Foreign Snacks

So long and thanks for all the snacks.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:42:47 -0500

I’m leaving Tumblr for pastures new, finally I’ve got off my arse and sorted out my new home on the web!

For all my snack based shenanigans head on over to www.foreignsnacks.co.uk

See you there!

Hey Song Sarsaparilla

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:20:52 -0500

Cast your mind way back to yesterday when I said I’d never drink another drop of root beer in my life, well it turns out I’m a big fat stinking liar.

How was I to know that root beer is basically sarsaparilla with a load of added horrible added to it for good measure. Well I do now and I am unhappy to report that sarsaparilla is almost but not quite as disgusting as root beer.

Flavour wise it’s root beer minus the really harsh aftertaste, in fact the aftertaste of this was rather nice and almost vanillary but the main body of the flavour is good old root beer, or vice-cersa and root beer is good old sarsaparilla but you know what I mean.

I did manage to finish the entire can but it was pretty hard going and I certainly won’t be going back for another.

Damned you foreign pop.

The Daily Noodle - Unknown Hot Satay

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:58:47 -0500

Result: Thumbs up!

Noodlenotes: Delicious but CRAZY hot.

A&W Root Beer

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:16:15 -0500

It’s been so long since I’ve had root beer that I’m actually questioning whether I’ve had it before or not, I’m sure that I must have though.

I bet I did in fact but just blocked out the memory because of how disgusting it is. Vile doesn’t do it justice, it’s like cough mixture mixed with antiseptic.

“Possibly the thickest, creamiest you’ll ever taste!” it proudly proclaims on the side of the can, too bloody right as I’ll never drink another drop ever.

This one actually comes from Singapore but I’m guessing it’s just as hideous wherever in the world it comes from.

Disgusting.

Got Milk Cookies & Cream Straws

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:34:59 -0500

Whilst my better half is away in Florida I thought this would be a good time to have a rummage in my snack pile and see what I still have left over from my previous trip to the States and whilst my semi-permanent diet status is taking it’s toll on my snack eating I have found the perfect thing, Cookies & Cream milk straws!

Now, at the time of buying these in America I don’t think they were particularly common in the UK but now by the time I’ve got around to trying them I’m pretty sure I’ve seen variations on this theme here so I don’t think they need too much of an introduction.

As you can see the straws consist of hundreds of tiny sweet pieces which when you suck the milk through the straw start to dissolve so you get flavoured milk. In principle a pretty good idea, unfortunately I found the execution to be rather lacking.

Smell wise these seemed like they would be fantastic, they have a delicious cookies and cream scent, absolutely no problems there but sadly the actual flavour doesn’t cut it.

When you suck the milk up the little beads simply don’t have enough time to dissolve and release the flavour into the milk. Yes they do a bit but to get any real flavour you’ve got to leave the straw unsucked for a minute or so at which point your next suck is a good one but then it’s back to plain old ever so slightly flavoured milk unless you repeat the process.

I’ve never been much of a milk drinker really, I don’t dislike it but I’ve never been a massive fan of just a glass of the stuff on it’s own which is why I had high hopes for these straws but unfortunately the slowness of getting a decent flavoured mouthful takes all the fun out of it.

I’m sure I will get through all these straws just probably not with the gusto I was expecting.

The Daily Noodle - BJ Spicy Artificial Fei-Chang

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 08:55:10 -0500

Result: thumbs up!

Noodlenotes: A bit of a faff and I’m not a big fan of vermicella BUT tasty and came with a pack of MSG!

The Daily Noodle - Lucky Me Extra Hot Chili

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:30:27 -0500

Result: Thumbs down :(

Noodlenotes: Very bland, in no way shape or form “extra hot”

Hostess Twinkies

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:15:00 -0400

Ahh Twinkies, the mainstay of American pop culture from Ghostbusters to Die Hard but they remain something of a mystery over the pond here in the UK. I think everyone has heard of them or seen them on the telly but I don’t imagine many people have tried one.

Let’s not beat around the bush here, Twinkies are fairly horrible, not inedible by any stretch of the imagination but not something I could imagine being my go-to snack if I lived in the States. Actually horrible is a bit mean, lets go with unpleasant.

Now admittedly my poor pair of Twinkies didn’t make the journey particularly intact and had become fairly well squashed and stuck inside the wrapper. As you can see from the photo the outer layer of the Twinkies was torn off however I don’t actually imagine this has made any difference to the eating experience whatsoever. In a nod to attempting to keep them from being completely destroyed there is an inset of card in the pack which has gone some way to stopping them being smushed up completely.

