Tony's Chocolonely Rhubarb Crumble

Things have been highly strange in the CreamySteaks household lately...the main source of strangeness being the uncertainty of the household! See, we've been moving around between a few different apartments in the last month or so - explaining my lack of solid updates. Nothing big, so don't worry my dear readers - but I apologize for not being around so much.

What hasn't been strange is my desire to eat more and more chocolate. In times of uncertainty, I tend to find comfort in fat, sugar, and salt. In times of joy, I find a happy companion in sugar, fat, and salt. Basically they're always there for me - the three amigos, whatever the weather!
And me? I'm Dogtanian.

Tony Chocolonely is a company out of the Netherlands, specializing in big blocks of chocolate that are 100 percent fair-trade and super freaking tasty. Yeah, I'll cut to the chase: this milk chocolate was the top banana. They've got a great message as well, and I recommend a browse on their site to learn more about that, but I'm going to tell you how delicious it is, first of all.

The bar I tried came courtesy of my in-laws who had just returned from a trip to Amsterdam - I had requested just any ol' chocolate from there but little did I know that they'd return with such a massive bar of something that is quite unique!

The packaging is super colorful & very eye-catching, with bold type face & bright color choices. In Dutch, it seems to say Rhubarb Crumble, and milk chocolate.

The bar is unevenly split, and also really quirky and cute. As you can see it's super thick squares, so very satisfying. It's not too difficult to snap, even though it's so strangely formatted.

The milk chocolate is creamy, milky, and not too sweet. Imagine Milka with about a 45% cut in sugar, or Lindt with a more traditional texture & melt.

The rhubarb crumble seemed to mean a spread of both big & fine chunks of shortbread, interspersed with tangy and perhaps freeze-dried little bits of rhubarb. Really tangy & sweet, in that way that rhubarb candy or pie is.

It's here that I should warn you, Tony's Chocolonely seems quite difficult to come by in the UK. They have a webshop and you can send them an email and say exactly what you want to order, and they will manually process it. but they don't have any official UK stockists yet. I've got my fingers crossed that they will someday just be in shops - like Selfridges would be a good choice. Here's how to order Tony's Chocolonely in the UK or worldwide.

Pokemon Ramen, Soy Flavor

This was one of the items I got in my OyatsuBox for June. This is currently one of the most popular items on OyatsuCafe, as well! It also comes in a Seafood variety, but I'm glad I got soy. As much as I've gotten used to the taste of seafood in real life, I still don't think the flavor gets translated well into an artificial form. Soy on the other hand - what can go wrong?

This is a snack-size portion, just about 150 calories for the pot.

It's all very on-theme for Pokemon - well, specifically Pikachu. I wonder if Pikachu is going to get his own year like Luigi? Frankly, every year is the Year of Pikachu, as beloved as he is. I'm waiting for the Year of Meowth. I was surprised that the only included packaged thing in this packet was a sticker, but it was very cute!

It's just that usually with instant noodles they get layered on with soup, dried vegetables, oils, et cetera in packages that you take out while the noodles cook. In this case, all of the flavoring & additional items for the ramen were already mixed into the noodles. As you can see, adorable Pikachu fishcakes included. Also bits of corn, green onion, and soybits. By that I mean soy-flavored powder.

Here it is after cooking. Love the completely distorted Pikachu in the top left. Reminds me of Marge's discount smeared t-shirt from the Simpson's.

I find with Japanese instant noodles that they're usually very springy & a bit chewier than the instant noodles created elsewhere in the world. They've got some bite & chew where a lot of instant noodles get quite soft. The quality is a bit higher than average - well, if you like noodles to be more al dente. Kudos for them being this nice from what is probably a children's snack noodle!

The soup is salty & quite savory, with a tiny bit sweet of a soy sauce base. The fishcakes are ever-so-slightly fishy with a chewy & slightly rubberized feeling - trust me though, it's nice. The corn freshens up really well after being cooked, and tastes like sweet canned corn. The green onions...kinda don't show up at all.

Over all, this was a really tasty and filling snack. They're kind of expensive for the size of the pot, but it comes with a collectible sticker & I think you can keep the packaging by cleanly removing it from the bowl, as well. If you're a big Pokemon fan, I think it's worth it.

OyatsuBox July Unboxing

Another month, another awesome OyatsuBox! This July I received a great variety of snacks - gummies, crisps, stranger snack than that - and a mysterious little fellow who seemed to be quite upset with me.

Special feature of this video that was missing from the others: I tested some of the candy right there, on camera. Have a watch, and subscribe to me on Youtube if you please. Oh, I do hope that you please.