough for a small sample and others were a little bigger.  Then we each voted for our top 7, and then combined the votes to get the rankings.  The event was interesting and different because I didn’t pick out the different items, we just took what was there.  This added foods from different countries than I normally would have.  Here is the rundown of the 8 snacks that received votes

 

Lebanon              Grandour Dabke Biscuit sandwich with lemon cream filling          

This was okay, but I think it needs more lemon cream.

 

Croatia                Koestlin Cheese and Paprika  Saltas, Salted filled sticks   

This was a good snack.  They were pretzel sticks filled with cheese and paprika.   They were salty and had a tad of spice.

 

Bronze Spain      Gullon Creamwafer cookies        

This was a pretty good wafer cookie.

 

                                           

Silver       U.K.           Teashop Bourbon Creams           

A very good hard chocolate cookie with a good strong chocolate flavor and a slight bourbon flavor.

 

India                     Kurkure Green Chutney Style     

I thought these tasted good.  They had a salty, limey flavor but were really hot, too hot to really enjoy.

 

Gold Indonesia     Dolcetto Petites       Cookies and Cream Wafer Bites      

These were little chocolate cookies with Cookies and Cream filling.  These were delicious and just beat out the Teashop Bourbon Creams for the Gold medal!

 

Philippines           Jack and Jill Dewberry Blueberries and Cream                    

I didn’t particularly like these, but they did get a vote.   They had a good blueberry flavor, but the blueberries were chewy and rubbery.

 

                          

Poland  Goplana Grzeski  Orzecnowe (Milk chocolate-coated wafer bar with hazelnut  cream)            

     

This was a good wafer bar that was kind of like a Kit Kat.

                                            

Event # 9 was a fun and interesting event and was the perfect way to end the Food Olympics!  Thanks for reading and be sure to check out my Olympic recap in the next few days!

Event # 8 Breakfast/dessert sweets

 

For Event # 8 I bought multiple sweet items from whole foods. Some fresh bakery items and some frozen.  The items were from and or representing 5 different countries.  We tested these out one at a time over a few month period and ranked our favorites.

 

Gold   Italy   Cannoli

This had a hard but tasty pastry shell, filled with a ricotta filling with chocolate chips.  We really enjoyed these.

Silver   US   cherry turnovers

Triangle shaped turnovers with a good cherry filling. These were very good, and enough for the silver medal!

Bronze   Belgium   Dutch-Style Pancake Bites

These are Dutch-Style and it’s a product of Belgium.  They were frozen and we baked them in the oven.  They were really good topped with powdered sugar, with maple syrup or with both.  This was a nice little breakfast item.

France  Éclair

This was a pastry filled with cream filling and covered in chocolate pretty good but just outside the medals

France   crepes

Made in France.  They were decent crepes but were a little chewy.  These ones were Strawberry filled.  They were good cold and warm.

 

Belgium   Belgian waffles

Made in Belgium.  They were good but very filling.  They had lots of sugar, but maybe too much.

Event #7 Take out

 For Event #7 We ordered take out from various local restaurants and had different cuisines including Chinese, American, Thai and Mexican.  We enjoyed the food and then ranked our favorites.

Gold US   Nordy's BBQ

The rest of the family was visiting, so we got BBQ from Nordy’s.  I think it’s the best BBQ in northern Colorado.  We had pulled pork, sausage and brisket with mac and cheese, baked beans and cornbread muffins and all of it was excellent.

Silver  Thailand  Chili Thai  chicken pad Thai

Chili Thai in Windsor serves Chinese and Thai food.  The pad Thai was really good. It had chicken, egg, bean sprouts, green onion, peanuts, noodles and a good tasting sauce.

Bronze China     Asian pearl bistro kung pao chicken

Asian pearl bistro chicken with peanuts, green onions and hot chili peppers (I didn’t eat those).  A pretty good version of kung pao chicken.