Twinkies manage to have no discernible texture to them whatsoever, they just kind of disintegrate in your mouth and the flavour, well, that’s pretty special. All they appear to taste of is sweet, not sugar mind you just sweet and chemicals. Not bad chemicals, not like drinking bleach but chemically as in entirely processed like it was designed in a laboratory and not a kitchen which I actually assume isn’t far from the truth.

If we have a UK equivalent to these I’d say they are like the off-brand plain Cadbury Mini Roll style things, but not as nice.

Sorry America, I know that everyone loves Twinkies over there, I hope I haven’t upset you too much I love you all the same!

Speculoos Original

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 14:52:00 -0400

A simple tweet a few months ago from the lovely Kate enquiring whether I’d ever eaten Lotus biscuits had led to two jars of the most fantastic substance ending up in my possession!

You may have had Lotus biscuits if you’ve stayed in a hotel or possibly been in a very important business meeting, they are those little delicious individually wrapped caramel biscuits. Well, turns out that on the continent they also make it into a spreadable paste!

On Kate’s very important and possibly top secret missions to Brussels (I may have said too much already) she came across this fantastic substance and has sent me two jars both smooth and crunchy varieties!

In consistency it’s almost exactly the same as peanut butter, I’ve only opened the smooth so far but I’m assuming the same for the crunchy too. I’m going slowly on this stuff as I’m going to struggle to get any more once it’s run out!

As you have probably guessed from my already glowing description this stuff is gorgeous, spreadable caramel and cinnamon lovelyness! So far I’ve eaten it on bread, toast, on top of another biscuit and quite a few times straight from the jar on a spoon and I’m not about to apologise for that either.

Why they don’t sell this in the UK is a complete mystery to me as I’m sure it would fly off the shelves, it would certainly have a repeat customer in me! If you are at all a fan of Lotus biscuits or just sweet stuff in general and ever come across some Speculoos buy it, buy it immediately!

Finally another big thank you to Kate for this one, fabulous!

Eszet Schnitten

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:11:34 -0400

The ever lovely Matthias bought me back these quite a while ago and I’ve been terribly slow in getting around to trying them but try them I have and what a revelation they turned out to be!

Quite simply these are little slices of chocolate with these ones specifically being milk chocolate although according to the packaging on the back they also come in dark and white, oh and by the way I only know this as they are pictured not because I can speak German!

According to both the packaging and the note Matthias sent along with these they aren’t eaten purely as chocolates but actually eaten on a slice of bread kind of like a sweet open sandwich. As you can see the top few didn’t make the journey intact so obviously I couldn’t put these on bread so I just scoffed these.

I was expecting poor quality chocolate or “Easter egg chocolate” as we call it in this household, I’m not sure why but probably because of the poor foreign chocolate I’ve had in the past but luckily this was a ridiculous thought to have! It’s not fancy chocolate, probably closest in taste to Cadbury’s but that’s absolutely fine by me as that’s how I like it, quite sweet and very milky, delicious!

So on to eating it as it was meant to be eaten, with bread! Actually, I was unsure whether it was meant to be bread or toast so I tried bread first. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting but it simply tasted like a piece of chocolate on a slice of bread. Nice but nothing amazing.

Now, on to toast. What a revelation! Why have I never eaten this before in my life, chocolate slices on toast, amazing! The warmth of the toast softens the chocolate just enough to make it hug the bread without it actually melting as I think you can see in the above photo and the crunch of the toast with the soft chocolate is absolutely perfect.

It’s a wonderful breakfast treat, well any time of day I guess but toast just goes better at breakfast time doesn’t it?

I’ll tell you what, for something so simple I can’t get over how good toast and Eszet Schnitten is, those Germans know a thing or two I tell you!

Now this is what I call a snack pack! Sarah is amazing!

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:19:54 -0400

Now this is what I call a snack pack! Sarah is amazing!

Oh boy MK2! Send back the tigers!

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 08:37:31 -0400

Oh boy MK2! Send back the tigers!

Lucky Buddha Beer

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:42:34 -0400

I’m not entirely sure if the Buddha would approve of beer however if he did he would be sure to like this one, it was lovely! I’m not the worlds greatest connoisseur of beers and I admit to choosing this mainly because of the smiling Buddha on the bottle but as well you all know I’m a sucker for packaging! Just look the closeup of his smiling face!

The beer itself is quite sweet, served ice cold it was very refreshing. I’d like to say it would be nice on a hot day but those have been few and far between this year here in the UK, wish I’d bought a couple just in case we do get some nice weather!

I’m not quite sure why Morrisons had these in, it was a bit like they’d got a job lot in and were flogging them off cheap, I’ve certainly never seen them in there before.

