Sometimes Foodie

Ichitan Organic Green Tea with Chrysanthemum - SunSeng Market : Pennsauken, NJ

Blast from the past! A few moths ago I started reviewing these bottled green teas, but I never got around to posting the last flavor. Here it is!

The only difference between these three bottles were the shrink-wrapped labels. This flavor has a bright white background with scattered yellow chrysanthemum flowers and luscious leafy greens. I think the design is light and refreshing, but it’s my least favorite. I just feel like it’s a little boring when compared to the texture and color of the other two labels.

Right away this tea smells sweet. In fact, I think this might be the sweetest of the three. There are hints of honey, chrysanthemum, and cane sugar.

This is so sweet, it’s almost syrupy! At first it tastes like tea with too much honey, but there are some bitter chrysanthemum notes in the aftertaste. This really isn’t what I was expecting. To be honest, it’s like I mixed a menthol throat drop with a ton of honey and a splash of green tea.

I wish I could say that I saved the best for last…but this is undoubtedly my least favorite of the three green teas. (I won’t be buying anymore of this in the future.)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Lion Soda Kids Candy - Asian Food Market: Cherry Hill, NJ

Because this candy has 6 flavors, and such amazing packaging, I am splitting it up into multiple reviews.

Check out THIS POST on the aesthetics.

Today I’ll review 3 flavors of this soda candy:

Melon (green)

Ramune (blue)

Grape (red-violet)

Melon Soda:

I had such high hopes for this flavor. I LOVE melon flavored sweets, but this is NOT like any melon I have ever had. The hard-candy outside tastes like bubblegum. I HATE bubblegum, so I was very disappointed. Inside, the candy has a fizzy center which is tangy and flavorful, and I really liked that, but it wasn’t enough to overpower the bubblegum flavor. To me, this was like having carbonated bubblegum mouthwash in my mouth. (As a kid, I was forced to do in-school fluoride treatments with bubblegum mouthwash for YEARS and it absolutely ruined the taste of bubble gum for me. To this day it still makes me extremely nauseous.) It is my least favorite of the three.

Ramune:

The blue ramune candy has some light citrus notes, but there is a slightly bubblegum-y flavor to this one too! Thankfully, it is much more tolerable. This candy reminds me of a diet lemon seltzer. While this isn’t a favorite, it wasn’t as bad as the melon.

Grape Soda:

This flavor is wonderful! The grape notes are really jammy and rich. It’s just like drinking a glass of grape juice cocktail. When you hit the fizzy center, it makes this candy taste just carbonated grape juice. (I often serve non alcoholic carbonated grape juice at my holiday parties and events, and this tastes just like it!)

Out of these three flavors, grape is by far the best. While each candy has a wonderful fizzy center, that really adds to the soda aspect of the flavors, the ramune and melon candies were too bubblegum-y for my tastes.

If you like bubblegum, or things that are flavored like bubblegum, you might really like the melon and ramune flavors. They just aren’t for me.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Lion Soda Kids Candy - Asian Food Market: Cherry Hill, NJ

Because this candy has 6 flavors, and such amazing packaging, I am splitting it up into multiple reviews.

This review will focus on the aesthetics.

You’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but sometimes I buy things just because of the packaging. When I saw this on the shelf, I just had to photograph it. There is so much going on! There are colorful flavor-sentai, bold text, and bright foiled backgrounds. I love all of the colors! Although the design is very busy, I would love to have this blown up as a pop-art piece.

There are 6 soda flavors:

Orange (orange)

Grape (red-violet)

Melon (green)

Ramune (blue)

Cola (brown)

Lemon (yellow)

Each flavor has it’s own sentai mascot, similar to a Super Sentai or Power Ranger, with an outfit that represents that candy’s flavor. I think this is adorable! Plus, the actual candies are shaped like the mascot as well.

Something about this packaging that I really like is that each individual wrapper has a question and answer on it. Sadly, I can’t read it! Such a pity! (I’ll be posting more photos of the questions and answers later this week, and if anyone can translate them I’d be very grateful.)

