childhood memories can be comforting

when i went to daiso many many weeks ago, i had bought some stuff from the food section. one of the bags of okaki (rice crackers), i polished off right away. they were super yummy! but then i had put a different bag of goodies into my cupboard and completely forgot about it until this past week, when i was looking for something to munch on. what was this hidden treasure i found? well, it's chi-chi boro, of course!

when i was a baby/kid, this was the absolute best snack i could have received. this was something my grandparents and other relatives gave us whenever we would visit together. they're little melt-in-your-mouth ball-like snacks with a slightly sweet taste. we used to get them in the individual sized packages (approx. 1/2 cup), and there were always multiples in a package, so my mom would cut them apart so we couldn't eat them all at once :P the packages were awesome, because they used to have little twin stars, hello kitty, and other characters on them. but when i grew up i discovered you can actually buy them in a large size format (approx. 2 cups) with regular non-descript packaging!

today's package from daiso is called "happy bolo, refreshing nature to you". i'm not sure why it's supposed to be "refreshing nature", because it makes you thirsty after awhile, and the balls are actually made from potato starch. so, since it came from daiso, obviously it was only $2! fujiya also sells the chi-chi boro, but i forgot what the price tag was.

maybe this is why i don't feel like i'm 28 years old......memories of screaming for my chi-chi boro, and stuffing as many in my mouth at a time and waiting for them to melt on my tongue - it feels like it was yesterday. this is the one food item i remember from my childhood. good times :-)

onto another food item......does anyone remember the little jelly containers with lychee pieces in the middle? you could buy them by the bucketful at T & T. i would buy them for my grandma 3 times a year - mother's day, her birthday and christmas. it was a lot better than the same old scratch & wins! i used to freeze them and then eat them. now those were refreshing! of course, there's always someone out there who has to ruin the fun for everyone by choking on them. after it became a choking hazard, they were pulled from all stores. come on, my 90 year old grandma was sucking those back! i'm still terribly upset over it. i really miss those jellies!