Meiji Kinoko No Yama Macadamia - Asian Food Market, NJ

Meiji Kinoko No Yama Macadamia - Asian Food Market, NJ

Even MORE Chocorooms!

My other Chocoroom flavor reviews:

• Original (Chocolate)
• Caramel
• Strawberry 
• Purple Sweet Potato

This box has a blue color scheme and a winter theme. (Similar to the purple sweet potato version and it’s fall theme.) There is a little village covered in snow with scatter snowflakes all over the box. While I do like the overall look and design of this package, I hate that I need to tear the front cover to open it. I mean, you really could open it any way you wanted, but the suggested way of opening it is to lift up a perforated flap on the front of the box. It always seems like a shame to rip a pretty design, but that is just my opinion.

Free Signature Blended Tea– Teavana : Cherry Hill, NJ

Free Signature Blended Tea– Teavana : Cherry Hill, NJ

_{I’ve written this twice and Tumblr ate it. So third time’s the charm}?

My sister needed to buy some sneakers, so to we went to the Cherry Hill Mall and used THIS COUPON to each get a free cup of tea while we were there. (The coupon expires 3/31/13.)

We have actually used that coupon twice this month and both times we received the same tea blend, the Strawberry Rose Champagne with Peach Tranquility. (I am guessing this signature blend accompanies this promotion and that all locations are using the same flavor, but I could be wrong.)

Since the cup is standard for hot beverages, I‘m going to skip the packaging review. Instead, I will say that I really like Teavana’s color scheme and brand identity. Their stores are very tranquil and their product information is always well designed. (Plus the employees at our local Teavana are always really nice.)

Mini Cadbury Caramel Eggs - Walmart : Somerdale, NJ

Mini Cadbury Caramel Eggs - Walmart : Somerdale, NJ 

Check out my mini Creme Egg Review Here!

The packaging is the same as the previous flavor. (If you want to see my thoughts on that, check out my creme egg review.)

Just like the creme variety, you get one dozen mini eggs. This time the eggs smell like sweet milk chocolate. There aren’t any burnt sugar, vanilla, or caramel notes.

Palmer’s Giant Cake Batter Cup - Dollar General: Cinnaminson, NJ

Palmer’s Giant Cake Batter Cup - Dollar General: Cinnaminson, NJ

I knew this was going to be a risky treat. It could either be really yummy… or just as disgusting as those Cupcake Bites.

The packaging is a soft lavender color which is actually quite lovely, but the art is pretty bad. I am not a fan of those creepy children in the bottom corner, the design would have been much stronger without them. 

Soft Pretzels and Buffalo Cheese Dip - Pinterest Recipe Review

Soft Pretzels and Buffalo Cheese Dip - Pinterest Recipe : The PIN

Time for another Pinterest recipe! I think I’ll try and do a Pinterest recipe every Sunday so I can slowly work my way through my recipe board.

I have been wanting some warm soft pretzels for a while, and pinned a bunch of recipes for them. I finally decided to make some last night and opted for this recipe which included some yummy buffalo cheese sauce for dipping.

The recipe was very simple and easy to follow. (Especially if you have a standing mixer with a dough hook.) At first glance the steps can be a little intimidating, since you boil the pretzels before baking them in the oven, but really it’s all very easy to do. (The boiling step is very important for the proper texture.)

Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs - Walmart : Somerdale, NJ

Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs - Walmart : Somerdale, NJ 

Back in October I reviewed the full sized Halloween Scream Egg (review here). Now that it’s officially Spring, Easter candies are everywhere. This year I picked up a few different Cadbury Creme Eggs to review. (The mini creme and mini caramel versions.)

These mini eggs are inside a plastic shell-casing that looks like a mix between an egg carton, and a diorama. There is quite a bit of packaging to these eggs. There is a cardboard bottom, purple plastic carton bottom, clear shell top and stickers holding the whole thing together. (Not to mention the foil on each individual egg.) While the presentation is cute, it does make a lot of waste.

That’s Amore - Restaurant Week : Collingswood, NJ

That’s Amore - Restaurant Week : Collingswood, NJ 

It’s restaurant week in Collingswood! If any of you are New Jersey locals, you must know about Collingswood and it’s restaurants. For restaurant week, participating locations make a special menu for the event (usually 3-4 courses) and list it at a reasonable price. This is a great way to try something new. I have been looking forward to this for a while, and tonight my boyfriend and I ate at That’s Amore. 

