Korean Market Part 2: I don't understand this

Well I went out to dinner with some friends and we decided to have Korean food again. While waiting for them, I decided to walk around a Korean market again just to see what's going on. Nothing particularly jumped out at me as, "I have to get this!" so I decided to look for things that I knew nothing about. Near the Korean chips and such there was this little gem:



Yeah, I had no idea what it was, so I decided to call my friend to ask if I should buy it. Why is Popeye selling ramen and candy, I don't know. I would think he'd sell some sort of spinach product. I guess in Korean cartoons, Popeye eats ramen and candy instead of spinach. It was on sale at two for 99 cents, so I decided there would be no harm in buying it. Everyone loves ramen, right? And everyone loves candy. Of course it would be the most logical thing to combine the two in one packet. It's like making a chocolate covered grilled cheese sandwich, combining two good things to make one better thing.


I found the back of the package to be rather amusing. Look at how pissed off Popeye is. And right below him we see the smug little piece of candy smiling while looking down at the nutrition facts or something. I'm disappointed that they didn't give the piece of ramen a face.


Yep, what's inside the bag is pretty much what's on the packaging. You get dry ramen noodles with little odd shaped candies. The ramen noodles on their own taste like unflavored ramen noodles with a hint of cinnamon. Actually I guess they're a bit thicker and are more like the noodles you'd get with a Chinese Chicken Salad somewhere. The candy bits were just little spheres of sugar and not much else. They're pretty much just crystallized pieces of sugar. When combined, they tasted something like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but a little less sweet. Once you bite into the candy it dissolves pretty quickly and you're left with more ramen. Not bad, but I'd rather buy a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

I don't know what to expect from Korean markets when it comes to candy. When I go in a Japanese market I see soda candies, pretty pictures, and candies featuring little spheres in them. When a student and I tried the Korean variant of Cola flavored candy we both spit it out because it wasn't worth our time. Maybe, just maybe, there's a Korean candy or snack out there that's really good, but until then I'm left walking the aisles of Korean markets hoping to get lucky with a random pick-up.

The KFC Double Down: A Tale of Two Greasy Cities

So a few months ago, one of my co-workers was telling me about the new KFC Double Down. He told me that it was going to be two fried chicken patties with cheese and bacon in-between. It sounded a bit too good and terrible to be true. However, in the past few weeks, there has been a fervor over KFC's which was released on April 12th. You were right Johnny, you were right, it does exist. It turns out there's also a Grilled Double Down. We live in great times.

My friend tried it on the opening day and told me that it was good, but it was a bit salty. That's probably because a Double Down contains 1380 grams of sodium. Interestingly, the Grilled Double Down contains 1430 grams of sodium. I decided that I had to try both variations. Combined, they would make only 1000 calories because the Original Double Down is 540 calories and the Grilled Double Down is 460 calories. So I got into my car this morning and decided to take a two minute trip to KFC, and this is what I brought home:

Grilled Double Down left, Original Double Down right

As I mentioned before, I wanted to try both variations. I also wanted to see what I was putting into my body, so I took a few more candid pictures:

Grilled Double Down (left) and Original Double Down (right) sans wrappers. Notice the cheese and sauce trying to escape the chicken

A look inside after cutting both sandwiches in half

Taking the sandwiches completely apart. Notice all the cheese and sauce. A terrifying mess

After taking a few pictures, I decided it was time to dig in. I started with the Original Double Down. When I first bit into it, I didn't notice the cheese or bacon, but instead I noted how juicy the chicken was. The first and second bite were pretty good, but as it went on, the cheese and sauce started stepping up their game. The bacon was sort of non-existent as there's only a strip or two in the sandwich. Anyway, toward the middle and end of the sandwich it got pretty salty. When the elements were separated they tasted fine, but when combined they made a very salty sandwich. The cheese and sauce even tasted a bit sweet at some points, I'm guessing the cheese is some variation of Swiss. However, the sandwich as a whole was salty. Overall, this was a well executed boneless breast fillet from KFC that could have done without the fillings.

