Lenore and I went to the international grocery with our pal David Morrison. It was really fun. David is very much a food guy, so we stopped at the grocery on the way back from one of Dave’s many secret restaurant gems. This time it was a Vietnamese place called Sizzling Wok Hai, and it was delicious.

Even though it happens every time, I am always surprised by how much food there is in the world that I can’t recognize. Of course that’s the real fun of going to an international grocery. My favorite sections are the drink section and the candy section. This time I bought a bottle of Green Plum (soda I think, but I haven’t opened it yet), and a bag of White Rabbit candy.

Not only does it have an awesome package and a great name, but the candy is really good too. The only problem is that it is hard as a rock. One of the down sides of the international markets is that you don’t always know how long something has been there. By the packaging and the wrappers I am pretty sure that White Rabbit is supposed to be a soft, taffy-like chewable candy. The stuff I have is so hard that you have to suck on it for a little bit just to get it to the point where it is flexible. It is worth the trouble, but it would be far more pleasant if you didn’t have to work so hard.

It occurred to me that it might just be a moisture problem, so I made an impromptu humidor for the candy.

It’s just a large covered pot with water in the bottom, and a bowl for the candy to sit in so it doesn’t have direct contact with the water while it is sucking up the moisture from the air and becoming more delectable.

Here’s the progress:

Day 1: there might be a slight difference, but it might just be my imagination.

Day 2: it seems like it takes slightly less work to eat, but my jaw is still getting tired from the effort. Could still just be my imagination.

Day 3: I’m not sure the humidor is having any effect at all… but it’s hard to tell. I’m going to have to start skipping days or I’ll run out of candy.

Day 5: The piece I had today was downright brittle. Could subjecting the candy to a humid environment actually be making it drier? I’m going away for the weekend, maybe I’ll try steam when I get back if there is still no progress in the right direction.

Day 8: OH MY GOD! DISASTER HAS STRUCK THE WHITE RABBIT CANDY PROJECT! The piece I ate today had a hard, brittle center surrounded by a slushy, slimy outer layer of reconstituted candy goo. How could it have gone so horribly wrong?!? The experiment has been aborted due to the tragic circumstances. I removed the remaining candy, and dismantled the humidor so that future generations wouldn’t go down this foolhardy path again. Alas, I guess it really is true that “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Don’t get me wrong though… I’m still gonna eat the candy.