Oreo Chocolate Cake Strawberry

 What? Another Oreo product?

The Attraction

It said Oreo on it.

The Review:
As of late, I've been reviewing quite a bit of Oreo branded treats like this Milka Chocolate bar or these Red Velvet Oreos, so I took a break. Then I saw these at my local Asian grocer and my plans went out the window.

My best guess as to what Oreo Japan's new offering is their answer to the very popular Choco Pies in Asia. Maybe they are looking to hone in on some of that hot choco pie action. Let's see how they do with that.

I open the package and within, I see 6 individually wrapped Oreo Chocolate Pies. That seems to be a common practice with many snacks in Asia and I dig it. It keeps the snacks nice and fresh. I open up one of the packs and pull out an Oreo Chocolate Pie. As you can see below, it's oddly plastic-looking. It strongly resembles a plastic Oreo chew toy for a dog or a fake Oreo cookie novelty. Not sure how I feel about it, but I do catch a whiff of that signature strawberry smell that all Asian snacks that have strawberry flavor seems to have. Good to know that even the plastic looking shell couldn't contain that fruity aroma.

They look like a plastic Oreo chew toy

I bring it up to my mouth and finally take a bite. The texture reminds me less of a choco pie and more of a Mallomars. It has a great marshmallow-like chewy texture. However as I get lost in the texture of the bite, it dawns on me that what is also lost is the flavor. I taste a hint of strawberry, a little chocolate, but no signature flavor of an actual Oreo. It's really odd, because as I take another bite, I can barely taste much of anything; that includes strawberry, chocolate or cream.

Now, I've previously mentioned that I've noticed that snacks that originate from Asia tend to be milder due to different flavor preferences, but these...these almost literally have no flavor at all.

..and they almost taste like it

The Sweet:
I really enjoyed that marshmallow-chewy texture.

The Bitter:
Surprisingly, didn't taste particularly much like anything, must notably, an Oreo.

Conclusion:
It was only a matter of time before Oreo's review win streak would come to an end. I really didn't think this would be the product that would end it's streak. They got the texture right, but the one thing they've been doing so well up to this point was getting the flavor of the new combinations right. Surprisingly this product has very little resemblance of anything that I've come to know about the Oreo brand. Forget Oreo flavor, just flavor period was missing from this product and I for one will be happy to hopefully never see a domestic release of this item.

Video of the Week 

"Teaching stick?"

I love Conan O'Brien, even more so when he travels to new and foreign lands to learn more about different cultures. Previously I've brought you a clip when he traveled to Cuba. This week, it's Conan in Korea. In this clip, he's taking a Korean language class with a very stern instructor....but he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Sakuraya Strawberry Daifuku

Who doesn't love a good daifuku?

The Attraction

I've hopped in and out of many a Chinese, Japanese and Korean grocery stores in my day and have seen several variations of daifuku. There are some great local variations, but one commercial brand I have seen over and over again in this neck of the woods is this Sakuraya brand. There must be something to this right?

The Review:
I'm no stranger to daifuku. One of my favorite things about it is the wonderfully chewy mochi or glutinous rice exterior. I like that aspect so much, the filling almost isn't even a factor. Is there anway I wouldn't enjoy these? I've had some locally made versions before, but I have yet to try Sakuraya's version. Let's hope they don't ruin this me.

"Ahh, nice and squishy"

I take my nice package of 4 daifuku balls home and crack it open. In addition to the red hue, the slight smell of strawberries gives away what flavor awaits inside. As I pick one up, I give it a slight squeeze; the texture is firm, yet soft. That's a good sign. Daifuku any other way just isn't daifuku to me.  

I bring the mochi up to my mouth and take a nice size bite. The texture and mouth feel is as what I would have guessed from with my "squeeze" test; a firm, chewy exterior that gives way to a milky strawberry filling. The mochi flavor itself is rather mild. Slightly sweet, but when you hit the filling, the familiar artificial strawberry flavor that you commonly associate with Asian snacks appears. I've come to accept this with Asian snacks, but thankfully Sakuraya was wise enough to tone it a few notches to not overwhelm the more subtle mochi flavor all together.

