Singapore Food Round-Up, part 3

Welcome back to my Singapore sling - I'm slinging food reviews your way, get it? Ah, you get it. Read back through part 1 & part 2 if you had missed them earlier.

By the way, the Singapore Sling is a pretty nice little drink - sweet & fruity, just the way I like 'em. When it comes to two other classic Singapore flavors though, I kinda hated them. Durians - love them or leave them, and I would've gladly left them at the very bottom of the gym bag that they must've came out of. Seriously, for me it tasted the way rotten onions smell, but I ate an entire one to prove a point to a non-existent critical audience. "See, you think I couldn't possibly eat something this groddy...well, look at me now!" Durian definitely is a marmite type of situation - I think you can only like one or two of those love it/hate it foods in your life, and I only have room for marmite & coriander, I guess.

I was also a bit disappointed by the chicken rice that I had, which admittedly may not have been the best as it was just the hotel's room service, but I had no idea that it was going to be served cold. Not even room temperature, but actually kinda chilled. My personal preference is to never really eat cold chicken, and the texture of this seemed quite 'slick' and fatty, for lack of a better description. Served warm & I would've liked it more. As it stood I spent the whole meal vaguely concerned about salmonella. It was completely fine, of course, but it just wasn't a nice thing to eat for me. The rice was delicious though - savory as I think it may be cooked in chicken broth & ginger- and the traditional sauces on the side were all nice, ranging from hot to spicy to creamy and spicy. I can see why other people would really enjoy it, and it is meant to be served chilled like that, but for me I like chicken to err on the side of dryness & warmth. Just personal preference, but if you don't like the sound of a cold, moist chicken breast I'd recommend you go for some of the other tasty things Singapore has on offer.

Such as Bread Society's many breads. Some filled with sausage, some topped with blue cheese & walnuts or bananas, caramel & hazelnuts.

This was truly delicious - I'm sure it could be replicated at home, too! Really chewy kinda bread, seemed to be a variation on tangy sourdough with a thick crust. The topping is griddled blue cheese & walnuts, and it tasted so sweet and savory. A really great combo that I'd happily get again if given half a chance. That might seem a bit plain to a European palette, as I understand blue cheese & walnuts isn't an uncommon flavor here, but the next one should become a more common flavor.

I'm talkin' sausage inside bread. Hot dog style. Savory, buttery, with added extras like whole grain mustard baked inside or cheesy sauce innards.

These kinds of soft buns with sausage/hot dogs baked inside are a common sight in Japanese convenience stores, like every single one I ever went in had at least 2 or 3 variations. Mustard, cheese, mayonnaise, and probably even more sundry fillings & toppings that I missed. I was really happy to see them again in Singapore, although much less commonly. There's something about that soft, squishy, sweet bread that completely envelops a warm & savory hot dog that makes me feel so happy. I like hot dogs, but I guess my main problem had always been that the bun wasn't up to snuff. I like soft & squishy bread, and so often hot dog buns are chewy.  These particular hot dog breads were very nice - I had the whole grain mustard one and it was mild, hoppy dijon. Don't know what it is about these that make them so appealing, but I'd love to see these take off here in the UK. First, the country would have to fall in love with hot dogs I guess, haha. Odds are probably better that the US will adopt these buns.

I can see this one going down very well in the sweet-loving UK, though.

Grilled bananas, caramel, and hazelnuts top off a very buttery brioche. Like I said, I wouldn't have been shocked to find this one already available as a brunch option in a London breakfast place, but that doesn't change the fact that it was very nice. The caramel was light and not too sticky, the bananas were very finely cut and added a little tangy fruit taste, and the hazelnuts were nice and slightly roasted...the only problem was they weren't actually affixed to anything, as instead of being on top of the caramel they were on top of the bananas. So, every bite meant that a hazelnut would fall off - just picked them off the plate and ate them that way, so no great loss. Bread Society might've been a little boring, but it's an example of the kind of variations and quality you can expect from even something like a bread bakery in Singapore. I really appreciated the level of choice and expectation of quality - even from something simple.

Speaking of variety & choice in things that we otherwise know very well - enter McDonald's Singapore.

