I have a problem with snacking. It's really considered to be bizarre here. Very much frowned upon by DH. whereas us Brits snack all the time. My hip measurements certainly don't need any snacking (sigh) but there's something lovely about nibbly things. I think that's why I love a good mezze. I have never tried a hot, spicy pickled carrot! I do like a nibble on cheese, though.Or sometimes, only hot buttered toast will hit the spot, sometimes with a bit of cheddar. Or an apple and cheddar. STOP!!!

I remember reading about the troubles the Disneyland had in France, when they opened, because while they tried incorporating French and European stories into the exhibits, they didn't learn enough about French culture to know that everybody all wanted to sit down to lunch at the same time. Is that part of your husband's objection? Snack isn't a programmed meal?

I love mezzes, too.

The carrots are interesting, and really good. They're cut lengthwise, and in the jar with whole jalapeños and a good handful of dill seeds, and they have pepper and other peppers, including habanero, and garlic. There are traditional Mexican hot carrot pickles, which are usually, IME, sliced on the diagonal from big carrots, and just them, jalapeño slices, salt and vinegar. Some do make them with onion, garlic, bay, peppercorns, or anything else you might put in pickles. They're blow your ears out hot, but irresistable. These hybrids aren't nearly that hot. They're also made by a tiny company and not always available. My next jar is green beans. :)

I like to wrap spicy things in cheese too. Or at least eat them with cheese. My latest snack habit is Takis. They are SOOOO hot, but SOOOOOOO good. To tame the heat I started eating them with slices of cheddar. A few people at work saw me doing that and tried it and now they are hooked too. I usually am not a fan of really spicy things. But there is SOMETHING in those Takis that are addictive. I only buy the small bags in order to restrain myself. I sometimes wrap slices of American cheese around them too. The combination is really really good. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

No specific snacks in our house either, really. Lunch might be reduced to a slice of toast and marmite or cheese but it would still be called lunch.

plllog, can I ask the brand of the carrots? Maybe I can find them here in Fresno.

I'm not a big snacker. It wasn't done at my house growing up and wasn't in my house as an adult with children. There was always a BIG bowl of fresh fruit on the counter, and was always being emptied by my kids and friends when they would come to play.

If I really need something it is either a piece of cheese or popcorn... I LOVE popcorn; sometimes both.

Kate, they're Pick-a-Peck. They ship, but they're pricy even without shipping. They're like homemade but professionally packed. From Yuba City, of all places! I got them with my regular farm box. :)

https://pickapeckpickles.com/

My recollection of Yuba City is that, bizarrely, it had feral chickens roaming the streets. Really weird.

I'm loving Chipotle Bitchin' Sauce (made with almonds) with sliced carrots and celery.

https://shop.bitchinsauce.com/products/chipotle-bitchin-sauce-8oz

Not new at all, but my favorite snack is kimchee that I make myself.

Floral, feral chickens aren't that uncommon in the West. I don't know about Yuba City, but often the chickens come from a truck. Either following a crash, or they weren't well secured. Others are the kiddies' Easter chicks set free, often where chickens are known to be seen, so they'll have "friends", and sometimes just random unwanted chickens. The same with bunnies, too. Not the trucks, but there are places where people dump domestic bunnies. People occasionally try to round up the feral animals, but they never get them all.

Though, I haven't tried making my own, I cannot stop thinking of fried chickpeas. I first had them as a condiment on fish tacos? But I'm obsessed with them.

This recipe caught my eye.

https://www.appetizeraddiction.com/pan-fried-chickpeas/

The pickled carrots sound good to me. I went on the website you gave and it's $18 for two jars plus shipping, etc. I searched for someone local that might carry them, but their website didn't tell. Maybe they have none. I just hate to spend a lot on two of something I may not even like.

I guess it will give me something to do to keep looking for them locally.

Yeah. Pricy. I agree they're not worth it to sample.

Rob, those look soft, right? I've never seen the like. I don't really like deep fried or freeze dried chickpeas. The beans have too much fat of their own and the texture is just wrong. That simple pan fry looks like they're just cooked and seasoned, and seem mighty tasty.

It's very easy to make your own pickled carrots. I often add them to cucumbers that I am making. I recommend Japanese style refrigerator pickles.

I learned a new-to-me term from Islay - mezze ("meh-zay").

No, the chickpeas are crunchy! Which is what made them awesome in the fish tacos. The ones which fell on the plate were addictive.

But like I said, I haven't made any. I don't know what it takes to get to crunchy. I imagined it being like pecans or almonds being browned in a pan. Maybe drying the chickpeas would aid in that

Funny you should mention the spicy carrots. My new snack this week has been carrots dipped in hot sauce that I made for chicken wings.

In roasting chickpeas you need to experiment. Depends on what you are looking for--chewy, a bit crunchy, soft chewey spicy.

I soak a pound of chickpeas about once a month. A big batch than become a few things. Humus, falafel, bean salads, roasted on a sheet pan for snacking or tossed in salads, in soups, on tacos.. Last batch i tossed in chili crisp, then sumac and urfaBiber and slow roasted.

Roasted low and slow will produce a different, and dryer texture, than a fast higher heat roasting. And how wet or dry the spice mix is. We like all versions.

