Chuoken Hanairo Shion Senbei Set 中央軒 花色しおん せんべい

Recently when a Japanese friend got married I went to her wedding here in Perth and another friend also travelled over from Japan to attend. The friend gave us some premium Chuoken Senbei as a gift. I shared some on the day with Yasu and then quickly hid the rest away because they were so special. Its not every day you get given senbei from Ginza!

Each set contains an amount of Senbei, divided by two kinds in separate pink and purple packs. We had a set of 6 packages which means we had 3 each of pink and purple.

 Hanairo Pink

#1 - Soy sauce & Nori - with lots of crunch and some tiny sprinkles of nori (seweed)
#2 - Almond Arare - A very nice crunchy senbei with 3 small almond pieces on the top, very flavourful.
#3 - Hana - Tastes like Sakura and the texture is like little rice crips all glued together with sugar. Sweet senbei but very nice.
#4 - Aonori - Light, crisp senbei with a touch of nori and salt.
#5 - Kaifuri - Thin and crunchy, can taste soy sauce and dashi, and has sprinkles of nori on the outside for extra flavour.
#6 - Yuzu - A big hit of citrus on here, thin and crunchy with a lasting citrus taste.
#7 - Plum - Shaped like a Sakura petal, delicate crunch with plum flavoured sugar, has some sour notes as well as sweet.

My favourites out of here were the Plum and #1.

Hanairo Purple

#1 - Seaweed wrap - Thin and wrapped in nori, great crunchy texture and nice nori flavour.
#2 - Soy bean arare - Thick, crunchy and light toasted soy bean flavour, very interesting aftertaste of roasted beans.
#3 - Matcha arare - Green and thin, quite sweet and only light hints of green tea.
#4 - Soba Boro - Texture like a ginger nut biscuit, lots of smoky flavour, quite malty, has soba-esque hints.
#5 - White - Soy sauce flavour on a thin leaf-like senbei.
#6 - Rice arare - Like little rice crispies glued together, dashi and soy sauce flavour and a nice glossy sheen.
#7 - Ebi Senbei - Thick, crunchy and oily. Big prawn flavours.

My favourite of these were the Soba Boro and the Ebi Senbei.

In all, these Senbei were an exquisite snack, and Yasu and I both really enjoyed them and were very sad when they were all gone. If you happen to see these in Japan sometime, they make a great gift and an even better snack for yourself, and I thoroughly recommend them.

You can check out their website here. They also have an online shop.

Pokemon Noodle Soy Sauce Flavour ポケモンヌードル しょうゆ味

I am back to blogging after my husband caught a cold, gave it to my 2 year old son and then when they were over it, they had given it to me! So I spent a week trying to look after a busy toddler and feeling utterly miserable. There was no incentive to blog because I had lost my sense of taste. :(

I'm back now though with a cup of Pokemon Noodle to review. This will be attractive to fans of Pokemon or Japan-o-files. The packaging is a little scary, with two large dark grey owls in the background and what looks like fire, and Pokemon has his mouth open in an angry expression.
I don't know much about Pokemon so I don't know if this is normally a scary story.

The flavour is "shoyu" which is soy sauce. To eat this pack of cup noodle is simple. Just take off the outer plastic wrapping, unseal the lid half way and pour boiling water inside up to the line near the top. Then cover with the lid and wait 3 minutes, peel back the lid and eat!

 

In terms of flavour I thought this was just ok. What set it apart from other cup noodles is that it had flat pieces of kamaboko (fish cake) hidden amongst the noodles with images of characters from Pokemon. They were really quite cute and it was exciting to uncover all the little discs of kamaboko.

My husband also ate some of the cup noodle and on a scale of one to ten he gave it a 5. Average in flavour but because of its cute factor it would probably be quite popular with the young ones and otaku, so would possibly rate higher to others.

In all this was a fun product to try and I thank Oyatsu Cafe for letting me try it out. It's not something I would normally buy so it's been great to try something out of my comfort zone.

You can buy this product from Oyatsu Cafe now at their online store, along with lots of other great Japanese snacks.

The maker of Pokemon Noodle, Sanyo Foods, have a great website dedicated to this product with lots of cool interactive games and characters that move.

Kabaya Hello Kitty Pretzel Chocolate カバヤ ハローキティー プレッツェル 『チョコ味』

I once was a huge Hello Kitty fan. Well that is an understatement, I was obsessed. The first time I went to Japan in 2004 I spent probably a thousand dollars or more at Sanrioland in Tokyo buying Hello Kitty character goods. In fact I shipped 17 parcels of Hello Kitty stuff home! Can you believe it? I still have most of those parcels sitting in our shed, the contents in pristine condition. My kitchen cupboards are mostly full of Hello Kitty cups, saucers, plates, bowls and glasses which I hardly ever use but can't bear to part with. My husband has learned not to say anything...he after all comes from the land of Otaku!