If you like a lager and you see these I’d definitely recommend getting a couple, I think I’ll be buying a few more next time I’m in!

Yan Yan Vanilla Dip

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:38:25 -0400

Here we have the vanilla version of the Yan Yan Strawberry Dip which I bought at the same time, not because I thought the strawberry was so delicious that I’d go back for more.

For once I’ll get the taste issue out of the way straight up, it’s the same greasy sticks and the dip just tastes vanilla frosting. On a side note I don’t really like the word frosting, it’s a bit of an Americanism and I’d prefer to use the word icing but icing to me implies a hard consistency and not soft like frosting so frosting it is I guess.

Anyway, like the strawberry this is all about the sticks. I was hoping for some different ones than before and I wasn’t let down!

Apologies for the terrible photograph, for some reason everything came out a bit purple and my hand looks a bit weird. Also sadly a few of the sticks didn’t make it intact but they are still perfectly readable.

So there we have another awesome set of sticks, my favourite this time is obviously CAT SAY MEOW being a crazy cat person however I’m also drawn to CHICKEN and COW as I find it interesting that the onomatopoeia for mooo and cluck differ in different languages.

Haitai French Apple Pie

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:29:15 -0400

These were a spur of the moment purchase at the student union reduced down to just a quid so I thought I’d have a punt. Picking them up I couldn’t tell if it was individual apple pies or one large apple pie, I was hoping for the former as one large pie wasn’t really what I was after! I also suddenly had the thought that it might need cooking and I don’t really count that as a snack!

Thankfully as you can see these definitely fall into the snack category, there are a good dozen individually wrapped apple pies inside the box so plenty to get stuck in to or give away if they are horrible ;)

Also inside the box was a little surprise, a cartoon elephant with a QR code on his ear! Why the hell this is in here I have no idea, presumably it is something to do with Save The Children who have also have a logo on the box. Obviously I was curious as to what the QR code was, on scanning it I was given the following line of text:

“CRHT000000HQDEAQN6UG69WHH1551110806032903000330019212 WWW.ART-BLOCK.CO.KR”

If you take a look at the website at the end I’m still non the wiser, maybe combined with the code above the elephant’s ear it does something but god knows what and to be honest I’m not overly inclined to find out. If you work it out feel free to let me know what it is though!

Once again the actual snack once again does not live up to the packaging. The puff pastry is quite possibly the driest moisture sapping thing I have ever eaten and the apple whilst quite tasty is incredibly solid. The dehydrated food that astronauts take into space probably has more moisture in it than these do, I can only liken it to eating a cream cracker with an apple flavoured wine gum on top.

I did consider that maybe the first one I tried was maybe out of date or had been opened by mistake so I tried another but it was exactly the same, I even thought third time lucky but have a drink with it but this was no better.

These definitely won’t be on my shopping list at any point in the future, there’ll be no need for one as there will be twelve of the buggers sitting in the bottom of the snack tub for a long time to come.

Oh and in case you were wondering I have no idea why on the label they are called “French” apple pies, I’m guessing something was lost in translation on that front.

Garden Iced Gem Biscuits

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:36:05 -0400

Cartoon dinosaur on the packet! You don’t need to know much more than that do you? What we’ve clearly got here are midget gems, Chinese midget gems in an awesome packet. Once again Asian packaging knocks it out of the park. I’m including a second pack shot of the side and back just because I thought the little picket fence motif was cute.

Now I wasn’t expecting any surprises here but I was wrong! Midget gems is midget gems however upon opening I could smell a distinctly fruity aroma. Now I’ve not had midget gems for years but I am convinced they were all the same flavour no matter what colour just generic “sweet” flavour, these however are four distinct flavours!

The white one is midget gem “sweet”. The yellow is a slightly Jif tasting lemon, not overly nice to be honest. The brown is a mildly chocolately affair. The best is the pink one, I can’t quite place what fruit it is supposed to be but I’ll go with strawberry, whatever it is though it’s lovely.

So there we have it, fruity chocolatey Chinese midget gems with a dinosaur on the packet.

Ace.

Diet RC Cola

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 14:21:12 -0400

So I’m wandering through the pop aisle in Asda and this catches my eye, specifically “Columbus, Georgie, USA” on the label. Now on closer inspection it turns out that this is being made in the UK so yes, I’m probably breaking some kind of my own rules here but hey, it’s my blog right?

I’m assuming the fairly random addition of an American cola that I’ve never heard of before in Asda is the doing of Wallmart. From what I’m led to believe they’ll be running a tiny factory somewhere into the ground forcing them to make this pop for pennies a bottle then flogging it off at a massive profit seemingly around the globe now.