Next, I tried the Grilled Double Down. The smell of the grilled chicken really comes through when you eat this sandwich. However, that grilled smell cannot help the fact that the chicken was dry. This was a let down because the first few bites of the Original Double Down, as noted before, were very flavorful and juicy. Its Grilled Chicken cousin was drier and had less flavor. I suppose the less flavor part is a good thing, because I kept noticing the flavor contrast between the chicken and the fillings. Toward the end though, I just wanted a glass of water because the saltiness of the first Double Down coupled with the dryness of the Grilled Double Down really made me thirsty.

The new sandwiches at KFC are really just their boneless fillets with some stuff jammed in-between. Their main selling point is shock value and their brave opposition toward the powerful Bread Lobby. Would I try it again? Probably not because I don't often go to KFC. I also probably wouldn't try these two again, because their regular chicken items taste much better. If you want to see what all the commotion is about, go ahead and try it, but if you don't then don't feel bad because you're not missing out on much.

Also it took a while to de-grease the plate and my hands afterward. This is a very messy sandwich.

Two candies that you never hear about

The following candies that I'm going to write about are by no means, rare candies (Pokemon, etc.). In fact, you may have glanced over them while looking for your Hershey's Cookies n Cream bar or when you were grabbing a bag of Skittles. Like the Whatchamacallit, these candies are available at many convenience stores or near the check-out line at places such as Fry's Electronics, but they're never given much regard. It's not like they're bargain candy or they don't taste good either, they cost the same as the other candies and are actually quite good. I suppose it's because they're a bit unique; they don't resemble what we typically find in our candy. This is why I decided to discuss two candies that are unique, and that you might want to look for the next time you're out.The first candy I will write about is the Rocky Road bar:


The Rocky Road bar consists of a chocolate coated marshmallow with cashews. Those who are familiar Rocky Road ice cream know that it is chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and chopped nuts. This candy is pretty unique already in that it uses two things that aren't normally seen in other candy bars, marshmallows and cashews. Marshmallows are widely available, but most of the time are used to make S'mores, put in hot chocolate, or are roasted and eaten as is. It isn't until Easter time that marshmallows get a bit more attention due to Peeps. Candy makers often use peanuts, almonds, and to a lesser extent, macadamias, but rarely is the cashew ever used. I always wondered why cashews were overlooked, maybe they cost more to use than peanuts.

Oh God, what is this?

I couldn't break the bar in half without it looking like an abomination. It's because the marshmallow is one big marshmallow and it was very fluffy. There's nothing special about this marshmallow outside the fact that it's in the shape of a bar. How would I describe this candy bar? If you asked in me in real life, I'd probably respond with, "Ehhh..." It's really nothing more than an overdressed marshmallow in my opinion. The chocolate melts disappears quicker than the marshmallow and I couldn't really tell the cashews from any other nut. If I were allergic to peanuts I probably could, but otherwise they were just another nut. In the end, the thing that sticks around the longest is the marshmallow. If you're a fan of marshmallows, then go for it, otherwise I suppose there's a reason why this candy bar doesn't get much recognition.

The next candy I'll be looking at is the Zero bar:

Yep, I was once again too lazy to make the picture horizontal

Okay, when you think of Rocky Road, you can sort of get an idea of what the candy bar is going to have in it. What are you supposed to think of when you try imagining a Zero bar? I honestly didn't know what it would have, I assumed it'd be like a Three Musketeers bar or something. However, as the wrapper says, a Zero bar is, "CARAMEL, PEANUT AND ALMOND Nougat covered with WHITE FUDGE". That's two different kinds of nuts you're getting in your bar with something that you don't see in candy. This is not white chocolate, mind you, it's white fudge. The only other time I've seen fudge as an item listed on a candy bar was on a Snickers Fudge. I don't quite know what the difference between chocolate and fudge is, but I do know that I've never seen white fudge advertised.


I'm not going to lie, the fudge coating looks like a thick coat of paint. Regardless, this is not about aesthetics of candy, but it is about the taste of the candy. Well when I first bit into it, it tasted sort of like a Milky Way or a Snickers (with less peanuts) without the milk chocolate coating. However, as I kept chewing, the flavor and smell became quite interesting. I don't want to say that it started smelling like Pistachio Ice Cream, but it was something along those lines. It was a very pleasant smell and taste that it took on after the initial chews. I enjoyed this bar quite a bit, and I recommend that you try it.

