Toward a Better World #3: Give a Kid a Stranger Halloween

Toward a Better World #3: Give a Kid a Stranger Halloween

Too often, tradition is just another name for routine, duly executed in the same drab fashion every year.

Halloween, a celebration of the strange, odd, unnatural and supernatural, should be different.

In an effort to help my fellow LTH citizens enjoy a happier Halloween, break out of the button-down tedium of their every day lives, cleanse the doors of routine perception and, if just for one moment, experience eternity in the bright light of intellectual and spiritual clarity, I offer my notes...toward a better world.

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Most Halloween "treats" are dull.

Unfortunately, in this modern day when fear-mongering politicians have us all a-jitter over the next impending threat, there's no way to offer distinctive homemade treats to Trick or Treaters.

But last year, I had it up to here, you know what I'm saying? I was totally bored handing out the same crappy "goodies."

So I started giving out little jars of mustard, tins of sardines and packaged bags of Earl Grey tea (bought bulk at Costco). Of course, I also provided the obligatory Snickers, Milky Ways, etc., because that's what most of young humankind (and their parents) are looking for: the familiar, the known, the predictable and the boring. Forget them!

For the chosen few, however, the mustard, fish and tea seemed a strange and welcome alternative to Mars products.

Typical exchange: two kids come to door, and one (pointing to a brightly colored tin) sez, "What's that?" and I say, "It's sardines, you know, little fish." One kid recoils and says "Yuck!" The other kid, however, does a double take, grinning with prehensile eyes as he recognizes the value of this off-center offering, grabs it, throws it in his bag, and rushes to his mom-on-the-sidewalk shouting "Look what I got" (at which point I wave parentally, smile benignly, and close the door).

I gave away maybe 50-60 bags of tea last Halloween, each individually wrapped, and each, perhaps, a kid's first step toward a life-long appreciation of this 5,000-year-old beverage.

Children dig the unusual, and I feel that cultivating their sense of the strange and unpredictable is a worthwhile goal. Free their taste buds and their minds will follow. A kid who'll try an unusual food is a kid who might strike up a conversation with some other kid he's never met, maybe the strange one the jocks routinely de-pants, maybe the oddball who knows a lot but says little, maybe your son or daughter, maybe you.

Any way, that's the plan. I offer it, much like a Halloween jar of mustard, tin of sardines, or bag of tea, gratis. I am David Hammond, and this is just my sincere and modest attempt to help us all move ...toward a better world.

You know, normally, getting the local kids hooked on "tea" is good for a 7 to 10 year stretch.

However, I do really like your idea of handing out something different. I'm thinking maybe one-bite salad this year would be a nice Halloween treat.

Speaking of Halloween treats, there is some hope that GWiv will post about the Elephant Thai dinner we had last night, in which case there might be a photo or two of The Chocolate Shoppe, the onetime Baskin-Robbins in the 5300 block of Devon, which now serves the aforesaid Madison WI-based ice cream (also found at places like Evanston Creamery, I believe), and which hands down must win the prize for best Halloween decorations (at least since the demise of the Jekyll & Hyde Club next to ESPN Zone). Don't miss it.

A few years ago, a buddy of mine was shutting down his company and had crates of japanese-language games for Windows which he gave to me to hand out. I was a popular house that year for halloween. People remembered the next year, but it was a one-time thing.

Hi,

About 5 years ago, I purchased a gross (144) rubber skeletons, which I have slowly been giving away since. We have had neighborhood kids remember us just for those skeletons. The very intended bonus of these skeletons is no Halloween candy is purchased for the neighborhood kids, then is somehow consumed by the adults of our household!

There are methods to my madness...

David Hammond wrote:So I started giving out little jars of mustard, tins of sardines and packaged bags of Earl Grey tea

David,

Inspirational.

No longer will I be a slave to tradition, no Snicker's, M&M's or Three Musketeer's will darken my Halloween doorway. Gary's homemade Chili Oil is my new All Hallow Even treat.