Three more to look forward to

The Sweet:
All the great things about daifuku! Great texture and chewiness

The Bitter:
Artificial strawberry flavor, but they all have that to an extent

Conclusion:
Honestly, this review may have been a bit of a "gimme", but like that hypothesis about how a women can identify a man she would like to be romantic with within seconds and its the man's job to not say anything stupid to mess it up, Sakuraya let it's daifuku do just enough of the talking to ensure everyone ends up a winner tonight. 

Video of the Week 
Anyone that loves sushi probably has ambitions to one day to go to Japan and watch the tuna auctions and then have a chance to sample some of the winnings for that day. Though it may be a while before I can do that, here's a video of some English blokes doing just that.

 "Is it me or does it smell like fish in here?"

Caplicocot Strawberry and Milk Chocolate

It doesn't taste yogurty? Oh wait...

The Attraction

Anyone that knows a little something about Japanese food and drink knows the difference between Calpico (AKA Calpis), the delicious yogurt flavored drink and Caplico, the chocolate snack made by Glico....that is everyone except me when you aren't very careful and transpose the "P" and "L" in your head. So, although this snack has nothing to do with that tasty Japanese beverage that I adore, it still looked like an interesting enough snack to review.

The Review:
Frankly, I was already disappointed that this snack wasn't what I thought it was, but I couldn't let that get in the way of my journalistic objectivity. I would have my public, (all half a dozen of you) to answer to. I must soldier on.

I open the wrapper and what struck me was the really cool packaging that these snacks come in. They look like chocolate resting in a mini ice tray. Interesting. Glico certainly plunked down some change to make and package these babies, so they must taste good, right?

Fancy Packaging

Based on what I can tell, it looks like these treats are made in these trays and not just set into them because in order to get one of these nuggets out, you have to "pop" them out of the tray almost like a sealed cold medicine pill.

Once I was able to extract a piece of Caplicocot out, I went in for the kill. As the visual inspection would suggest, the top of the candy is composed of a dry, hardened flavored mousse, the signature characteristic of Caplico snacks (strawberry flavored, in this case), and the bottom is milk chocolate. It actually reminded me very much of another Glico product, Strawberry Pocky. The primary difference being of course that there is no biscuit stick component and that the strawberry was in mousse form versus a chocolate strawberry composition as it is on Pocky. Boy, I sure wish I had some Pocky right now.

It's like an ice tray of chocolate snacks!

The Sweet:
Interesting packaging.

The Bitter:
Not a fan of the hardened mousse.

How many more are in this package?

Conclusion:
Caplico products have been around for a while, so there must be some fans out there that enjoy the hardened mousse appeal that Caplico snacks offers. Personally, it strikes me more like a weaker version of Pocky. Although the mousse is not a component in Pocky, it doesn't distinguish itself enough from it's famous label mate to make it stand out...or at least in a good way.


Video Mail of the Week

A new feature I'll be adding from time to time is fan mail. Due to the overwhelming amount of fan mail I receive (at last count, two! Not two per hour nor two per week, but 2....as in dos, or 1+1), I decided to share some with you and answer them right here on the blog.

"Your blog helps me get through the day" Rick

Thanks Rick. I appreciate you taking the time to send me that. In addition to noting how verbose Rick is, I had my suspicions as to if he is really a fan, or some sort of bot. Actually, I was expecting that shortly after I received this, he would precede to tell me that he was a Prince in Africa and if I just sent him some money, he would gladly pay me millions in return. Well Rick, I'll have you know that you must think I was born yesterday. I would have Googled you and found out that unless you are the Prince of Funk, Rick James himself, that there is no Prince of Africa! 

PS. I also would have asked you to let me know if you got my wire transfer and when I should expect my $5 million dollars for helping.

Want to send me mail? Please complete the form on the right and I'll select a few and answer them right on the blog. Thanks!