This is a fine assortment of what I'm talking about with variety - to the left is a Himalayan Tea McFlurry, middle we've got a Fiery Mala burger, and to drink none other than a Yuzu McFizz.

Three things you will never, ever see at a McDonald's in the UK or the USA - a shame, because all three were very nice.

I consider myself somebody who can easily eat almost any 'spicy' food challenge. There have only been a couple of times where I felt like "damn, this is way hotter/spicier than I'd like' - and exactly 0 times have I actually had to stop eating something because it as so hot. So when I read 'Level 4 Spicy Challenge' for the Fiery Mala burger, I scoffed. Pah! Like McDonald's of all places would have something that could best me.

Well, long story short - it didn't best me, but it tried - and it was very, very spicy. It was a real peppery and garlicky heat with a bit of mayo to cool it down & lettuce to take the edge off. It's grilled chicken rather than fried chicken - ya know, for your health. I really liked this one, and the heat levels were definitely enough to require lots of sips from the Yuzu McFizz.

The Yuzu McFizz was a cool combination of fruit syrup and fizzy plain soda - you(zu) mixed it up yourself - I didn't know that at first and had a huge sip of pure syrup. Good thing I have a sweet tooth, because I was basically just into it. Sweet & tangy, and when mixed with the soda quite subtle. It wasn't bitter at all, like yuzu sometimes can be, this was definitely a candy sweet version of the stuff. It worked really well to cool down my mouth during the Mala experience!

However, it wasn't even enough...I went straight to the Himalayan Tea McFlurry afterwards. Ya know, just for uh...cooling off purposes. Yeah, that's the ticket. To cool down.

So the mix-ins aren't really listed on the website, but there was bits of crushed cookie, probably Oreo judging by the color, and lots of powder. The powder tasted a lot like cinnamon & tea, sort of like a chai perhaps? There wasn't much chocolate taste from the Oreos, if those were what they were, and it was really just a tasty cinnamon-y McFlurry with crunchy bites. I'd love to try this one again, and I think labelled 'Chai Tea Crunch' with bits of digestive or something, it would actually go over quite nicely in the UK. (please hire me McDonald's headquarters I've got ideas like this all day and I can live off of a small salary & free ice cream)

We also tried a Tom Yum cutlet, unfortunately not photos of this one - but it was a very cheap side-menu item that was like, a chicken thigh cutlet fried with Tom Yum flavoring. Citrusy & spicy, it was absolutely delicious. Definitely worth tacking onto an order if you're in a Singapore McDonald's sometime.

So I'm winding down this round-up, and it's sad to say good bye. It almost feels like only now has my holiday really ended, now that I'm finished talking about Singapore even in past tense. I skipped over some great meals, because either I happened to not have my camera, I was in too much of a hurry to eat, or I just didn't want to make this a 4 part series. So, there's just one little bit left to go: one of my favorite treats of all time, found generally in Japan, but also available in a few locations throughout the rest of Asia with a handful of shops dotted elsewhere...including, to my surprise, 4 in Russia.

I'm talking about Royce! Makers of one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten - 'nama chocolate'. Nama meaning fresh or raw in Japanese, this chocolate is textured like incredibly smooth fudge or perfectly moist & creamy ganache. There are lots of recipes out there for nama chocolate, and I've tried to make it myself a few times to no avail. Royce just has the perfect balance of cream, alcohol, and high quality chocolate. I simply can't match it...but it hasn't stopped me trying.

Before I had only ever had the milk chocolate variety in an airport leaving Japan, but in Singapore I was overjoyed to see that they had many more varieties. We grabbed white chocolate & Champagne Pierre Mignon.

Classy colors, huh? I should've mentioned that these must be kept refrigerated after so many hours, and are therefore basically impossible to get outside of the countries that they're sold in. Sorry everyone who is going to want to eat these in a few seconds.

First up is white chocolate, which was coated in what I assumed to be white chocolate powder - however it was a bit thicker than average cocoa powder, so perhaps it was cocoa butter powder? That is also what it tasted like. Royce is kind enough to provide these little forks in the box, so you can dig right in.