I had never been to this restaurant before, but I had heard very good things. I felt like their restaurant week menu was the best menu available. I was able to get a lovely 4 course meal for $35.00. (You also get a voucher for $10.00 off for a return visit)

I ordered:

• Grilled Caesar Salad with Pancetta Chips and Parmigiano Shavings
• Olive Oil Crostini with Artichoke & Olive Tapenade
• Grilled Citrus Scottish Salmon over Mascarpone Risotto
• Zabaglione Cream over Drunken Strawberries

My Salad was presented in a beautiful and interesting way, which was very enjoyable and easy to eat. The star of this dish was definitely the salty pancetta. All of the flavors worked very well together, but that pancetta was to die for.

Akira - Restaurant Week : Collingswood, NJ

Akira - Restaurant Week : Collingswood, NJ 

It’s restaurant week in Collingswood! If any of you are New Jersey locals, you must know about Collingswood and it’s restaurants. For restaurant week, participating locations make a special menu for the event (usually 3-4 courses) and list it at a reasonable price.

Today my boyfriend and I stopped at Akira for a late lunch. I have actually eaten here before, but the restaurant week menu had a few things I wanted to check out. 

I ordered:

• Avocado Salad -Avocado on mixed green salad served with healthy ginger
• Sexy Jalapeño - Tempura Jalapeño stuffed with Spicy Tuna, Seaweed Salad & cream cheese served with spicy mango sauce
• Sushi Dinner - Tuna, Salmon, Fluke, Striped Bass,Yellowtail, Shrimp, White Tuna with a Spicy Tuna Roll
• Gelato Hearts

Although I am not a huge fan of avocado, I really enjoyed this salad. It’s a basic green salad,  typical of most sushi or hibachi restaurants, topped with avocado, ginger dressing and mango sauce. The only thing I would have changed would be a little less mango sauce. It was incredibly sweet and really overpowered everything else. I would rather have a touch of mango and more ginger dressing.

I hope you all had a lovely Saint Patrick’s Day!

I hope you all had a lovely Saint Patrick’s Day!

I have a special announcement lined up for tomorrow! (Pertaining to the give away.) I hope you’re all as excited as I am!

-Sometimes Foodie

Jelly Belly - Belly Flops - Dollar General : Cinnaminson, NJ

Jelly Belly - Belly Flops - Dollar General : Cinnaminson, NJ 

This is a product I never knew existed! "Belly Flops" are irregularly shaped/colored/flavored Jelly Belly jelly beans that are packaged and sold.

I really like that the company had some fun with this packaging. On the front of the package there is a pool of misshapen jelly beans that the mascot is belly flopping into, and on the back there is a disclaimer about the irregular candy inside.

As expected, the jelly beans vary in size and shape/ Even though they look a bit off, a lot of my favorite flavors were in this bag. (Orange Creamsicle, Dr. Pepper, toasted marshmallow, and juicy pear.)  The only flavors that seemed a bit off were the cinnamon and red-fruit jelly beans. It tastes like a few of them were mixed up during the panning process. (Some red jelly beans tasted like cinnamon on the outside with a fruity center and vice versa.)

Overall, these beans tasted great, they just looked a little wonky. If you’re looking for a quirky candy treat this Easter, try some Belly Flops. 

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

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White Chocolate Carrot Cake m&m’s - Walmart : Somerdale, NJ

White Chocolate Carrot Cake m&m’s - Walmart : Somerdale, NJ 

I first heard about these on Candy Blog (One of my favorite foodie sites!)  My boyfriend and I love carrot cake, how could we pass this up? It turns out…these were hard to find. This flavor is Walmart exclusive and only one Walmart within 50 miles of my home carried them. (I called 3 different stores and drove to 2. One sold out but still listed them as in stock and the other did have them but they were hidden behind other candy boxes.)

After a decent journey, I finally found them. I hope they were worth the trouble.

The bag is a creamy peach-color with lighter, wiggly, lines in the background. I really like the color of this bag because it’s different from all the Easter pastels most candies are using right now. (Baby blues, purples and pinks.) There is a cute little slice of carrot cake on the front and the green m&m mascot is wearing some cute bunny ears. Overall I like the look of this bag, it isn’t too cluttered, or obnoxiously festive, and everything is cohesive. 

Pepsi Next - Thriftway : Cherry Hill, NJ

Pepsi Next - Thriftway : Cherry Hill, NJ 

I got a coupon for this 2-liter from THIS SITE. (Which is great for coupons and samples.)

Oddly enough, I am actually the only Pepsi drinker in my family. Everyone else prefers Coke (Caffeine free Coke to be specific.) I have traveled to Europe several times and, in case you didn’t know, they serve Coke. Pepsi is no where to be found. A little something I always do on the way back to the US is buy a little bottle of Pepsi at the airport. (I can always find it at an airport, I guess it is to please picky Americans like me.)

The design for Pepsi Next is very similar to the modern design of traditional Pepsi. It uses the same logo and font but the label is a bright blue color. A little detail that I really like is that the the cap matches the label.

