Honey or Jelly

In America there is a very popular sandwich called peanut butter and jelly. It is so common that we often say PB&J or just PBJ. Maybe any American who hears PB&J will know what we mean.

Peanut butter is made from peanuts and salt. We grind them into a thick paste to make peanut butter. It is very high in protein and oils. Also, it gets stuck to the roof of your mouth easily. Jelly is very much like jam, but we filter out the seeds and large pieces of fruit. It is very sweet.

The PB&J is a very simple sandwich. We usually consider it food for children, but some adults really like it.

Sometimes people make peanut butter and honey sandwiches. People have strong opinions about which is better: peanut butter and honey; or PB&J.

Have you eaten PB&J? Which is better jelly or honey with peanut butter?

Quince

In Japan, I sometimes see cough drops with karin in them. This week a friend asked me how to say karin in English. I looked up karin in the dictionary. We call it ‘quince’ in English.

I have heard the word quince many times, but I didn’t know what it was. A Brazilian teacher knew what it is. She explained it to me.

A picture on the package of cough drops looked like a pear. The Brazilian teacher said, “Yes, it does look like a pear.” But she said it is very big. Also, she said it is very hard so you can’t eat it. She said the flavor is good, so you need to extract the flavor.

In Brazil they soak quince in honey. The honey gets flavor from the quince.

Have you seen a quince? Do you like the flavor?

Candy Corn

Do you have a favorite candy?

When I was young, we often ate a candy called candy corn. At Halloween and Thanksgiving candy corn was very popular.

Candy corn was made with honey, so it was very sweet. The shape looks kind of like Indian corn. Traditionally the candy was white, yellow, and orange. I would take one at a time. First I would bite off the little white part. Then I would bite off the yellow part. Finally I would eat the orange part. If I could perfectly bite off one color, I was happy.

Although I ate them slowly, I could not stop. I always ate a lot of them.

Now they are not made with honey. Now they use high fructose corn syrup instead. I think it is really bad for our health. I miss the old candy corn.