National Candy Day - From Amsterdam Licorice to Poisonous Scorpion Lollipops.

 Halloween was only 4 days ago, and I can't eat any more candy...NOT! I have a sweet tooth that will not be satisfied; I'll admit it. So join me in celebrating National Candy Day.

As kids, we did not have the selection of chocolate bars they do now. There used to be a Hershey Bar, and foil-wrapped Kisses were favorites. Chocolate with peanuts is always a welcome crunchy bite.

Click on any photo to see larger.

Bit-O-Honey often landed in our Halloween bags. The dizzying flavors are caramel, peanut butter, peanut pieces, and a taste of honey.

I learned to blow gum bubbles with Bazooka.

Don't know if Lemon Ginger Chews are candy? They have a spicy kick like Hot Tamales - It's good car cruising candy to jolt you awake.

Sugar-free candy is everywhere, and I can't taste the difference from old-school sugar candy.

A sweet-on-sweet I do like is old-school Milk Chocolate Cordial Cherries, that is, Chocolate Covered Cherries. I get mine from the Dollar Tree now that the 99c only Stores chain is no more. Click on the video below to see my yummy review.

You can always find holiday-themed Chocolates, thank god, and amen. 

They are often praying hands, a religious symbol, or a jolly Santa Claus for Christmas, and a cute bunny for Easter.

In my Hollywood days, I lived a few blocks from The Monastery of the Angels. It is home to a cloistered community of Dominican nuns. They have an online Gift Shop selling Candies and Pumpkin Bread. I get the box of Rocca Sicca Caramel Almonds. They are heavenly.

As soon as Halloween is over, in come Candy Canes and Chocolate Reindeer.

On Valentine's Day, you will see Chocolate Roses with plastic leaves and stems in a long, thin box, sappy but kinda fun. My funnily romantic Valentine's Day slide show below includes a Chocolate Rose; check out "The 99 Cent Lover."

I am lucky to live right down the street from a See's Candies Factory on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles. 

A famous "I Love Lucy" scene was shot there. In a hilarious segment on her 1960s TV show, she and her best friend, Ethel, work the assembly line wrapping Chocolates until it all goes haywire. Check it out.

It can drive you crazy if you are stopped in traffic in front of the See's Candies building. The thick, sweet smell of Chocolate is in the air. Sometimes, I have to leave the windows rolled up when I drive by; it's too much! There's always a long line snaking out the door during Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. 

When L.A. opened the Expo Line metro train stop, half a block from See's Candies, I made a video about all the good eats along the train route and had to include getting free samples from See's. Do check out the fun video.

The most outrageous candy I've ever licked is a Scorpion Lollipop. Yeah, that's right, a real scorpion encased in hard candy..Whoa! 

It was during a trip with my now-wife, Linda, from Colorado back to Los Angeles. We had a bathroom break at Papa Joe's Stop & Go in Crescent City, Utah. At the cash register, they had a row of Insect Lollipops, and I picked the Scorpion, of course.

Check out my slideshow below for our strange trip after taking a few licks. 

When California became the first state to legalize marijuana use, it was only a matter of time before Cannabis Candy Edibles were introduced. You can call this Candy for Adults, or in my case, Candy for Seniors.

The manufacturers definitely have a sense of humor; just look at the classic candy names they goof on, like Starburst Candy. I'm sure this type of Candy is not what National Candy Day has in mind.

I feel conflicted about having Candy Marijuana Edibles on the market, similar to Nicotine Vape Pen Cartridges that are fruit-flavored. It may be confusing to teens and young adults as to the potency and ease of abuse.  

But I do like my Cannabis Edibles from time to time, as I came of age in the late 1960s and have done my share of mind-expanding. I am glad they are legal, though. I think being jailed for the personal use of drugs is the real crime.

I grew up with Candy Cigarettes, so lighten up! I'm surprised they are still legal. These Candy Cigarettes below were in Gonzales, Louisiana, on a gas station checkout counter right by the Lotto tickets. I went there this year, and they no longer carry them - canceled, I guess.

