my rediscovered passion smoki

Great question, @BellaB. You are hereby required to tell us all about your 30-year rediscovery.

Yes. Please tell us!

Smoki (pic at the link in my first post) – they’re a peanut butter puffed treat. They look kind of like cheese puffs, but taste like… peanut butter. Forty years ago, when I visited family in Germany I found them and fell in love with them. Would always bring some home. Hadn’t had any since we stopped going to Germany. Searched and searched and searched. Just memories. I didn’t even know what they were called. Then

… a Serbian bakery opened around the corner from us and about six months ago they started importing Turkish and Serbian snacks… all kinds of hazelnut creams and cookies, peanut butter stuffed pretzels and Smoki!

I was nervous. Would they be as good as I remembered?

yes yes yes Smoki are still delicious!

It turns out that what I thought was a German snack food was really something brought in by all the Turkish immigrants – I’d been searching in the wrong kind of ethnic shop.

When I was in first grade, my family lived in Panama. every after noon a street vendor would come by selling “platanos” – fried banana (plantain) slices. I have had things close, but never quite as good.

I miss Marathon bars. They were like this long braid of caramel covered in chocolate.
However a couple of years ago I re-found Tootsie Pop Drops….YUM.

When I was a child, cake and frosting mixes were actually good. The death knell came when pudding was added to the mix as a fad.

@BellaB I have had Smoki, or something very similar, purchased at Big Lots.

I love Necco Wafers. They were never really that tasty, but they were a fun food and I still like a licorice one whenever I find them.

@ibstubro I remember Necco Wafers. A man I used to know gave them to me as a kid. You’re right, they really didn’t taste all that good but they were cool in a stack and I used to call them “nickels”. (I was really little)
I miss Razzles. Ther were cool. And Spree candies. Nice and sour. And Pixie Stix. And Bubs Daddy bubble gum, in sticks a foot long. The sour apple was the best, IMO.

@Jak mmm Razzles, yes!

Never heard of ‘Smokis” but they sound intriguing.

My fav. from 40 years ago too are “Smarties” candy and Tootsie Pops. I keep a stash of both around at all times. I also like Pop tarts, yes, I know, shameful to admit, devoid of all nutritional value but, what can I say?
I don’t eat them a lot but I keep some around for a quickie breakfast item. A Pop tart, a cup of yogurt and a Banana and off I go. I figure the yogurt and fruit offsets the fake breakfast food. lol

Oh and Nilla Vanilla Wafers, I could eat boxes of those all by myself. haha
My mother used to make the vanilla wafer banana pudding pie back in the 60’s, to die for, and Scooter Pies with marshmallow. Haven’t had one of those since about 1968.
The ghosts of snacks past. lol

In the summer of 1987 I was bicycling through Denmark. By afternoon I had done almost a century with the wind at my back through gently rolling hills. I was unusually wasted, running on empty early. I kept waiting for a fruit stand to pop up somewhere, but I finally had to settle for a gas station. All they had were Coke and candy bar machines.

I hadn’t had any soda for almost twenty years and was hesitant, but I could surely use the instant release energy from the dextrose. I also bought an Almond Joy and Payday for the coconut and peanuts which would follow up the instant release with a little sustained release. The Coke was ice cold. It went down so nice. I didn’t even wince from all the sweetness, which I was unaccustomed to. It was really, really good! And the Almond Joy was much better than I remembered.

Man, it was like a shot of Methamphetamine. I was GONE like a solid fuel rocket. For about forty-five minutes, then a kind of hangover set in, but I still had some energy. I made it to the campsite and had a heavy meal of steak and potatoes, which brought me down nicely. I slept very well. The next day I felt just a little off, but nothing really bad. It got me over. But all the next day, all I could thing about was Coca-Cola.

And today, all these years later, my guilty pleasure is a couple of Cokes every once in awhile. I love the stuff, but I know I love the stuff and it can give me gout, so I treat it like a rare reward for special times. For me, it’s just like a drug.

Speaking of “lost”, I lost a good post to this question when I lost internet yesterday.

Big Lot’s has a ‘vintage candy’ display recently that’s a blast from my past. Yeah, they have candy cigarettes (not that I approve, just sayin) and other “novelties” of yesteryear.
The last time I was there, I glanced down and what do I see but a bag of “Miner’s Gold”...yellow nuggets of gum in a drawstring cloth bag. Wow! It’s been so long since I’ve thought of that one it’s like they teleported it out of my past.
They may have had Gum cigars too, as I know the cigars are still made for baby-daddies. When I was a kid that thick, sweet block of unwrapped gum was a little toke of heaven! :-)

Thank you for these great responses. I’ve got so many candies/snacks to read up on now :)

@ibstubro Yes, the “Gold Rush” gum. I remember that from when I was little too. I re-found it a long time and was just as thrilled as you. Another place that has a ton of old time candy is the gift shop area of Cracker Barrel.