Hummmm, why stop at Chili Oil, nothing goes better with chili oil then crisp pan fried noodles. How about mini-snack sized portions of crisp rice noodle and chili oil? Ahhh, better yet, LTH's salt and pepper shrimp, head-on, coated in chili oil.

I can just see it now, little Horatio and his sister Prentice come to my door, visions of bite-size Kit Kat, Mar's bars or, at worst, Skittles, dancing in cute little heads. Instead of a kindly smiling person handing out candy, the little tikes encounter me, mustache and beard dyed flaming red for the occasion, wearing a full-on pirate costume handing out crisp fried head-on shrimp, dripping with chili oil, eyes and feelers still attached.

ArrrrrrrrGH, Spicy Treats from the Deep, I growl.............Spicy Treats from the Deep.......

~Sigh~, maybe not.......I wonder if Costco has little Snickers in stock yet?

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:I can just see it now, little Horatio and his sister Prentice come to my door, visions of bite-size Kit Kat, Mar's bars or, at worst, Skittles, dancing in cute little heads. Instead of a kindly smiling person handing out candy, the little tikes encounter me, mustache and beard dyed flaming red for the occasion, wearing a full-on pirate costume handing out crisp fried head-on shrimp, dripping with chili oil, eyes and feelers still attached.

Ultimo,

See, I think your proposed offering and get-up are things the kiddies would remember forever (and I do not mean that they would be scarred forever).

I don't think, though, that you can get away with serving unpackaged items to Horatio and Prentice. You might, however, consider small packages of dried shrimp from Thai Grocery or a selection from the remarkably bizarre universe of Japanese confections.

Hammond

PS. Flaming red beard is a very nice touch.

Eddie(Eddy)Nelson and Jeanette McDonald or Yma Sumac.On reel to reel,8 track or vinyl only.

hattyn wrote:Eddie(Eddy)Nelson and Jeanette McDonald or Yma Sumac.On reel to reel,8 track or vinyl only.

Hattyn, got to hand it to you, this is your most cryptic reply yet.


My mom -- Chicago Chapter President of the Nelson Eddy Fan Club -- actually met the great man in the early 40s. Quite a thrill, I'm told.

Hammond

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly?) enough, no one came a trick-or-treating to my abode last year. If they had, I would have regaled them with copious pieces of candy and fun-sized bars of chocolate. (Maybe.) But if I had any one sumptuous snack that I would want to give out (and receive), it would be the individually wrapped gummis from the wonderful people of Kasugai. An expensive treat, surely, but a good one, nonetheless.

fastfoodsnob wrote:Surprisingly (or not surprisingly?) enough, no one came a trick-or-treating to my abode last year. If they had, I would have regaled them with copious pieces of candy and fun-sized bars of chocolate. (Maybe.) But if I had any one sumptuous snack that I would want to give out (and receive), it would be the individually wrapped gummis from the wonderful people of Kasugai. An expensive treat, surely, but a good one, nonetheless.

Fastfoodsnob,

I buy Kasugai gummies from Matsuwa every time I'm in the Arlington Heights area. The fruit flavor of the Kiwi and Muscat Grape varieties is really quite intense, and the silky softness of the gummy itself is so subtle compared to the distasteful greasiness and filling-removing adhesiveness of stateside gummy products. You're right, they're not cheap, but they are (still ) good candy and sufficiently "alien" to tickle the kid who's looking for the slightly strange treat.

Hammond

In the spirit of mixing things up, maybe I'll stop by Aji Ichiban and pick up some unusual candies to mix in with the usual suspects.

I love the grape Kasugai gummies. I shouldn't be allowed near them-- it's quite dangerous.

BumbleBee wrote:I love the grape Kasugai gummies. I shouldn't be allowed near them-- it's quite dangerous.

Bumblebee, one of the principal dangers with Kasugai gummies is that, because they taste so much like real fruit, you can actually lull yourself into believing that they're good for you...that they could actually help you meet your FDA daily requirement for fruit.

Hammond

I honestly believe both my husband and my best friend have addictions to the Kasugai gummies. Personally, I'm a devoted White Rabbit fan (with an occasional flirtation with Indonesia ginger candies), but I do see the appeal of the kiwi gummy.

