Asian Candy Store - Halloween Treats

When my son was small, one of his favorite outings was to a trip to the candy store, where he would blow his week's allowance (measured in pennies) on a colorful assortment of gummi bears, licorice whips and the like. I loved watching him go back and forth between the displays, carefully scrutinizing every item before making a decision. Candy is serious business when you're four!

Now that he's a teenager, his junk food cravings have settled into a fairly predictable pattern of potato chips and pop. So it was with a definite feeling of nostalgia that I headed to Chinatown to visit an Asian candy store.

Wandering down the aisles, I was intrigued by the sheer variety of items available. One entire wall was reserved for packages of dried ginger and preserved fruits such as mango, guava, litchis and even olives. Further on, I found rice crackers, spicy honey squid, litchi gummies and prepared watermelon seeds. That old standby, the chocolate bar, was nowhere in sight. Not that chocoholics are left out in the cold - my family devoured the box of "Almond Crush Pocky Chocolate" that I brought home from the store in a single sitting.

Talking about chocolate brings up another point. An alien wandering through your typical convenience store could be forgiven for concluding that humans are capable of recognizing only one taste sensation - sweet. However, Asian snacks have unusual taste pairings, guaranteed to satisfy all taste preferences. For example, the preserved fruits came in several flavors - everything from spicy to sweet, sweet and sour, and salty. Meanwhile, the prepared watermelon seeds I tried were not to be believed - coated with licorice, star anise, and sugar, the unforgettable combination of spicy and sweet lingers in your mouth long after the seeds are gone. Next to these, the sunflower seeds I loved as a child seem postively bland by comparison. 

Still, kids love the sweet stuff, and they'll find it here - everything from toffee to an array of sugar-loaded hard and soft candies. But, given the wide selection in the rest of the store, I wasn't surprised to also find candies for those of us who only rarely indulge our sweet tooth - exotic treats containing everything from ginseng to Chinese teas.

This Halloween, if you're looking for something different to hand out to the ghosts and goblins that gather on your doorstep, head down to Chinatown and visit an Asian candy store. Just don't forget to treat yourself as well!