Politics and business aside what does it taste like? Well I’m more than happy to say that it’s absolutely lovely!

I don’t do full fat pop I just don’t really like it as it tastes too syrupy for me, it’s nothing to do with health reasons as such I only drink diet pop. On the cola front I don’t think I’ve ever found one that isn’t Pepsi or Coke that I like, they all taste like Rola Cola so this one is a first.

If I was to rate it I’d put it right up there just below Coke Zero which is my favourite and probably equal to Pepsi Max. It’s got the nice cola taste of Zero with the slightly sweeter edge of Pepsi Max.

I’l definitely be getting some more of this at only 89p a bottle it’s a bargain.

Leslie's Clover Barbecue Chips with Vitamins!

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:32:15 -0400

It’s not often I find that snacks with what appears to be a picture of a poo on the front of them appealing but I was drawn to these, I feel compelled to point out that the picture of the poo is actually some kind of overcooked meat/bacon. Delicious!

If anyone can tell me what “Basta clover chips, simut sarap talaga” means I’ll be happy man, unless of course it’s something to do with poo then I’m happy to stay ignorant.

Now the snacks themselves are perfectly serviceable, nothing outstanding but it’s safe to say that the whole pack was scoffed in short time. Basically they are barbecue flavoured Skips albeit slightly firmer. Not overly flavoured but quite salty, not unpleasantly so mind you.

Overall pretty good and can’t grumble at 90p for a big bag! Not quite sure how the selling point of “with vitamins” works though, a bit like telling us that breakfast cereals coated in sugar are fortified with vitamins and minerals, it’s not exactly one of your five a day is it?

Yan Yan Strawberry Dip

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:24:18 -0400

It’s always worth having a rummage around in my student union shop as there are some bargains to be had and it’s hard to pass by a bargain like this, or I should say these as I also got a vanilla flavoured one for 50p each! As it says on the lid, YOU ARE LUCKY!

What also caught my eye was the promise of FUN WORDS inside and going from the picture it was safe to assume these were printed on each of the dipping sticks a bit like a lolly stick joke. Well, be prepared for the most awesome FUN WORDS printed on a snack you are likely to see today!

How amazing is that! I’m going to have to go with WHALE - BIGGESY MAMMAL as my favourite, also take a look at the cutesy pictures of each animal at the end of the stick. Again, amazing. Britain, when it comes to packaging and fun in the snack stakes you need to pull your socks up. Cheese Strings and Toxic Flavoured sweets just don’t cut it for me I’m afraid.

Onto the actual snack itself. Sadly it is a bit of a letdown, the frankly awesome looking sticks are your run of the mill Choc-Dip biscuit style stick which are somehow both dry and greasy, so ten points for managing to combine those two attributes I guess.

I was slightly wary of the strawberry dip as on the ingredients Cheddar cheese was clearly listed and I could imagine the taste of strawberry cheese in my mouth and I wasn’t looking forward to it one bit. As it turns out I think it must be some kind of mistranslation, it is some kind of dairy goop but not a hint of Cheddar thankfully! It is however very sweet, not inedibly sweet but cheap sweets cheap, closest I can think of are the pink pigs you get in a 10p mix but runny not solid.

Overall then a mixed bag this, not the best taste sensation ever but any snack that includes a GOLDEN EGG and tells me that HORSE GALLOP AWAY is always going to be a winner in the end.

Calbee Grill-A-Corn Barbecue Flavoured

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:29:29 -0400

Crisps are my one weakness, ok maybe not my one weakness but certainly my major weakness so when I saw these in the shop I just had to buy a pack. The description didn’t give me much to go on other than they are some kind of Japanese Nik-Nak style corn snack and are barbecue flavour. I have no problem with any of this.

Japanese packaging is seriously just the best. If you could walk away from a packet of crisps with a picture of a happy little snack guy cooking himself on a sunbed well you are a better man than me.

Opening the pack reveals that they are definitely Nik-Naks, not just Nik-Nak style but absolutely exactly the same. Now, who came first Calbee or Golden Wonder? Surely this is a mystery we will never get the the bottom of. Either way I’m glad they exist both Japanese and English variants.

Taste and smell are probably exactly what you’d imagine from a barbecue flavoured crisp except not very strong and also quite sweet. Not unpleasantly so on either count but a bit more oomph in the flavour department wouldn’t go a miss and the sweetness could be toned down a notch or two.

So over all I’m pretty happy with this purchase and the shop appears to have bought in quite a stock of them so hopefully they’ll be around for a while but at over a quid a bag and being as they didn’t quite hit the spot I won’t be rushing out immediately for another bag just at the moment whilst there are other snacks to be had!