My name is Lucca

No, this isn't a Suzanne Vega post.

It's about my current go-to buy at Landers.

As a fan of both berry flavours and wafer sticks, this Cafe De Lucca Mixed Berry wafer sticks is totally up my alley. It has the right amount of crunch, and the berry flavour is both sweet and tart at the same time.

Berry nice indeed!

More Piso Power

You know you're a Tito when things like P1 grocery promos make you feel excited.

Landers had it again, and this is my haul:

Two Mlika Chocolates and Italian cookies. All for P3!

Cheap thrills indeed.

Peso Power part 2

It's sorta geeky, but supermarket Piso sales really excite me.

Sitting in front of the computer, waiting to find out what products they'll offer, putting it in my cart and eventually checking out - this might sound mundane, but it's bliss for me.

Landers and the Robinsons Group have awesome P1 sales. Landers had one recently, and here's my loot:

Campbells Soup and Asolo Dolce Puff Pastry. And yes, these items just cost me P4!

Power to the Peso!

Another Piso-ffering

You know you've crossed "Tito-world" when you go goo-goo over groceries. Which I do.

Especially those piso deals!

I've written about some of my piso deal finds from Robinsons Supermarket. 

Now, it's time for Landers Supermarket to join the league.

Potato Chips and 4 bars of Johnson's Baby Soap! Both for one peso!

One!

Peso!

Judging by my reaction and enthusiasm, yes, I'm a Tito.

Do you see what Icee?

As a kid, Icee was one of my favourite frozen drinks.

I recall how there was an Icee stand in Greenhills, and it was beside a Slush Puppie stand. Yes, Slush Puppie was another fave. But more on this later.

Icee is still imprinted in my mind until now. From the red and blue cup, to the polar bear mascot, to the jingle (Everybody loves... slurp... Icee!) to the dual-cylinder machine that churned out those soft, frozen beverage that many of the kids my age loved. Cola and Cherry were 2 of my go-to flavours.

I think it was sometime in the late 80s or early 90s that Icee disappeared from the malls. And I've always wondered why. It's not due to a lack of demand because 7-11 still has the Frozen Slurpee. 

Just when I thought I'd never taste Icee again, look what I found at Landers:

Icee Cherry!

The moment I laid my eyes on this on the website, I had to add to cart and check out!

Icee what you did there!

This must be...

 

These bottles of Soda Pop from The Pop Shoppe look so old-School-Cool.

Not surprising if you consider that they’ve been around since the 60s!

Bonus: the 2 flavors are both ultra-faves! Hello Root Beer and Black Cherry!

Oh the joys of new discoveries that pop!

All About Herr

There are 2 cheese curl brands that bring me back to my childhood.

The 1st and more obvious one is Planter's. This was a snack staple during my childhood and we'd get those iconic blue cans whenever our Lolo and Lola and other relatives come home from the US. Or, we'd also get them at the nearby PX places in case we get a sudden craving.

The 2nd one is Herr's Cheese Curls. This was the puffier and lighter version, and they'd come in more varied flavours.

Whenever we're in the US and go to Target or Walmart, I'd always get this 2 brands, plus Cheetos, of course. But here in Manila, Cheetos is easier to find, that's why it's the brand that's usually in our snack pantry.

But recently, I've been seeing Herr's a bit more often in online grocery stores like Lander's!

Now, we've got a few packs of Herr's at home, and it's now part of our cheesy snack routine. 

Yup, still tastes like my childhood!

Flex your Moussel

Because of my relatives from Spain, I was introduced to Legrain Moussel at a young age.

Tita Evelyn would often bring this home when she'd visit the Philippines, and I remember liking the scent of this shower gel even as a kid.

But it's been more than 2 decades since I last saw or smelled this brand. Strangely, even in my past trips to BCN, it never occurred to me to look for this brand. Maybe it was because it was bulky and it would be difficult to bring it home anyway.

And yesterday, while buying groceries at Landers online, this familiar bottle came into view.

Needless to say, it was add to cart after this!