As the mother of a 6 month old (obviously, currently too young to trick-or-treat, but soon to be joining the ranks), I would be THRILLED if my son were to come home at some point in the future with a sack of tea, Japanese candy, chili oil, and sardines. I would never be able to justify moving from such a neighborhood. If I ever win the lotto, I'll happily join this new tradition and give away boxes of Pocky, perhaps the greatest sweet snack to come out of Japan.

Kind of OT, but are the meal gatherings child-friendly? My son is usually wonderful in restaurants, but I know this is a sensitive issue for some, and I don't want to step on any toes. I'd love to join in, or even organize a specifically child-oriented outing.

AnneVdV,

I occasionally keep a mixed bowl of White Rabbits and ginger candy on my desk; I find the milkiness of the White Rabbits balances nicely with the spiciness of the ginger candy (which, incidentally, 'feels good to eat' during flu season; the medicinal sting of the ginger is throat mellowing).

I have a nephew who is very fond of Pocky sticks; when he visits, we sometimes go to Chinatown and he, not favoring dim sum, makes a meal of Pocky.

For Halloween treats, I stopped recently at DulceLandia, Your Candy, Pinata and Party Store (http://www.dulcelandia.com/en/2009wlake.aspx) on Lake in Melrose Park. I bought some really cool skeletons impaled on candy sticks. Also at DulceLandia were a range of sugar skulls (Happy Dia de los Muertos!) and some intriguing tamarind and pineapple candies, but these latter items all had chili as an ingredient, and I thought that was going just a little too far: giving kids pepper candy might be misinterpreted as some kind of sick joke.

There is no reason why kids could not come to many LTH meal gatherings. VI brings his daughters now and again, as has Butch Dickson, AaronD, MapleLeaf, and MAG, and I believe MikeG has brought kids, as have I (though at 21, my oldest kid is not much of a kid anymore).

Hammond

I bring my two boys to events fairly frequently. Two things I try to gauge in advance, one, will the event be the kind of thing they won't ruin-- a bustling Chinese restaurant with lots of background noise and activity is fine, a hushed sushi temple is not. Two, if other kids are there, will things get too crazy noisy? Nothing against other kids, in fact they've greatly enjoyed meeting other chow-oriented kids, but four or more kids are wilder and crazier than the sum of their parts. So again, just want to judge in advance that they won't be too nuts for a given restaurant/event. All that said, generally when they've attended I think they've had a good time and been enjoyed, and I think it's important to build that chow-adventure sense early.

If only this was posted a few weeks back whan I was in Melrose Park.I have wanted to go to Dulcelandia since I saw them on Wild Chicago.It has been awhile since I've been to Ben and Jerry's but I think it was the mango and lime that had that same medicinal quality to me.And Earl Grey is wonderful when I have migraines.The White Rabbit reference makes me think of the Jefferson Airplane.Is it a chocolate?

hattyn wrote:If only this was posted a few weeks back whan I was in Melrose Park.I have wanted to go to Dulcelandia since I saw them on Wild Chicago.It has been awhile since I've been to Ben and Jerry's but I think it was the mango and lime that had that same medicinal quality to me.And Earl Grey is wonderful when I have migraines.The White Rabbit reference makes me think of the Jefferson Airplane.Is it a chocolate?

hattyn,

White Rabbits are a milk-based candy. Very mild, and not too sweet.

Speaking of Airplane, this message is to Evil Ronnie's Lovely Donna: Donna, did you notice that Volunteers of America ("Got a revolution, got a revolution...etc.") is now being used as the music track to E-Trades television spots? Times changing, they are-a.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:Toward a Better World #3: Give a Kid a Stranger Halloween

Too often, 'tradition' is just another name for 'routine,' duly executed in the same drab fashion every year.

Halloween - a celebration of the strange, odd, unnatural and supernatural - should be different.

This is wonderful!