DH just finished up the last batch of humus and i snacked on the end fo a jar of spiced chickpeas instead of popcorn.

A doen restaurants in NYC have 'mezze' in their name,

The BlueMezzeBar happy hour menu

I love the crunchy ones! i just think the ones in thevpan fry photo look not-crunchy. Thanks, Sleevendog, for the clue to crunchy. I've probably done too high a temperature in the past. So I was working on a recipe, and wanted crunchy garbanzos for it, and saw a packet to buy. Hooray! Because, I didn't want to do a bunch of experiments just then. They were disgusting!! Really, they shouldn't be allowed to sell them, but besides all that, they weren't even crunchy! They might have been crunchy when they were made, but they were just hard, with an unpleasant squish amidst the hard. Even my fails to get the right texture were nice to eat. I wonder if this is a job for the air fryer?

Our second shelf up above the crisper drawer, at eye level, is our 'snack' shelf. Some commercial jared condiments like artichoke hearts, cornichons, olives. Homemade coondiments like chili crisp, mustards, seaweed salad, kimchi, and LGD, VivianHoward's LittleGreenDress. And a recent obsession, Ramen Eggs. And Korean sticky rice balls. Always a bowl of quick pickles. Weekends a small platter of a variety of all things.

During initial covid lock-down we did not have much of an appetite. I just kept a variety of easy to plate healthy choices. That has continued. A variety of small bites when peckish. Only an evening meal is sit-down-planned.

And yes, home pickles wrapped in various cheeses is a nice 'snack' bite.

Note the upper left plate has blistered cherry tomatoes and roasted chickpeas. LGD on the ramen eggs over toasts. Lower right, a work 'bowl' for DH. He might have a ramen egg and 1/4 avocado 9am, and snack until lunch. Pasta salad in that bowl.

I keep that shelf full of easy healthy choices so DH will grab 'easy' healthy salads over just a hunk of cheese and a cracker. He loves all my freah shaved salads but would never make them himself.

Ramen eggs are hard/soft boiled, then marinated in dilute organic unseasoned rice wine vinegar and tamari. So good just 4 hour, maxx 12 overnight. Any more time get too salty.

Wrong pic above but similar choices.

Would love to try those spicy carrots, but shipping makes them too expensive.

I sometimes add thinly sliced carrots to the leftover brine in a jar of Trader Joe's Hot & Sweet Jalapenos.

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/hot-sweet-jalapenos-056688

I wish I could hire a chef just to make me cute snacks!! I love them with afternoon tea. Unfortunately, I nowdays am usually eating Ritz low salt crackers, which are devoid of any nutritious attributes and are fattening to boot, as they derive their appeal from saturated fat content. I used to eat at least the Wasa multi grain crackers but I am so stressed lately I don't even want to hear the crunching from inside my mouth . . . I have constant sinus pressure inside my head as it is. I am addicted to Hershey's chocolate kisses . . . Hopefully once the weather warms up and I spend more time outside I will be better able to de-stress.

Those rice balls would be right up my alley! Even some decent sushi, but not to be had in my rural home turf.

I'm not very imaginative with snacks, or especially hungry in the middle of the day either. A snack might be something left over from last nights dinner. Yesterday I had three seared scallops (cold) and an 8 oz ginger ale.

Amy, your Takis look like a bagged snack I recently purchased at Trader Joe's but that's not what they were called. Same shape, and a very distinctive and strong taste of both lime and of chilies. I think they might have been good with sticks of cheese, alone almost a little overpowering. I almost felt like they needed a beer and that isn't a good way to keep me bright and productive all afternoon :)

Yes, it would be easy enough to replicate the pickled carrots, but I would rather support the small business and eliminate waste and storage hogs, so long as they come with the rest of my farm order. The makers are supposed to have a secret for keeping them crunchy, but the Mexican pickled carrots I'm used to are cruncy too They're back in stock, and I ordered two jars. :)

Islay, I totally understand. We once had friends that did the same. I was beyond hungry by dinner, and, ready for bed.

I remember being in Italy where the restaurants didn't know what to do with us at 7:30pm; and Brazil was even worse. Brazil was big on their version of pizza for an afternoon snack... you needed it.

My father never lived it down. He was discharged from the service where he was inducted but his parents had moved thousands of miles away during the war. So he went to see his auntie. It was mid-afternoon. In the military, that's not meal time, so he refused even a glass of water. She was terribly offended. Probably wanted to feed him up, but surely just wanted to give him a proper welcome and hospitality. And for all the decades until she passed, she had two stories about him. One, when he was a naked toddler coming to visit her (next door), and one when he was a grown man in uniform, refusing to take a glass of water in her house. :) I guess it's what one is used to. I do better as a grazer, eating several small things spread out, rather than big meals.

OTOH, when I was young and doing a course in Mexico, I learned the rhythm of breakfast not too early, dinner at about 2:30 pm with siesta to follow--all the schools and businesses shut down for four hours. Supper at 9:00-10:00, and any parties starting at about 10:00pm, with still enough time to get a decent night's sleep before breakfast and work/school. But there might be a glass of fresh juice, a cone of fresh fruit, a fruitcicle (paleta), a pastry. Most of the snacks were sweet, but were the norm. There wasn't a voild in the long wait between meals.

I had a sweet snack yesterday. :) Cherry ice cream.