The white chocolate tasted like cake batter, cocoa butter, and vanilla. Truly a delicious taste sensation. The texture is so smooth it's nearly unreal, and it's cooling & soft like a ganache. They're like just-set ganache, or the smoothest and richest fudge imaginable. If ever you're able to get some Royce, I highly suggest you do just that.

Now, the white chocolate flavor - while nice - wasn't as good as the regular chocolate I had before. It was a bit too sweet, buttery, and 'thick' tasting for my liking. It didn't leave me feeling refreshed as other Royce had done in the past. It was just a bit too sweet & rich, without even the slightest bitter or alcoholic hit to curb the cloy.

That leaves the next flavor - champagne!

Ah, now that's a bit more traditional. Small pieces of cool, smooth ganache/fudge/'nama chocolate' dusted in fine cocoa powder. These had a nice alcoholic smell to them as well, much like Charbonnel et Walker's champagne truffles do.

The taste was actually also quite similar to the aforementioned truffles, except in a softer, smoother, cooler consistency with a milkier chocolate. It was also a bit less sweet, as instead of being dusted with powdered sugar, the Royce is dusted in cocoa powder.

 I'm a huge fan of the Charbonnel et Walker champagne truffles, and this was no different. The texture was such an improvement, it made them completely impossible to stop eating. My number one regret about Singapore is that we didn't buy more Royce. Is that so wrong? I guess I also regret not going to Universal Studios! Next time you'll just see pics of me & the Minions snacking on Royce, and you'll know I lived out my dreams.

So that concludes Singapore, this time around. I'll now resume my regular reviews of snacks of all sorts that are easy to get here in the UK!

Singapore Food Round-Up, part 2

Previously on CreamySteaks: Singapore Food Round-Up, part 1. 

(smash cuts of people on a plane screaming, soft serve ice cream, malls, beaches, a Burger King sign, keychain of a squishy pancake being clutched & dropped dramatically into the ocean from 60,000 feet)

That about covered it!

I left off the last post with a late night Chewy Junior snack of cream puffs - their website is up and has been redesigned, so take a look for more flavors. I had a box of some of the most boring it seems, which is a shame - I would've liked to have tried a few others. Honeydew chocolate, roasted buckwheat, and one of the new cuva cakes (combining lava cake with cupcakes) would've been cool! Maybe next time.

I started off the next day as all good days start - with a gigantic iced & flavored coffee and a green tea layered cake. This one came from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, an American chain that I am unfamiliar with. We went here a couple of times, the coffee was always nice and I really loved the Frappacinno style ice blended drinks, particularly the Milk Tea flavor. Pretty sure 'milk tea' tastes so different than regular 'milky tea' because condensed milk is used. Maybe I'll try it here sometime for a nice little treat, as it's super tasty, sweet, and creamy.

That drink however was a 'double chocolate latte', which I think might've had tiny bits of cocoa bean in it - or more likely bitsy chocolate chips. Either way, it tasted very nice and chocolate-y. It's a shame I missed out on the new Melon ice blended that is out, it sounds super delicious & is an appealing pastel coral color.

I ended up needing all that energy as this was one of the most extensive walking days of our time in Singapore! We went and saw some super cool exhibitions, including one about dinosaurs - one of my favorite museum topics, haha.

It was a fun exhibit for sure! When we tuckered of dinosaurs, we went into the nearest mall & ate at Burger King. We had been excited about a couple of things on the menu already - the Beef Rendang burger, 'Tropical Pop', and cheese fries!

Well uh, haha...it's not on the menu anymore. Trust me, it photographed a lot better under the studio lights at Burger King HQ SG. Kind of just looks like a chili burger, huh?

Yeah, it looks pretty gross. The eating was an improvement, but I have to say, not by much. It tasted a bit like plain, cheap beef & onions. The rendang sauce didn't have any flavor at all -I just tasted onions- and even the bun seemed drier than usual. It's been awhile since I ate Burger King, and this burger was a good reminder why. It was a bit tasteless and the texture was off. I had been really looking forward to this one, I was expecting a strong rendang taste with some spiciness, but it just didn't happen. Oh well!

