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Occasionally, I crave painful food.

I did manage to find some chili and strawberry jawbreakers, which are okay. Too sweet, but they do sting a bit.

Stoaty—I understand your dilemma. But if you can buy cinnamon oil, you can make your own cinnamon hard candy. Recipes abound on the internet, and the bottle of oil will probably have recipes with it, too. I used to make cinnamon and spearmint hard candy (with a bit of added food coloring) for Christmas treats, which my co-workers loved.

It is easy—you pour the boiling, flavored syrup out on a bed of confectioner’s sugar. Let it cool and break into small pieces (or you can use a knife to score the cooling candy into bite-size pieces). It’s pretty, and you can make the flavors as strong as you want. I made a cinnamon batch that I got too hot and wow—it made my eyes water! (but I still ate it.)

I found those recipes, Deborah! They looked intriguing.

But I don’t know what they call Karo syrup here and, believe it or not, I can’t get cinnamon oil. At least, I didn’t see it on Amazon.

I mean, as an aromatic oil I can get it. Not as a culinary ingredient.

Aw man, Now you made me think of those cinnamon-soaked toothpicks we used to chew on. I think they sold them in the snack-shack at little league games.

How are the Asian food places getting by with no cinnamon?

Brexit! It’s just the beginning! Then Global warming!

They’re trying to steal your childhood Weasy! Address the UN!

Stoaty—“Nigella” says golden syrup is a close substitute for white corn syrup (high fructose corn syrup), though golden syrup has a thicker viscosity. I’m stumped about the cinnamon oil. Maybe your local pharmacy could get culinary oils for you, or bakery, or restaurant supply. And I did see some recipes that don’t use corn syrup at all (but call for cream of Tartar).

I’ve bought Humco and LorAnn brands. I searched Amazon using “cinnamon oil for candy” with good results. Also “flavored oils for candy.”

Always pleased to see a Chicago product get a plug.

I still think it would be tortillas I would miss the most. Probably can’t get asadero cheese in Europe either.

Home-hunger pangs. Sigh. I remember those. I lived in Japan for about 10 years at one point in my life. You develop these ….cravings… for the damndest things. At one point it was Lasagna. I was living in Tokyo so you would think that in a city of 30 million people it would be easy to find Lasagna. It wasn’t. Even with the help of all my friends it took most of a year to turn up a fancy Italian restaurant on the 30th floor of a building in Shibuya, and brother, it was expensive. To be fair, if you think about it, Lasagna is about as opposite from Japanese food as you can get. For starters, ain’t nobody eatin’ no Lasagna with chopsticks. Then there’s meat, two kinds of cheese (at least) and tomato sauce everywhere, and it’s served in a lump resembling a bloody paving stone. So you aren’t going to sell a lot of that’ stuff without fixin’ it up a bit for local tastes. Thus just like here where we call Tex-Mex (with very un-Mexican sour cream and avocados) Mexican, what I paid $80 for was …. wierd.

Green spinach pasta, about four layers thick with no cheese and no meat; just thin layers of sliced carrot and spinach inside. Oh, and then it was already sliced into lovely little fork sized cubes, with little teaspoon sized daubs of tomato paste on each square.

I cried.

I will save the story of my triumphant return to America and The first Ruben Sandwich upon return for another day. Let’s just say that my Japanese wife (who was eager to try one after my excited reaction to seeing it on the menu) did not respond well to the combination of flavors produced by combining rye bread, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, corned beef, and mustard.

I would give Lyle’s Golden Syrup a try. The flavor is a bit different, but it should work. It’s hard to get over here, but I’ve tried it in pecan pie and it was ok.

Also, try looking for “glucose syrup”. Karo is glucose syrup. Add a touch of vanilla to the glucose syrup and it should taste just like you used Karo Light.

Make your own cinnamon extract. A quarter cup of strong cheap vodka or light rum, 3 or 4 cinnamon sticks. Put it in a small jar, close the lid, put it in the closet and come back in 2 or 3 weeks. That’s all there is to it.

Cinnamon toothpicks! I had totally forgotten those! I loved ’em, but I cannot remember the last time I saw one.

When I was travelling in England decades ago I did find some cinnamon drops in a candy store, just as loose candy. They weren’t red-hots, though.

Back in the day when we made cinnamon toothpicks we had to buy the cinnamon oil at the drug store and we had to have a note from home in case we put our eye out er summin’.

@drew cinnamon extract is not the same as it cannot take the high heat required to make hard candy. Cinnamon oil is steam extracted from pressed fresh bark and leaves.

Stoaty, look online for cinnamon essential oils. I’m sure there will be someone in your area or online in the UK selling essential oils; which are THE big thing among holistic adherents and organic foodies right now. I use doTerra essentials oils which are food grade.

Make your own hard candy hearts?

Some Veg — When I was stationed in Japan around 1980, Mrs Fert and I got a hankering for a pizza. Fortunately, the Misawa Air Base NCO Club had delivery, and pizza was on the menu!! Yippee Skippy!

Our pizza arrived shortly after we ordered. Tomato sauce and cheese on a flattened pie crust. Like you use for apple pie.

Loved Japan. Being a gaijin allowed us to experiment and explore and if we screwed up, the JNs would forgive us because, as we were told, Americans were like children.

I found several websites that specialize in old candy. If
you can get an Abazaba, Chocolate Bablies candy cigarettes,
etc. you might find some Red Hots. I will look into it
and post a link if I can find them.