So when I opened the box from Oyatsu Cafe and found this box of Hello Kitty Pretzel in there, I immediately felt a fondness for the product, even though as a reviewer, it is my job to be unbiased. This is a stick snack, similar to Pocky, made out of a long thin biscuit with a milk chocolate coating.

It's obviously marketed towards Hello Kitty fans and fans of "kawaii" (cute) with all the hearts and cupcakes on the pack.

Inside the box contains one clear pack of chocolate sticks. They are about a third smaller than the size of a Pocky. The stick smelled like chocolate and strawberry surprisingly, and when I bit into it there was an audible crunch and the biscuit itself had a faint taste of strawberries. I thought I must be dreaming so I asked my husband to taste it too. He confirmed that yes, the pretzel stick tastes like strawberries. The chocolate coating on the outside is so thin as to be non-existent. It really doesn't add much to the flavour unless you eat the whole pack at once and even then it's vague at best.

 

I wondered why they called this pretzel snack "chocolate flavour" when in fact the dominant flavour is strawberry, and the fact that the pretzel stick tastes like strawberry is not mentioned anywhere on the pack so I'm wondering if it's meant to be a surprise, or just some wacky aspect of the snack.

The chocolate coating on the pretzel was a disappointment, it was too thin to even taste it properly. I really wanted to like this snack because Hello Kitty is on the front but it just didn't live up to what I expect from a pretzel stick. In saying that though, I think these would be ok for kids, especially if you want to limit how much chocolate they are having and the size of the snack.

Meito Puku Puku Tai 名糖ぷくぷくたい『チョコ』

 

In the previous post I blogged about monaka for the first time. Thanks to Oyatsu Cafe I have another monaka to review, this time in the form of taiyaki which is a traditional Japanese fish-shaped cake usually filled with anko (red bean) or custard.

This is an unusual snack made by Meito which consists of a monaka wafer on the outside and air-in chocolate on the inside. I was lucky enough to have the real deal on my latest trip to Japan but I can imagine that if you are craving taiyaki and you don't live in a place that has them readily available, then this snack would suffice.

Just like the previously posted about monaka, this taiyaki had a satisfying crunch when bitten into. The chocolate inside was like a soft fluffy mousse and had a strong chocolate flavour. The crunchy outer wafer and the soft inside was a very pleasant contrast in the mouth.

My husband breaking it open

My husband and I both enjoyed eating this but like Sakupan Monaka it was over too soon. Probably this is a snack that you just shouldn't share... However Oyatsu Cafe sell these taiyaki snacks in their store for $1.99 so buying more than one at a time is totally feasible and won't damage your hip pocket!

Puku Puku Tai also comes in Strawberry and Cheesecake flavour which both sound delicious. I definitely recommend this snack for it's wacky factor alone, but it also tastes great and it's not expensive, so in my opinion it's a winner!

Sakupan Choco Monaka カバヤ さくぱんチョコモナカ 『いちごミルク』

*My apologies to Oyatsu Cafe in getting this review up. Their parcel of goodies arrived just before I left for a 3 week holiday to Japan. Now that I'm back the reviews will start to flow again.

This is the first edition of a series of reviews I will do on snacks sent to me by Oyatsu Cafe (as previously blogged about). The first item that I really wanted to try was this chocolate monaka made by Kabaya. This monaka seems to be based on the same premise as the Saku Saku Panda biscuits, because they use the same character but the whole head makes up the shape of the monaka.

For those of you unfamiliar with monaka it's basically a wafer cookie on the outside and a type of sweet like red bean or custard in the middle, and resembles a kind of sandwich but is a sweet. It's quite popular in Japan to have a red bean (anko) monaka or icecream monaka. (Google monaka in "images" to see some examples).

This monaka however is one-sided. The wafer is on the bottom and the air-in chocolate (very similar to a mousse) is on the top. Unfortunately my monaka melted on the way to me so the face of the panda was distorted.

 

The flavour written on the wrapper of this product is "strawberry milk" however the air-in chocolate was milk chocolate and strawberry flavours, represented by the brown and pink areas.

The wafer part of this monaka made a satisfying crunch when bitten into and the chocolate was soft and fluffy. The flavour was very strong on both the chocolate and strawberry. My husband also had a couple of bites of this and unfortunately it was over too soon. We would have liked more!

It's a delightful treat, and very cute too. It's easy to eat and comes on a tray inside the package so you can eat it over the top of the tray without making a mess.

I think this snack would appeal to people of all ages from children to adults. Even if you aren't into "cute", the flavours are there and it's a snack that's quite different to anything we can get in Australia.