This packaging is colorful, adorable, and I love it! I hope the candy inside tastes just as good as it looks.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Jumbo Yubari Melon Pocky - Asian Food Market: Cherry Hill, NJ

To make up for missing yesterday’s post, here is some JUMBO Yubari Melon Pocky!

The packaging is like any other box of Pocky, just bigger. Since Yubari melon is a variation of cantaloupe, the design features split melons and fruity colors. The green and orange gradient mimics the rind of a cantaloupe, and the individual wrappers have a crosshatched pattern just like the melon’s skin. While the packaging is bright and eye catching, it’s not the best Pocky design I have ever seen.

Inside the box, there are 18 sticks of individually wrapped Giant Pocky. Each stick is about 20cm tall and 1 cm wide. (Pretty big.)

Once I opened the wrapper, I could smell sweet, artificial, melon. The scent is very similar to a lipgloss or Chapstick, and while the scent is obviously artificial, it isn’t necessarily unpleasant.

The first thing I was able to taste was the orange, melon-flavored, coating. It tastes like artificial cantaloupe, but in a good way. I really like melon and melon-flavored things, so this was right up my alley. As for the biscuit, it tastes just like it’s tiny counterpart, there’s just more of it.

Overall, this Pocky tastes like it smells. (Which is pretty similar to these melon cookies I reviewed last year.) If you like melon and melon flavored things, you’ll love Jumbo Yubari Melon Pocky. This was actually my first time trying a Jumbo Pocky, and I am pretty happy with it. I definitely want to find more fun flavors to try.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Botan Rice Candy - Five Below : Cherry Hill, NJ

This was a little gift from my mother. She likes to read my posts (hi mom!) and wanted to get me a little something to review. I’ve actually had this candy before, but it was so many years ago I can’t remember what it tasted like, so I feel like I am reviewing it for the first time.

The packaging features large, bold, illustrations against a neon red and a true green background. While the colors are bold, they work quite nicely with each other. The illustrations and black text give the box a vintage look and feel.

According to Wikipedia, “The candy’s name, Botan (kanji: 牡丹, hiragana: ぼたん), means “peony” in Japanese. A peony blossom is shown on the label, next to an inu-hariko, a dog-shaped traditional toy for Japanese children.”

I like this packaging, but I wish the “Botan Rice Candy” was written in white instead of black. I think the black is easily lost in the background.

The box may be tiny, but it contains 6 pieces candy, which is a decent portion. There is also has a fun sticker inside! (I got a skateboarding pink hippo!) Each piece of rice candy is wrapped in an edible rice paper, which prevents it from sticking to the clear plastic wrapper.

When I unwrapped the candy I was surprised that it was soft and chewy. For some reason I remembered them being hard candies.

The first thing you can taste is the starchy rice paper. It has a mellow, rice-y, flavor which is plesant. (It tastes the way uncooked rice smells.) That layer slowly dissolves, and when you start chewing, you get really nice, zesty, orange notes. It is like eating really good orange gumdrops, or orange slices. The texture is fantastic! It starts out a little bouncy, but it turns into a slow dissolving chew. (Kind of like an orange Starburst, but MUCH softer.)

These are really yummy! I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy these, for some reason I remember not liking them when I had them years ago, but I loved them! I definitely see myself buying more in the future.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Chicken Teriyaki and Amanda Roll -Mikado : Cherry Hill, NJ

My sister and I went out to lunch today, and since I was craving sushi, we decided to go to Mikado. (I actually reviewed this place before and talked a bit about the atmosphere, here’s my last review.)

I ordered:

1 Amanda Roll

Chicken Teriyaki Lunch Box

Mikado has an amazing lunch menu. (Plus you get a LOT for your money.) The “lunch box” special is $9.00 and there are a bunch of options to choose from: curry, sushi, teriyaki, yakitori, and many more. With that, you get a salad, miso soup, a spring roll, 4 California rolls, and white (or brown) rice. I chose the teriyaki style chicken and my sister picked the yakitori chicken. That was plenty of food already, but I HAD to get the Amanda roll. My sister’s name is Amanda, so it was too quirky a coincidence to pass up.

