Game Grumps - My Infinite Power...

 

Why Brownie Skin?

 A two-part series on the science of shiny brownie skin. That's it. That's the post.

Korean Snack Reviews #2

... And we're back!!!

This is part of the continuing mission to try and review, to the extent that I can, random Korean and Japanese snacks. If you've missed the earlier installments, don't bother, they're not good.

1.

Translated Name: "Sa bu lay" (a phonetic translation of the French "Sable")

Review:

So it's another Korean snack that isn't really Korean. The last one was Italian, this one is French. Should I even be reviewing it? Answers on a postcard to the usual address...

So this is a pretty normal, French cookie. It looks like this:

So nothing crazy. Tastewise, this is a good, quality cookie. It's in the same ballpark as a Nilla Wafer. Not the same, mind you, but in that general ballpark. Would be great with milk, I think.

2.

Translated Name: Rice Cracker/Cookie

Review:

Man, the name of the snack really takes the thunder out of my review. It tastes pretty much like a rice cake - it’s a long slab of airy, crispy rice cake. That's in general, but then there are differences: it’s also covered in salt and has an MSG taste. It's almost like a crisp, airy Funyon. There’s also a hint of something burnt. As you can tell, it's an interesting experience but it's more "interesting mystery" than actually delicious. I don't trust a rice cake. Never trust a rice cake.

3.

Translated Name: Yakwa (Sweet and oily traditional Korean cookie)

Review:

OK strap in, Jub Jubs because this is going places. It's money time, Chacos.

Spoiler alert: this is the most interesting snack in this episode, possibly of the entire series.

So technically you'd expect a cookie or a cracker but it's kind of like that but altogether different. The consistency is waxy and slightly gummy like it's a distant Korean cousin of Candy Corn or something. So that's strange but then there's the taste.

At first it starts out tasting like play dough. It's not full play dough but it's like 10% play dough. But then it morphs. As it goes on, the taste transitions into tasting like a nice plain donut. I kid you not - it's candy corn that starts out as play dough and becomes a candy donut. And, as I am a donut lover, I declare this to be amazing. Not that it's the best tasting snack ever, necessarily, but the weirdness and eventual destination make this real Willy Wonka stuff here.

4.

Translated Name: Ko-so-mi (Unknown, maybe "sesame"? The side text mentions cracker)

Review:

They look like this:

As you can see, this is pretty much in the cracker family. This is a very cookie and cracker heavy installment. But the white powder on top isn't salt, it's sugar. So at first it's sweet like a cookie, really like a graham cracker and then it turns savory. More specifically, it has some sort of a grainy taste at the end that I can't identify. It's similar to a Wheat Thin.

It's good, it's a mixture of sweet and savory but there's nothing amazing here. It's just a nice cracker kind-of-thing.

5.

Translated Name: Grain Cookie

Additional Text: Nature

Review:
The picture is largely accurate but the cracker has tiny black spots that don't really come through in the photo. They're weird, they're obviously a seed or a grain but they look like mouse droppings. This is yet another cracker/cookie mashup that I don't have a lot to say about. It very much tastes like if you took a Social Tea Biscuit and muted it somewhat with some graininess added.

And that's it. We'll be back next time with Japanese Snacks #2. Thanks again to Nathan for the translations.

RIP Larry King

 It would seem good to post a Conan clip in honor of Larry King, seeing as how King made a huge number of appearances on Conan's various shows. But the problem is, I can't think of a good one. I mean, there are a number of good clips, but I know of no definitive highlight. So here's one:

But since this clip has been recommended to me by Youtube relentlessly for weeks, it seems kismet that I should share this also.

Re-Creating the KFC Recipe

Over 15 episodes and 2 years, this youtube series has attempted to discover and re-create Colonel Sanders' original recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken. I see no record of it on the blog but I've been following this series for years.  And now it's the final episode where they've reached a conclusion. Whether it's a satisfying conclusion is another question.

I have mixed feelings. I appreciate that we have a definitive, somewhat authoritative answer. That's the best we could hope for. But the secondary objective of trying to reverse-engineer the recipe is to be able to try it myself. But with the non-reveal of the exact amounts of ingredients, that becomes impossible. I don't think I can get a large sack of powder shipped from Ireland. Marion Kay Chicken Seasoning 99X is available though. I just need that industrial fryer.

Irish People Try Cinnamon Flavored Things

 

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? I'm here to say I think we've been lied to.

When I was a kid, I remember getting Cinnamon Dentyne or Big Red gum and it burning my mouth with hot fire. It was a quite a dilemma because what can you do? On the one hand, I want the pain to stop, on the other, I don't know where my next piece of gum is going to come from. But when you eat the spice cinnamon it doesn't do anything close to that level of setting your mouth on fire.

Cinnamon is tree bark from a certain variety of tree and it does contain a certain amount of a hot compound similar to capsaicin called cinnamaldehyde. When it's ground up and sitting in a jar, it loses a fair amount of kick which explains half of the discrepancy. 

Well, then I guess making cinnamon candy hot is technically fair game. Nonetheless, the hot candies seem to be creating different amounts of concentrated oil in order to magnify the sting. Big Red stole my childhood.