The Kabaya website states they have two more flavours of this monaka - Chocolate and Strawberry. In all I was very pleased with this snack and would definitely like to try the other two flavours.


Thank you to Oyatsu Cafe for providing this product for review. You can buy this chocolate monaka at their store for $1.99 by following this link.

Oyatsu Cafe - Online Japanese Snack Store

When I started this blog in January of 2009 there was only a couple of places that sold Japanese snacks online, and after each post I had many people emailing me asking where I got the product from. In the last couple of years as more and more people have become interested in Japanese snacks and candy, I've noticed online Japanese snack stores popping up all over the place.

As I don't live in Japan, and we only have one small Japanese supermarket here in Perth (that are way too expensive), I too have to rely on sellers in Japan. Just like any other customer I am interested in a store that has a wide variety of snacks, as well as good value and great customer service. Out of all the online snack stores I have bought from over the years, I can usually get one or two out of 3 of these points, but never all 3.

So when Oyatsu Cafe approached me and offered up some snacks for review I jumped at the chance. I love reviewing Japanese snacks of course, but I also want to help my readers find a place where they can buy and request all the Japanese snacks they are seeking at a store that cares about them as a customer and and a place where they can get value for money.

If this is the first time you have heard about Oyatsu Cafe then let me fill you in. They are a family run online Japanese snack store that operates out of Chiba. Their team is made up of multi-cultural staff who all have a love for Japanese snacks.

Oyatsu Cafe also have a rewards system whereby you gain discounts for repeat orders. After an order is placed and processed you will have several points credited to your account. On your next order you can use these to get a discount on your total order price.

Oyatsu Cafe Website

The Oyatsu Cafe Website is very nice to look at they even have a cute Shiba Inu as their mascot. The layout is very easy to navigate and since the time they opened they have gradually been adding more and more products. They also accept customer requests for specific items.

Oyatsu Cafe are very active on social media such as Facebook and Twitter and also have their own blog where they talk about new products and Japan. In this way I feel they are very transparent as a company because they put themselves out there to interact with their consumers. 

One thing I really like about Oyatsu Cafe is the fact that you can order "extras" such as to have Japanese stamps on the parcel instead of just the printout from the post office. This may seem like a trivial thing but it personalizes the transaction and for customers with an avid interest in Japan it adds that special touch. You also have the ability to request what kind of stamp you would like. 

Today I received my parcel of goodies from Oyatsu Cafe. It was packed very well with newspaper, so that all of the items arrived in perfect condition. Over the next couple of weeks I will be reviewing the items contained in the box. In the mean time, why don't you pay Oyatsu Cafe a visit? 

Yummy snacks from Oyatsu Cafe

 

Kellog's Brown Rice Flake Matcha Milk ケロッグ 玄米フレーク 抹茶ミルク

I purchased this pack of Matcha Milk Brown Rice Flakes at the same time as I purchased my previous review (Brown Sugar & Honey).

As the Brown Sugar & Honey Flakes were very healthy tasting, I was reluctant to taste this Matcha Milk (Green Tea & Milk) variety, so they have sat around on my desk for a while, staring at me every time I turned the computer on.

I finally summoned up the courage to taste them, only to find that they're not that bad. Because they have Matcha powder inside, the texture is a lot better than the Brown Sugar & Honey Flakes. You can really taste the Matcha flavour, and the texture of the powder in there, along with the crunch of the biscuit.

Matcha Milk Flakes don't come across quite as healthy as the Brown Sugar & Honey Flakes do. I could tell it was still cereal based, but the Matcha Milk texture and flavour masked it quite well to the point I felt like I was just eating a savoury snack. There is only a very vague sweetness in this biscuit, when it becomes soft in the mouth, but it seems like there is only grape sugar added and that is in the middle of the list of ingredients so it doesn't play a big part.

Everyone knows I'm a Matcha Freak but I can tell you it didn't make me biased towards this product. I was expecting it to be just as healthy if not worse than the previous review. I was pleasantly surprised to find that healthy doesn't have to be bland.

Kellogg's Brown Rice Flake Brown Sugar & Honey ケロッグ 玄米フレーク 黒糖＆ハニー

I was browsing at Japanese snacks on Rakuten when I came across this packet of brown rice flakes made by Kellogg's. Kellogg's are familiar to me as the brand of cereal my son most likes, they make a lot of breakfast foods that are popular in Western countries. I was a little bit surprised to see that they make this kind of snack for the Japanese market and in such a Japanese flavour!

This pack weighs 40g and I'm pretty sure it's just one serving. Brown sugar, which in Japanese is pronounced "kokuto" and originates from Okinawa, is made by boiling down sugar cane until it has a deep rich brown colour. In Okinawa it's known as a health food and lots of people take it to ward off fatigue. Added into this mix is honey which on the packet it is said to match with the brown sugar very well.

