Pignolli cookies

If you are in New York, it is worth stopping by Veniero`s pastry shop http://www.venierospastry.com/ at 11th street, and buying yourself a healthy helping of pignolli cookies.

The dough is nice and soft, with great texture and taste, and the pine nuts make all the difference after all.

You can actually buy it online, if New York is not on your travel plans any time soon. believe me, you will not be disappointed.

Jarlsberg Cheese

For most people, choosing new cheeses can be a daunting task, for there seem to be thousands of different types. So people stick to what they know.

This is, of course, an exaggeration for there aren't that many cheese types after all.

However, if you are looking for something different - I am assuming you have never tasted it - the Norwegian cheese Jarlsberg is a great bet.

To me, it is an improvement over the already excellent Swiss cheese. The tast is not very harsh, it is not all smelly, and not awfully expensive as well. It will be a success in any party, believe me.

You can actually buy a 2-pound chunk of it at Costco for a mere 10 bucks.

Balas Juquinha (hard candy from Brazil)

Ok. I am supposed to be a mature, 52-year old man. Does that mean I cannot eat candy? Before you start with me, let me tell you, I have very few cavities and all my teeth.

Thus, the Juquinha candy is part of my childhood. I remember that the first time I tasted it, it came with a plastic racing car. Almost the most perfect combo.

I always liked the Tutti-Frutti one, supposed to taste like pineapple. I know candy is just empty calories, you can break a tooth, the flavor is probably all fake. However, I do not eat the whole bag in one sitting, so spare me the lecture.Lighten up, already.

JUPINA SODA

Ok, I know soda is no good for you, blah, blah, blah. I know all about the sugar, the sodium, whatnot. However, every once in a while I like to have some soda.

The Jupina is a pineapple flavored soda. It is unlikely there is any pineapple in the composition of this soda, but I like it. It reminds me of some hard candy I loved when I was little, called Juquinha, and things from childhood are priceless.

So, if you have never had it, give it a shot.

Heno de Pravia soap

Lest I be called a snob, let me tell you about a soap of more humble pedigree. It is the Spanish soap Heno de Pravia, which is widely available in the Miami area, especially in Navarro pharmacies.

I am a lover of soaps (and baths, too), so you can probably rely on my taste. Heno de Pravia is nice and smooth, not excessively perfumed, and it will not make you a poorer man - or woman - like my last referral Penhaligon. I forget what the price actually is, but should not be more than 2 bucks a cake.

They also have Heno de Pravia bath lotion, which is also good.

Badoit water

Some folks have the notion that all water tastes the same. I reckon their taste buds have been so mistreated by pepper that they cannot tell taste nuances. No, all water does not taste the same.

I like Perrier, however, I like Badoit better. Too bad it is not widely available in the United States, and when it is, the price is a tad outrageous.

So, when I go to France I drink tons of it, and go back to my Perrier and Pellegrino drinking stateside. Maybe Nestle will buy Badoit one day too, then we shall see...

Pino Silvestre

I used to buy this in Little Italy, back in the 80`s. There was a store in Mulberry Street that had all types of hard to find Italian things, including my beloved cologne. One day, the store, like most of Little Italy, disappeared, and I moved to Miami Beach.

When I went to ~Big Italy~ in 2011, one of my main quests in the expedition was coming back with a load of Pino Silvestre. I was dumbfounded with the difficulty I had finding the product in Rome and Florence. Perfume stores looked at me like I had two heads, pharmacies did not carry it, and I was told to go to supermarkets!

Then, one day we were walking in Florence, and came into a store owned by a Pakistani fellow. I told him about my predicament, and he readily picked up the phone and sent a guy to pick two bottles at a friend's store. I was excited.

In another part of town, we ended up inside a toiletry-hardware combo store (!!!, only in Italy this is possible), and sure, found it there. Not only the cologne, but also bath oil.

So my trip was not wasted, after all!

Brekina HO model cars

I collect car miniatures in general, and build HO and N scale dioramas as a pass time. So let us say I know a thing or two about car miniatures.