Bronze Mexico  Mi Tierra al pastor burrito

Mi Tierra in Windsor.  I ordered an al pastor burrito In a burrito plate with rice and beans.  I had it smothered in mild green chili but it was still a bit spicy. I Really liked the pork in the burrito and the rice and beans were very good.

 

 

Mexico Mi Tierra chicken enchiladas

The shredded chicken was very good with green chili on top that was also good. I ordered the plate with very good rice and beans.

 

US   Anthonys pizza

This was a good sized 18 inch NY style pizza.  A bit greasy but a pretty good pizza.  It is NY style pizza so I’m counting it as American food.

Thailand Chili Thai  thai basil chicken

Stir fried entrée with chicken and vegetables and quite a bit of basil.

China    Chili Thai  chicken lo mein

Basic lo mein but a good version of it with chicken, carrots cabbage and onions.

              

China Asian pearl bistro  sweet and sour chicken

Typical sweet and sour chicken with the red sweet and sour sauce.  This was an alright not to bad entrée.

Event # 6 cheese

This event was a fun one but was a very hard one.  Most of the cheeses were very good which made it hard to rank.  Most of these cheeses we bought at King Soopers, except for the Kerry Gold Dubliner Cheddar that we bought at Whole Foods.

Ireland:  Kerry Gold Dubliner Cheddar

This was good, kind of dry and salty. Overall, a pretty good cheese

              

Netherlands: Rembrandt Aged Gouda    

This we all liked but not quite a medalist.

 

France:  Murray’s Brie Fermier   

  

We all hated this one.  I liked the soft creamy texture, but thought the flavor was awful.

 

 

US: Murray’s Smoked Cheddar   

Good cheese with a definite smoky flavor but also not quite a medalist.

              

 

Silver Switzerland:  Gruyere        

  

We all really like this one.  Good dry salty cheese, that was very tasty.

              

 

Gold Norway: Jarlsberg 

This was a smooth cheese that was similar to a Swiss cheese without holes.         

 

 

Bronze Spain:  Aged Manchego                

  

This was my personal favorite. It was another dry cheese with a good strong flavor.

Event #5 Sodas

For event #5 we tested different sodas from around the world.  We tested 10 different sodas from 7 countries.  We broke the testing up into 2 days of testing 5 at a time.  Day 1 consisted of the cans which was all the citrus sodas that all happened to be from Europe.  Day 2 was the 5 remaining sodas all in glass bottles.

Day 1

Austria:  Almdudler Soda

This one was not the best. It had a slight lemonade flavor and strange taste and looked like ginger ale

              

Austria:  Fanta Orange Soda

This was a decent soda with a good orange flavor, but more like real orange juice unlike some other orange sodas.

           

Austria:  Mezzo Mix Soda

This tasted like Cola with a slight orange flavor.  This one was not really very good.

              

Germany:  Paulaner Spezi  Soda

This one had an orange, lemon, and cola flavor.  It had a weird taste and was, not the best.  Definitely the worst soda of day 1.

 

Bronze Italy:  Italian Soda, Blood Orange

This soda was from Whole Foods it was a very good soda with good blood orange flavor, the clear favorite of day 1.

 

 Day 2

Japan:  Hatakosen Raspberry Ramune Soda

This had a decent raspberry flavor that made for an okay soda. It also had the most interesting bottle that had a marble inside.

 

Gold Mexico: Jarritos Mango

We bought this at a local Mexican restaurant Mi Tierra.  I’ve seen these at Mexican restaurants but had never tried them before.  This was a very good soda and had a very good mango flavor.        

Mexico: Sidral  Mundet   Apple

We also bought this at Mi Tierra.  I didn’t like it very much.  It had an apple flavor, but I thought it tasted a little funny.  Everyone else liked it more than I did.     

 

UK:  Fentimans Cherry  Cola

This one we all thought was awful, I at first got just a cherry cola taste but soon after it tasted like potpourri smells.

              

Gold US:  Boylan’s Crème Soda

This was just a really good crème soda and definitely a winner

 

After 2 days of testing, we finished with a tie for the gold medal between the US and Mexico with Italy winning the bronze medal.