O Solo Mio

 

Korean Snack Reviews #1

As promised, this is Part #1 of my reviews of Japanese and Korean snacks. I don't know what to say here, so let's begin...

1.

Translated Name: The Best!

Review:

Given the fact that these are orange on the wrapper and that they're Korean, this one made me a little nervous. I kind of assumed they would be flavored like crab or shrimp or some other seafood. To my surprise and delight, they're actually light brown, not orange and they taste like cinnamon cereal. They're like Cinnamon Toast Crunch if you toned them waaay down and made them slightly bland. If I recall correctly, they taste almost exactly like Apple Cinnamon Cheerios (do they still make those? Yes!). In fact they taste so much like Apple Cinnamon Cheerios that I was going to theorize that they were made of oat. But that's when I realized that the ingredients are actually printed in English and they say Wheat. A lesson in hubris for me.

Still, pretty good, off to a good start. I wouldn't travel thousands of miles to eat them but not bad for sure.

2.

 

 

Translated Name: Nuneddine (nonsense word, or possibly Italian).

Review:

 

The first thing to note is that the wrapper says "Italian Snack". So it's an Italian snack but this review is for Korean snacks so I'm trapped. Checkmate from the Koreans on this one.

 

This is a very light, very airy, crispy croissant-like thing. It's like a Danish without the fruit. On top of the crunchy cookie is a very thin layer of sugary frosting-like material. It tastes like a croissant, but it almost tastes like nothing, it's so airy. Not bad but not good, just neutral.

3.

 

 

Translated Name: Cookie

Additional Text: Biscuit, Peanut Sand

Review:

 

This is two cookies sandwiching a layer of cream - looks like a vanilla Oreo, basically. I was very intrigued by the promise of "peanut sand". Have you ever had peanut sand? I think if you ground up peanuts really, really fine until the grains were like grains of sand, it might be a product people would buy. Americans are obsessed with peanut butter so this is an untapped market.

In this case, "peanut sand" actually means "peanut sandwich". These are pretty great, they taste like Nutter Butters if you took the flavor way down until it was subtle. People in other countries like to complain that American foods are always loaded with sugar. So far, I'm starting to see what they mean. Eating these Korean foods the word "subtle" keeps cropping up over and over. The standards of the countries are definitely different.

Definitely like these but a recommendation is pointless so long as Nutter Butters are available.

4.

Translated Name: Orion

Additional Text: Fresh Berry

Review:

 

It's two light, fluffy cakes sandwiching a layer of cream. As noted on the label, the cream tastes like a mixture of berries but it's very light and subtle (again). I'll tell you what they taste like, they taste like the Mixed Berry Nutri-Grain Breakfast Bars. Pretty good, not bad, nothing special. As always, the flavor that's there is good but it's not much flavor.

5.

 

Translated Name: Something... Choco Chip.

Review:

 

These appear to be soft chocolate cookies with chocolate chips in them. They look like this:

 

We now come to one of the great obstacles in my reviews. For dietary reasons, I am not able to eat chocolate so any snack that contains chocolate can't be reviewed by me. It looks like this is especially a problem for the Japanese snacks as a great percentage of those appear to be chocolate. In the case when obviously chocolate snacks are encountered, I'll put them aside until I can get someone else to try them but in this particular case, I didn't know what it was until after I opened it.

All I can say is they look and smell phenomenal. As someone who hasn't had chocolate in too long, I'm probably biased. But, I am blindly giving them my highest review because I can only assume they're amazing.

... And that's all for Korean Reviews #1. Thanks to my friend Nate for translating.

Zodiac 340 Cipher Broken

 

Article.

Late Night - Chuck Yeager

 

 First man to break the sound barrier, Chuck Yeager, interviewed on Letterman. Chuck recently passed away at the age of 97.

The McRib is Back

Ever since I saw the video "Deconstructing the McRib" on youtube, I've been on a quest to try one. That was 2013 or more probably 2014. I had never had one previously and for years failed to find one afterwards.

Throughout the years, I've at times monitored the McRib map and even found and ordered a McRib on GrubHub once - but they said they were out. I've also tried a few competing knockoff rib sandwiches.

But all that has changed today, there was an ad on DoorDash and the order succeeded. It's like Charlie Bucket finding the Golden Ticket up in here.

So the verdict: it tastes exactly as I expected. Like, I said, I've tried a few knockoffs and it turns out those were very close and so it was pretty much what I expected. It's good and I might get one again but for McDonald's, I prefer the cheeseburger.

Japanese and Korean Snacks: Prologue

 

My family recently gave me two boxes of foreign snacks as a gift. The box on the left is snacks from Japan and the box on the right are Korean. It's going to take a long time to get through it and I can think of nothing better to do than to review them on a blog.

I have someone lined up willing to help me translate and I'm going to try to review the food beyond my usual "it was good". It's probably all going to be too onerous, become a waste of time and ultimately fail so stay tuned!