June Skoshbox

Good afternoon, everyone. It's a typical southern summer day, i.e. 50% chance of rain so I thought I'd take the time to blog and enjoy the sound of rain on the patio. I've never ever liked summers because of the humidity in the south, but the rain is fantastic, especially when you are at home to enjoy it.

Favorites:
1. Cheese Umaibo Stick: Oh, my. It's like a giant Golden Flake cheese puff. If I ever find these in an Asian market, I will buy all of them! They are that good.

2. Sylvene Mini Cake Slice: I got the red version in the Skoshbox which is cocoa flavored. It is literally a tiny slice of chocolate cake. So good. I hope they have these in a future Skoshbox so I can try the vanilla flavor.

3. Honey Nut Pretz Sticks: Is Pretz the cousin to Pocky? I have no idea, but I would imagine they are since they come from the same company. It is almond flavored biscuits topped with sugar. They sort of remind you of honey nut Cheerios. I like that they aren't too sweet.

4. Rubella Cigar Cookies: This is a buttery cookie that is rolled into a cigar shape. It is light and crisp. Sweet, but not too sweet.

5. Home Pie Cookie: Yet another cookie type from Home Pie, but it tastes like all the other ones I've had in the Skoshboxes so far despite the claim that it is a different flavor?!?!

6. Anpanman Soft Senbei: a sweet shoyu rice cracker. I've realized that I like the sweet shoyu crackers compared to the regular soy sauce crackers.

Questionable:
1. Super Energy Candy: this is supposed to be a energy drink candy. I tried it and promptly got rid of it. It was extremely sour. Does sour equal energy?!?!? Hmm....... Well, at least it didn't taste like Red Bull, which to me is a big bottle of nasty cough syrup.

2. Supermario Gum: It's just gum, but what's with the cards in the pack?! Apparently you are supposed to play a matching game with the cards, but I can't read Japanese.....so it's completely lost on me.

Until next time ^_____^

May Skoshbox

Hi, everyone! It's Skoshbox time!!

Favorites:
1. Tirol Variety Choco: Out of the six flavors, I got the almond choco and milk choco flavors. The almond choco was nice. It is a sweet chocolate with an almond inside. The milk choco reminded me of German Kinder chocolate, but not as sweet as Kinder chocolate.
2. DIY choco-banana kit: see comments below.
3. Doraemon Bubblegum: This was soda flavored. I'm convinced that 'soda-flavored' in Japan always means ramune soda flavor. Not that I'm complaining, I love ramune.

Dislikes:
1. Sumi Yaki coffee candy: I didn't try these; I immediately handed them over to a coworker.
2. Nagisa Arare rice crackers: shoyu (soy sauce) flavored crackers. Not a favorite. Some of the shoyu crackers are good, but the taste of shoyu in these crackers was too intense.
3. Mont Blanch Oreo Cake: Now I know what you're thinking. This has to be good because it's made by Oreo. You'd be wrong. This chestnut cream cake tasted like soap. I thought it might have just been my tastebuds, but I let my sister try it as well and she said the same thing.

Questionable:
1. Anpanman corn rings: There is no taste to these corn rings. None whatsoever. I would almost say these corn rings would  be great for toddlers as it's so bland.

The DIY banana-choco kit was fun. I loved the taste of the 'bananas'. They are actually similar in texture to circus peanut candies, but firmer. The chocolate sauce tastes like chocolate frosting and of course, the sprinkles are just sprinkles. I would definitely recommend this kit. It's yummy and fun.

