At the Makaloa Street Palama Market, it sounded like somebody was engaging in target practice with a toy gun: Thwuuuup! Thwuuuup! Thwuuuup! That's the sound of the Magic Pop snack machine turning unimpressive looking grain flours (rice, barley, wheat, millet, corn) into light-as-air pancake-size crackers, shooting them into a bin at the side of the machine at the rate of one every few seconds.

The woman serving up samples and packing crackers into cellophane sacks said they were healthy and low in calories, but no nutritional analysis was offered. Magic Pops crunch like those puffy shrimp crackers of our childhood; the flavor is delicately sweet. Beguiling enough that I had to buy a bag, about $6. (I've since noticed that Magic Pop isn't always available; call ahead.)

— Wanda A. Adams

LIGHT OR DARK?

'NAUGHTY OR NICE' KISSES AMONG HOLIDAY TREATS

You don't have to spend a fortune on gourmet chocolates. Hershey's is introducing new products for the holidays, including the "Naughty or Nice" Kisses gift bags pictured here. Naughty is dark, Nice is milk chocolate. They're also doing Candy Cane-Flavored Mint Kisses and a new flavor of their sybaritic Bliss line — simple squares of chocolate in light or dark or Milk Chocolate Meltaway, with a hard shell around a soft center.

— Wanda A. Adams

FINAL WORD

"Whenever I serve a homemade pie, it seems to have a curious effect on people. First, delight. But then, despair as my guests detail their pie woes."

— Kimberly Masibay , in November's Fine Cooking magazine