Saure Fische Gummibonbons
This is yet another of my candy packages from Europe that have been intercepted by customs. Obviously posing a great danger to the safety of life as we know it, this candy is dangerously gummy and dangerously sour.
The actual candy itself is not particularly outstanding. They are shaped like the stickers young Christians put on the back window of their old hatchbacks, and are a mixture of blood tinged yellow and pale olive, covered in that fine sugar that is a real bastard if you happen to upend the packet over your lap because it has inevitably collected at the bottom of the packet and snows all over you like glitter.
Taste wise, they are too sour and too gummy, it feels like a chore getting to the end of one of them.
But I do like is the fish on the packet. They look so disgruntled! Staring into the clear window, they look horrified at the candy inside. It is as if they are staring into a fishbowl and are shocked by what they see, which is a rather strange artistic device.
I also like the wording on the packet, because although they are are in various European languages, they could be strange English words: candy packets make it simple to understand other languages, I might try and learn German just from food packets. "Caramelle gommose" sounds like it could be a dessert in Donna Hay, "Saure Fische" sounds like somebody saying "sour fish" in one of those accents that is meant to be German but just ends up sounding warped and silly. It is probably very Anglocentric to think of language in this way, but I am one of those people who knows how to order food in Spanish, say hello in Russian and ask directions to the Historical Museum, and enquire as to the time in French, but nothing more.