Cisco's Vanilla Cream Dacquoise Cookies

My husband spied these cookies while we perusing Family Mart convenience store ("konbini") before heading up to the counter to pay our utility bills. He picked up the last remaining bag and said they looked good, but then put them back. I had a look at the ingredients list, which started with sugar, then quickly went to eggs, shortening, almonds, and "sugar water" then flour and thought these looked like something of interest. Any time eggs or nuts are high on the list, I'm happy as that means they're generally a variation on some sort of European treat. I'm even happier if the eggs end up being part of a meringue base.

The package cost 105 yen ($1.25) for a mere three cookies. Each cookie is about 5 cm long and 4 cm wide (2" x 1.6"), so they're far from cheap despite being "konbini" fare. There was also a coffee variety and it had just one bag remaining. I don't know if this was a good sign or not, but we decided to go for the vanilla. They are made by Cisco's, a division of food producer Nissin. Previously, I had sampled and indifferently reviewed Cisco's sweet potato cookies. Each cookie is 49 calories.

I had never heard of dacquoise before buying these cookies so I didn't know what to expect aside from what we could see in the picture on the front of the bag which is misleading. The cookies are a sponge with a lightly crisp film on top filled with fatty whipped cream. They smell like vanilla and "sweetness". The cookies are tender inside and slightly spongey. The cream is soft, very, very sweet and has good vanilla flavor. It reminded me of the filling in some snack cake I may have eaten many, many years ago back home, but I can't remember which it might be.

This is a very nice little treat, but it is incredibly sweet. If you're sensitive to really sugary treats, you'll want to give this a miss, but it does make a lovely pairing with coffee and if you just eat one cookie at a time, it shouldn't be too overbearing. I truly enjoyed this and it has already been decided that we'll buy them again (likely sampling the coffee variety).

Morinaga Rare Cheese Dessert

There are two words that should serve as red flags to anyone seeking a snack treat. One of those words is "drink". If you find something which is called "orange drink" or "grape drink", you know that qualitatively you're going to be getting something which is closer to a lollipop in flavor and nutrition than the fruit the drink is based on. The other word is "dessert".

You'd think I would have seen this red flag, but I must have been colorblind and seen green instead when I picked up this box of "rare cheese dessert" at Yutakaraya for 189 yen ($2.22). I think that I was paying more attention to the 79 calories per serving rather than the product name. I was thinking "low-calorie cheesecake," rather than cheesecake-like substance. Silly, silly flower girl. Incidentally, "rare cheese" is what the Japanese use to describe New-York-style (unbaked) cheesecake.

Each tub contains what can best be described as cream-cheese-flavored gelatin. It's not quite as firm as American Jell-o, but it's also not the least bit creamy. The flavor is right on though. It does have all of the taste of the filling of cheesecake, but there is something which seems very "wrong" about it. Until you eat something with all of the flavor and none of the texture of cheesecake, you don't realize how integral the velvety, fatty goodness is to the experience. This tastes good, but ultimately doesn't satisfy. It is like semi-liquid sweetened cream cheese.

I don't mean to regard this product unfairly by giving it an "indifferent" rating. Morinaga did a very good job of approximating the flavor of cheesecake filling without the fat, calories, and crust. This was likely no small feat. However, I'm not sure the world really needs cream cheese gelatin, and I'm certain I won't buy this again.

Random Picture 31

Last month my husband attended the Koenji Awaodori festival and took some pictures including this shot of the Colonel in a hapi coat for the festivities. He's like a big Ken doll for the Japanese as they dress him differently depending on the occasion. The Koenji Awaodori festival has over a million visitors in 2 days and features folks doing traditional harvest dancing as well as, of course, food. The KFC people sold their usual dreck, but also had a big cooler full of overpriced drinks.

Summer has finally exited, and posting this picture of the Colonel in this uniquely Japanese (and common summer) attire is my way of telling it not to let the door hit it on the ass on the way out. This past summer was long, intense, and excruciating, and I'm glad it's finally over.

Kameda Roast Onion Kongari Snack

When I was a kid, I turned my nose up at things like onions. They were too strong tasting and I'd get annoyed when my parents would order pizzas with onions, or worse, slimy mushrooms. While I can't say I ever got into mushrooms (though I don't hate them anymore), I've grown to adore onions and probably eat them raw or in various dishes nearly everyday.

When I saw this "roast onion" snack at Okashi no Marche discount snack store for a paltry 100 yen ($1.16), I happily tossed it in my basket. The strange thing is that I had not seen this for sale at any convenience stores before and it is clearly one of Kameda's "convenience store (conbini) only" products. You can tell the difference because of the size. Conbini-only items often are small and meant to be single servings. This is 42 grams (about 1.5 oz.) and 174 calories.

There are two different crackers in the mix. The flat ones are all onion flavor and the round balls are supposed to be red pepper flavored. The onion chips taste a lot like the type of french-fried onion pieces you can buy in markets and use in cooking or food preparation. They are very "oniony", but also quite tasty if you love onion. The little ball-shaped crackers are not as hot as I expected them to be given that they have visible pepper flakes on them. They are a mixture of savory flavors, including soy sauce, parsley, and meat flavorings with a small amount of pepper heat. Eaten separately, you can clearly discern the flavor of each cracker. Eaten together, the onion nearly overwhelms both completely.

The crackers are fresh and have a strong flavor and quite enjoyable. That being said, they're not the sort of thing you sit around hankering for. I love onion, but perhaps not at this level of roasted intensity as a snack. I think onion works so well in cooking because it adds dimension to dishes. As the sole component and featured flavor, it is only good in small doses. I ate half this bag, really like it, and closed it up to finish another day.

If your really love onion, by all means, give this a try. However, I recommend having it with a drink and not having to kiss or speak in close quarters with anyone after eating it. I would buy this again, but not often, and not soon.

"Adult Sweetness" KitKat

There are so many jokes a reviewer could make about an "adult" KitKat in terms of marital aids, pornography, etc., but as someone who has been an adult for a long time, I'd say that there are bigger realities associated with adulthood. I'm talking about things like paying taxes, being fully responsible for any crimes you commit willfully or unwittingly (not that I've ever committed a crime...), and realizing that you are neither immortal nor invincible. If eating this KitKat conveyed the sense of your own mortality, it'd truly be "adult".

In the end though, this KitKat is a brilliant example of what most Japanese KitKats are these days; they are the product of a better team of marketers and graphic designers than creative cooks. The thing that makes this "adult" is that it isn't supposed to be as sweet as most KitKats. This is achieved solely through using a very mild dark chocolate coating instead of a milk chocolate one. If you are a fan of dark chocolate that gives you an intense hit, this isn't a bar for you. It's the sort of dark chocolate flavor that cocoa sissies can find palatable.

When I opened the package, the scent reminded me of the sort of dark chocolate that I used to get at Halloween time in the form of a Hershey's  miniature that someone tossed in my trick-or-treat bag. It tasted good, which is to say that it tastes like a KitKat with marginally less sweet dark chocolate. It's really such a subtle variation on the classic presentation that it's hardly worth noting.

If you like KitKats, you'll like this. It's good and costs the same as all Japanese KitKats (120 yen ($1.43) in convenience stores, 100 yen ($1.19) at Okashi no Machioka, where I got mine), but I would avoid it at all costs if you're considering paying a premium price for one via an importer. It's simply not interesting enough to pay more for. That being said, if you're living in Japan, it's about 5% more interesting than a regular KitKat and worth picking up as a change of pace.