Until next time ^___^

April Skoshbox

It's that time again! Skoshbox review :)

Favorites (in order):
1. Black Thunder bar: I won't review this as I received this in a previous box. Just as good as the first time.
2. Choco An-pan Bread: soft bread with the chocolate filling. I had my doubts about the description of this snack because usually chocolate filled treats are biscuits and not bread, but boy was I wrong. I'm glad I was! You can't go wrong with chocolate filled bread.
3. Lotte Lace Chocolate: white and milk chocolate together in a lace pattern. Yum!
4. D'asses: the name makes you giggle, but apparently it isn't pronounced like the spelling, which is a relief as that might qualify as the worst product name ever in the history of cookies if it was pronounced like the spelling! It is a chocolate shortbread cookie. I like it as it isn't a dense cookie; it is a light cookie.
5. Ramune Drink Candy: no review as this was in a previous box.
6. Hi-chews: no review as this was in a previous box.
7. Hello Kitty cookies: we got the chocolate chip cookies. I was instantly transported back to the 1990s when McDonald's used to serve those bags of cookies in Happy Meals!!! I wondered what happened to those cookies....apparently Japan has been keeping them in their country and branded them with Hello Kitty :)

No crazy foods this time around. I hoping this month we won't get so many repeats. Though I wouldn't say no to a box full of black thunder bars.

Until next time >____<

Japanese Kit Kats - Matcha Sakura Flavored

In my Valentine's Day package from Amanda was a box of these delicious Kit Kats from Japan. Her cousin was able to pick up some boxes of this seasonal flavor of Kit Kats on her trip to Japan.

I had been looking at these on ebay and other websites, but didn't buy them as no one seemed to be selling them under $6 a package. I was so happy to see these in my package!

The flavor is just lovely. A sweet green tea cream with hints of sakura flavoring......ah, so yummy!

I want MORE!! Hopefully I can find these or other flavors in CA at the Daiso stores when I go to see Amanda in August.

Until next time ^___^

February and March Skoshboxes

Hi, everyone! I haven't been keeping up with my blogging lately.....I blame watching Korean dramas and reading books! Needless to say, I'm trying to catch up with my blogging.

For some reason, I didn't photograph the contents of my February skoshbox. I have a feeling I probably thought I had already done so :(

Favorites (in order):
1. Shimi Corn Chocolate - star shaped chocolate puffs. These remind me of chocolate cereal. Makes me wonder if you could add milk to them?!
2. Jagabee Potato Fries - French fry tasting chips. These were quite good in terms of taste. They remind me of potato sticks in a can. My coworkers and I got a laugh out of the packaging. It says that the chips were made in Japan, but exported by a company in California. So did they go from Japan to CA and then back to Japan and then to the US?!?!?
3. Charlotte Matcha Choco - chocolate with a green tea filling. The filling on this chocolate is not a sweet cream matcha, but the regular matcha flavor. It's good, but I would rather have the matcha mochi choco squares from last June's package.

Dislikes:
1. Kasugai Fruit Gummies: It must be my luck to get the grape flavor every time there is chance of different fruit flavors.
2. Nakayoshi Soft Cookie Ball: we've encountered these before under a different name (tamago boro cookies) in a skoshbox from May last year.

Questionable:
1. Rilakkuma Gum and Seal Set - gum.......nothing extraordinary about the flavor, but on the plus side it came with an adorable Rilakkuma bookmark and sticker sheet!
2. Mini Box Chewing Gum - gum......again.....

Now onto March's skoshbox, which came in a new box design! Blue with a paper crane illustration along with Japanese text and more cute illustrations.

Favorites:
1. Toppo Biscuit Sticks: Pocky in reverse. A biscuit stick filled with chocolate except the biscuit is a pretzel. Very yummy!!
2. Morinaga Twig Choco: these came in two flavors, regular chocolate and almond. The almond flavor is delicious while the chocolate flavor is just your normal chocolate.
3. Corn Potage Umaibo: another snack from a previous box. I really don't mind have a repeat of this umaibo. It's amazing!
4. S'corn BBQ Puffs: Japanese BBQ flavors puff chips. None of us were sure how this was supposed to be purely Japanese BBQ flavor as it reminded us of your average BBQ chips at the supermarket.
5. Hokkaido Milk Chews: this was like the white rabbit chews you get at your Asian market, but they were a lot softer and the flavor was fantastic.

