Here we are, just one last snack review. In order to fit everything in, I'll try to be brief, let's get started.
1)
Name: Hello Kitty Chocolate Marshmallow
Review:
It wouldn't be a Japanese snack review without Hello Kitty.
The name is accurate, this is a marshmallow with a perfect cylinder of strong chocolate in the center. In my Poland Snack Review, you'll recall I was not impressed by chocolate-covered marshmallow. But now, with this marshmallow-covered chocolate, it's time to completely flip-flop on the issue!
Here's the deal... The chocolate has a really strong chocolate punch and, combined with the marshmallow, I was reminded of all the Winter days where I'd add Marshmallow Fluff to my Hot Chocolate. It tastes amazingly similar and I loved every second of it.
2)
Translation: Kit Kat
Additional Text: "Adult Flavor"
Review:
As we all know, "adult" is a euphemism for nudity so this should be interesting...
As you're may already be aware, Kit Kat is not technically a Japanese brand - they're made by Nestle, which is Swiss - but they're so popular there that the Japanese have created a wide spectrum of their own odd, native varieties. I've tried many of them and thought I had made a blog post about the whole phenomenon, but looking now, I never did. If you're looking for a cool food adventure, get a Japanese Kit Kat variety pack - it's an experience.
So what is this "adult" flavor? It is green tea. It's a green tea Kit Kat. I remember this from before. It accurately captures the flavor of green tea in a Kit Kat form but it's up to you to determine if that's a good thing. I say nay.
3)
Name: Umaibo Delicious Sticks - Chocolate
Review:
You may recall that Umaibo are cylindrical, hollow corn puff things and have come up a number of times before with different varieties. This one is a complete change of pace, it's obviously chocolate. It looks like this:
You know you shouldn't be doing food reviews when your first reaction is "it is what it is." It's a flavorless air puff covered in chocolate. Not worth your time, in my opinion.
4)
Name: Crispy Chocolatey Rice Cereal
Review:
A chocolate bar with rice puffs embedded within. I think in this Chocolate phase I've been comparing things to Nestle Crunch quite a lot but now we come to something that basically IS a Nestle Crunch bar. I think the chocolate of the Crispy is sweeter and the rice is thicker.
5)
Name: Rilakkuma
Review:
This is a surprise and I'm not sure how to describe it. It looks like a basic piece of chocolate but it isn't. It may be basically chocolate but it's sweeter and has some caramel notes, or it might be meant to taste like some kind off coffee.
I can't describe it completely, but it's definitely good and definitely too small a quantity. Buy lots.
6)
Name: Chocolate Shimi Corn Stick
Review:
This is described as a "mix of milk chocolate and crispy corn puff in a star shaped tube." It looks like this:
I think it would be lazy for me to say that it looks like poop. I'm above that. Candy bars often look like poop and we have no problem with it, I will extend the same courtesy to the Japanese.
And it's pretty good! Sure, I've too many of these "biscuity" chocolate things and yes, I'm not bowled over but it's much better than I thought it would be. It also packs a bigger chocolate punch than one would expect. The mixture of puffed corn and chocolate is not so different from Cocoa Krispies or Cocoa Pebbles, which seem to be fairly popular. Marginal thumbs up.
7)
Translation: "The Thing Forgotten by the King"
Additional Text: "Chocolate filling and cookie" and the King is saying, "Where is it, when did I have it?"
Review:
The outside shell is a cookie that's swirled chocolate and vanilla, as you can see in the photo. But I really only taste the vanilla. But then in the middle is a gooey, cakey chocolate substance that is very unusual and tastes great. The best equivalent I can find is when you get a Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. You know how the "molten lava" part is not quite solid and not quite liquid? Well, it's like that. Very, very tasty.
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And that's all for the Korean and Japanese snack reviews. I hope you enjoyed it. Special thanks to my family for gifting them to me over a year ago. And a big thanks to my friend Nathan for doing all the translation. I was sure he was going to get tired of the homework and give up but instead he patiently went through everything, snack after snack, group after group. Thank you.
The very qualities I dislike about Bob Costas - the over-earnestness, the over-dramatizing - are the very qualities that make him great in these events; they're perfect for parody.
We're nearing the end. There are 8 Korean Snacks to go and then the Korean section is entirely complete. I'm going to keep things brief to get all 8 in and be done with it forever.