What I thought of as a snack when I purchased it, is actually a type of breakfast food and on the back of the packet they refer to it as "cereal". I'm not sure if Kellogg's want you to eat it with milk, with a cup of tea, or by itself. But as they refer to it as a "biscuit", I think I might just eat it that way.

Opening the packet there is a strong smell of molasses and a sweet scent. Each biscuit is quite flat,
and measures 3cm long x 2.5cm wide. There are 14 biscuits inside. When I bite into a biscuit there is a satisfying snap and crunch. The first thing I taste is oats, and sure enough when I look on the ingredients list there is oat flour used.

The big punch of brown sugar and honey flavour that I expected is not there. The brown sugar is only apparent right at the very end, with a vague sweetness that must be the honey. The smell of the brown sugar is actually stronger than the flavour in this biscuit which is a disappointment. The oat flour here is the star of the show, and although I don't mind it, it reminds me more of a muesli bar than what it is supposed to be.

It does taste healthy, so if that is what Kellogg's were going for then they nailed it. It just doesn't live up to the image on the pack of a big pile of brown sugar covered in oozing honey. It's only a vague representation of that.

I must admit, I ate the whole pack. They were somewhat moorish, I do like oats, and I don't think anyone else in my house will eat them. Personally, I would have to eat these while having a drink as they made me quite thirsty. I guess a nice cold glass of milk or a hot cup of tea would do the trick.

If you have tried these, what did you think? 

Fujiya Strawberry Shortcake Chocolates 不二家 苺ショートケーキチョコ

I've been saving this box of chocolates. I received it from a friend in Japan a while back but I held onto it because the box is so pretty.

These chocolates are based on Japanese style strawberry shortcakes which are usually made from a soft sponge cake with layers of strawberries and cream. I find a Japanese shortcake to be much less sweet than a Western version.

Japanese style Strawberry Shortcake courtesy of Google

They are made by Fujiya - a well known sweets manufacturer in Japan. Their mascot is Peko-chan - a girl in pigtails with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth.

The top of the box is one big photograph featuring shortcakes. In the middle is an image of what the chocolate is supposed to look like. A biscuit layer on the bottom, followed by cream, then a layer of strawberry, covered in milk chocolate with a fleur-de-lis imprinted into the top.

Inside the box, each chocolate is encased in a bright strawberry red packet, there are 9 in the box.

The chocolate is quite a good size, 3cm diameter, and 1cm high. It smells milk chocolate mixed with strawberry. Biting into it the first thing I tasted was strawberry, but it wasn't very sweet. In fact the second flavour I tasted was the chocolate, and although it looks like milk, it tastes quite dark. The chocolate was much stronger than the strawberry so it was overpowered. In regards to texture, the biscuit on the bottom is crumbly, so biting into it there is the taste of strawberry and a texture of crumbly biscuit, then the dark chocolate. I couldn't really taste the cream element, that was somewhere in there with the strawberry and probably contributes more to the texture than the flavour.

Although it didn't have nearly as much strawberry in there as I expected, it's actually very accurate to what a Japanese style shortcake is like (minus the chocolate). I find the sweetness in a shortcake is downplayed, to the point of being non-existent.

If you find strawberry flavoured chocolate, or chocolates in general are too sweet for your tastes, then I'm sure you would like these. I would like these when I'm dieting because they don't make you crave for more. Each chocolate will set you back 38.8 calories, which I think is pretty good.

Caramel Nuts Tirol (Premium) キャラメルナツ チロル

So here is my last blog about Tirol for now. I've managed to review quite a lot of different Tirol flavours during 2012 and that's all thanks to a very kind friend in Tokyo who sent them over to me during the year. So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her so much for her kindness, not just for the Tirol and all the other snacks she sent me but for her friendship and support. Thank you so much S! :)

Caramel Nuts....it sounds pretty good and it's one of those combinations that is used over and over by confectionery makers the world over. Just think of Snickers and Picnic for starters. 

When I opened this Tirol I couldn't smell anything but a sweet scent. However when I bit into it I could smell Snickers! It smells just like it!! The chocolate on the outside is a caramel colour and there is a layer of dark chocolate on the bottom followed by a biscuit piece, peanuts, caramel and then chocolate. There is a lot going on in this chocolate, that's for sure!

Sadly, the flavour just wasn't as good as a Snickers. The chocolate and caramel were just so sweet, that even though the nuts were plentiful, it just wasn't that good. I really feel like the peanuts needed some salt to balance out the sweetness, then we could have had that salty peanut butter and chocolate combination going on.

I'm kind of sad that this one didn't live up to my expectations either. I usually really enjoy the Tirol chocolates. I will be looking forward to trying some new ones in 2013.

If you have tried some Tirol chocolates this year, what were your favourite?