Dislikes:
1. Kishiri Crystal Grape Candy: I didn't try this as it's grape flavored......yuck.....but I had my coworker try it and he liked it. It is a two flavored hard candy with grape and mint. An odd combination, but obviously it went well as my coworker had no complaints.

Questionable:
1. Fujiya Home Pie Premium: another repeat from an earlier skoshbox. It said it was supposed to be a buttery-flaky pie cookie, but it tasted like coconut like the previous snack.

I received April's skoshbox in the mail yesterday so I will have it with my coworkers later this month.

Until next time ^___^

December Skoshbox

Good morning, everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful first day of the New Year! I have a few posts that I need to get up so here goes!

I received December's skoshbox at the beginning of the month, but wasn't able to post about it since I was busy stitching various gifts for friends for Christmas.

Favorites:
1) Potato Ring Snack: these little potato rings taste like the potato sticks you can buy in cans in the US. They are quite yummy and have an added plus as they are lightly salted.

2)  Calpis Marshmallows: these marshmallows are filled with calpis jelly filling. For those of you that don't know, Calpis is a drink sold in Japan that comes in a regular flavor along with strawberry, etc. The regular flavor looks like milk, but doesn't taste like it.

3) Vegetable salad umaibo: (salad flavored puffed corn snack) this umaibo was definitely different. As usual, I brought my skoshbox with me to work so my coworkers and I could try its contents. We were baffled by the taste of this umaibo because we weren't sure what was suppose to be the 'vegetable salad'. It seemed more like a salad dressing flavor instead.

4) Bubble Gum Balls: we got the orange flavor in the box this time. I was hoping to get either the cola or yogurt since I've never seen those before in our Asian markets, but to no avail. I will say Japanese gum, especially this brand has a wonderful taste and lasts quite a long time.

5) Super Mario Galaxy Gum: (soda chewing gum) Hmmm......what can I say?! It's gum. LOL

Questionable:
1) Caramel Pie Pretz: ah, the conundrum that is this Pretz flavor. Upon opening the package (which had a handy ziploc closure), I smelled the inside of the bag and it definitely smelled like caramel........but the taste?!?!?! The taste was coconut, which isn't bad. I like coconut, but it was an odd thing for it to smell like caramel, but taste like coconut. Japanese magic, perhaps?!?!?

Dislikes:

1) Nori Wrapped Senbei: So far I've generally liked all the senbei flavors we have tried in the skoshboxes, but this isn't one of them. I didn't mind the nori; t was the senbei itself. Similar in texture to ones you get in the Asian party mixes......yuck!

2) Super Soda Hard Candy: (intense soda coating/filling) Oh, my.....when they say intense, they mean intense x 500 times! I think this hard candy puts some of the American sour candies to shame. I could hardly get through this candy. I will avoid this candy in the future unless I have any friends who like them or want to buy them as a gag gift :)

Until next time ^____^

November Skoshbox

Hi, everyone! I received my Skoshbox for November earlier in the month and decided to sample it sooner than later as my coworkers and I have just finished an extensive project that we have been working on for six months.......I thought we deserved a fun break and what better way to celebrate than a skoshbox of mystery goodies!

Favorites (in order):
1. Anapanman Caramel Corn (caramel puffed corn snack): These caramel corn snacks have a similar taste to cheese puffs, but with a slight caramel flavor. They are quite good. I am glad they came in a small bag because I can see myself eating entire bags of them!

2. Peach Gummies: Our local Asian markets sell this flavor of gummies. They are yummy!

3. Bourbon Elise Wafer Sticks (Hokkaido milk cream wafer): The flavor in these sticks remind me of the milk candies that you can find at almost any Asian market, but it was a sweeter flavor.

