So that I don’t have to, but can still enjoy the culinary artistry you’ve created with tobacco.

Chef Nathan Isberg of Atlantic on Dundas infuses his crème brûlée with the loveliest flavours of vanilla, bourbon and cherry notes from Khyber Pass tobacco, a Cavendish type tobacco that is generally known for its sweet, mild flavour.

The flavour gets top marks, and you’ll want to keep digging for more. But the execution is not perfect – instead of having a silky jiggly texture, this was a little too dense and grainy. The caramelized sugar on top was over-burnt, leaving a slightly bitter aftertaste that was just barely salvaged by the fragrance of the crème brûlée.

If you are concerned about the impact of tobacco on your health, the chef assures the amount used in his crème brûlée is very tiny, hardly enough to turn anyone into a smoker. Worry instead about the cream, eggs and sugar, which we all know add up slyly on our hips and thighs after one too many dessert.

Where to Get It: Atlantic on Dundas, 1597 Dundas St. West, (416) 219-3819.

Price: $7.

Tip:  Non-smokers may feel a little light-headed from the tobacco-infused brûlée (as I experienced). Sharing is a good idea if you are not accustomed to tobacco.

I love sweet potato anything, and the word butter is just so wonderfully manipulative.

Anyway, once I got it home, this stuff lived up to the reputation I had already crafted for it in my mind; it tastes like pumpkin pie, though less heavy on the spices and with definite fruity notes. Although it calls itself butter, it’s more like a jam, but with a thicker, more gritty texture reminiscent of mashed sweet potatoes.

I could eat this with a spoon directly from the jar (and I did), but it is also wonderful on toast, particularly in the company of peanut butter. With PB, the mouthfeel becomes luxuriously thick.

I also like that this is an all-natural product; made with sweet potatoes, pure cane sugar, lemon juice, pectin, spices and pure vanilla extract, I feel pretty good about eating this. Also, it comes in a glass – like a real glass, one you can drink out of when all that sweet potato butter is gone.

Where to Get It: Blue Banana Market, Kensington Market, 250 Augusta Avenue, 416-594-6600

Price: $9.99 for a jar

Tip: Maybe you should try this swirled in some yoghurt?!

I heard the desperate cry of this jar of spicy peanut butter – begging to be picked up from the obscurity of the bottom shelf at Pusateri’s and be whisked away in a shopping cart for a chance to be on the kitchen counter. I decided to give it a try, after all, peanuts and chili peppers are best buddies – the combo makes a winning dish in Kung Pow chicken, an awesome dressing for noodles, and an unbeatable sauce for satays.

To me, the most fun (and delicious) way of eating peanut butter is to spoon it straight from the jar, but trust me, you don’t want to do that with this PB unless you like your food at least medium spicy. The “all-natural peanuts” are blended with chili powder, cayenne peppers, crushed red peppers and paprika, so it definitely has a fiery kick to it. The heat hits fast and strong, and almost overwhelms the peanut aroma, but there is sufficient nutty flavour to carry it through. The texture is smooth and creamy, and not too oily.

Spicy is exciting, but old habits die hard, and I’ll most likely be sticking to plain old regular PB on toast for breakfast.

Where to Get It: Pusateri’s, We got them at the Yorkville branch. 57 Yorkville Ave, 416-785-9100.

Price: $6.99 for a jar.

Tip: Try spicy peanut butter with crudités or in a stir-fry.

“My mom had 17 kids, you know,” says Marie, “and all the women in our family drank it.” Marie herself has 7 kids.

I’m willing to give the drink a shot, but I definitely don’t want any kids out of the experience. I already find it too tiring to take care of my cat.

So yes, in Trinidad, Sea Moss is considered an aphrodisiac, and this drink is subsequently a very popular thing. To make it, you must first wash the sea moss in lime (sea moss is a dirty thing,) then soak it in water overnight to expand. After soaking, the sea moss actually looks like gel. You later blend the moss with carnation milk, then sweeten it up with the addition of some condensed milk. After adding a few others spices and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon on top, the drink is ready to work its sexiness on you.

