December 5: Lava and things around Hilo

After all the rain, and with the forecast still threatening more, we decided we were ready for the nut house.  Macadamias, of course!

Here's the edge of the macadamia orchard:

After stocking up on nuts, we headed south to check out some lava trees, formations that occur when flowing lava runs up a tree and then the tree catches fire and burns out, leaving an upright tube of stone:

We then started meandering further south, without a real plan in mind but to see what there was to see along a couple of scenic roads:

We stopped at this park and had a look at the lava beach.  There were surfers but you can't see them in the photo.

Then we drove west ...

We came to this insanely beautiful spot along the road, stopped and took some photos, and I'll restrain myself and only post a couple:

Then we came to a spot near Kalapana where a lava flow back in 1990 formed a lot of new land on the coast:

In the upper left hand corner of the photo below you can see steam from where lava is currently flowing into the ocean, over near the National Park:

Some of the locals over the years have been planting coconut palms in the lava field near the coast, here are some of them growing:

On the drive back into Hilo, we stopped at the Zoo which was about to close for the day.  Here's one of the pathways:

This is as close as I got to any animals ...

Back in Hilo, we went for a walk and saw this huge cruise ship on its way back out to sea.

We walked over the bridge to Coconut Island in Hilo, here I am standing by a tree showing the height of some of the tsunamis over the years:

Just a picture of a restaurant across an inlet from our hotel as we went back in at dusk:

Coming up next, Volcanoes National Park ...

Pumpkin Spice M&Ms

Ha, my blog is turning into an M&M review blog.  Good thing they bring out new flavours as often as they do or the internet might never hear from me!  I do have other things on the go other than eating chocolate, but I have been a lazy blogger lately.

Pumpkin Spice M&M's - another good one!  Very vague pumpkin flavour with cinnamon and spices.  Nice and chocolatey, this one is a milk chocolate one.

They have another Halloween flavour out, Candy Corn White Chocolate M&Ms, but I didn't try that one.  It sounded a bit strange, even for someone like me who likes to try all the new stuff.  If I change my mind I'll report back.

White Chocolate M&Ms

Well, I actually do have things to blog about other than chocolate, but my duties as an M&M reviewer keep getting in the way.  And no, I am not sent free samples to review, how I wish I was!  I find my samples free-range in Los Angeles department stores, and shell out my own hard earned money, all in the name of public service.

That said, we have another winner!

These are creamy and very tasty, very white chocolatey.  Recommended!

Raspberry M&Ms

I haven't reviewed any new flavoured M&Ms in a while.  I was happy to stumble across these at the local K-Mart in L.A.  Dark Chocolate Raspberry!

Verdict?  These are good!  I don't eat that many M&Ms, but these would rate buying again.

The evil counterfeit Canada Goose coat

I’ve been working in northern regions of Canada for over 22 years, and currently work in the high arctic.  For all this time, I have never had a really good parka. 

My first, and really only parka was from the Sears Men’s department, it was the only thing warm enough in my price range when I was starting out in my early 20’s.  I still have it, and have worn it as recently as 2 years ago.  However, it doesn’t fit well and is really heavy.  I have a down jacket from MEC which I usually wear.  It’s halfway between jacket and parka, and it’s warm enough, but doesn’t really have good face protection.

I’ve always coveted a Canada Goose parka, but could never really justify the expense when I already had an ugly but serviceable parka.  I’d heard rumours that sometimes, rarely, they had sales, but I’d never managed to catch one.

Until this year.  This year, I saw an ad on Facebook (I know, I know).  Canada Goose parkas, 40% off!!!  What luck!  I was getting ready for my current trip north, and I was really dissatisfied with my old ugly grey men’s parka.  Finally, a chance to get something that, while not exactly fashionable, would be warm and attractive, and fit properly.

I clicked the ad and went to the Canada Goose site.  No, really, it is the Canada Goose site.  The only thing is, it’s been copied and lifted from the Canada Goose internet address and placed at a similar-sounding one.  I didn’t suspect I was on a counterfeiter’s site.

The price was not outlandishly cheap, the coat was still $350, a bargain for a Canada Goose coat, but well within the realm of what a decent down coat would go for, especially on sale.  I wrote to the customer service department for help in choosing a style for extreme cold conditions.  They promptly replied and said all the sale coat styles were suitable, I could just select the one I liked best.  I did so and paid with my credit card.

The coat arrived promptly via Canada Post.  I took it out of the mailing bag… it was a little loose in the stuff sack.

I took it out… I’m not new to down clothing, so I found it to be not as puffy as I would expect.  I consulted with a friend though, who said “GOOD”, as overly puffy is, well, overly puffy.  I thought maybe they’d invented a new slim-line Goose, like how computers and TV’s and everything get skinnier and skinnier every year.