4. Sequoia Wafer Bar (strawberry flavor): Does Kit Kat have a strawberry flavor? If not, these are the perfect treat if you love Kit Kats and want a strawberry substitute ^__^

5. Bisco Matcha Sandwich (wheat cracker with green tea cream): This is so different from the other types of matcha cookies I've tried because they are made with wheat crackers. I love that the green tea is the cream version which balances out the wheat flavor.

Questionable (in order):
1. Furuta Flaky Cream Pie (whipped cream pie snack): Hmm......well, I will say they are flaky snacks because when I tried to break it apart to share with my coworkers, it literally fell apart. The flavor is coconut, which normally I love, but it was an odd combination for this snack.

2. Potapota Yaki Senbei (shoyu rice crackers): These are similar to the rice crackers you see at the supermarket in the Asian section, but they are flavored with soy sauce. Not bad, but not my favorite. But I figure if you love soy sauce, you'll love these.

Dislikes (in order):
1.Vitamin C Lemon candy: Hmm........I'm sure if I would advertise this as 'candy' because they smell and taste just like the vitamin C drops you get at the pharmacy if you are trying to get rid of a cold.

2. One Piece chewing gum: This gum really isn't a 'dislike', but it isn't a favorite or questionable......just plain gum.....sadly I didn't get a lucky sticker.

I wonder what treats we'll experience in December?! Mint flavored snacks? Limited edition Kit Kats or Pocky? Hmmm......anticipation is killer!

Until next time ^____^

October Skoskbox

Hi, everyone! I saved my October skoshbox last month until Halloween so my coworkers and I would have something fun to munch on instead of candy.

Favorites: (in order)
1. Black Thunder Bar: I was so excited that this chocolate bar was in the skoshbox last month. It reminds me of the Krackle bars, but without a sweet chocolate taste. The chocolate was more like those used in Snicker's.

2. Brown Sugar and Milk Senbei: The skoskbox card didn't lie on the description of this cracker. It does taste like caramel popcorn, but without the extreme sweetness. It is a sweet and salty snack! Definitely worth picking up if you see them at your local Asian market.

3. Chibimaruko Marshmallow: How can you go wrong with strawberry filled marshmallows? You can't. I've had these marshmallows before and quite enjoy them. During my last visit to CA I picked some up at a Japanese market in Japantown in Los Angeles.

4. Lychee Gummies: One of my favorite gummy flavors next to strawberry. A friend introduced me to these gummies during a trip to Baton Rouge to see Howl's Moving Castle when it came out in the U.S.

Questionable: (in order)
1. Happy Turn Senbei: These crackers remind me of the ones you find in the Asian snack mix you get at the store, but without the taste of all the other crackers in the mix. If you like those snack mixes, you'll like these crackers.

2. AWA Soda Tab Candy: I really can't describe the taste of this candy. Maybe sugar that fizzes? It was interesting to try, but I wouldn't repeat the experience.

3. Pikachu Grape Gum: Now I know some of you are wondering why this isn't in the 'dislike' category considering the fact that it is grape flavored. Amazingly the taste was extremely light, which reminded me of green grapes. I would recommend this gum for anyone who doesn't like grape flavors since it is a light flavor.

4. Summer Kinako Choco: I thought that I would love this candy because of the other flavors I have tried, but I'm on the fence about this one. The flavor reminds me of the peanut coating on mochi. Not good, but not bad.....

Dislikes:
1. Pokemon Monsterball Candy: Out of the potential flavors ~ grape, cola, and spicy cola ~ what do I get?......yucky grape. (O_o)

I wonder what goodies will arrive in the November skoskbox?!

Until next time >___<

August Skoshbox!

I received August's Skoshbox at the end of July, but waited to blog about it until August. I can't wait until the weather cools down so I don't have to resort to putting my Skoshbox in the refrigerator for fear of melted goodies.