Riska Sittori Ichigo

I wonder what they are saying is 70g?
Strawberry flavor?

The Attraction:

It appears as though my local Asian grocery has decided to take on some new snacks from Japan. This strawberry take on something that looks like a porous stone looked too strange not to try. 

The Review:
I really wasn't sure what to expect with this snack. What I was pretty certain about is that I would encounter an exaggerated Asian strawberry flavor as seen in other snacks such as Strawberry Pocky or Strawberry Yan-Yan. Like it or not, you must come to accept that this is what strawberry flavored anything will taste like in Asian snacks.

I open the bag and before I can even take a deep inhale, the sweet smell of strawberries comes pouring out of the bag. Well, I guess that probably means the strawberry flavor will be strong enough, but what's the point of having another strawberry flavored snack on the shelf? What the heck could be so different?

I pick up a biscuit out of the bag and notice how odd these cookies look. They look somewhere between a crouton and that pumice stone you use to scrape callouses off your feet. I wonder why the odd shape? "I hope these aren't too dry", I ponder. If they are just a strawberry-flavored crouton, I'm going to hurt myself.

I take a bite and although they are crunchy, they aren't quite as dry as a crouton, but as you continue with your bite, you get a weird sensation of a small "burst" of strawberry flavor. Almost as if there was a small pocket of strawberry moisture inside. It's an odd experience and difficult to explain, but it certainly has gotten my attention now. Let me try that again...and again.

Should I eat them or exfoliate with them?

The Sweet:

Interesting and tasty "pop" of strawberry flavor

The Bitter:
Not the most natural presentation of strawberry flavor

Little pockets of strawberry goodness

Conclusion:
After downing a few of these cookies, I Google translated what "Sittori Ichigo" means and it translates to "moist strawberry" in English. Ahh...it  all makes sense now.

The taste itself is run-of-the-mill-stuff; standard artificial strawberry flavor, however where it separates itself from the crowd is that sensation of strawberry moisture, for lack of a better term. It's so unusual and unlike any other snack, you can't help but have another and another to have that "hit" of moisture again. Ingesting artificial flavors in a snack has never been so much fun!

Video of the Week
As if video games couldn't be anymore realistic, a company called Force Dynamics has products that work in conjunction with gaming consoles to create motion and the actual feeling of being in the game. Now if only I could scrape together $85K to pick one up. (Feel free to click some ads to help me move closer to that goal. I only need 8 cajillion clicks to get one)

Christmas IS just right around corner...

Dongguan Hsu Fu Chi Strawberry Sandwich Cookie

I, too, can only understand Strawberry Sandwich Cookie.
That and 50% of something

The Attraction:
Knowing I had an upcoming holiday week ahead of me, I searched desperately to find a snack that I would hope I would like while I was home hibernating for the next few days. Last week I found myself at the Asian grocer again when I came across this. Look how delicious those strawberries look in the lower-right-hand corner. Even at that, it didn't really jump out at me, but it's OK. Like closing time at a bar, sometimes you don't get exactly what you are looking for, but what looks good enough for that moment. Hello, Ms. Strawberry Sandwich Cookie...

I'm hoping that says "Yummy stuff inside"

The Review
The Nestle company recently bought a majority share of the Dongguan Hsu Fu Chi, which in China, is the 2nd largest snack company next to Mars. I didn't know all that before picking up a package, but it did seem to give it some "street cred" after finding that out. Nestle has got to know a good thing when they see it, right? Let's find out...

Upon opening up the package, I find that there were single individually-wrapped servings within the packaging tray. Not unusual and it usually works out pretty well if a company is trying to maintain freshness in it's product. Next, I tear open the single serving wrapper and it reveals something that looks very similar to the famed Pineapple cakes from Taiwan; a crumbly shortbread exterior. For those uninitiated, think of a shortbread outside on a Fig Newton, but encased on all sides. Hmm...I'm not crazy about those pineapple cakes, but who knows if they taste the same?