The food was delicious. (I’ve already raved about the ginger carrot salad dressing, so I’ll skip over that.)

I have a confession to make. I don’t like miso soup. I know a lot of people love it, but I just don’t get it. With that being said, this miso wasn’t too bad. The broth was salty and there were little bits of tofu to add some texture, but I’m just not a fan. Although I wouldn’t want to order more of it, I did finish the bowl. The soup was the only thing in this meal that I didn’t fully enjoy, but even that wasn’t bad.

As for the rest of my lunch box, the chicken was tender and juicy with the tangy sauce. Each lunch box meal also comes with a spring roll and 4 California rolls.

The spring roll was tiny and very flavorful, while the California rolls were pretty standard.

Now, the Amanda roll was AMAZING. It is made with yellow-tail, tuna, jalapenos and a spicy, tangy, sauce. Although I ordered it on a whim because of it’s name, I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Meiji Almond Oats Crunch -Asian Food Market : Cherry Hill, NJ

This is the third flavor of Meiji Almonds I have tried. (I have already reviewed the Melty Kiss and Crispy Puff versions.) This candy is foolproof. Almonds AND chocolate? Toss anything into that mix and you have a winner. (Unless you’re allergic to nuts.)

The packaging is similar to the Melty Kiss version. It’s the same size, shape, and it opens the same way. Personally, I preferred the Crispy Puff box with a sliding tray, but both designs function as needed. The color scheme and design for this package both have an earthy feel that plays off the cereal/oats flavoring, and I think this is the most cohesive design of the bunch.

Most of Meiji’s snacks contain a foil pouch to keep the candy fresh, and this is no exception. Once I opened the plastic bag I got a whiff of delicious chocolate. The almonds themselves are pretty big, each one has a thick chocolate coating, so you don’t get too many of them. I would have liked more, but this is still a decent amount of chocolate.

Instead of my first impression being the taste, these wowed me with texture. These are crunchy! There are quite a few layers to these candies, it’s no wonder they are so thickly coated! First there is a layer of semi-sweet chocolate with rolled oat flakes mixed in, then a crispy cereal-like shell and finally a crunchy almond. Each layer blends nicely together and creates a wonderful texture. The chocolate tastes more like a semi-sweet dark than milk chocolate, and the cereal/oats add a really nice earthy flavor as well as texture.

I wasn’t sure if I would like these more than the Melty Kiss, but I do! The textures and flavors are fantastic and nothing is overly sweet. These would be AMAZING with a glass of milk.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Lite General Tso’s Chicken and Wontons - Chinatown Garden: Washington DC

I had to grab a quick dinner before we made the 2 hour drive back to Jersey, so I headed into DC’s Chinatown for a bite to eat.

I decided to get an order of General Tso’s with some dumplings, but this restaurant actually offered a “lite” version which I have never seen before. I was curious, so I gave it a try.

The wontons were the doughiest that I have ever had. The filling was very minimal, and although the filling I did taste was quite nice, it was barely there. I felt like I was just eating fried noodles. This was not a good start to the meal.

Next up was the General Tso’s, it wasn’t fried and it looked really delicious. When I took a bite, the chicken had a really nice flavor and texture, but the sauce was lack-luster. I had asked for it to be spicy, but it was VERY sweet. Almost sickeningly so. I had to pile it onto white rice to balance out all the sweet sauce.

Overall, I find Chinese food to follow the same rules as pizza. You never really have a BAD pizza. The pizza might not be good, but it is never really inedible. So while this was not an amazing dinner, it filled me up and did it’s job. Would I eat there again? Probably not.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Coconut Kuai Kuai Corn Snack - Asian Food Market : Cherry Hill, NJ

I liked the strawberry puffed corn snacks so much that I bought these coconut ones.

The design is a bit different than the strawberry variety I purchased before. This time, instead of a cute little face there is a little mascot that seems to be a mixture of leprechaun and hillbilly. I don’t see how he relates to the coconut flavor, so maybe this is a general mascot for this brand? I’m not really sure. Also, on the back of the bag there is a short song and writing that seems to be a game or puzzle. If so, that is a pretty fun detail. Overall, I liked the design of the strawberry bag more, but this bag isn’t terrible.