Favorites (in order):
1. Sakura mochi chocolate (cherry blossom and azuki bean choco with mochi filling): this chocolate was yummy not to mention delicious smelling. It is from the same company that made the matcha mochi chocolates that my coworkers and I loved from a previous Skoshbox package.
2. Pocky Classic: chocolate Pocky, melted together, but still great!
3. Kasugai Apple Gummy: these gummy candies are always in stock at our local Asian markets. They are quite yummy and come in different flavors.
4. Sanko Zara Jiman Senbei: a rice cracker with sugar topping. I love the fact that the cracker isn't overly sweet. I wish our local Asian markets had a better selection of senbei.
5. Caplico Cones: we had a chocolate flavored cone. Quite yummy, but messy to break up to share between coworkers.
6. Pokemon Ramune (soda flavored candies): I'm on the fence about these. They aren't bad, but they don't remind me of ramune soda at all.
7. Teriyaki Burger Umaibo (puffed corn stick): I wonder if I'll be able to try every flavor of umaibo through Skoshbox. This one was quite good, though I think my fave might be the cream corn.

Questionable:
1. Green Tea Oreo: yet another casualty in this category because it was melted. I really hope I get try these one day in its non-melted state.
2. Maison de Kukkia: I liked the light flavoring of green tea in this cookie, but I think I've tried better so far.
3. French Papiro (creamy green tea filling in a cookie shell): Not my fave because of the green tea granules.

Until next time ^___^

Asian Food Adventure: Berry Carnival Pocky

Another purchase from Mechacon, berry carnival Pocky. I'm convinced that I will never be able to find different kinds of Pocky unless I get them at conventions or from my friend Amanda since my local Asian markets always sell the standard flavors: chocolate, strawberry or almond crunch.

I took these to work with me for my coworkers and I to try. The taste is nice and sweet, but not overly sweet. It is a mixture of strawberry, blueberry, and acai berry. I would definitely buy these again if I found them.

If you see them somewhere near you, pick them up! You won't regret it!

Until next time ^___^

Asian Food Adventure: Kimichi Ramune

This was one of the different flavors of Ramune that my sister and I found at the convention. One of the vendors sold a plethora of Japanese drinks, snacks, and sweets, which is great for those of us who have limited selections at our local Asian markets.

I brought the kimichi drink to work with me today so my coworkers and I could try it. I will admit that I've never had kimichi so I don't have anything to compare this drink to.

So my initial reaction, the smell was horrible and it might just smell like kimichi, but I'm not sure. The taste wasn't something I could describe....perhaps like vegetables i.e. cabbage. While it wasn't disgusting, it is definitely something I would never try again.

Maybe if you like kimichi, you'll love this drink, but on the other hand, it might wig you out despite your love of kimichi!

Until next time ^___^

July Skoshbox

I received my Skoshbox in the mail on the last day of June. Sadly, our weather has been quite hot lately with the heat index in the 100s. So you can imagine a Skoshbox in a hot mailbox all day, can't you? When I got home and checked the mail, I immediately opened my Skoshbox and put all the contents in our refrigerator to try and salvage what I could >O<

Favorites (in order):

1. Glico Cream Collon – this is made by the same company who produces Pocky. These cream collon shells remind me of Pirouettes sticks. Even though they are labeled as vanilla, they seem to have a faint coconut flavor.

2. Kit Kat Black – these are from the ‘Adult-Taste’ line of Kit Kats. I’ve never been a fan of dark chocolate, but I enjoyed these Kit Kats as the flavor was hardly bitter like most dark chocolates.

3. Tirol Jersey Milk Choco – my box came with two flavors, milk and coffee. The milk flavor reminded me of White Rabbit candies or any of the other hard milk candies. I was surprised that I liked the coffee flavor. I think it is because the flavor is light.

4. Marble Chocolate – these adorable chocolate candies are the Japanese cousins to M&Ms. They are decorated with cute illustrations of dogs….at least I thought it was a dog…..?!