The cheese fries were really good though, nice nacho-style cheese sauce with a bit of heat. Also, the fries were much nicer than Burger King's usually are - they were more like McDonald's mix of crispies & greasies than the usual dry, potato-y mess Burger King provides. The Tropical Pop wasn't available, so I consoled myself with on-tap Fanta Grape. Not only is grape soda available, it's in the fountains!

For dinner I had a great big mound of colorful & multi-textured food.

with gravy!

Shredded lettuce, cheese, hamburger steak, omelette, rice inside omelette, curry sauce. This is how it looked before I started eating it, haha. The only disappointment here was that the rice inside wasn't ketchup flavored. I only thought that it would be as I think classically in Japan these 'omurices' are served with ketchup fried rice. To be fair, this is clearly different than that as it includes hamburger steak and curry sauce. It was a lovely & huge meal that actually filled me so much I didn't even consider dessert.

Things start to become a blur after this day of meals...what's lunch, what's dinner? W h o   k n o w s .  . . 

So, the next meal we had according to photographic evidence was a lunch at Fish & Co, a chain of fish restaurants in Southeast Asia which gave me a super idea for a restaurant here in the UK. Take a look at what I ate:

Just plain fish & chips, are you thinking? Sure, it's more fish & fries...but yeah, nothing you haven't seen before. Number one, the fish was so fresh and tasted so delicate & lovely. Number two, the batter was tempura so nice & crispy without being oily. Hammanah hammanah, but you can still find this in London pretty easy! Well, here's where things change:

Zippy zap! This is 'Danish Fish & Chips', one from Fish & Co's long list of Fish & Chips from Around the World. This one is 'stuffed with spices and mozzarella cheese', and apparently 'even the Viking's couldn't resist!'

I could agree with that. The cheese is a nice in-between of stringy & saucy, the spices seem like they're paprika, pepper, and nutmeg - maybe more, or totally different ones. Danish spices? It's been awhile since I ate it, but it was amazing. So, my grand idea? Well, just Fish & Chips themed around the world. One restaurant in London, tourists would come in wanting to try their country interpretation of an English classic, and locals would come to try new & different versions of the national dish! Am I right, or am I right? I know I'd go.

I really wish I could go to Fish & Co again, and I'll keep my eyes peeled for their other locations on further travels!

I'm skipping ahead a bit to save a meatier post for next time, so I'll end on a sweet note.

Kaya toast is a classic Singaporean breakfast made of coconut jam, sugar, and butter - on toast. Or in my case, on steamed bread.

It's very, very butter. That's an entire pat of butter, artfully placed and it makes for a very cute piece of toast, but man - that's more butter than you need. The kaya itself tastes sweet & a little tropical, I think it might be young coconut so it isn't the same strong taste as you'd normally get. The steamed bread was nice and squishy, and my husband had the traditional toast.

He had even more butter than I did - that entire cheese slice looking bit in the toast was solid butter. It's tasty stuff though - if you like butter, sugar, and carbs. Which all good people do, right?

That's all I've got for today, but I'll be back with more including McDonald's in Singapore and my favorite Japanese chocolate of all time...from Singapore!

Singapore Food Round-Up, part 1

Back from Singapore, and boy was I terrified for my life! Sure, Singapore Airlines has a great safety record, but I'd like to see the stats on the number of muttered prayers & moments of mortal terror.

 Number one, you don't need to alert me every single time there is a little turbulence - considering how bad it was sometimes, every announcement had me clenching my jaw and thinking back on the last things I said to people. Say it when it's bad, which it was, plenty of times. It's probably not the airline's fault, but I think I was silently reflecting on my life over the entirety of Russia, and had even come to peace with my imminent death by the time we were over Poland. I'd never seen the plane go dark and the exit signs light up before, nor had I previously seen a flight attendant jog by with a mysterious satchel over her shoulder. So glad I didn't know until we touched down in London that it was the same model Boeing as Malaysian Flight 370. At least I would've gone down with a belly full of pretty good food & Curb Your Enthusiasm season 6 fresh in my mind.

That's the worst part of the journey, and I've gotten it out of the way right at the beginning! Everything else was just dandy. Singapore is a cool place for my husband and I - it meets our standards of comfort & has lots of things to do such as food, sightseeing & shopping. I know lots of people aren't really big fans of Singapore, for vacations at least, and I reckon that has to do with a perceived lack of authenticity. Fair enough, but I really enjoyed it and would like to go back for another trip someday! Next vacation is Japan in August though - and that's even more fun.

