Kinoko No Yama Caramel (Caramel) - Asian Food Market, NJ

Kinoko No Yama Caramel (Caramel) - Asian Food Market, NJ

Sorry for the lack of updates the last two days, I just got back from Otakon in Baltimore and my queue had run out.

This is the last flavors of my mushroom-themed snacks. This time, it’s a pretty well known flavor, caramel.

The box is smaller and thinner then the strawberry and the yam versions. It’s about half the size! This time the art seems to have a snowy theme, so maybe caramel is considered more of a winter flavor in Asian countries?  I like the combination of the colors on the box and I think they are really appealing.

Kinoko No Yama Ichigo (Strawberry) - Asian Food Market, NJ

Kinoko No Yama Ichigo (Strawberry) - Asian Food Market, NJ

After being disappointed in the yam version, I decided to try strawberry Chocorooms.

The box is just as cute as the Yam ones, but the art doesn’t match up to the perforations well. I hate tearing up beautiful box-art to get to the candy inside.

Meiji Kinoko No Yama Purple Taro (Purple Sweet Potato) - Asian Food Market, NJ

Meiji Kinoko No Yama Purple Taro (Purple Sweet Potato) - Asian Food Market, NJ

More Chocorooms! This time I have purple sweet Potato with white chocolate and black sesame seeds!

After trying the original, reviewed here, my sister was eager to try more! She loves this line! (It’s so cute!) I picked up a few flavors, so soon you’ll see reviews on strawberry and butterscotch soon!

The box is bright and eye catching. Judging from the image, I am guessing roasted sweet potatoes are a fall treat in Japan. There seems to be a fall theme to the box with leaves being Autumn colors. The package opens in the front, a lot like the Meltykiss Almonds I reviewed the other day, but the layout is arranged around the perforations so when I do open the box the design isn’t destroyed.I like that a lot!

Savory Snack Pack - Asian Food Market, NJ

Savory Snack Pack - Asian Food Market, NJ

I am so excited for these! This is a (mostly) savory snack pack I grabbed from the Asian Food Market. After eating so many sweets it’s nice to have a variety of savory things to try!

Reviews coming up!

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Meiji Almond Meltykiss - Asian Food Market, NJ

Meiji Almond Meltykiss - Asian Food Market, NJ

Another special flavor of Meiji Almond, this time it is Meltykiss. What is it? Judging from the box it looks like an almond is first coated in white chocolate, then in milk chocolate, and finished with cocoa-powder. Sounds good to me!

I like the look of this box much more than the Crispy Puff one. This design is more elegant with the blue and white ribbons and gold writing. The only thing I don’t like is that when you open the box, you have to rip the front open. I prefer the drawer-style opening from the Crispy Puff box.

Meiji Almond Crispy Puff - Asian Food Market, NJ

Meiji Almond Crispy Puff - Asian Food Market, NJ

I have heard a lot of good things about Meiji Almond. It is just a chocolate covered almond, what is so special about that? I grabbed two of the special flavors, Crispy Puff and Melty Kiss, to try. (My sister was dying to try these!)

The packaging is very bright with an orange square right in the middle. I feel like they are trying to make it look more like an American candy. The box design is actually really neat! It has a slide out section, like a drawer, that is full of the delicious little almonds.

Pocky: From The Screen to My Stomach

The popularity of Asian culture in America is nothing new, but the sudden popularity and influx of their snack foods is.


As of right now you can find popular Asian snack foods at local chain grocery stores like Wegman’s, as well as entertainment stores like FYE.  Why have these treats become so popular and readily available? Is it simply because they taste good?  Or, is this an attempt to squeeze even more money out of anime and manga fans eager to try the same snacks their favorite characters enjoy?

I decided to investigate.  I grabbed several flavors of Pocky, one of the most common and popular treats seen in manga and anime, to see if it is as delicious as characters make it seem.

Kasugai Gummi Sampler (Muscat and Pineapple) - Chinatown, PA

Kasugai Gummi Sampler (Muscat and Pineapple) - Chinatown, PA

To see what the other gummies tasted like, check out my reviews apple, grape and orange.

Time for the last two flavors-pineapple and muscat.