5. Saikoro Caramel – I love the packaging on these caramels. The cube box comes with two caramels, perfect for sharing. The caramel was soft and sweet.

Questionable (in order):

1. Bakauke seafood curry senbei – since I don’t eat seafood, I wasn’t sure if I was tasting that flavor in this senbei. You can definitely taste the curry spices in the senbei though.

2. Orion custard cake – only reason for being in this category is because I didn’t try the custard part of this cake because it was out in the heat too long. I did, however, try the cake part and I am doubtful about the ‘vanilla’ flavoring. If it was there, it was quite faint.

3. Kewpie Mayonnaise – yet another casualty of a hot mailbox. My coworker and I didn’t want to take the chance of getting sick from spoiled mayonnaise so we sadly tossed the packet in the trash. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Skoshbox puts it in a future box during the cooler months of the year.

4. Matcha Azuki Jelly – while I love azuki, it made an odd pairing in this jelly. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. I do wish it had the texture/consistency of the kyoho grape kanten jelly as it was soft.

Dislikes:

1. Matcha Chokoshi – a green tea chocolate puffed rice snack. Definitely not something I’d try again. Seemed to be more green tea than chocolate; I would rather have the matcha chocolate from last month’s box!

2. Kyoho Grape Kanten Jelly – I can’t deny that it tastes like grape jelly, but that’s my basis for disliking it. I HATE grape flavored foods/drinks (even wine). Too many years as a kid with gross grape flavored medicine. It has ruined me for any types of grapes except for white grapes.

All in all, a great package. I would hope Skoshbox would reconsider what they pack in their summer boxes, especially for those of us who live in warm areas of the country.

Until next time ^____^

Asian Food Adventure: Pejoy Pocky

I found these over the weekend while I was at the World Market. This brand of Pocky is made in Thailand.

My coworkers and I agree that they are quite yummy! More chocolate flavor than the regular chocolate Pocky.

Until next time >____<

Skoshbox June 2014

Favorites: (in order)

1. Bake-Choco (chocolate cake bites with warm chocolate filling): This chocolate snack is microwavable. After about 20 seconds or so, you have a warm chocolate morsel. You don’t think much of the outside of the snack, it is much like a crunchy chocolate cookie, but you are in for a surprise! The chocolate filling inside of this snack reminds me of chocolate lava cakes.

2. Kit-Kat Bake-Pudding (crème brulee flavor): After reading about these snacks on Rocketnews24, I wanted to try them. I was so excited to see them in my Skoshbox this month. Sadly, it requires either an oven broiler or toaster oven and while I have both, the broiler has never been used (>O<) so it’s questionable and my toaster oven is used for baking polymer clay, which means I can’t use it for its intended purpose, i.e. cooking real food. Both luckily, Kit-Kat has made these so you can eat them ‘as is’ if you don’t have a means to bake them. Since I had two packages of these in my box, I was able to bring the second package to work to share. It was a winner!

3. Matcha Mochi Choco Square (green tea chocolate with mochi center): Yet another deceiving snack! The chocolate isn’t quite green tea flavored and if it is, it’s either quite faint or the flavor of mochi inside masks the chocolate. Either way, this chocolate is fantastic. I might have to see if my friend Amanda can find them in CA in one of her Japanese markets or Daiso.

4. Corn Potage Umaibo (creamy corn potage puffed corn snack): Does anyone else find it amusing that the puffed corn snack is flavored with creamy corn?! I quite enjoyed this umaibo, its flavor reminds of the corn puff snacks from one of my previous visits to my local Asian market.

5. Takoyaki Umaibo (octopus ball puffed corn snack): A little spicy, but quite good. I’ve never had takoyaki so I can’t compare it to anything, but I’d still pick up this snack if I saw it in an Asian market.

6. Harvest Green Tea Crackers (baked sweet green tea crackers): Not my favorite, but not a complete failure to capture my taste buds either. I like that the green tea flavor isn’t overpowering in these crackers. The brown sugar helps to balance it out.