Inside, the little corn puffs are a light yellow, similar to buttered popcorn. The strawberry variety was curved, like a cheese doodle, but this brand/flavor is shorter and fatter. (More like a tater tot.)

These have a strong, sweet, coconut smell that is really plesant and tropical, but the actual flavor is a little bland. These coconut puffs taste just like I am eating Kix cereal with coconut milk. The flavor is light and airy, similar to a coconut wafer, but the corn flavor overpowers the coconut. Since I really like Kix cereal, I enjoyed these quite a bit.

If you like Kix cereal, or coconut wafers, you’d love these. I enjoyed them, but the strawberry are still my favorite.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Meiji Kinoko No Yama Roasted Sweet Potato - Asian Food Market, NJ

Even MORE Chocorooms!

My other Chocoroom flavor reviews:

Original (Chocolate)

Caramel

Strawberry

Purple Sweet Potato

Macadamia

This is the last box of Chocorooms I have in my stash.

The packaging for this flavor is very vibrant. The combinations of red-violet and green are stunning. I think this is meant to be a fall flavor and design, but I’m not sure. (The Purple Sweet Potato was definitely a fall release with an obvious fall color scheme.) The box is smaller and thinner than the Macadamia version I reviewed a few days ago, so it’s more like the original Chocoroom box than any of the specialty flavors I have had.

Inside, the chocolates are smaller and not individually wrapped. For this flavor, the little chocolate mushroom cap is sunny yellow with a plain biscuit “stump.”

I was kind of surprised by the smell. These don’t smell like a sweet potato at all. In fact, these smell more like a flavored/specialty coffee to me than any sweet potato I’ve ever had.

When I ate one, it confirmed that these weren’t quite sweet potato. While there is a sweet fruity/vegetable taste, these are really more like a mild flavored coffee than anything else. Maybe sweet potatoes are roasted differently in Asia? Even though these don’t taste like a sweet potato, they are pretty yummy.

So far I don’t think any of the specialty Chocorooms I have had tasted like what they were supposed to. If you like mild flavored coffee, you might enjoy this version (my mother does), but my favorite so far is still the Macadamia.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Meiji Kinoko No Yama Macadamia - Asian Food Market, NJ

Even MORE Chocorooms!

My other Chocoroom flavor reviews:

Original (Chocolate)

Caramel

Strawberry

Purple Sweet Potato

This box has a blue color scheme and a winter theme. (Similar to the purple sweet potato version and it’s fall theme.) There is a little village covered in snow with scatter snowflakes all over the box. While I do like the overall look and design of this package, I hate that I need to tear the front cover to open it. I mean, you really could open it any way you wanted, but the suggested way of opening it is to lift up a perforated flap on the front of the box. It always seems like a shame to rip a pretty design, but that is just my opinion.

Just like the strawberry and sweet potato flavors, these are individually wrapped, but the biscuit “stump” for this flavor is actually chocolate! All of the other flavors I have tried so far used plain/vanilla biscuits, so it’s nice to try a chocolate variety.

Opening the wrapper, I noticed that the chocolate aroma is much stronger than the macadamia.

I took a bite…and I was surprised. There were no actual macadamia nuts inside. It’s just macadamia flavored milk chocolate with a chocolate biscuit. Even without the actual macadamias, these are really yummy! The texture and taste of the chocolate “top” and biscuit “bottom” remind me of Nutella to Go, but with the hazelnuts swapped out for macademias. Overall the flavors and textures work really well together.

I really like these a lot, and these are my favorite out of all the flavors of Chocorooms I have tried so far.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Chocoroom Collage

Sorry for the lack of update yesterday. Tumblr was down and I wasn’t able to get a post up.

Today I bought 2 NEW flavors of Chocorooms, and I’ll be reviewing one later today. In the meantime, here is a collage of the flavors I have reviewed already.
Original (Chocolate)

Caramel

Strawberry

Purple Sweet Potato

Have a great day!

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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