In the middle of a brutal thunderstorm (“What a day to have this! Very Fitting,” exclaims Marie,) I sample this love potion.  It tastes very similar to rice pudding; it’s thick and has the distinct flavour of condensed milk, with chunks of sea moss  throughout that remind me of the gelatinous globs of rice in rice pudding. The cinnamon adds a really nice finish to it. Definitely delicious. Still awaiting any libidinal results, though I think I’m going to head over to the boyfriend’s – just to be safe.

Where to get it: T&T Roti, Market 707

Price: $5

Tip: Get some of T&T’s Kurma – crunchy sticks of spiced fried dough glazed with sugar – to enjoy with your drink.

White chocolate, at least rather cheap white chocolate, has a reputation for being cloyingly sweet and leaving a burnt sugar or butter aftertaste, but the lychee white hot chocolate drink made at Chococrepe is one of the most satisfying white chocolate tastings I’ve ever had.

The drink is made with 35% Valrhona white chocolate, cream and lychee liqueur.
Lychee is as perfect a match with white chocolate as mint is with regular hot chocolate. The lychee flavour is subtle, but enough to spike a floral fruity punch. It’s like a more glamorous version of milk, with a sweet vanilla note, is  creamy and smooth,  and goes down luxuriously in your throat.

Best of all (for me at least,) it isn’t too sweet. This is going to be my new benchmark for anything white chocolate.

Where To Get It: Chococrepe, 620 Queen St. West (Queen & Bathurst), 416-855-5601.

Price: $5.99 for a cup.

Tip: Drinking a full cup of white chocolate may cause drowsiness, best to indulge when you’re feeling relaxed or prepping for a nap.

For those of you who don’t know about Tamarind, it’s a pod-like fruit that grows widely in Mexico. When you unwrap the friendly yellow paper of a Pulparindo, your first thought might be how similar it looks to a fruit leather. The taste is definitely fruity, and the consistency of this sweet is very similar to a leather, if a bit grittier. The chili pepper in this thing makes a world of difference, however. This candy definitely leaves a small fire in your mouth.

Tamarind is also a rather sour fruit, an added element that makes this one rather odd treat, which is actually perfectly described by the English tag line on the package: “Hot and Salted Tamarind Pulp candy.”

I’m super curious to know if kids in Mexico actually eat this. I’m also curious to know who in the world came up with the design for the littler Pulparindo mascot on the package, as he looks like a piece of sh*t in a yellow costume, am I right?

Where to get them: Latin America Emporium, 243 Augusta, 416-351-9646

Price: 25 cents for one candy

Tip: If you want something really, really sweet, I recommend looking elsewhere.

These aren’t your regular bulk bin roasted nuts – they’re organic raw cashews and pesticide-free sprouted almonds, which,  at least according to the packet, are higher in nutritional value than roasted nuts: “spouted foods ease digestion and increase vitality.” These nuts, claims the packet, are gently air-dried as opposed to being processed at high heats, so their natural vitamins and minerals aren’t compromised.

In general, raw (unroasted) nuts taste a little blander than roasted nuts, but the subtler nut flavour here is compensated for by the strong-tasting Sesame Teriyaki seasoning made of Tamari (wheat-free soy sauce), organic coconut palm sugar and Teriyaki spice blend.

The flavour is more salty than sweet, smoky and spicy, and has hints of ginger and garlic. For me, eating these Teriyaki nuts spurred an irrepressible craving for a Bento Box dinner. But they are definitely, definitely addictive.

Where To Get Them: The Big Carrot, 348 Danforth Ave (Danforth & Chester), 416-466-2129

Price: $4.99 for a packet.

Tip: Toss the nuts with your salad for some Asian-inspired oomph.