I ended up giving out things from my larder one year, when I was in a new place and got a lot more trick-or-treaters than I expected. The kids seemed to get a kick out of it too. Some of them came back a second and a third time, though, and at a certain point I realized that they probably actually needed the food. It was not quite what I would have called a poor neighborhood but a lot of people were working poor, I think.

This thread has given me the idea to get some of my treats from Mitsuwa. I bet they'll be a big hit.

Are White Rabbits the ones with the edible rice paper innner wrapper?

Ohhhh, Pocky. Looooove Pocky.

Are there other places to get candy skulls/skeleton treats that are closer to downtown or El-accessible?

BumbleBee wrote:Are White Rabbits the ones with the edible rice paper innner wrapper?

BB,

No, you're thinking of BoTan, a classic Japanese candy (that used to have cool toys inside -- a la Cracker Jack -- but which now has strange stickers). One of my favorite candies.

Hammond

BumbleBee wrote:Are White Rabbits the ones with the edible rice paper innner wrapper?

White Rabbits also have an edible rice paper inner wrapper -- part of the charm, IMO.

http://www.bewarethecheese.com/bunny.htm

AnneVdV wrote:

BumbleBee wrote:Are White Rabbits the ones with the edible rice paper innner wrapper?

White Rabbits also have an edible rice paper inner wrapper -- part of the charm, IMO.

http://www.bewarethecheese.com/bunny.htm

AnneVdV, thanks for the correction.

Now, to continue our discussion of non-candy Halloween treats....yesterday, The Wife was cleaning out a closet, and she discovered hundreds of colorful bath oil balls given to my daughters over the years and never used. She said she was throwing them out, and I said, "Why not offer them to Trick or Treaters." The idea would be: the kids wouldn't have to take the bath oil balls if they preferred an edible treat, but the balls would be just another (and odder) offering. Of course, the balls would be clearly marked and we would only offer them to older kids (wouldn't want a young one to EAT one by mistake).

And if the bath oil balls are okay to give out, why not old books, clothing, etc., that kids might like but which we no longer need or want? I realize this is a further step in the approach we've discussed, but I'm kind of liking the feel of it.

Hammond

Hammond wrote:And if the bath oil balls are okay to give out, why not old books, clothing, etc., that kids might like but which we no longer need or want?

I want to see the gaped mouth look on those kids when you start flipping them around to see if the old Door's t-shirt will fit before throwing into their trick-or-treat bag.

Why not include kitchen gadgets bought on a whim, which never lived up to their promise?

Or difficult to recycle stuff like computers a few generations old, which nobody wants. Hand it to the kid and they have completed their rounds just by stopping by your house.

I hope you can tell I am just laughing up a storm.

After all this, bath oil balls sound terribly sensible.

Cathy2 wrote:

Hammond wrote:And if the bath oil balls are okay to give out, why not old books, clothing, etc., that kids might like but which we no longer need or want?

I want to see the gaped mouth look on those kids when you start flipping them around to see if the old Door's t-shirt will fit before throwing into their trick-or-treat bag.

Why not include kitchen gadgets bought on a whim, which never lived up to their promise?

Or difficult to recycle stuff like computers a few generations old, which nobody wants.

C2,

I would never give up my old Doors t-shirts, though I do have one Strawberry Alarm Clock t that once fit a much thinner male ( ).

Actually, I think I did give away a keyboard one year to a kid -- hey, he wanted it, I didn't, happy Halloween!

Hammond

After shopping with The Wife for Halloween costumes at Forest Park's Military and Police Supply, I stopped by my favorite toy store (Pumpkin Moon), where I was thrilled to discover Larvets -- the "original worm snax." For 75 cents, I got 1.4 ounces of these entomological treats (BBQ flavor) that, according to the attached Nutrition Facts, have zero nutritional value. These are, however, very healthy looking nematode casings: about one and one-half inches long, thick as a pencil lead, and golden brown. All in all, a perfect edible prop for amusing/grossing out young trick or treaters.