1)
Name: Choco-Pie
Additional Text: With Marshmallow Filling
Review:
You may be thinking, "How is this a Korean snack if the label is written in English?" According to wikipedia:
In 1973, a member of the R&D team of the Korean firm Tongyang Confectionery visited a hotel in Georgia, US, and was inspired by the chocolate-coated sweets available in the hotel's restaurant. He returned to South Korea and began experimenting with a chocolate biscuit cake, creating the “choco pie” as it is known to Koreans.
So if you've ever had a Moon Pie, you know what this is. I don't know if they have Tastykakes where you are but to me this tastes exactly... ALMOST EXACTLY... like a marshmallow Tastykake. The only difference is the cream doesn't hit as hard. Pretty good.
2)
Name: Couque D'Asse
Additional Text: White Torte
Review:
Whatever you do, don't try to pronounce that name. You may be thinking, "How is this a Korean snack if the label is written in French?" Well, wikipedia left me hanging on this one.
This is too small but tastes great. It's a simple vanilla cookie bar with a chocolate strip. It's all a little too light except there is a creamy vanilla flavor in there that I really enjoy. High marks.
3)
Name: Couque D'Asse
Additional Text: Vienna coffee
Review:
You may be thinking, "How is this a Korean..."...ok, I'll stop now. I can't go anywhere near anything with "coffee" labeling so here are some people from the internet to do my job for me:
4)
Name: K-BBQ
Additional Text: Crispy Sea Snack Korean BBQ Flavor
Review:
I'm of two minds. The Korean BBQ flavor part sounds great, I'm excited. The "crispy sea snack" part fills me with dread. Which will win out? I think we get a major clue when we look upon them:
And, as you might expect, the "sea snack" tastes like fish food. It's the classic "walking into the fish section of the pet store" taste. It's horrendous. No offense to anyone but it's one of the worst tastes there could be. No. No. No. No.
5)
Name: Buldak Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen
Additional Text: Cheese
Review:
This feels like the climax to the Korean food eating. This ramen package is one of the largest items in the collection and its yellow packaging means that I've been noticing it for a long time. This is also the only snack that's a meal - and a meal that needs to be cooked.
The directions are so easy, how could I possibly screw this up? 1) Boil the ramen, 2) Remove from water, add "liquid sauce" and stir-fry. 3) Add "cheese powder" and serve.
Well, being me, I had to google "how to stir-fry." If you're saying, "the directions are in the name," remember, this is a blog and I can't hear you. Besides, as it turns out, I still can't do it, even with the directions. Stir-fry requires high heat and I don't have a pan that goes above medium. I improvised and I think it was fine.
On the first bite of the first bowl I realized I was basically done. The packaging that advertises "HOT Chicken Flavor" is no joke. This is so spicy that it's like a food you eat on a dare. My mouth was on fire with spicy pain. I hate that.
Take into account that I'm not a spicy food guy. If you have a "tolerance" or whatever, this might be your thing. But it's not mine. Did I say I hate it, yet? I hate it. Aside from the hotness, how does it taste? I'd guess it's pretty good.
And I now realize the mistake I made and a warning for all of you out there making this yourselves. In Step 2, I added all the "liquid sauce" and I bet if you wanted it less spicy you could just add a fraction to taste. The directions don't tell you that. Live and learn.
6)
Name: Oh yes!
Review:
Oh yes? How about Oh no!
There's some redundancy in this chocolate section of the Korean snacks. Like the Choco-Pie, this is a chocolate coating around two cakes sandwiching chocolate cream. Apparently the Moon Pie formula really hit it big in Korea.
It's hard to not like cake and chocolate but on the level of a chocolate snack, this is not great. Not terrible but wouldn't recommend.
7)
Name: VicPie (Victory Pie)
Review:
The redundancy continues: like the others, chocolate coating around two biscuits sandwiching cream. The differences are only that the biscuits are more crunchy this time and the cream has a slight strawberry taste to it. The strawberry is very slight. Okay, but pass.
It's a sugar-wafery thing that's filled with light chocolate. It's another of those "light" and "subtle" flavor that is nice but unremarkable.
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And that's the end of the Korean Food Reviews. It ends not on a bang, but on a whimper but it's all the luck of the draw, I suppose. Thank you for enduring this year-long journey. There is still one more Japanese episode left.