The coat came with a “free gift”, I found this a bit unusual, but hey, maybe they have a good sense of humour…

I tried it on and felt hot almost instantly, so it was warm, at least in an Ottawa apartment.  I had my coat!  There was no invoice inside, so as I was throwing away the packaging I took out the waybill from the exterior of the package expecting to find it there.

It was written in Chinese.  Uh oh.  I don’t think it should be written in Chinese.

I went to the website handily written on the stuff-sack, which actually is the REAL Canada Goose website.  There, I examined the handy page they have there that lists over 200 counterfeit websites.  I compared that with the e-mail I had from when I corresponded with what I thought was their customer service rep… uh oh.  A match.  The e-mail’s domain name matched one of the counterfeit ones.

I’d been duped!  I’m usually pretty good at not getting screwed like this, but these criminals are REALLY good at what they do.  The construction of the coat is mostly really good, high attention to detail.

Except this hood... this hood is a little on the scruffy side, I had thought when I first tried it on.  Not the quality fur you usually get on a Canada Goose.

But the tags!  The tags and labels are so authentic looking:

Your assurance of quality, the "downmark"...

The arm badge...

The reassuring little story about their 50 years of experience and the quality of their materials...

Oh, and no counterfeit coat would be complete without a certificate of authenticity!

Fake!  Fake!  Fake!  Fake!  FAKE!

I contacted Canada Goose who confirmed the coat was a fake, and then contacted Canada’s Anti-Fraud unit who confirmed they were already on the case of this particular counterfeiter.  They said the coat was filled with chicken feathers, which were probably not clean, and that it would be a health hazard for anyone to wear it.

I then contacted Visa, expecting it would be no problem to have this dealt with.  To my surprise, they insisted that since I had given my card number voluntarily to the criminals, that I was responsible.  They kept insisting, “this is not fraud”.  Uh, yes Visa, it is.  It might not fit the narrow description of what you wish fraud was, but it most definitely is fraud.

The most surprising thing of all is how good the evil counterfeiters were about responding to me.  They didn’t actually fix the situation of course, but they were attentive and replied to every e-mail.  Very gradually they admitted they weren’t Canada Goose, but “just as good”.  They just had a “superabundant” amount of product from the “Chinese outlet”.  They eventually offered me a 1/3 discount, but after many many e-mails agreed to take a return of the coat for a refund.

Trouble was, it would cost $256 to send the thing back to China with a tracking number, and I wasn’t paying that.  In fact, I wasn’t willing to pay anything to return the damn thing, these people are criminals, they lied about who they were, I would never have bought a fake coat from China, they were presenting themselves as Canada Goose, using that company’s own stolen webpages.

I eventually won my dispute with Visa, although it won’t be final for another 4 months or something.  I’ll take it to court though if they decide to reverse it and support the criminal merchant over me, I have proof that this is a counterfeit, even the Chinese company (that I eventually found out is really called Taitan Trading) admits to it.  I’ll never pay that bill, that’s for sure.  Visa knows this company is selling counterfeit products by misrepresenting itself as the authentic company, that can’t be legal.

So, after all that I’ve decided my MEC down coat will just have to cut it.  No more internet coat shopping for me.  I’ll have to hang onto the coat for a few months to make sure Visa doesn’t reverse the reversal, or that the evil Chinese counterfeiters don’t ask for it back (I’ll happily send it to them if they send me a prepaid label.)

And I know now not to trust Facebook ads!  I was actually under the very mistaken impression that they vetted their ads, they apparently do not.  There’s no way to even report an ad… Facebook has a dead-end form, it didn’t work, and it was buried under many layers and was almost impossible to find anyway.

So, that was my traumatic attempt to update my northern wardrobe.   I may look a little frumpy as I waddle over the tundra, and my eyelashes might be frozen closed, but the rest of me is staying warm.

Chinatown

As I mentioned in my last post, I stopped briefly in Chinatown (Los Angeles) last weekend.  Here are a few photos.

Decorations were still up from Chinese New Year:

I liked the name of this business- above the awning the sign says "sincere gifts".

This is L.A.'s city hall in the distance:

Dragons on the gate into Chinatown- not a great photo, taken into the sun:

I found the groceries and artery-clogging deep-fried dim sums I was looking for, so a productive visit.

M&M's Chocolate Trio

In honour of today being one of the four great chocolate holidays of the year, I bring to you yet another new (to me, anyway) M&M:

These are really good!  They're a triple-layer "premium" (as the bag says!) M&M.  The centre is milk chocolate, middle layer is white chocolate, and a thin layer of dark chocolate is on the outside.  A "soft shell" of multicoloured purple goes on the outside:

I really like these, very decadent.  The soft shell was a little weird at first, but I quickly got used to it.  Creamy, rich... mmmmmm!  Plus, I don't think they're a seasonal M&M, they were with the regular candy at the store, not the Valentine's Day stuff.  I hope they don't disappear on Tuesday.  Definitely a two-thumbs up concoction.  These are my favourite of all the new ones I have tried in the past few months.