Also, as a PS - Singapore has incredibly cheap public transport that was fully air-conditioned and clean. Really makes you resent paying the rates you get here in the UK - wassup with that, anyway? Is it because the Underground is so old? Is there a tax that the mole people levy so that we can use their tunnels - is it how we got out of having to pay them in flesh? I'd happily pay if I knew that was the case.

Ha, sorry - this is a special post so pardon my digression. My last special post was from my trip to Berlin.

Let's start with the very first thing I ate there! A mochi doughnut from Dunkin' Doughnuts in the airport and one of the biggest iced lattes I've ever seen. It was even topped with whipped cream & caramel! Maybe I've been in Europe for too long, but I was surprised to see that. After a 12 hour flight it was a welcome sight.

The solid sugarfood accompaniment to my sugardrink came in the form of this region-specific mochi-style doughnut. I think these can be found in quite a few of the region's Dunkin' Doughnuts, like the Philippines & Malaysia. I believe it's a takeoff of a popular doughnut found in Mister Donut shops in Japan. As you can probably guess, the mochi element of this is that it is a far bit chewier than your average doughnut.

We opted for the glazed variety, but there was also a chocolate one. I wish I could illustrate better how chewy this doughnut was, but this bleary-eyed post 12-hour flight iPhone photo will have to do.

Sure, it might look like a regular doughnut, but believe me, the stretchiness of a mochi is there. It's just not illustrated by my crummy photo! Still tasted like a regular glazed doughnut, so I'm sure it would've been a bit tastier of it was warm - but it was a nice chewy treat that felt more substantial than a regular doughnut due to the chew factor. I'd like for something with this stretchy, chewy texture to be readily available in doughnut shops in the UK, but the unlikeliness of that isn't keeping me up at night. It was a nice first thing to try and Singapore, and probably a good symbol of the East meets West vibe of the entire country.

So, check into the hotel, it's nice - what's for lunch? Pepper Lunch!

Sounds like the beginning of a "What's the word? Thunderbird!" type jingle...Well, what it actually was is a chain called Pepper Lunch that we spotted in the mall, and not wanting to stumble around confused & jet lagged for too long, we went with it. Good choice too! It comes out with raw meat on a sizzling hot bowl, with rice, corn, sauce, and optional toppings like cheese & egg - I opted for just cheese. It was super tasty, but seeing the chicken actually be raw in the bowl made me just a bit nervous - the surface is most definitely hot enough to cook it, and it did and it was fine, but still - just goes to show a bit of the difference between cultures maybe, as I feel like raw chicken in the USA is regarded as quite terrifying. Undercooked chicken is 100x worse than undercooked beef in my estimation - it's just how I was brought up. Might even be seen as different here in Europe! Either way, the plate was hot, cooked it up, and the whole thing tasted great.

Also included was a special 'honey brown sauce' you could apply yourself, and it was very delicious indeed. Sweet, a bit of soy, and a bit of worcester - hard to find fault with it, I'd happily eat it with plain rice if the sauce was available bottled. Who knows, maybe it is! I did find a recipe for the whole kit 'n' kaboodle if you'd like to try making it - I know I would.

Our next meal was split that day - my husband went for laksa, as pictured here:

Too many cockles for my taste. I like laksa alright, but I wasn't in a very fishy mood and it was quite fishy & disappointingly non-spicy considering the abundance of floating chili oil. So I went for 'Korean Fried Chicken' at 4 Fingers, but I didn't go for traditional drumlets & wings, I went with the Katsu sandwich - Japanese inspired, I presume. There was...some sort of sauce, seemed a bit like a spicy mayo so perhaps gochujang mayo?

Most interestingly, however...the bun was deep fried. Why, I don't know. Except for that it was incredibly delicious. They were shaped like open clams, similar to the baos you can get at... Bao, Flesh & Buns, and Yum Bun. I think they might've been steamed like those, just deep fried after. It was so soft and chewy on the inside, but with a nice buttery crisp outside. The filling was chicken, a sort of slaw type vegetable assortment (cabbage, onion, creamy sauce) and that nice spicy creaminess. It came with a side of your choice of kimchi or seaweed fries, and I went with kimchi. It was just kimchi flavored powder covering the fries, and there was a delicate sweet pickle taste from them, but it wasn't actually that strong.