In conclusion, it's worth it to take some time and look up and down the candy stand every now and then. You may try something that you've never had before that turns out to be a hidden gem. Think of overlooked or unpopular candies as un-drafted professional athletes. Who knows, the next candy bar you pick up may be of Kurt Warner caliber.

Taco Bell is delicious, but are their new Tortadas?

Taco Bell has been advertising their new item, the Chicken Tortada. In the commercials, the tortada is portrayed as "not a sandwich", but rather a "tortada". I'm very familiar with tortas, which in a taqueria generally means a sandwich. I had no idea what a tortada was and decided to use Google Translate, which told me that it meant pie in Spanish. I didn't know what a tortada looked like because I only heard about it on radio commercials and didn't see the TV commercials for it. Anyway, my friend, Peter, and I were both curious and decided to check it out. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me, and we ate in the Taco Bell, so please click this link to find out what it looks like:

http://www.tacobell.com/menuitem/bacon-ranch-tortada

Basically, it looks somewhat like a Crunchwrap Supreme or the end pieces of a quesadilla. They have two varieties, the Bacon Ranch Tortada, which is linked above, and the Salsa Roja Tortada. Since they're cut in half, we decided to order a different one and try half of each one. Peter ordered the Bacon Ranch Tortada, and I ordered the Salsa Roja Tortada.

The outside of the Salsa Roja Tortada is like a quesadilla, while the insides are like a Soft Chicken Taco. The flavor is also very reminiscent of a Soft Chicken Taco, meaning it tasted like Taco Bell Hot Sauce. Overall it was pretty good. I then tried the Bacon Ranch Tortada, and the first thing that came to my head was a Chicken Bake from Costco. The creamy avocado ranch sauce alongside the chicken and bacon made it very reminiscent of a Chicken Bake. The Bacon Ranch Tortada is of course richer than the Salsa Roja Tortada, but I found that I needed to add more hot sauce packets to contrast the flavor. This one was also pretty good.

All in all, the new Chicken Tortadas from Taco Bell are nothing special and there are items that are available all the time that I'd much rather have over them. These items include quesadillas, Grilled Stuft Burritos, and so on and so forth. There's nothing new about them as the flavors, especially the Salsa Roja Tortada's, can be found in other items on the Taco Bell menu. These items are simply a mix and match of already available Taco Bell items.

Oreos: Now in Japanese stick form

While out buying candy to post about and to consume, I ran across something rather interesting. It seemed as if other countries were getting different varieties of snacks and candies we have here. I had known about Kit-Kats being different in other parts of the world before, but this item I ran across was rather interesting:


When I think of Oreos, I think of dark cookies with cream in the middle. Apparently when the Japanese think of Oreos, they think of cookie sticks covered in cream. Actually, I don't know if they have regular Oreos in Japan, I just like assuming, it makes things more interesting. Anyway, like most of my purchases, I bought this on impulse and decided to see what this would be like.



These sticks come individually wrapped. I don't know what the bottom right says, but it looks like a postage marker, so I'll assume you're supposed to send these somewhere. Or maybe this is a gift someone sent to me. Regardless, the packaging is very clean and basic, so let's move on the cookie stick itself.


I guess it's an Oreo in stick form and then covered with cream or white chocolate I suppose on top. The cookie was not like an Oreo, but rather it was much more crumbly and flaky than what I expected. The cream could have been a harder version of Oreo cream. If you gave this to someone in a blind taste test, they'd have a hard time telling you that this was in anyway related to Oreo cookies. These were intersting, but I'd rather stick to regular Oreos that I can find anywhere, as opposed to these sticks which I assume can only be found in Japanese or Asian markets.

To Starbursts: Just make different variations of cherry please

Well it's about time I got around to this. At the same time that I picked up a bag of Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits at 7-11, which they no longer carry by the way, there was also a new kind of Starburst. This new variety of Starbursts was called "Summer Fun Fruits" and when I saw that I immediately thought of Tropical Starubursts or the Baja variety. I held out for a few weeks before actually buying them, because besides the Original and Sour variety, they tend to disappoint. Luckily they were still in store when I searched for them.



