Universal Yums: The Baltics and Thailand

I'm back to blogging! The 2.5 week break I took preparing for, and recovering from, breast cancer surgery is the longest gap I've had in daily posts since I started blogging in 2011. I'm happy to report that the surgery went very well and I'm feeling good. I'm waiting on next steps... my post-op is tomorrow, then I wait for an appointment with the oncologist to find out what treatment comes next. You can follow my cancer journey on CaringBridge. I don't know how frequently I'll be blogging, but I'll do what I can. 

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After enjoying the goodies in our snack boxes from France and Ukraine, we were excited to get the next boxes in our Universal Yums subscription. The April box was all about the Baltics: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. As usual, in addition snacks, the box held an informational card, booklet and sticker set. 

As always, I really enjoyed learning more about these interesting countries. Did you know that public transit is free in Estonia? Nice! Or that it's illegal to wear a seatbelt on a certain18-mile road in Estonia? It's because the road is made of ice and if it gives way (!) you need to be able to evacuate the vehicle quickly. No thank you! I learned about the importance of rye in the Baltics, as well as the prevalence of mushrooms in their cuisine. There is a recipe for the Estonian comfort food, Hakklihakaste (a creamy meat gravy served over potatoes), that I would like to try. 

So how were the Baltic treats? Pretty good! You can't go wrong with chocolate. Both were tasty, but I loved how unique the one filled with apple puree was. The black currant and cola candies were each delicious. I don't really like mushrooms, but the Creamy Mushroom Long Chips were great! It's strange (and fun) to eat a crispy chip that tastes like soup.  

The May box features foods from Thailand. 

Here are some fun things I learned from the booklet. There are 13 words in Thai for different types of smiles. The New Year is celebrated with a massive water gun fight, intended to "wash off" any misfortune from the previous year. Thailand, a country that hasn't had a single flake of snowfall since 2005, has a 3-year winning streak in the International Snow Sculpture Competition. 

On to the food! I LOVED the cocoa-dusted coconut chips. I will be getting more of those for sure. The gummy strings were pretty good. The coconut corn rolls and the matcha creme biscuits were fine, but I absolutely loathed the BBQ flavored seaweed. I dared the tiniest taste of the Devil chips - ack! 

The next Universal Yums box (affiliate link) has arrived but I wanted to write this post before opening it. I can't wait to see what's inside!