On this same day, we had a late night snack of Chewy Junior cream puffs. Would you believe that this chain had a UK outlet for about a year? Man, what is it about the UK that makes people so uninterested in new desserts? Beard Papa got ran out of here too. I really don't get it, who wouldn't want to try a new treat that's very popular overseas? Oh well! Could have to do with the quality of desserts & sweets that come just from grocery stores and such - it's pretty easy to find a tasty dessert in the UK, with or without Beard Papa and Chewy Junior - just a shame they can't stick around alongside Waitrose bakeries & Gu.

This particular variety was blueberry, and it had a nice piping of cream cheese frosting on top alongside the blueberry jam & blueberries. My husband wasn't too crazy about the cream cheese on top, he thought it tasted a bit too cheesy and savory - he's normally into cream cheese frosting, but this stuff was admittedly not that sweet. I thought it went nicely with the sugary tart blueberry, but I'm an easy please when it comes to cream cheese. Besides, I was too taken by the creamy vanilla, custardy insides to be too distracted by the top. The cream was firmer and thicker than a Beard Papa, for example, and I think it might've had elements of cream cheese in it as well as it had a slightly tangy taste to the vanilla sweetness. Chewy Junior had a ton of different flavors, but as it was the end of the day most of the premium ones had sold out, leaving us with a few fruit, one almond topped, and one chocolate. Well, looked chocolate - my husband ate that one.

All the fruit topping ones were super nice, with a pie-filling type topping that was sweet with big bits of fruit. The almond was a disappointment, they were just thin slivers with very little nutty taste, and they just sort of were unpleasantly textured. All of them were filled with the same cream, but I think some of the premium flavors have different creams. Unfortunately, as of this writing the website is down so I can't really find some examples - but I do remember that they even had some savory fillings like pork floss & curry.

I'll be continuing on in part 2 - I've got to cover about 6 days worth of 3 meals + snacks, so it may be a few entries!

I hope you also enjoy my reflections on the trip that aren't necessarily food related, but feel free to scroll by 'em next time if you're not into it. Once you get to photos of food, I'll mostly stay on theme, haha.

Pure Gummy, Harajuku Honey & Grapefruit

So, I'm off to Singapore tomorrow. What better time to review a Japanese gummy that is heavily cross-promoting one of the districts of Tokyo? Well, clearly the better time is when I'm going to Japan the next day, but they don't have Bugis Junction inspired KitKats yet so I'm making do. Also, I was craving gummies.

Another one of my interests outside of candies both exotic & domestic is Japanese fashion - Harajuku is one of the first places you'll hear about if you have any interest in Japanese clothes or even just cute Japanese stuff. I'm lucky that I was able to shop there a few years ago, and while I didn't come back with a whole trunk load of new clothes or a Pom Pom Purin couch like I would've wanted, I still enjoyed it immensely. So, what does this have to do with gummies? Well look down Columbo: they're 'Harajuku Honey & Grapefruit'.

What does honey & grapefruit have to do with Harajuku? Now that I'm less sure of. They released another flavor in the same line of Peach & Passionfruit, and I don't see the connection there either. I know that lemon & honey is a popular flavor combo in Japan, and grapefruit & honey is similar to that.

There might be something more to it, or else it was just a tasty flavor that tested well with the sort of people who were going to buy these JOL collaboration gummies. JOL looks to be a lifestyle website for Japanese teenagers, so I'm sure partnering up one of the more youthful and fashionable areas of Tokyo with sweet, sweet gummies was like shooting fish in a barrel for their audience.

Turns out it was also shooting me in a barrel, because I ordered these when they were released ages ago and stared at the package in my snack drawer every week or so. I think part of me didn't want to eat them and have them out of my life - listen, I really liked that bear and the colors, okay? Once they're eaten, I've got to toss the packaging. The only thing I vowed to myself when I started this blog was that I wouldn't keep a bunch of old candy wrappers.