Moussel, you're mine!

Smucker's Satisfied!

I've been looking for Smucker's Goober Grape and Goober Strawberry for the longest time!

Hands down, these 2 are my all-time favourite bread spreads. But they've been hard to come by, especially when the whole "stay-at-home" arrangement started.

Thankfully, Landers had them on stock when I checked last week! The Goober Strawberry variant, at least.

Now, I can enjoy my Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jelly fix every breakfast!

Smucker's Cravings satisfied!

Say Cheese! Cake!

While our Oreo selection might not be as vast nor awesome as the ones in the US, recently, we've got a pretty decent selection.

Aside from yesterday's discovery - Oreo Salted Caramel - there was another discovery today!

While browsing through Landers online supermarket, this item popped up as a suggestion.

Oreo Strawberry Cheesecake!

This went from the screen to "Add to Cart" faster than you can say cheese.

Fairy Dishwasher

There are certain brands that have different names in different countries.

This is one thing I learned during my stint in the region. For example, in certain countries, "Palmolive" exists as "Softsoap." What's "Selecta" here is "Wall's" in other countries.

Shopping (online) at Lander's made me discover other brands that have this peculiarity. One of the country's most famous dishwashing liquid - Joy - actually doesn't exist in a lot of Western countries. But if you look at their supermarkets, you'll see that very familiar Joy-esque packaging, but with a different name.

A magical one at that.

Yup, "Joy" is "Fairy" in different markets.

So, if there's a "Fairy" godmother, there's a "Fairy" dishwasher.

And yes, that "Fairy" is actually helping us in dishwashing at home now.

Ride the Wagon

Oh, look! Another discovery from my Lander's on-line grocery shopping.

Arnott's is best known for the company who makes Tim Tam. We all know what Tim Tam is, and gosh, I miss their Salted Caramel and Red Velvet variants. But that's another story.

Apparently, Arnott's has a product called "Wagon Wheels." It's a biscuit, marshmallow and jam that's coated in chocolate. So, it's pretty much like Orion Choco Pie, but with fruity jam in between.

It's such a popular product in Australia that they turned it into a chocolate bar which is equally popular. Not in the Philippines, though, since this is the first time I've heard of it.

But since I'm into trying new things, I ended up putting this in my cart and trying it. Which I'm glad I did. It's super yummers!

It took me 2 days to finish the whole bar by myself! It's that good!

This is going to be in my cart again the next time I'm going to Landers. (On-line, of course.)

Choose Chios

There's a new version of "the joy of discovering a new product while perusing supermarket shelves."

In this time of Community Quarantine, it's now "the joy of discovering a new product while browsing on-line supermarkets on the net."

That's what I've been doing. Checking out on-line supermarkets like landers.com.ph, metromart, cloudmart, and the like, and looking for products that are interesting yet unfamiliar. It was through this exercise that I discovered Juss Juice and Real Handcooked Crisps.

So, I went on-line grocery shopping on Landers this weekend, and I made a new discovery! Chios Garden Lemonade!

What struck me first was the packaging. It's so artfully done, and is one of those botanical-themed designs.

The color, the sketch, the font - it's all so bespoke and beautifully done. And the packaging is one of the reasons why it suddenly went in my cart.

It arrived today, and the product is good as the packaging! It has the right amount of sweetness and tanginess, and a strong and authentic lemon taste.

I'll be choosing this again and adding it to my cart soon.

Have a bite. Or Two-bites.

Two-bite brownies and cinnamon rolls are my go-to snacks when I visit SG. It's also my "pasalubong" of choice. In fact, my last run before going home is usually to Cold Storage to horde all the Two-bite products that I see.

They don't have these products in Manila, which is a bummer. But in my recent visit to the Landers Supermarket homepage, I found this:

Two-bite Salted Caramel Cupcakes!

Yup, they're from the same makers of the brownies and cinnamon rolls, but it's a totally different product.

But since it's from Two-bite, it immediately went to "add to cart."

Let's see if it's as good as the other Two-bite goodies!