I seem to remember they had red tips like they were burning. We would puff on the sugar sticks like our parents smoking cigarettes. I should have asked the cashier if you have to be 18 or 21 years old to buy these?

Some of the above candy imagery can be controversial, especially the ones that touch on religion, cigarettes, and drugs. I don't often get political, but I can't help it, as ICE and immigration are making headlines every day. Immigrants seeking refuge and freedom have made our economy and society the envy of the world. I have a photo series called Un-American, which includes all types of food from foreign countries sold on our shores. Here is one sample below featuring a deliciously sweet coconut confection with the colors and shape of a Mexican Flag.

The cheapest Licorice is from my local Dollar Tree. They have some sweet flavors that I can handle, like  Green Apple and Blueberry/Pomegranate.

While Chocolate is my favorite type of Candy, I explored European confectionery in Amsterdam, Netherlands, while on my sweet Honeymoon. 

I indulged in some unusual types of Candy from Kruidvat, a retail, pharmacy, and drugstore chain.

I became addicted to Licorice (or Liquorice), especially when intertwined with molasses and having a cream center. This Licorice is called Trollendrop.

I was never a Licorice fan as a kid, but now I like the addictive savory taste, which reminds me of anise or fennel, with added sweetness. And Amsterdam locals are definitely hooked. Just go to the candy aisle of any grocery store and you will see a dozen brands and flavors. 

There are typical fruit-flavor candies like Banana. I liked Cola flavored, It's The Real Thing.

On National Candy Day, if you can handle it, revisit your childhood and grab a bar of Chocolate, some Candy Corn, or just lookie-loo at my sweet imagery, that way you stay tooth cavity-free!

Halloween Recipes - Creepy Kool

 Gory Halloween warning! It's time to get squeamish with the Ghoulish Gourmet's creepy imagery of raw meat and viscera. I'm about to get medieval for Halloween, and the following Dia del los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

This Sinister Cheap$kate's ghastly recipes are laid out like a bloody scene from a Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe story. Once you've digested this macabre blog post, your taste buds may nevermore be the same.

And if you're a vegetarian, avert your gaze! Or peak through hand-covered eyes to read my queasy prose. I'm sure to be on Morrissey's #hit list if he ever sees this - he's pop music's most morose vegan. (And I'm a big fan of his songs with The Smiths.)

Some of my most spooky recipes may make your skin crawl, while others will have your taste buds baying at the moon with pleasure, mouthful after mouthful.

Witches Brew - a bubbling cauldron of Pozole.

So read on, and don't forget to click on any recipe name that will bring you kicking and screaming to my original blog post to see all the hair-raising details -- presented with gory gifs, bloodcurdling photos, grisly videos, and eerie text. 

Right off the bat, I like my Chupacabra Carne Asada steak and hamburgers medium-rare. Oozing is fine by me - E. coli be damned!

Grilling meat supercharges the flavor and brings out the knuckle-dragging Neanderthal in this Paleo Chef.

The Terminator T-bone

Raw, bloody carcasses of meat have been disturbingly depicted in fine art. Rembrandt van Rijn is primarily known as a Dutch painter of moody portraits during the 17th Century, and I am especially influenced by his "Carcass of Beef" (flayed ox) study - just check out the audacious composition with gory details.

And here's the British artist Francis Bacon's 20th-century version, below.

The Chiaroscuro Chef photographs flesh against dark backgrounds (shot on a blackened cookie sheet) - usually lit from a single direction, with deep shadows, very much inspired by Caravaggio. An artfully dark and forbidding example is my recipe for Pasta alla Genovese, where I slice and dice cheap beef shank, slaughterous enough to make a zombie weep.

Offal is not so awful to this Carrion Chef. After watching a classic horror flick on the big screen, I cruise LA's fog-shrouded boulevards and alleyways during the midnight hour looking for ways to quell my ravenous appetites...for tacos, that is! 