Find out more about this and other delicious insect-based indulgences from the good folks at Hotlix: http://www.hotlix.com/larvets.htm

Last Xmas, some homies and I cracked a can of silkworm larvae (gift from ReneG) which we enjoyed while sipping from a room-temperature bottle of Gusano Rojo: a pairing made in heaven (or somewhere), the musky crackle of the shell and the squishy inner tissue mingling oh-so-subtly with the aged-in-a-spare-tire accents of the mescal.

Looking forward to the best Halloween ever,

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:Fastfoodsnob,

I buy Kasugai gummies from Matsuwa every time I'm in the Arlington Heights area. The fruit flavor of the Kiwi and Muscat Grape varieties is really quite intense, and the silky softness of the gummy itself is so subtle compared to the distasteful greasiness and filling-removing adhesiveness of stateside gummy products. You're right, they're not cheap, but they are (still ) good candy and sufficiently "alien" to tickle the kid who's looking for the slightly strange treat.

Hammond

At the tail end of a rather productive shopping trip to Clark Market (on 4853-55 N. Kedzie, next to Kang Nam Karlbi), I considered picking up a few Asian snacks to complete the journey. After eyeing the Pocky for a moment (and going for some Lotte Chocosticks instead -- they're filled with chocolate rather than covered with it), I decided to head down the aisle of sweet mysteries to see if they carried my beloved gummis. Well, wouldn't you know it, they've got a Manhattan-Korean-market level of flavors for me, all priced at $2.59. Not too bad, I reason, especially because Clark's a lot more accessible than Mitsuwa for me. Remembering my vow to serve individually wrapped Kasugai treats to any who would want one, I picked up five different flavors: melon, apple, kiwi, muscat, and grape.

Now I assume Clark Market doesn't get a lot of turnover on Japanese produced treats. (Even Lotte, the maker of a lot of Korean products, including those Chocosticks, is not technically based in Korea). So I checked the expiration dates on the back of the gummi bags before checking out, and they're coming up pretty soon: February of 2005 for all of them except the melons, which were dated December of this year. I guess that's all the more reason to get rid of them right after Halloween (after sampling each bag to make sure they haven't gone bad... for the kids, y'know). I don't know what all those percentages on the back mean (100% or 20% of natural flavors, perhaps?), but those gummis sure do taste good.

--Dan

What a delightful thread David, you have outdone yourself. And thanks for all the replies. Just wonderful reading.

Now I will spend the rest of the week trying to determine what to give away. And I will be able to keep all the candy we purchased so far for my own consumption.

I just got a bunch of Kasugai gummies and other Japanese fruit candy to put in treat bags for the little kids on Sunday. My boyfriend says the parents are going to think they are condoms or something. I'll put some good old American lollipops in each bag too, to reassure them.

The big kids who come by later will have to be content with American candy bars.

. . I was thrilled to discover Larvets -- the "original worm snax." For 75 cents, I got 1.4 ounces of these entomological treats (BBQ flavor) that, according to the attached Nutrition Facts, have zero nutritional value. These are, however, very healthy looking nematode casings: about one and one-half inches long, thick as a pencil lead, and golden brown. All in all, a perfect edible prop for amusing/grossing out young trick or treaters.

Find out more about this and other delicious insect-based indulgences from the good folks at Hotlix: http://www.hotlix.com/larvets.htm

Hotlix is a good company to do business with. A couple years ago I ordered a case of Cricket Lick-Its (organically raised crickets inside a transparent lolipop) and they threw in a few packs of Larvets, gratis. I think the reason they have no listed nutritional value is the pack is under 2 grams. Mealworms, like other insects and their larvae, are actually very nutritious.

Happy Halloween!

Rene G wrote:Hotlix is a good company to do business with. A couple years ago I ordered a case of Cricket Lick-Its (organically raised crickets inside a transparent lolipop)

Hey Rene,

Actually, I think you gifted me with one of these succulent pops a few years ago; I used it to good effect (i.e., grossing out the kiddies).

At DulceLandia, I searched for those odd little hard yellow chicken-shaped candies with red pepper on top that you had once. Despite the capsaicin coating, I thought they would be fun to offer (older) kids on Halloween.

Happy Samhain,

Hammond