No "pig fat" in this Iraqi candy store

My opportunities to explore Iraq are next to nil, so I sightsee what little I can from the safe confines of my post inside the International Zone in downtown Baghdad.

A candy store in our local slew of sheltered stores is about as safe as tourism can get around here.

I bought some sort of yogurt bar from Turkey that included a warning that, "none of our products contain pig fat." The warning had the tone as if it were Chinese food stating "no MSG." The candy bar, lacking in flavor, suddenly sparked a craving for pig fat.

The "Fruit Toffees" in orange "flavour" included a Bazooka Joe type wrapper and comic that didn't make a joke, but stated trivia in English and Arabic. "Did you know that flatworms are one of the fastest reproducing creatures on earth?" Odd statement on something you stick in your mouth, but OK! I was busy taking Iraqi culture exploration 101.

That was one of the few candies I could find actually made in Baghdad or Iraq. Another was the maker of the "Sultan sunflower seeds," which were as spicy as they were scrawny.

But the one I just had to buy was a tiny can with a "Pop" name. As a native of Iowa, I grew up in a region where we used that word with a straight face. "Soda" was never a thought.

"Pop" was from South Korea. I have no idea how it found a market in Iraq, but it was a carbonated drink with chunks of orange. Not juice, not pulp, but it contained chunks of orange. It worked. I can't recall a single American product where you can drink and chew your snack.

I would love to explore the Iraqi capital like I used to traipse through the capitals of Europe. But the terrorist rockets that struck our post only hours before were as good a reminder as any why my Iraqi tourist adventures won't go far beyond the candy store.