Buche (stomach), lengua (tongue), and tripas (intestines) are on the menu at sidewalk taquerias and taco trucks throughout Los Angeles. Watch the shuddersome viscera-splattered video below to see what stops me in my tracks.

On a sweeter note, while not meat, the gooey insides of a Halloween special edition Oreo cookie are like sweetened bone marrow. You don't smash it to get to the finger-licking orange viscera; a simple twist will do.

Oreo Cookie Monster

Get your hands dirty knawing on my Rosemary's Baby Back Ribs. You'll need extra napkins to soak up the BBQ sauce smeared on your lips and dripping from your fingertips.



My Silence of the Lambs Curry is creepy-delicious. And my video cooking directions are as easy to follow as leading a lamb to the slaughter.



It can get messy cooking with meat - you have to have an iron stomach. Try breaking down a pork shoulder sometimes, like I do below for my ghastly Texas Chainsaw Carnitas video recipe.

It's probably the most artistically nauseating footage I've ever shot - but, boy, does it taste heavenly when you cradle a stuffed tortilla, plump with citrus and cola-marinated, slow-cooked pork.



Ground chicken and turkey are mushy and wet, more so than ground beef or pork...ugh.

Check out my ground poultry The Blob Patty Melt video to see what I mean -- yuk!



After chicken, pork is the cheapest flesh. When hacked, mangled, and minced into sausage, it's delicious for breakfast or added to stir fry like my Garroted Green Beans and Gruesome Ground Pork recipe below.

This may sound perverse, but it's actually fun to animate with ground meat; it's like playing with Play-Doh, just greasier. Check out my video below to see the messiness.



Are you still with me? Man, are you hardcore! I'm getting extra creeped out just assembling this blog post.

Ever gut a fish? Whoa, that is one freaky task! Slice the belly open, yank out the internal organs, then chop off the head -- oh, I'm feeling faint just remembering the slimy viscera and the nauseating smell - barf !!

If you want to scare the bejesus out of your dining guest, then serve them a Jaws Whole Grilled Fish - head on!

This tin-framed, bloody-looking slaughter scene, comprised of tomato-sauced fat fingers of sardines, is one of my most visited food blog posts. And the morbid visitors are mostly from Europe (Transylvania?) - go figure. My pasta dish, Slaughtered Sardines in Tomato Sauce with Olive Oil over Pasta, is a delicious mouthful worth sinking your incisors into.

Sushi is typically made with freshly butchered raw fish. It's so artfully presented that you miss the gore that goes into each delicate slice of aquatic flesh.

Here's one of my tastefully shot Sushi recipe videos, the simply presented Mothra Tuna Sushi.



Shrimp would not seem spooky, right? But buy head-on jumbo shrimp and try beheading, peeling, and removing the digestive tract/backbone sometimes...yuck! But, man, are they delicious when my Mom serves them up, named after her favorite author, Stephen King Shrimp & Rice recipe.

Halloween has a dark streak of humor, and some of my recipes do, too. Take my wacky Nightmare on K Street - Trump Orange Chicken....please. It's the color and shape of a pumpkin and looks like a McDonald's Chicken McNugget, just like our Perv-in-Chief, but my entrée is made with real chicken pieces, not a pink slime meat composite.

How about a recipe where a slice of Bride of Frankenstein Turkey Bacon swallows up a Brussels sprout like a disembodied human tongue...yikes!

I like to cook a whole chicken or leg quarters. There's nothing like the carnal pleasure of ripping apart a cooked poultry carcass and sucking every piece of succulent meat off the bones. My Tingler Chicken Tinga and Paranormal Poached Chicken are some saporous examples.

 Below is the Eviscerating Cuisinier's squishy butchering of a chicken breast and leg quarter. It's the cheapest flesh you can get, and I have all kinds of poultry recipes here.

So get out there and have an entertaining Halloween holiday. It's not all blood and guts! My recipes may haunt you in a tasty way. So, I'll leave you with an appallingly tasty ghost story.