Here is what the Brick Toast I sampled was like: two thick pieces of toast dipped in egg, deep fried, slathered in creamy condensed milk and a big slab of butter, with peanut butter spread in the middle. The bread actually looked like deep fried tofu, and had a similar soft spongy inside. It was jesus christ! good. The condensed milk with the hot melty peanut butter is sweet and caramel-y and as  heavenly as you imagine June Cleaver’s butter-covered French Toast to be.

We got our Brick Toast at the food court at First Markham Place, at a place called Magic Fusion Cuisine. On the menu it’s listed as ‘Super Thick HK Style French Toast,’ and is only served with the condensed milk and peanut butter if you ask for it. They do however, also recognize it as Brick Toast. It’s served with lemon tea, sweet milk tea or coffee.

I don’t know if this is why they call it Brick Toast, but if you eat one of these for breakfast, it will definitely sit in you like a brick for the rest of the morning.

Where to Get It: Bubble Tea shops. We got ours at Magic Fusion Cuisine, First Markham Place, 3255 Highway 7 East.

Price: $4.50

Tip: You could make a healthier version of this at home with whole wheat toast and oven-baked instead of deep or griddle-fried bread.

The Japanese blossoms or Sakura are pickled in salt and plum vinegar, and commonly used as a garnish, cooked with rice, or steeped in boiling water to make Sakura tea.

I decided to make a cup. I put a few blossoms in warm water for about a minute to get rid of the excess salt, then transferred the petals to another cup and steeped them in freshly boiled water for another 3 to 4 minutes.

Unlike the usual mechanical dunk of a teabag that evokes little care or thought, making Sakura tea (Sakura-yu) easily draws one into a moment of serenity and beauty. The petals unfurl and float delicately, imparting just the slightest kiss of pink to the brew. It’s simple and very pretty.

The first sip jolts the palette – the tea is salty; the blossoms, after all, are pickled in salt, and it takes a bit of mental adjustment to accept just how out-of-the-box this tea is. If definitely means stepping out of my comfort zone. Another couple of sips later, there is a faint lingering sweetness that reminds me of preserved Chinese plums.

On a separate occasion, I also infused the blossoms into green tea, this time soaking the petals a little longer to minimize the saltiness. The result was green tea with a zing, which is more my type of thing.

Where To Get Them: Sanko, 730 Queen St. West, 416-703-4550

Price: $5.40 for a 30 gram packet.

Tip: Salt alert! Do not eat the petals directly from the packet. Keep them refrigerated.

And then there’s the Pop Rock Ice Cream Sandwich: your choice of ice cream slathered between two homemade cookies, with a sprinkle of pop rocks over the ice cream oozing out.

The best part is – you get to make this curiosity your own.

It’s your call on which cookie (peanut butter chocolate chip or Oreo chocolate chip,) which Maypole ice cream flavour (cookie dough, chocolate, bubble gum, berry, mango, peanut butter cup and on and on, ) and which Pop Rock flavour (green apple, blue raspberry, grape raisin, etc.)

I went with a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie  on the top and an Oreo chocolate chip cookie on the bottom, peanut butter cup ice cream and grape-flavoured pop rocks.

On the suggestion of the enthusiastic woman behind the counter, Danielle went for cherry ice cream on two peanut butter cookies, with a blue raspberry Pop Rock coating.

Both of them were bomb.

I know ‘bomb’ is a super outdated term, and it kind of makes me feel like I should be wearing a velour tracksuit with Juicy Couture printed across my ass, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it. Bomb is just the right word.

The whole Pop Rock part really isn’t that exciting though – they lend a bit of candy crunch – and they crackle and pop when the counter person first sprinkles them on the ice cream – but really, you can barely taste them. This is just a stellar ice cream sandwich.

Where to Get It: Barton’s Snacks. 15 Barton Avenue (Barton & Bathurst)

Price: $5

Tip: Go with the wilder flavours – how about Mango ice cream on Peanut Butter with some Green Apple Pop Rocks?