Brekina is a German manufacturer of model cars in HO scale. It has an extensive product line, including mostly German cars, but also buses, trucks and equipment. It also builds some racing cars, and offers models of cars from other countries, such as Russia, Sweden, Italy, etc, etc.

The details and finish on these cars is exquisite, to say the least. HO scale is 1/87, so they are small. Smaller models also occupy less space, so...

Unfortunatelly, Brekinas are not widely found in the USA, although Walthers, a major distributor of such products, has bought a good portion of their product line.

http://www.brekina.de

Molton Brown, Black Pepper Eau of Cologne

I did not know this brand, but the store looked quite inviting in London. So we came in, and I fell in love with the Eau of Cologne. Very smooth fragrance, not too strong, not too weak, just perfect. And the box is wonderful, worthy keeping. I should have bought more of their stuff.

Incidentally, it appears the product is available in the USA, however, I found it at US$ 60.00!! Worth saving a bit more and going to London to buy in person...

Ribena black currant concentrate

Ribena has been made for a very long time in England, since before the war, as a matter of fact. You can have it in ready to drink form (the strawberry one is delicious), but also in concentrate form. I was pleasantly surprised when I found Ribena bottles sitting pretty at a local Publix in Miami Beach, and readily bought a couple.

If you prepare the drink with Lemon-Perrier, then it is marvelous!!! Not bad with regular water, as well.

Kagi Fret Chocolate wafer

Ok, I must admit that I do like chocolate. It is, after all, responsible for part of my ever widening girth.

Thus, I have become somewhat of a connoisseur. In spite of this knowledge, I like fancy and popular chocolate, and of course, love both Belgian and Swiss chocolate.

The Kagi-Fret is a Swiss chocolate wafer bar that can be found in many places around the Miami area. One of the main peculiarities of this chocolate bar is that it is not excessively sweet, so I suppose, the calories count is not that great. The texture of the wafer is just right, and it is not very large, so that you can eat it guilty free.

Penhaligon English Fern Soap

So much for food. I like other things, such as taking showers!

And I love different types of soap. Whenever my wife and I travel, we try to bring back some new sopas to our arsenals.

I had seen Penhaligon shops in different cities, and they actually look scary from the outside. Like nothing costs less than US$100 there.

Well, it is not so. This box of English Fern soaps did not cost so much at Penhaligon's shop at Regent Street in London, and if you fancy soap, then by all means treat yourself to a set.




I am not too sure, but I think it can be bought in New York as well, or at least through a U.S. website.

Cream Crackers Costa

Before you get the impression I live to eat, let me tell you, I do not, but I do love to eat.

So here it goes. Costa, I found out, is a Chilean cookie brand. And boy, do they make good cookies! The cream cracker is baked to perfection, the coconut cookies remind me of stuff I used to eat in Brazil. As these Brazilian cookies are not easy to find here in Miami, I adopted the Chilean ones.



They are not really available everywhere. One or another Walgreens might have them, and  Navarro also carries the line. I hope that Publix and other supermarkets pick up the line. I love them.

King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

I like bread. I am not alone, of course, but I like to have some nice bread in the morning. Ok, some will say this is not the best thing to do, I would be better off eating fruit and protein.

Be that as it may, I look for nice bread products. And every so often I find one that I love.




This bread, King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls arrived in local stores here in Miami Beach about a year ago. I first found it in one specific Walgreens. You would expect every Walgreens to have the same products, but that is not so. Then Publix picked up the product, so now I am a happier human being.

The sweeteness in these rolls is what makes them special. That probably means tons of butter and sugar...Oh well, nothing is perfect.

However, they are small, so I eat less.

The best Chocolate Eclair in the world

In don't consider myself an expert on many things. Sure, as a translator I have learned tons of things I did not mean to, which give the impression I know a lot of stuff, but most such knowledge is superficial.

One thing I know about is chocolate eclairs.

If you are ever in Paris, go to the place below. The chocolate eclair is out of this world. The dough has the right texture, the icing is not two sweet and it is delicious, and the chocolate filling is to die for.

Even the best I have had in the USA does not come near this.

Another reason to go to that city!