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Mexican Ice Cream--Magnum Bars
A few weeks ago traveling south in to Baja I stopped at the large new modern Pemex gas station at Camalu. (about 150 miles south of the US border) Setting behind the counter and definitely in charge was a lovely young lady by the name of Christina who had a smile as big as all Baja and as bright as the Mexican sun at mid day. In chatting in first Spanglish and later in English I discovered she had spent a number of years in Oxnard/ Ventura area and often vacationed in Pismo Beach.
She indicated they had just received a shipment of the new Holanda "Magnum ice cream bars" and suggested that I might enjoy one of them since the weather was a little on the warm side. Mrs. Miller and I also thought a great suggestion. I chose a "Classic bar" which was covered in a rich thick chocolate coating, my wife chose a "Devotion bar" which was also covered with a rich thick chocolate and nuts.
Later on in our travels we sampled the "Almendras bar" (almonds) and a "Yoghurt Supremo." Once again both bars were lavishly covered with a very rich thick creamy chocolate and were equally delicious.
We made it a point to have a Magnum bar at every opportunity and with the passage of time have lost track of the actual number we consumed but our increased tightness of the waist band on our Levis indicate we had sampled almost too many.
The prices for the bars were from about $1.50 to a high of $2.75 at Palomar in Santo Tomas, --as expected the ghost and prices of my old friend Senior Enrique Villareal aka "El bandito" lives on in his children and grand children..
We discovered that the Magnum bars can be found in most of the new up scale Baja gas stations and most supermarkets such as CaliMex and Soriana (formerly Gigante) in the Ensenada area. ( 12 Sorianas Supermarkets are also located in the LA area.) For those living in their penthouses in Rosarito you can send your house boy or maid to the local markets; Commercial or Pelicano. I don't know about TJ.. we make it a habit never to stop there since we were caught in the middle of a gun fight in sight of the US border on Calle Internacional a short time ago, but would suspect it is also available at Calimex and Soriana in that city
Researching the Magnum bar I discovered they are marketed through out the world; Europe, SE Asia, Australia, etc but so far not in the main stream of the US
I hold fast to the opinion that the Holanda Magnum bars are possibly almost equal to but not better that the US produced "Dove Bar" and certainly superior to the Haggen Dazs bars, however not as big tasty and just plain good as the "Costco bar." Mrs Miller was not as impressed with my love affair with the Magnum bar. She had the opinion that I and she to a lessor degree were suffering from the dreaded "Dinty More syndrome; " which often affects foreign travelers and especially soggy divers. The Dinty More syndrome was developed and made so famous many years ago by the pioneer Southern California divers Ron & Joan Prange, of the very active historic Sea Sabres diving club, which states " The longer you are away from home, the farther you are away from home, the colder (-or hotter) you are, the wetter (-or dryer) you are, the hungrier you are the better Dinty More stew tastes"
Never the less Dinty Moore be damned-- I eagerly look forward to my next trip to the wilds of Baja in just a few short months and testing even more Magnum bars for the Dinty Moore syndrome...
A few weeks ago traveling south in to Baja I stopped at the large new modern Pemex gas station at Camalu. (about 150 miles south of the US border) Setting behind the counter and definitely in charge was a lovely young lady by the name of Christina who had a smile as big as all Baja and as bright as the Mexican sun at mid day. In chatting in first Spanglish and later in English I discovered she had spent a number of years in Oxnard/ Ventura area and often vacationed in Pismo Beach.
She indicated they had just received a shipment of the new Holanda "Magnum ice cream bars" and suggested that I might enjoy one of them since the weather was a little on the warm side. Mrs. Miller and I also thought a great suggestion. I chose a "Classic bar" which was covered in a rich thick chocolate coating, my wife chose a "Devotion bar" which was also covered with a rich thick chocolate and nuts.
Later on in our travels we sampled the "Almendras bar" (almonds) and a "Yoghurt Supremo." Once again both bars were lavishly covered with a very rich thick creamy chocolate and were equally delicious.
We made it a point to have a Magnum bar at every opportunity and with the passage of time have lost track of the actual number we consumed but our increased tightness of the waist band on our Levis indicate we had sampled almost too many.
The prices for the bars were from about $1.50 to a high of $2.75 at Palomar in Santo Tomas, --as expected the ghost and prices of my old friend Senior Enrique Villareal aka "El bandito" lives on in his children and grand children..
We discovered that the Magnum bars can be found in most of the new up scale Baja gas stations and most supermarkets such as CaliMex and Soriana (formerly Gigante) in the Ensenada area. ( 12 Sorianas Supermarkets are also located in the LA area.) For those living in their penthouses in Rosarito you can send your house boy or maid to the local markets; Commercial or Pelicano. I don't know about TJ.. we make it a habit never to stop there since we were caught in the middle of a gun fight in sight of the US border on Calle Internacional a short time ago, but would suspect it is also available at Calimex and Soriana in that city
Researching the Magnum bar I discovered they are marketed through out the world; Europe, SE Asia, Australia, etc but so far not in the main stream of the US
I hold fast to the opinion that the Holanda Magnum bars are possibly almost equal to but not better that the US produced "Dove Bar" and certainly superior to the Haggen Dazs bars, however not as big tasty and just plain good as the "Costco bar." Mrs Miller was not as impressed with my love affair with the Magnum bar. She had the opinion that I and she to a lessor degree were suffering from the dreaded "Dinty More syndrome; " which often affects foreign travelers and especially soggy divers. The Dinty More syndrome was developed and made so famous many years ago by the pioneer Southern California divers Ron & Joan Prange, of the very active historic Sea Sabres diving club, which states " The longer you are away from home, the farther you are away from home, the colder (-or hotter) you are, the wetter (-or dryer) you are, the hungrier you are the better Dinty More stew tastes"
Never the less Dinty Moore be damned-- I eagerly look forward to my next trip to the wilds of Baja in just a few short months and testing even more Magnum bars for the Dinty Moore syndrome...