What makes this Pepsi different? Well, it uses 60% less sugar than traditional Pepsi, but it supposedly has the same flavor. Let’s see if that’s true…

Right off the bat this soda wasn’t as carbonated and bubbly as traditional Pepsi. When I twisted the cap off it barely bubbled at all. There was also an artificial sweetener smell that I associate with diet sodas. I am not a fan of diet soda. (Although my boyfriend is.)

The taste is just like having a glass of Pepsi…if it’s a little flat and several ice cubes melted into it. The carbonation is lighter, as is the flavor, and you’re left with a diet soda aftertaste. As far as free sodas go…this wasn’t bad, but I don’t see myself buying this in the future. I like more carbonation and dislike the diet-after taste. I see my boyfriend liking this soda more than I would, so if you drink diet sodas this might be right up your alley.

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

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Cupcake Bites - ???

Cupcake Bites - ???

This was a gift from my mother, so I have NO CLUE where this came from. 

My mother picked these up because I like cupcakes. (I have cupcake shaped cookie jars, cupcake scented perfumes, and cupcakes on my T-shirts.) So logically, this should be right up my alley.

The packaging is mainly primary colors. Right away the combination of red and yellow makes me think of fast food establishments, while the addition of blue makes me think of preschools. These colors are mixed up with a Disney-esque font and actual photos of the bites floating in space. I think if the fonts and colors were adjusted this could be a salvageable design, but right now it looks like high school design work. My favorite things are the vectored cupcake and icing dribble.

When I got to the actual bites they looked just like their photos on the box, but they smelled like canned frosting.

I had to eat a few of these to figure out how I felt about them. They aren’t great. The outside is “frosting,” which is more like the waxy outside of those Easter egg malt balls they sell every year, while the inside is more of the same but with a crumbly texture. There are tiny rainbow nonpareils throughout that add a bit of crunchy texture, but they do not add to the flavor.

While these were something novel, and new to try… I can’t say I would -ever- buy these again.

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

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Dragon Ball Soda - SunSeng Market : Pennsauken, NJ

Dragon Ball Soda - SunSeng Market : Pennsauken, NJ

Since the cans were so awesome, I had to split this review into two posts.

This one will focus on the actual beverage. Check out THIS POST to read about the packaging and see more photos. 

Out of the three cans I purchased…

• Bulma
• Master Roshi
• Yamcha

I decided to drink Yamcha. (Sorry Yamcha.)

Thanks to the translated ingredients sticker, I kind of had an idea of what this soda would taste like. The ingredients listed orange as well as lactose, so I think this will be a creamy orange flavor (like a Creamsicle).

I popped the can open and sure enough, it smelled like a zesty orange soda. The “orange” scent reminds me more of a mandarin than a traditional Florida orange, and there were some sweet, sugary, notes but that is pretty typical for an orange soda. I didn’t detect any hint of vanilla or creme.

Dragon Ball Soda - SunSengMarket : Pennsauken, NJ (PHOTO HEAVY!)

Dragon Ball Soda - SunSengMarket : Pennsauken, NJ

Since the cans are so awesome I had to split the review into two posts.

This one will focus on packaging, and the next one (tomorrow) will be the taste of the actual soda.

I grew up with Dragonball and Dragonball Z. (I used to wake up early and watch it on Saturday mornings, along with Sailormoon before they went on Toonami.) So I had to buy these when I saw them. The store didn’t have all the designs, so I picked my top three characters.

• Bulma
• Master Roshi
• Yamcha

The packaging is very detailed and nostalgic. The front of each can looks like the torso of a main character and includes a side kick, or related item. (Like Bulma’s dragonball locator). The backs have a scene from the show, a little description, and a line up of all the available character cans.

Sriracha Lay’s - Target : Cherry Hill, NJ

Sriracha Lay’s - Target : Cherry Hill, NJ

I’m sure most of you have seen (or heard) about Lay’s “Do Us A Flavor” competition. If not, here is the gist of it. Lay’s created a build your own flavor app on Facebook. Users made their own flavors which were compared and voted upon. (I actually participated and submitted General Tso’s Chicken as a flavor.) From all the entries submitted, the final three flavors were actually put into production to be tasted and voted on by America.

The three final flavors are:

• Sriracha
• Chicken and Waffles
• Cheesy Garlic Bread

Nintendo Candies - Dollar General : Cinnaminson, NJ

Nintendo Candies - Dollar General : Cinnaminson, NJ

Since I don’t have the main package, tonight’s post is a mini review on this novelty Nintendo product. Originally I wasn’t going to do one on this, but I was so impressed by the detail in these candies I decided to do one anyway.