Kasugai Gummi Sampler (Apple) - Chinatown, PA

Kasugai Gummi Sampler (Apple) - Chinatown, PA

I love Kasugai gummies! I have had the honeydew and strawberry flavors before and both were delicious. I have always wanted to try other flavors, but I didn’t want to commit to buying a full-size bag of them. This sampler is the perfect solution to that! 

The sampler comes in a long strip with 5 different flavored gummies. In the selection we have: apple, muscat, orange, grape and pineapple. I think this is a nice collection of flavors and gives the buyer a decent amount of variety.

To kick things off, I’ll start with apple.

III Brothers Eggplant Pizza & Dairy Queen Hotdog - Wildwood, NJ

III Brothers Eggplant Pizza & Dairy Queen Hotdog - Wildwood, NJ

As I have gotten older, the shore became less about rides and more about food! Last Friday, my boyfriend and I went to Wildwood for a mini vacation. We had eggplant pizza for lunch and DQ hotdogs for dinner. (It was junk food overload!)

For lunch we went to the same pizza place we visited last year, III Brothers Pizza. Their food is VERY good! (Especially for shore-food.) The owners came from Italy so they use real mozzarella cheese! When you take a bite of their pizza the cheese pulls and gets stringy, which is just how I like it. The fried eggplant was really sweet, so I added some red pepper flakes to my slices to spice things up.

Overall I really love III Brothers Pizza, and it is my favorite pizza place on the Wildwood boardwalk. (It has been my favorite for the last 3 years.)

One of the problems with Wildwood is that there are tons of pizza places…and not much else. Since we already had pizza for lunch, I wanted something different for dinner. The boardwalk has tons of pizza places, fudge places, and snack stands…but not much in the way of dinner. So we settled on DQ hotdogs. (Mostly because they were cheap. Soda, chips and a hotdog for about $2.75)

As you can see, I always have my hotdog with yellow mustard and relish. Nothing super fancy here. The hotdogs and buns were very typical, so there wasn’t anything really special about this meal. It was just quick and cheap.

If you are at the Wildwood boardwalk and want something cheap, I would suggest the hotdog package at DQ. It is filling and inexpensive, as far as boardwalk food goes.

On this trip I also bought: soft pretzels, fudge, cotton candy, gourmet amaretto coffee, and a candy apple.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Papa John’s Buffalo Chicken Pizza - Papa John’s, NJ

Papa John’s Buffalo Chicken Pizza - Papa John’s, NJ

My boyfriend and I decided to be lazy and order some pizza for lunch, so we ordered some Papa John’s.

I love the tangy sweetness of the tomato sauce Papa John’s uses. The taste reminds me of the Tombstone pizza sauce that used to come with pizza Lunchables. (Maybe that is why I like it so much? Taste-nostalgia?) Now that I am older I like spicy things too, so we opted for the buffalo chicken variety instead of our usual cheese pizza.

Papa John’s buffalo chicken pizza comes with chicken, bacon, cheese, and a spicy sauce spiraled on top. (As well as the usual peppers on the side. I love these!)

Visually it was really pretty! It smelled like cheese, hot sauce and bacon. YUM! Now, does it taste good?

YES! It was delicious! I had 3 slices. The little bits of bacon are crispy, the chicken is tender and the sauce had a perfect spicy-level for me. If you like your buffalo style food really hot, add some hot sauce, and I’ll bet you’ll love it too.

Next time you order a pizza, try a little something different. I highly recommend this specialty pizza to anyone who likes buffalo wings.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Haribo Fruit Salad - Five Below in The Gallery, PA

Haribo Fruit Salad - Five Below in The Gallery, PA

This was a Haribo candy I had never seen before, then again I don’t usually seek out specific brands. I love fruity jelly/gummi candies so I wasn’t concerned about disliking this.

The bag is a bold yellow and has fruit on it which is very similar to the overall design on the Haribo Raspberries bag. I love the fruit print! The colors are a bit muted and have a retro feel to them. (I love that!) Unlike the gummi Dinosaurs and Raspberries, the Fruit Salad mix claims to be fat free. This doesn’t mean much to me, since I am not on a diet, or actively seeking out fat free candies, but this could be a selling point to other people.