I'm aware that the majority of reviews this year have been negative, and I don't know if it's because after all these years my palette has become more discerning, or if food companies are totally phoning it in. If it's the latter, is it an American-exclusive issue, or a worldwide epidemic?
To test that theory, here we have two flavors of Korean Cheetos: White Corn Soup and Smoky BBQ.
Is it a cookie? A pie? Mochi? All of the above! This mish-mash of a product was just too intriguing to ignore.
Inside the bag are tiny individually wrapped cookies. And when I say "tiny," I mean it. These are easily one bite, two if you want to be dainty.
If you've never experienced a Hi-Chew, you're missing out. These are Starburst on steroids. I introduced my fiancee to these candies when we started dating, and since he loves all things chewy, they quickly became one of his favorite candies.
Thankfully they are getting more traction here in America. A few years ago I could only find them in Asian markets, but now big chains like Target, Walmart, and 7-Eleven regularly keep them in stock. It's beautiful. Still, for the more unique flavors and mixes, the Asian markets can't be beat. I grabbed these at H-Mart and I'm excited to give them a try since I have NEVER had a bad flavor of Hi-Chew, but you know what they say? Never say never.
We've tried Super Lemon, Super Cola, Super Soda, Super Ginger, and Super Umeboshi. Now, get ready for Super Mint! Hopefully this "powerful" candy can clear the stale blog-post-less air!
Apparently the "Super" line of candies expanded when I wasn't looking. What used to be big bags of large, round, individually wrapped hard candies, have now added tiny powerful "tablets" to the mix. This new tablet candy comes in a small resealable pouch with the same bizarre pop-art comic-panel branding I know and love. This time we have a starry eye'd male character with a pale green mint motif. It's a little clunky and obnoxious, and I love it.
"Oh, Powerful Tablet!" The terminology sounds medicinal (and a little sexual), but in theory, these are powerful breath mints. Right? How intense can they be?
I have no idea how "BBA" is meant to be pronounced, it could be "bee bee ey," or it could be "BUH-BAH!" Since the characters are in all caps on the bag I imagine it being yelled in exclamation. Although I am 99% sure my pronunciation of it is incorrect, I am going to stick with it because it makes me nonsensically happy. CORN BUH-BAH!
Not only do these have a fun name, but they are also banana flavored! (If you're new here, spoiler alert, I freaking love banana.) I tried looking these up online to learn a little more about it, and not much turned up. Just a MunchPak page where this was once a featured item. Oh, and this page where it says the item was recalled. And this page. No big deal. Totally fine.
If I hadn't Googled this for nonsensical reasons, I never would have known about the recall, which is scary to think about. Thankfully, it seems the recall was due to an undeclared dairy ingredient which some people with dairy allergies reacted to. With my history of buying interesting foreign foods that usually have stickers with translated nutritional information, I can see how the slip up occurred. There have been a lot of labels I have seen over the years with incorrect or mislabeled translations. Whatever software they use to create those seems to have the same accuracy as Google translate. Being the non-dairy-allergy risk taker I am...I'm going to eat these anyway.
These bottles are really freaking cute. I'm not sure if the size translates well in these photos, but each one is about half the height of a 16 oz. soda bottle and they're made of heavy glass. For their size, their price tag was a little on the steep-side (since they're imported and all) so it came down to aesthetics or frugality...
We all know which option won out. Let's pop these bottles!
I love vinegar! In my early 20's I had intense stress-related stomach issues that put me out of commission for several months, and the cure? Vinegar! (And less stress. I love vinegar, but let's not be click-bait-y. It's not a cure all!)
It's popular to use vinegar for pickling, sauces, and dressings, but I straight up drink it! I'm sure that sounds weird to most people, but I'm not alone!
Howdy, strangers!
I apologize for my sporadic updates. (Or lack there of.) Life just keeps throwing me curve balls. (Says the food blogger with very limited knowledge of sports.) Anyways, quick life update: I started a new job last week! It's kind of food related, and a lot closer to home, which means I gain an hour and a half of my life back every single day. Yay!
Once I settle in to my new routine I plan on dedicating that hour and a half to the blog so I can finally get back to posting daily. Which will be extra awesome because my food hoarding problem is only getting worse. (I'm one box-full-o'-food away from Hoarders banging down my door.) So, let's knock out some candy!
Pureral? Sounds like an off-brand hand sanitizer, and as I type this my web browser keeps trying to autocorrect it into "Puberal," which, is hilarious. It's not a name that easily rolls off the tongue, but hopefully the candy inside is more appetizing.
A week ago I planned on making DIY Poke/Sushi bowls for dinner, so I stopped at H-Mart to grab a few last-minute ingredients and one does not simply go to H-Mart without checking out the candy section. (You can't see it, but I am doing the Sean Bean hand thing. #oldmemeisold) Surprisingly, I didn't see anything new or interesting. Have I finally exhausted all that the H-Mart candy aisle has to offer?
It took a bit of digging, but I spotted a few flavors of these Pureral gummies on a lower shelf which look like a variation of the PURE gummy candies I've had before, but now they're sour, and cube-shaped, with a filling! Of the flavors available (which were grape and some other safe-fruit flavoring I can't remember), watermelon sounded the most appealing, so...here we are!
