Chuang Jia Square Cookies

I must be very Americanized cause
this packaging doesn't excite me at all

The Attraction

I had a friend recently return from Taiwan where he was kind enough to share one of his favorite cookies from that country...Chuang Jia Square Cookies. Apparently there are pretty famous over there. Will my taste buds understand why?

The Review:
Although I am appreciative that my friend Eugene shared this snack with me, I can't say upon seeing this product that I was anxious to tear open the package and review it. To me, the branding seemed very ordinary. I never would have picked it up if I saw it at the grocery store, yet when I showed the little lady these cookies, she immediately recognized it and said how very famous they were in Taiwan. OK, now I am intrigued.

I open one of the sealed packages and was not quite able to decipher any smell from the biscuits, which made me even more curious. Would it be sweet? Savory? Why do these cookies have those brown spots on it?

...getting a little more excited

I pick up a cookie and it feels very light. Almost like a Saltine cracker. I go ahead and take a bite. Just as it felt in my hand, the cookie cracked and crumbled just like a thicker Saltine cracker, except it was sweet, not savory. Flavor-wise, it reminded me of something I've had in the past. It took me a few more cookies to put my finger on it. It tastes like a mix of a graham cracker and a coconut cracker like these Khong Guan Butter Coconut Cookies.

Most of the Western hemisphere knows what a graham cracker tastes like, but if you've never had a butter coconut cookies before, they are a light, crispy, slightly sweet cookie that is very tasty. I like graham crackers and I like butter coconut cookie, so does that mean therefore, I like these cookies? Well, yes, but it's not quite that simple.

What on earth will these taste like?

The Sweet:
Not too sweet tasty, crispy treat.

The Bitter:
Seems very familiar.

Conclusion:
These Chuang Jia square cookies are good, but they are also very similar to the other two types of cookies I mentioned earlier, so what does that mean exactly? If' you've never had a butter coconut cookie, then yes, it's worth you tasting these cookies. If you've had previously, like I have, it may just result in you thinking that these cookies taste like butter coconut cookies and how you wish you had those in your hand. How much you enjoy these cookies will probably be dictated by which camp you are in. Either way, you won't be disappointed.

Video of the Week

"Next week on Today, Molly Ringwald will be here

discussing her new career in the UFC" 

There are many great movies I remember from my childhood. Movies like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Three Amigos and The Goonies. Although after watching this performance from Corey Feldman last week, suddenly I think if One-Eyed Willy were here, he would poke out his other eye.....maybe even his ears too.

Lay's Szechuan Chicken

Here they go again...

The Attraction

Lay's has been doing this new flavor thang for awhile...and I've been buying it hook, line and sinker

The Review:
Part of the fun of these new flavor experiment is waiting to see what new and interesting flavors Lays releases. In this wave, one of the flavors they release is Chinese Szechuan Chicken, along with Indian Tikka Masala and Brazilian Picanha and Greek Tzaziki. Being that I've had my fair share of Chinese food in my day, I was curious as to what exactly Szechuan anything taste like in snack form.

As I tear open into the bag, I can smell some "spice" emanating from the bag. One thing I do know about Szechuan cuisine is that is it very aromatic and has many strong flavors. It is anything but bland. So far, so good.

Who knew all those spices
had so many different colors?

I dip my hand in and pull out a chip. I take a good look at a chip and I see the various colored spices in the chip. OK, it looks and smells legit, but what does it taste like? I take a big bite and immediately a wave of flavors comes flying at me; pepper, salt, some five-spice? and I swear even some MSG. At first, it almost taste like potato chips that have been sprinkled directly with the flavor packs that you get with your packages of instant noodles (ramen), but after a few seconds, the flavor deviates and never quite hits that exact level of saltiness, but rather it leaves you with a spicy finish. As for the chicken component...what chicken component? I only even mention it because it's in the flavor name, but otherwise, it's completely meaningless.

This piece looks like an upside-down taco

The Sweet:
It's a new flavor, which always means the potential for something exciting

The Bitter:
In this case it's booooorrring. It's a new flavor, but really nothing to write home about.