Dislikes: (in order)

1. Matcha Okoshi (matcha puffed rice snack): The ground green tea in this snack was off putting; too strong for me.

2. Wasabi Kakinotane (basked spicy wasabi cracker and peanut mix): four words – wasabi, not my friend.

Another great package from Skoshbox…….how many days until the next one? Twenty-eight days?!?! Egads……

Until next time ^____^

Asian Food Adventure: Hitokuchi Monaka Cookies

Hmm……a hit or miss. I love red bean, but my friends do not. I really should have read the ingredients on the package before I bought these since I had already put a box of red bean mochi in my basket to buy to bring to work for my coworkers. These cookies have layers of waffle with red bean paste in the middle. Quite yummy if I say so, but not so much with my friends. I’m sure my coworkers won’t mind another box of red bean snacks!

Asian Food Adventure: Saya Snow Pea Crisps

Not bad, not good. There isn’t really a way to define the taste of these crisps. They didn’t have a taste to speak of, more like an aftertaste that I can’t describe. I’ve brought the leftover crisps for my coworkers. >o<

Asian Food Adventure: Hot Pepper Paste Chips

Last night my friends and I met up for our usual anime night (Asian drama night). Beforehand, I had stopped off at my local Asian market for some snacks to bring along. I decided to pick up a few items that I hadn’t tried before so my friends and I could be guinea pigs for the night.

These chips were quite good, but the product needs a name change. They weren’t hot at all, unless hot pepper paste in Korea isn’t hot at all. My friends and I all agreed that they tasted more like sweet barbeque chips than hot pepper.

I would definitely buy these again!

Skoshbox May 2014

Favorites: (in order)

1. Fried senbei (flash fried rice crackers): These crackers were really good. Since I liked the crackers in the last package, I have a feeling that I need to check out my local Asian market and see if they sell different kinds in addition to the typical ‘party mix’ versions.

2. Roanne vanilla wafers: baked vanilla wafers! Yum….you can’t go wrong with wafers ;)

3. Bourbon lumonde cookies (flaky chocolate coated cookie): While I enjoyed the taste of these cookies, they fell apart easily which meant that my coworkers and I were tasting crumbs instead a complete cookie stick.

4. Bubble gum (orange flavored): I’ve always seen these in our local Asian markets, but never made it a point to pick them up. The orange flavor was not overpowering and it seemed to last quite longer than American bubble gum flavors.

5. Mizore dama (hard candy, strawberry flavor): these hard candies pack a punch. The flavor is intense, but still quite good…..though if you don’t have a sweet tooth, you might avoid these as the flavor can be sickly sweet.

The Questionable: (in order)

1. Tamago boro cookies (ball-shaped egg/potato cookies): I really couldn’t get into these cookies, which seemed to be more like an odd tasting cracker instead of a cookie. They reminded me of those mini crackers you can buy for soups. (I think they are called oyster crackers.) But the taste was something I couldn’t identify, somewhere between trying to be sweet and savory at the same time.

2. Oreo raspberry (Oreo stick exclusive to Japan): I know, I know……..you can’t believe I have an oreo product in the questionable category. Sadly this cookie stick didn’t make it through shipping and was a bunch of crumbs when I opened the package. The raspberry flavor was quite intense, which is great, but since the cookie was dilapidated, I couldn’t really gauge the ‘good vs bad’ factor of this treat.

Dislikes:

1. Dried ume (dried whole pickled plum): I thought for sure that this wouldn’t be a bad item in the box, but boy was I wrong! My mind was thinking ‘oh, a dried plum’ and totally disregarded the ‘pickled’ part of the description on the Skosh card……big mistake. I like salt, but not to that extent. I couldn’t even taste the plum only a very large amount of salt, which made me think I just tipped a box of salt in my mouth!