 I finally dig in; the texture of the outer layer is the same of that of a pineapple cake. It's a drier and denser shortbread that yields to the thick strawberry gel inside. My suspicions were right, this is exactly a pineapple cake, but with a strawberry filling. Yay?

"What's up, shorty?"

The Sweet:
If you are a fan of Pineapple Cakes, but want to venture into different flavors, welcome to your Nirvana! The Hsu Fu Chi Company does a great job of recreating all the signature components of a Pineapple Cake; crumbly, dry shortbread on the outside and fruit-flavored filling on the inside.

The Bitter:
You have to like pineapple cakes or at least like shortbread. Although I recognize that I'm not a good person to review a product like this since it's so similar to another product I don't like, I do see how fans of these types of snacks could enjoy this. Just not "moi", as the folks at Nestle might say.

It does look rather like a Fig Newton, doesn't it?

Conclusion:
For me, shortbread is good on it's own. When you throw in a fruit jelly of some sort, in theory, one might think that would counter the dryness of the shortbread, but for me, this item just reminds me how dry it is....and I hate really dry sweet snacks.

Somehow, this makes me appreciate Fig Newtons even more. They use a moister exterior and wisely only encase the fig filling on two sides. Dang, now I want a Fig Newton....and if you are like me, maybe you should get one too instead of this product.

Update: Maybe I like these more than I thought. I polished off half the box already!

Video of the Week
In case you were wondering what to get me this year. I won't hold it against you if it's a little late.

Someone pinch me

Strawberry Creme Oreo

Just the right size to squeeze into my luggage

The Attraction:
It wasn't too long ago that I was out in Hong Kong strolling the local convenience store across the hotel trying to locate any international goodies that I could smuggle back into the States. That's where I ran into this pretty. With all the flavors that Oreo is offering these days, I don't think I've ever seen a Strawberry Creme Flavored Oreo before. Done deal.

The Review
I wasn't really sure what to expect here. Recently there's been a slew of flavors that Oreo has been releasing here in the US (Lemon, Limeade, Watermelon, Birthday Cake, etc). Part of me was excited at the idea of all the variations, but wondering why strawberry was never tested here locally. Anywoo, I was ready dig in to it...

One of the first things I observed is the packaging did not included some form of a firm tray or box to prevent the crushing of the cookies, which is exactly what happened to my pack on a 16 hour flight back home. (That's interesting considering the equivalent Oreos here are normally sold within a box). With my first bite, it was obvious that the cookie top and bottom shell were identical to the ones here in America; a nice crisp snap with chocolate flavor filled my mouth, but then another flavored followed that was also familiar, but not in the context of an Oreo. The strawberry creme came through and it was very much reminiscent of other Asian-oriented snacks that I've had previously that use a strawberry creme. Snacks like Pocky, Yan-Yan and Hello Panda came to mind immediately, but is that a good thing?

 Familiar top...

The Sweet:
Do you like strawberry flavored Pocky, Yan-Yan or Hello Panda? If you do, Strawberry Creme Oreos have a very similar flavor profile and can easily be interchanged with any of those Asian snack classics.

...unfamiliar creme or so I thought

The Bitter:
Although I recognize the popularity of all those items other snack items, I am not a fan of that type of strawberry "flavor". To me, that strawberry "flavor" is like a caricature of what strawberry is suppose to taste like. It comes across overblown and too artificial tasting. (Think Strawberry flavored Quik). Granted, if I had some Quik in front of me right now, I would gulp it down, but I don't think I would go out and buy more for a very long while.

Conclusion:
If you are a fan of Asian snacks that have a strawberry creme component to it, it'll be a good fit for you. Personally, this variation from Oreo won't be taking another trip with me back home. I'll reserve that space in my luggage for a more "natural" fit.

Video of the Week
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a good buddy helps a friend kick off his morning the right way with the assistance of Mr. Wasabi.

"Don't overreact, don't overreact, don't...oh well"

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?