Conclusion:
I'll always support Lays and their great idea to release new and experimental flavors. It just so happens that this flavor, Chinese Szechuan Chicken, falls flat. I'm not even totally sure it taste like anything "Szechuan" to me. Either way, it doesn't strike enough of a cord to make me want to add this into my snack rotation.

Video of the Week

"Hey Ma, my tattoo not only says something
about who I am, but I can also play video games with it"

 

Ever see people with those temporary metallic tattoos? Well imagine one day being able to use those types of tattoos to control things like a video game or use it to show your mood or even better yet, store information on it! Well, the folks over at Duoskin are working on it.





Kuai Kuai Corn Snack Chocolate

Is it me or does that dotted line
make you want to sign the bag?

The Attraction

The little lady has been eating the coconut version of these and then one day she saw the chocolate version and convinced me to give it a try. It usually doesn't require too much prodding to get me to try a new snack, btw.

The Review:
I've tried the coconut version of these snacks before and I must say, well, this isn't about the coconut version. It's all about the chocolate today. However, if the coconut version is any reflection of what these babies could taste like, this could get very interesting very quickly.

I open the bag and a gentle chocolate breeze blows my way as the bag finally gives in to my hungry hands. I peer in and notice that these chocolate puffs have an usually shiny coating on them. Almost like they should have a savory flavor. I should hope not if it's chocolate flavored.

No more time to waste, it's time to get busy......eating that is.

They look like bbq Combos

I pickup a puff and take a bite. It's crunchy, but not quite as crunchy as a cheez ball or a cheez puff. It's more along the lines of a Cherrios crunch. The chocolate flavor is there, but it's unremarkable. It isn't too sweet, but the chocolate flavor dissipates quickly.

As much as I try to avoid it, I can't help but to compare these puffs against Crown's Big Caramel Corn Choco....and you know how much I love those things.

So shiny!

The Sweet:
Light chocolate flavor in a corn puff

The Bitter:
Nothing special

Conclusion:
These Kuai Kuai Corn Snacks aren't bad, but they are just ordinary. It also doesn't help that they came on the heels of the other-chocolate-corn-puff-snack that I just reviewed and fell in love with, but standing on its own, it didn't "wow" me at all. Even with its mascot making a heart for me, I didn't heart these in return.

Video Mail of the Week 

In this week's mailbag, it's an oldie, but a goody. It's from my friend Gabriella. I use the term "friend" loosely after I got some input about my beloved snack blog from her:

"...do you see what your snack blog looks like? I think my 10 year old baby cousin could put a better blog together than this! Oh, and your picture?! Why are you in a undershirt in your photo? What's wrong with you?!"

Yes, Gabriella, I think Bette Midler said it best when she said "You are the Wind Beneath My Wings". In this case, you are definitely the something beneath my something. For some reason, that might have been the last time I asked for some feedback about my blog from her.

Please keep the feedback coming!

Hangzhou Dingyuan Food 3+2 Lemon Flavor Biscuits

It's like the Big Mac of Cream Cookies

The Attraction:
How do you improve upon a successful formula? How about more! That's the theory here I think with the 3+2 Biscuits by Hangzhou Dingyuan Food. They've taken a popular item, crackers with a cream filling between them and added a third cracker and another layer of cream. Will this be too much of a good thing? I had to find out...

The Review
Lemon flavored crackers are popular in Asia. This might be the 4th or 5th version I've seen of a product like this. I've had several of them, but this one stood out cause of the 3 cracker "gimmick". OK, it may have suckered me it to try, but how are the actual results?

Will this be too dry?

Sure enough, as I opened the package, there was a lemon aroma wafting out. That's a good start. The crackers or biscuits are laid on a plastic tray. I quickly pull one out and take a look. As advertised, it's 3 crackers sandwiched with 2 layers of cream. (I know I said that early, but the package was all in Chinese and I assumed that's what 3+2 meant, but I wasn't really sure til I set eyes on the real thing.

I take a bite and several chews in, the lemon flavor of the cream comes through. I initially worried that with three layers of cracker to flavor, that the lemon cream would either not be strong enough or not enough would be applied to carry the snack. My concerns we unfounded in this case. These suckers are as tasty as any other lemon sandwich cookies!