2. Yocchan cut squid (pieces of pickled cut squid): I will not lie; I totally drowned the taste of my cut squid piece with a soda. I even bought the soda as a backup plan in case I had something crazy in my Skoshbox that I needed to quickly wash down. Good plan! I think I need to keep that in mind for future boxes. Salty squid is not my friend. It was so chewy I thought I wasn’t going to make it through the piece. Luckily, my coworker loved it so he ended up eating the rest of the bag. None of the rest of us was fond of the cut squid.

I've waited so long to post about this month's Skoshbox that I received the Skoshbox for June in the mail yesterday!!! >O<

I'll be sure to blog about my Skoshboxes earlier in the month if possible ;)

Until next time ^____^

Skoshbox April 2014

I recently saw a video on youtube by SharlainJapan. She did a review of something called a skoshbox. After watching it, I knew I had to subscribe to this subscription box company. Each month you get a box full of a variety of Japanese snacks/sweets.

I brought it with me to work for my coworkers and I to try. My coworker, Jeff, used to live in Japan as a child so I knew I had an ally in my love of trying Japanese snacks/sweets.

My first reaction? I love the packaging of the Skoshbox. Everything is neatly arranged in tissue paper with a notecard detailing the package's contents.

Favorites: (in order)

1. Obachan's Pota Pota Yaki (sweet shoyu baked senbei): a rice cracker that is faintly sweet! Perfect when you are craving a little sweetness.

2. Harvest Baked Biscuit: this package came with one of two flavors, burnt caramel or chocolate. We received the burnt caramel, which was quite yummy. Yet again, just a slight sweetness flavor. Not overpowering at all.

3. Strawberry Pocky: just plain old strawberry pocky! Always a favorite.

4. Aero green tea and strawberry mini bars: I had Aero bars when I was in England for grad school. At that time, they didn't sell them in the US and the only flavors were chocolate related. It was a treat to try these two new flavors of Aero.

5. Elise Wafer Stick: A strawberry white choco filled wafer stick. Light and sweet.

6. Milk Country Candy: creamy milk hard candy. I've had these before as our local Asian markets carry them in abundance!


The Questionable: (in order)

1. Mentaiko Umaibo Stick (puffed corn cod roe flavor): Now I know that sounds quite strange and a little alarming, but actually it wasn't bad at all. For some weird reason, this snack tasted to me and my coworkers like a large Andy's hot fry. Do you guys know about those chip snacks? Well, this mentaiko stick tasted like that. Makes me wonder what ingredients are in Andy's hot fries!??!?

2. Cheese Okaki Crackers (senbei with cheese topping): not my favorite. The cracker reminded me of the crackers you get in Asian party mixes, but topped with processed cheese. I've never ever liked Asian party mixes, I don't like the texture of the crackers/snacks so this okaki cracker wasn't my cup of tea.


Dislikes:

1. Matcha Kitkat: this surprised me because I've started to like green tea flavored snacks as evident by the fact that I inhaled the green tea Pocky that Amanda sent me for the Chinese New Year. Despite that, I didn't like these kitkats. I think it was because the kitkat had small granules of green tea in the candy. It made for an odd texture that I didn't care for.

Thoughts: All in all, I'm glad I subscribed to Skoshbox. It definitely satisfies my love of Japanese snacks/sweets as my local Asian markets only have the standards such as Pocky, biscuits, or jellies.

Until next time ^____^

Asian Food Adventure: Pearl (Boba) in Syrup

This was another part of my Chinese New Year package from Amanda. I brought it with me to work yesterday so my coworkers and I could try it during one of our breaks.

Verdict: it's good, but not my cup of tea. Which is quite funny because it is basically tapioca balls in very watered down syrup. Trying to be boba tea, but not quite succeeding.

The sad part is that I really wanted a cup of boba tea after trying this pearl syrup!

LOL I think I trip to CA in the future is in order! I'll be able to get my fill of boba tea for sure!

Until next time ^____^