So when I finally bit the bullet (shot into my barrel) was it worth it? Yep! To me they tasted just lovely, a nice hint of sweet, deep floral honey with a tart & slightly bitter grapefruit taste. If the sound of honey & grapefruit appeals to you, I'm sure you'd be quite happy with these gummies.

Meanwhile my husband who grew up in the UK took one or two and said they weren't for him. I was quite surprised until he reminded me that lemon & honey is a very common flavor for medicine in the UK. See, in the USA most of our medicines are either cherry or mint - so those flavors to me can sometimes be a bit medicinal. For him the thick honey flavor coupled with the sour bitterness of the grapefruit just brought back memories of being ill. Understandable, but to me they were delightful.

The only problem I have with these is after the initial taste of honey wears off, the tart grapefruit will also wear a bit, then you're left with a sort of plainly sweet gummy with just a hint of honey depth. Still not bad, but it would've been nicer if the flavor was consistently the same strength. Hey, it's a minor complaint.

I don't think these are available anywhere online anymore, it was last year that they came out and I believe they sold out faster than other limited edition Pures because of the Harajuku connection. If they re-release the flavor I'd recommend it, whether it has cute pastel packaging or not.

Watapachi Grape Candy

My husband was listening to some of crazy, cuckoo, rock 'em sock 'em dance music and I asked him, "What's this group called?" and wouldn't you know it...their name is Watapachi! This reminded me that I had some candy in the drawer called 'watapachi'. I have a feeling it is some sort of onomatopoeia for sour taste, fizziness, and popping? Just like dance music BADUMTISH

This is one of the cheapest & most plentiful of the Japanese import candies. I don't remember where I bought mine, but it's available in the UK at sushinoms & tofucute, and shipped from Japan on Candysan, Jlist, OyatsuCafe, and NapaJapan. Phew! So basically every place I've ordered Japanese candy from stocks this stuff - it's very light, so it makes sense that it would ship easily. It's probably also quite cheap in Japan, as it is clearly meant for little kids.

Being that I have the same taste as lots of little kids, I'm a big fan of cotton candy. I even prefer the very compressed packaged stuff to the freshly made ones. It might be because the packaged stuff never has wasps embedded in it, nor is it handed to you by a  murderous carny. Not that all carnies are murderous...but let's get real, the odds are pretty good.

Also, it's just a bit more substantial - and can have a stronger flavor than just 'blue' or 'pink'. So I was pretty excited by this one, knowing that grape is done very well in Japan and that it also promises bits of hard, popping candy.

It certainly delivered on the grape - it was a very strong and pleasant smell as soon as I opened the package. Unfortunately, it was SUPER sticky - way stickier than I recollect cotton candy being in the past. Ants across the country shuttered with delight. I think this was because of the embedded hard candy reacting a bit with heat, being embedded in more spun sugar, and all sorts of chemical reasons I guess. It made handling the candy a bit unpleasant, as I took it out in one big lump and had my entire hand stickified in the process. It was also a bit weird that it flaked into sheets - who knows what compressed cotton candy does after international travel, ya know? As long as the taste was good, I would be happy.

It tasted very strongly of grape, especially the bits with the popping candy - which was very strong and sour by itself. It was of course incredibly sweet, but having the sour bits spread around made it a bit easier to handle as an uh..."adult". I really enjoyed the taste & how strong and sour it was, and it was a good size portion that definitely fulfilled my sweet tooth. The fizziness of the hard candy was pretty powerful, but I sort of crunched my way through it rather than let it fizzle. Just like life.

I'd definitely like to try the melon soda variety, so I'm sure I'd give this another go sometime. If you like sugar and kinda fun, goofy textural changes I think it's worth tacking onto an order!

Gokigen Banana Candy

I'm a hard sell when it comes to taffy, gummies, and banana flavored things. My hatred of Runts has been made abundantly clear on the blog, specifically the banana ones So, it surprised me when I ordered these banana gummy slices from Candysan oh so long ago. Surprised me so much in fact that I let them sit around in my Candy Drawer of Shame for a long time. I'm trying to whittle some of these less interesting bits down so I can make another order of Candy Drawer of Shame filler.