The packaging makes me think of a cool rush of water. It certainly looks like it would be refreshing on a warm Summer's day. However, if you notice on the packaging it features two fruit flavors that I hate when it comes to candy: watermelon and banana. I don't know why gum makers can get watermelon right, but candy makers tend to get watermelon so very wrong. It also seems like no one can make a good banana flavor. Here are the different flavors:


From left to right we have Cherry Splash, Strawberry Watermelon, Lemon Limeade, and Kiwi Banana. How did the flavors rank you ask?

1. Cherry Splash: It's no surprise that I liked this flavor best, as most of the time cherry is my favorite flavor when it comes to fruit candy. Cherry Splash, however, doesn't taste that much like cherry and it would have been more suitable to call it Tropical Splash or something like that. The flavor is like Hawaiian Punch, so even though it doesn't really taste like cherry, it still tastes very good.

2. Strawberry Watermelon: I was very surprised when eating this one because the watermelon flavor was actually very good. It reminded me of watermelon flavored Bubblicious or some other watermelon flavored gum. It was nice to see that Starburst got the flavor right. A few seconds after the watermelon flavor passed, the strawberry flavor kicked in and it became a pretty standard, albeit solid, strawberry flavored Starburst.

3. Kiwi Banana: Another surprise, I really thought that I would hate this flavor, but it wasn't bad at all. I tasted very little kiwi, but the banana flavor was dead on. It didn't taste like artificial banana like you would find in Laffy Taffy or something, but instead it was the closest thing I've tasted to banana in candy form. Again, there was no kiwi taste, but that doesn't matter because the banana was good enough that I didn't mind.

4. Lemon Limeade: I'm not sure where they went wrong here. I suppose they improved on two flavors that I thought would be bad, but they also seemed to screw up a sure thing. I love lime flavored candies, with lime being my second favorite flavor of Original Mike & Ike and my favorite flavored Skittle. This one smelled like ginger. I am not kidding when I say that the flavor didn't resemble lime or lemon and that it had a strong herbal smell. Definitely at the bottom of the pile.

So I can't say that I would purchase a stick of Summer Fun Fruits Starbursts over a stick of Original or Sour Starbursts, but I can say that it's not bad. These are flavors I'm sure that they've put out before and they just decided to repackage and re-arrange them to make it seem like it was brand new. Although not a bad candy, Summer Fun Fruits Starbursts certainly are skippable.

Whatchamacallit: Well, I don't know what to call you either

When I think of Whatchamacallit candy bars I think of my youth. I remember seeing advertisements for them in my brother's comic books. I vaguely remember TV commercials for them, but beyond that I don't ever remember them getting that much attention. There was definitely very little attention brought to this candy bar beyond the early 90's, and yet it still endures on candy stands. Like Twix PB, it's been a long time since I had a Whatchamacallit. I remember them being good, but I don't really remember what was inside them. This is why I decided to buy a bar and have a taste.


Here's the packaging for the bar. As you can see, the wrapper itself is rather plain. When I think of beige colored wrapper I typically think of Almond M&M's. The wrapper also gives us a small picture of the bar, which candy bar wrappers rarely do. I suppose it's because everyone knows what Twix, Snickers, and such look like, but what does a Whatchamacallit look like?


This is what the inside a Whatchamacallit looks like. On the top you can see the caramel filling, and in the middle and bottom of the bar there's the peanut-flavored crisp. What were my impressions on the bar? In my opinion it was a bit confusing. The layer with the crisp disappeared rather quickly and the caramel lingered for a bit afterward. In a sense I suppose it would be like if someone decided to take a Kit-Kat, Reese's Peanut Butter, and Twix caramel and put it in a bar. Of course that sounds great, but in practice there was a bit too much going on and it didn't seem to blend well. However, the bar is pretty good and it deserves to get a bit more attention. I mean if 100 Grand bars got commercials back in the 90's, why shouldn't Whatchamacallits?