Japanese mushrooms

When I stopped by the Japanese grocery store a few days ago to pick up some noodles, I found something else new and wonderful to try:

I just love mushrooms, so finding new ones is always so much fun.  I didn't know what to do with these beech (top photos) and enoki (bottom) mushrooms, so I just cut them apart and stir-fried them with butter.  Delicious.  The enokis I separated into individual "sticks" so that they kind of sauteed into a noodle-like consistency.  A few days later I had them at a Japanese BBQ place and they kept them in clumps.  I liked them both ways, but separated into "noodles" was pretty interesting, they had the mouth feel of a firm noodle but a wonderful mushroomy flavour.

They weren't even expensive, less than $2 for each package.  I'll definitely buy them again.

Coconut M&M's

I know I said photos of my Red Rock Canyon hike were coming up, but there are a lot of photos to go through.  So to keep you informed on other Vegas discoveries... here is something else I found there:

Coconut M&Ms!  I bought these at the big four-storey M&Ms store in Vegas.  Disappointingly, the store sells very few actual M&Ms, and I didn't even see these on first glance.  I don't know how widely they are being sold; I'm pretty sure the Vegas store is the only place I have seen them.

In a (coco-) nutshell, these are fantastic!  Colours are green, white and brown, and the occasional random M has a little picture of a palm tree, or a coconut, or a flower.  Flavour is just the right amount of subtle coconuttiness.  Another two-thumbs up for this one (both thumbs mine).

That's my last chocolate review for now... until the next chocolate holiday!  I don't know if they bring new stuff out at Valentines, but Easter stuff should be coming out after that, I'll have to see if they have any new innovations to aquire before I head back to the hinterlands of Canada.

Irish Creme Hershey's Kisses review

I'm enjoying my role as a blog chocolate reviewer so much that I have acquired another property to review.

I really like these new (to me at least) Irish Créme Hershey's Kisses.  As the photo shows, they have an actual cream centre.  It's pleasantly creamy, although I think I would have gone for a plain cream flavour myself.  The Irish Créme tastes a little odd since it's totally non-alcoholic, but once you get used to that these are quite nice.  It's a two-thumbs-up concoction (again, both thumbs are mine.).

The new M&M flavours: a review

Well, these flavours are new to me, anyway.  I haven't seen them in Canada, and only recently saw them down here:

As a public service, I purchased a package of each in order to review them for my readers.  You can see I am very keen about my work; both packages were already opened before the photography session could commence.

Cherry Cordial:  This is a larger and more irregular in size M&M, similar to the peanut butter ones in size and variation.  However, unlike peanut butter, there is no special centre, the chocolate itself is flavoured.  Colours are two shades of red.  I really like this one!  Very cherry like, similar in flavour to a mid-priced chocolate covered cherry.  This one gets two thumbs up (bear in mind, both thumbs belong to the same reviewer.)

Mint Chocolate:  This one is also a larger and irregular sized M&M.  Colours are red, white and green.  The chocolate is flavoured mint, there is no mint centre.  I liked this one, but it didn't blow me away.  I'm not sure why- it's pleasantly minty, and chocolaty too.  Still, I have to go with my overall impression and give it one thumb.

And in case you haven't been following the recent developments in M&Ms as closely as I have, I also tried last spring...

Pretzel M&Ms:  These are quite tolerable, but nothing to write home about.  I prefer a chocolate covered pretzel, and I find these huge- too many calories in each one for the amount of satisifaction received.  No thumbs up for this one, but still, if there was nothing else available I'd probably devour a limited quantity.

Strawberried Peanut Butter:  This was a special 2009 flavour that was associated with a movie.  I tried them in early 2010 when they off-loaded them at the dollar store.  It was OK, but I preferred the regular Peanut Butter M&M, which I had only recently discovered.  No thumbs for this one either, as peanut butter is better.

Quail eggs

I was buying a few things at a Japanese grocery store when I saw these:

I had to try them!  Here they are, posing with a teaspoon:

Aren't they pretty?

And tiny!  That's a quarter, for those of you not up on your American pocket change:

I decided to fry them.  Here's one, dwarfed by the frying pan...

And here they are on toast.  It takes around 4-5 quail eggs to equal a hen's egg.

They were very tasty.  I'd say they even tasted a little more rich than a hen's egg (the yolk is proportionally bigger), although they were pretty similar.

Cost of the experiment?  $1.45 for a box of 10.