A gluttonous spring cleaning if you will. I know I would.

I thought I might as well get these banana taffies out of the way, and I was encouraged by my husband who is a big fan of banana flavored things. Ah, yin to my yang. The packaging is some of the dullest I've seen from Japan, but it has it's charm. The smiling banana hunk is likable enough, and there is a 100 of something in there. Other than that, it doesn't really sell itself. I wonder who this candy is meant for?

Seeing as how they're individually wrapped, I contend that perhaps they're meant for kids lunchboxes. The inner packaging is very cute, and the variation also makes me think it's meant for children to get excited about while in the lunchroom. "I got the blue pack! I'll trade you for a clear-with-view-of-taffy!"

Ha, the clear one is the best one - good luck.

They smell very strongly of the tangy variety of artificial banana, and that was just from opening the first layer of packaging. There was a time where I hated that smell, the smell of Runts...the smell of Halloween left overs...but here I am now, nearly 10 years since the last time I trick or treated (don't do the math on that if you want to have any respect for me) and I'm feeling it. It smelled like banana yogurt and I wasn't recoiling!

Still, there was the problem of the potential Laffy Taffy texture. Good taste is one thing, pulling out all my fillings is another. When I chomped and braced myself for a grim chew I was pleasantly surprised by how soft the 'taffy' actually was. I could best compare it to a less sticky Fruit Roll-Up, but in li'l sheet form. As someone who doesn't much care for chews, this was a great find.

It did taste like a tangy banana yogurt, which went quite poorly with the super crunchy and extremely sweet Runts, but goes nicely with a slightly less sweet and soft piece of candy.

Over all, the Gokigen Banana Candy was very pleasant & I'd be happy to try the other varieties which include plain yogurt and blueberry. For all I know, I have a couple more flavors in my drawer already.

Update: I do, in fact, have the yogurt flavor as well. I'm a candy hoarder.

Melt White Chocolate, Strawberry & Tarragon Bar

I'll preface this review with a few points to keep in mind: I'm one of those people who really enjoys white chocolate, especially the nicer & more buttery stuff. White chocolate & strawberry are a natural flavor combination to me, and I'm quite open to interesting & different taste sensations.

That being said, I will never again eat white chocolate with French cooking herbs. There are some things that just aren't ever meant to be combined.

This was another purchase from the Chocolate Festival, and I've had some lovely things from Melt in the past so it is no fault of the chocolate - it's just the flavors not working together.

I even understand where the idea came from, as tarragon smells a bit like anise, which is like black licorice, which is by all accounts a 'sweet' in some people's mind - and it's bitter & herbaceous taste might blend nicely with white chocolate. Yeah, on paper it makes some sense - but in execution it didn't work, at least not this time, and not in this instance.

I think the first problem was that there was bits of dried herb on top of the bar - it made for a cool look, but the tasting was overwhelmed by the actual dried herbs on top, just the same as it would be for a piece of chicken that had a layer of dried herbs just crumbled on top. If it was all blended into it you get the nice merging of the flavors. Now, there were some bits inside the chocolate as well, that came off as fresher (they looked brighter green, but I'm no tarragon expert) and maybe if it had been left like that I could've handled eating it - but as it was, I took one bite and threw the rest out. First time I can remember where I've thrown away chocolate - especially the good stuff like this!

It was really quite bad to me - the white chocolate was basically just a carrier for tarragon and strawberry, the gentle buttery taste of it was completely lost to the tangy sweetness from the strawberry and the alkaline, herbaceous & savory taste of the tarragon. Which is so not a nice combination. I mean, maybe my palette isn't refined enough, I'll admit that - but for people considering this bar, you've got to know that it isn't just a 'hint' of tarragon, and just doesn't gel that nicely. Genuinely, it tastes like the tarragon was a mistake, like someone meant to add another spice or just more strawberry, but they got mixed up. There's not no 'coming together' of the flavors, and the dried herbs on top make the texture strange & just up the flavors & smell of the already overwhelming tarragon.

This certainly doesn't discourage me from buying Melt chocolates, as I know they're very good otherwise! However, I would be surprised to hear if there were any repeat buyers on this bar. The flavor combination just straight up doesn't work and that's a shame.