It's a shame really, that I am past the stage in my life when I can adopt ennui as an aspect of my personality. The docile comforts of listlessness may beckon, but the bravery of genuine effort is too dazzling to ignore.
It's easy to forget that effort isn't always active, but it's even harder to live a life where your brain has room to keep twisting the tiles of the Rubik's cube even when you've set it down and walked away.
I've been trying to embrace effort that isn't tied to achievement or even the refinement of skills. I usually fail. Maybe I fear ease. How can I be expected to embrace leisure if it wasn't earned with effort?
For me, the sweet spot seems to be when I can combine singular focus with a fleeting whim. Or at least that is what led me to combine the Nigerian staple of Jollof Rice with the perfect handheld food, Japanese Onigiri.
jollof, japanese salmon flakes, suya spiced kewpie mayo, toasted nori sheets, furikake spiced red onions.
It was delicious and a culinary embodiment of the one piece (ha) of content that makes me feel the most seen.
https://x.com/grace_africaa/status/1349882931637055490?s=20
Relatability is mostly a fallacy, but please understand that we're on this journey of inaccessible snacks together and that I'm excited and a little hungry at the thought of sharing this new assortment of unsnackables
the unsnackables
sweet
HARIBO OSITO LA MENORQUINA (Spain)
Sometimes the simplest snacks take the strongest hold on my psyche, even though they have the highest risk of disappointment. I've eaten thousands of Haribo gummy bears in my life and even the slightly mediocre American reformulation has never failed me. This leads me to believe that the biggest risk associated with trying this icy treat is that it would end up being acceptable instead of miraculous. Scratch that, the real risk is that I'll never get this song that I discovered while researching these out of my head
savory
Чипсы LAYS STRONG Холодец с Хреном (Russia
Jelly is having a moment. It's amorphous and structured, murky and yet revealing, and everywhere. Maybe that is why I felt especially primed to get excited about these meat aspic jelly chips. Once again, I am at the behest of a hyperlocal polarizing savory dish in the form of chips, even though I am terrified of ever learning about what is in that small bowl on the package illustration.
thirsty
TEBS SPARKLING MIX FRUIT (Indonesia)
Many soda flavors and formulations, like cola, draw inspiration from tea in their form (steeped herbs and spices) but tea-flavored carbonated beverages are still a rare novelty. It's a shame because they almost always bang, especially when fruit joins the flavor profile as a supporting flavor. This brand is known as "Tea with shocking soda" and I'm nothing if not the type of person who expects my tea to reproduce the feeling of sticking a fork into an electric socket.
boozy
COECOEI (Aruba)
I implicitly trust all of my cousins from the greater oxtail diaspora and never is that more the case than when I learn about a new localized iteration of rum punch ( usually created at the request of tourists and often improved by paired down large batch iterations downed by the cupful by locals at sweaty parties in basements and on long afternoons of multigenerational celebrations of nothing more than being together). This bright liqueur is the basis of one such drink in Aruba and brings the flavors of anise and agave to the party.
I’m still figuring this out, but hopefully, you enjoyed v.48 of unsnackable.
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