Finding imported Israeli snacks in Ottawa was initially tricky – I checked a few middle eastern groceries, but they only tended to have snacks from Arab countries. However, a bit more searching and I found the jackpot! The Loblaws’ at College Square has a huge dedicated kosher section, and included in that section were a lot of imports from Israel.

Osem Bamba – Bamba is the OG Israeli snack, like cheesies but made with peanuts. They have an intensely peanut butter flavour with a salty puffed corn aftertaste. They’re a bit rich and slightly oily, but really addictive – I’m not normally a big peanut butter fan but these are dangerously good. There’s also no preservatives or other additives, the ingredients are just peanut paste, corn, oil, and salt.

Tnuva Chocolate + Mousse Pudding – Chocolate pudding with vanilla mousse on top. This is genuinely delicious, the chocolate actually tastes chocolatey and the mousse has a real flavour contrast. I wish I could go back in time and give myself these for lunchroom snacks as a kid instead of those tasteless Jello chocolate puddings.

Elite Milk Chocolate with Popping Candies – Just plain honest milk chocolate (kinda like a better version of Kinder milk chocolate) with pop rocks in it. Simple, fun. I’m in.

Gesher Snak Pak Hot & Spicy – There were a whole lot of different flavours of these snacks, each in a different pasta shape. Are these fried pasta? I guess it’s the same dough, judging from the ingredients, just fried instead of dried. Nice and crunchy, good texture, well seasoned, but points off for being barely spicy at all.

Klik Cornflakes – Chocolate-covered cornflakes! Again, the chocolate is really tasty, though feels like there could be more crunch from the cornflakes. I think the big lesson so far is Israelis go hard with the quality of their chocolate. If these treats are their baseline for chocolate? Wow.