Sweet lemon cream! Come to daddy!

The Sweet:

There's enough cream in these biscuits to balance out the crackers. The lemon flavor is as good as any other lemon cream filling.

The Bitter:
It's gimmicky, but it's hard to knock it since that was how they drew me in.

Conclusion:
I had some doubts on this one. I've had some conventional lemon flavored cookies in which they've skimped on the cream and the result was a mouth full of dry crackers with a momentary cream reprieve, then back to dry cracker-ville. In this case, even with the addition of a third cracker, 3+2 manages to pull it off with a flavorful and generous amount of cream to carry you through each bite. They also over a ton of assorted flavors such as Blueberry, Tomato(?) and Taro. In the case of their lemon flavored cream offering, 3+2 equals happy snacking.

Video of the Week
Ever wonder how Grindr works? Me neither, but our friend Conan O'Brien sits down with his pal Billy and sets up a profile on this gay dating app to see how quickly he can reel in the dates...

What man could resist this?

Lander 77 Peanut Butter and Strawberry Biscuits

 I need to pay better attention before I buy

The Attraction:
I saw this little prize when I was in Taiwan quite a few months back. The thing that really caught my attention was the combination of peanut butter and strawberry! What? Holla! Except, again if I looked carefully, I would have seen two sets of cookies, not a singular cookie with both PB and Strawberry. You can imagine my disappointment when I opened the package to see two sets of cookies. Sniff, sniff

I may have eaten a strawberry one before this shot, I said may!

The Review
What's great about many snack items from Asia is how many of them are individually wrapped. This is to help preserve the flavor and the item itself (due to heat and humidity in many parts of Asia) as you eat. This item falls in line with that mindset. I dive into the strawberry biscuit first and as I open the single portion, it's clear that it looks like a sugar wafer essentially coated with a what looks like a white chocolate coating. With the first bite, it's clear that it's more of a yogurt coating than a white chocolate coating. Not bad, but I come to discover that the biscuit itself is just a strawberry-flavored wafer with yogurt coating. No strawberry filling or jam. Boo...

  

Before                                                                 After

OK, onto the peanut version...

At least this cookie has an actual chocolate coating. Despite it being slightly melted, (which confirms why the other held up better because of the yogurt coating and this actually melted because it's real chocolate), it doesn't taste bad, but it's the same deal. Chocolate coating over a peanut butter flavored sugar wafer. I don't think there are even nuts in this sucker.

 

Before                                                                After

The Sweet:
I dig the individually wrapped pieces. I know it's not environmentally friendly, but I can only imagine what the heck the inside of this packaging would have looked like if it melted all over the place and created one giant melted cookie. The wafer itself is crispy and that contrasts always works well with chocolate (at least for the PB part section). If you love sugar wafers, but are bored with the common varieties available, I can see this being a new and exciting twist on on old favorite.

The Bitter:
Here's the thing for me; I'm not a fan of sugar wafers. I don't hate them, but I don't find them particularly exciting. Given the choice, I would pass on the common ones you see at the supermarkets. What may have redeem this item for me and saved it from "Yawn, it's a sugar wafer" land is if it had some strawberry jam /jelly or actual peanut butter. My mind may have been blown if it was as I had hoped and the two flavored were paired together in one happy marriage of a cookie, but like Nick and Mariah, it wasn't meant to be.

Conclusion:
I feel like I say this a lot, but unless you love sugar wafers and are looking to spice it up with some variety, this one is a very "ho-hum" product. I will say that I've had other Lander 77 products and some come closer to hitting the bulls eye, but in the case of these peanut butter and strawberry biscuits, it's very pedestrian and not worth the extra hour at the gym for throwing these down.

Video of the Week
I should have posted this one last week, but in case you didn't catch it, the awesome folks at VICE shot a brilliant video on how to properly eat sushi as told by Chef Naomichi Yasuda out of Sushi Bar Yasuda in Tokyo.

"If you ask for a California Roll, I will bitch slap you"

To think all these years I've been eating it like a barbarian. I wonder why the Chinese and Mexican sushi "chefs" at the Japanese restaurant I go to never corrected me?