Korean Snack Reviews #6

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.

8)

Name: Choco Heim - Choco Hazelnut

Review:

Fans of Korean Snack Reviews #3 will remember White Heim. Well this is that but with chocolate.

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.