Interesting packaging strikes again! We've got cartoon chickens, a weird safari-ready mustachioed man with a glove-on a stick? There's a tiny chef, and the promise that these tiny little snacks will look like itty bitty fried chicken legs. How could I resist?
I tossed these into my cart the second I saw them, were they worthy of being purchased? We shall see...
Unlike my recent posts, this isn't a food-hoard item, it's actually brand new (well, new to me), and I picked it up at H-mart the other day. To combat further food hoarding, I am going to try and review new products as I get them, while simultaneously digging through my food stash to finish hidden treasures. (I consider them gifts from past-me. I'm so thoughtful.)
Orange Pocky has been around for a while, and it's come in a few variations, like chocolate sticks, fruit pulp mixed into the chocolate coating, or fancy chocolate swirls, but they never really piqued my interest. I'll eat orange flavors sweets when they're mixed in with other fruity flavors, like Skittles, Starbursts, and Sour Patch Kids, but I would never buy a bag of just orange flavored candy completely on it's own. That just sounded...boring.
It seems like orange sweets are much more popular overseas in the UK and Europe, but here in the states, it's rarely the main attraction. Maybe we're missing out on something, and that's a pretty awesome looking Toucan... That's all it took. Into my cart it went!
Three Colors. Crunch Ball. When I saw this adorable pastel and pink package at H-mart picking it up was a no-brainer.
I promised you a non-Aldi review, and here it is: Takyoyaki flavored puffed snacks! (Definitely not something you'd ever see at Aldi.)
For those of you unfamiliar with "takoyaki," it's bite-sized pieces of octopus, coated in thick batter, and baked in small sphere-shaped molds. Once cooked, they are topped with sauces, seaweed, green onion and fish flakes.
To the typical American, it sounds a little odd, and believe me, a few years ago I was turning up my nose at it, but after giving it a try I can see why this street food is so popular. I'm still not a fan of the bouncy eraser-like texture of the octopus inside, but everything else about takoyaki is great! Fried dough, mayo, BBQ-like takoyaki sauce, fish flakes, onions and seaweed are an AMAZING combination!
Since I'm not a huge fan of the octopus chunks inside (mostly due to their texture) I'm really hoping these snacks will deliver all the takoyaki flavor I love, but with the delightful texture of a cheese puff. Will these octopus balls live up to my expectations?
Since Sun and Moon came out today in the USA, I thought it'd be fun to (finally) review these Pokemon themed fruit chews I picked up at H-Mart.
I picked up this bag at H-mart and to be honest, I initially had no idea what this was. The images made them look like some kind of flattened potato, but they seemed to be some kind of flavored rice cracker. Since the package was so colorful, and they were celebrating a 25th anniversary of...well, something, I decided to give it a try. (Full disclosure, the weird little illustrated characters on the package was the true deciding factor.)
While everyone else is obsessing over the sudden influx of all things pumpkin (and pumpkin spice), I'm freaking out over all the spooky Halloween craft store goods. Don't get me wrong, I love summer, and I wish this heatwave would never end, but I'm also really excited about Halloween, so I thought I'd revisit these seasonal sweets for today's #tbt.
New York was pretty hot and muggy, and my boyfriend and I had a normal sized Smeg refrigerator in our hotel room, so we took advantage of that and walked over to H-Mart to take the edge off with some frozen treats. He opted for a box of Melona honey dew bars, and I grabbed this Dalki version of Strawberry Bingsu.
I tried Bingsu for the first time about a year ago. There was a cookies and cream version at my local H-mart featuring K-drama actor, Kim Soo-hyun that I just couldn't resist. My H-Mart offered two other flavors, a coffee version and a green tea one, but never strawberry. I felt like I owed it to myself to check this flavor out, plus this package features Dalki! She's kind of like the Korean version of Strawberry Short Cake!
Things are getting spoopy! (And that's no typo.)
The day before Halloween I went to H-mart and found a bunch of freaking adorable Halloween goodies. This is pretty rare, because the Asian markets in the area typically don't usually carry seasonal products, and when they do they're usually really out of season, but this was right on time! I was so excited about it that I recorded a Halloween Haul video right before hosting my Halloween party.
One of the candies I picked up back then were these lollipops, and I absolutely loved the packaging. While at H-mart this week, buying more kitchen staples like hoisin sauce and seasoned rice vinegar, I saw that they were still in stock, and better yet, on sale!
Cute fruit lollipops that are Halloween-themed AND cheap? Needless to say...I bought 2 more bags, so I figured I'd post a more in depth review.
I hosted my first ever tasting party last night! Which is a lot less fancy than it sounds. Basically I just invited a bunch of my friends over so they could eat excess snacks and sweets I'm reviewing to help with my food hoarding situation. We snacked on junk food, played Wii U games and watched bad horror movies. (Last night's selection was the awesomely bad Zoombies. It featured amazingly bad CG and an epicly dressed character I dubbed "Mr. No-Sleeves." Not the best of bad horror, but it made for a fun evening.)
These Cheetos were one of the many items on last night's menu, so were they a hit, or a miss? Time to find out!
