Universal Yums: Africa and Korea

Time for our latest Universal Yums boxes! This time, they feature Africa and Korea. As usual, each box held a nice variety of snacks, an informational card, booklet and sticker set. This is what came in the Africa box:

While a Universal Yums box usually focuses on a single country, this one covers a continent. The founder explained in the opening letter that they found suppliers who could meet compliance protocols in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Tunisia, and Egypt. They hope to offer future African boxes with a wider range of snacks. 

As usual, I started with the booklet. And, of course, my favorite part of the booklet was the trivia. Did you know that the Egyptians invented eye makeup, breath mints, bowling, and toothpaste? South Africa is home to the largest land mammal (the African elephant), reptile (leatherback turtle), and bird (ostrich). The capital of Ghana (Accra) is named for ants, which are plentiful there. A popular chicken dish in South Africa called “Walkie Talkie” is made of grilled feet and heads (hence, the walkie and the talkie). Interesting! But no thanks. The most horrifying bit of trivia involves the beloved Egyptian dish called feseekh. If you order it, be sure it is made by experts, as incorrect preparation results in violent food poisoning. Feseekh is made from rancid mullet fish, a tradition that dates the time of the pharaohs, when rotten fish were left behind when the Nile receded in the spring.

I really enjoyed an article about African cooking vessels. Do you know the origin and purpose of a potjie, tagine, sufuria, jebena, and couscoussier? You can probably guess what’s cooked in the last one if you don’t already know! A couscoussier is from Tunisia, long occupied by the French (thus the French "ier" word ending, like my last name). 

So how was the food in the box? Pretty good! The South African potato chips flavored with cape gooseberries were interesting and quite tasty, as was the Kenyan snack mix. The Ghanese plantain chips were ok; I love that they came with a fortune inside. My favorite goodies were Tunisia’s orange pound cake and Egypt’s pistachio caramel popcorn. Yum!

This was everything in the Korea box. 

I learned a lot from the booklet. Among the most interesting bits of trivia: Seoul has a Museum of Chicken Art (I'd totally visit); Kellogg's sells a version of Chex cereal in Korea that is green onion flavored; and writing names in red is bad luck because red pens were once reserved for execution orders (yikes - I'm doomed). I was intrigued by the recipe for dalgona, which they mentioned gained international fame through Squid Game. I still haven't seen Squid Game, and thus hadn't heard of dalgona. The only ingredients are sugar and baking soda, basically peanut brittle without the peanuts. I'd like to try some. There was an article at 9 K-pop stars' favorite foods. I like Korean food and have had most of the dishes mentioned, but not Korean potato pizza (#TeamJaehyun). Sounds delish! I enjoyed an article about South Korean corn dogs, as well as another article about complicated relationship been Japan and South Korean culture. 

How were the Korean snacks? Tasty! Most of it, anyway. While I would have preferred trying dalgona and potato pizza, I liked the blueberry and peach candies a lot and the chocolate-hazelnut wafer cookies were good. The honey butter pretzels were really interesting and the Choco Pie was fine. The red wheat/rice chip things were too spicy for me. 

Two more fun adventures through Universal Yums!