MaruKyo Ketchup French Fries

 こんばんは！

I'm reviewing a surprising Japanese snack today....MaruKyo's ketchup french fries! I picked these up for a little variety at Mitsuwa for $1.99. I tend to pick up a lot of sweet snacks and so I figured I needed to spice it up...plus the packaging is kind of cool.

 

This snack is made by Maru Kyo, which is a Japanese food company, although these particular "french fries" are manufactured in Taiwan. I prefer having the entirety of the treat made in Japan but there is just something equally enticing and frightening about "ketchup" flavored anything.

 

(Little sticks of heaven...also, I think my photography skills have slightly improved)

Have any of you tried French's potato sticks? These are pretty much the same aside from the ketchup flavoring. I was not predisposed to thinking this snack was going to be delicious. I've already reviewed Bourbon's tomato crackers and they tasted like powdered marinara sauce. These. Were. Amazing. They were crispy and the ketchup REALLY tasted like ketchup. I was shocked! The flavor was not overpowering, but just right and somehow they avoided making it taste like fake tomato.

While the whole bag is one serving, I divided it up into some smaller ones. I had to really exercise some self control, you could easily consume the whole snack in a minute or two.

Sidenote: Odango

I decided to go all out on my Mitsuwa trip last week and buy a pre-packaged sweet I've only read about in manga/seen in anime etc. Now, I've had takoyaki and taiyaki and various other snacks popular in daily life in Japan, but odango are something I've not often come across. This package of three skewers was $3.49 in a refrigerated display.

I wasn't really sure what to expect since I did not read up on the details before I purchased them. They are comprised primarily of rice flour and doused in a savory/sweet brown sauce. On further study after the fact, I discovered this particular serving is called mitarashi dango.

Now, I've had cakes made of rice flour before and was not a fan of the sticky, chewy, and flavorless experience. Aside from the brown sauce, I felt the same about these. They are SO sticky that a good portion continued to stick to the skewer even after I tried to eat it. Now, I don't know if it was just these particular odango, but I certainly was not a fan. They weren't terrible but the cultural experience was the only redeeming factor.

Namennayo Card & Gum

こんにちは！

I took a trip up to Mitsuwa this morning and picked this treat up without any hesitation. It's a cat dressed up in clothing AND comes with a card with MORE pictures of cats dressed in clothing. How odd and awesome! It cost a little more than I like spending on small treats ($2.19 to be exact) but sometimes the adventure is worth a few more cents, right?

 

I did a little research on this and it seems a guy named Satoru Tsuda started this trend of taking photos of cats dressed in clothing back in the 1980s. I'm assuming there has been a revival or something since this gum and collector's card just came out.

(There are apparently some super secret 3D ones I didn't luck into getting)

The cats on the card I got are dressed as deliquent Japanese school students, hence the bandanas and unbuttoned shirts.

 

The back features the license of the cat "Chibisuke"...I'm guessing he's the smallest of the cats by his name.

 

The pack comes with a piece of gum that is simply bubblegum flavored. It was pretty soft and tasty, though the flavor lasted approximately 20 seconds.

 

I love purchasing things with a sticker or card...it's a super cute, relatively inexpensive way to sell candy and get kids (or people like me ;) ) to buy more. I wish I saw stuff like this in America!

Tenkei Strawberry Marshmellow

こんにちは！

aaaaaaaaaand, we're back! The new camera has arrived and so I am back on track with normal updates. Sorry for the long delay! My old camera went missing in action for a while. I'm not a great photographer anyways so please be kind while I figure this one out.

 

(pafu to ichigo- puff and strawberry)

For today's treat we have Tenkei Strawberry Marshmallows. I've seen this sort of treat around forever, but this is honestly the first time I've tried it. When not for blogging or novelty's sake, I'm slightly more cautious on which treats to spend my money and these stuffed flavored marshmallows just sort of weirded me out. Now, don't get me wrong, I actually love Peeps, but there was something about grape and cola flavored packaged puffs that did not sit right with me.

Each marshmallow is individually wrapped and there are 3 marshmallows per suggested serving which amounts to about 34 kcals per puff. Not terrible if you have a sweet tooth.

I sort of found this treat to be mediocre. I didn't hate it but I probably won't go back for seconds.  It's VERY sweet and is more reminiscent of a strawberry ice cream strawberry flavor. The marshmallow is softer than your average Jet-Puffed brand marshmallow and the inner strawberry filling is creamy, though a bit chalky. There is also a sweet powder covering the puff that likes to stick to your fingers (and then to your brand new camera while photographing said treat).