BK's Black Burger and McDonald's KitKat Strawberry Flurry (Product Info.)

There are two things to mention today. One is that, on Friday, September 28, Burger King is offering a limited edition burger with a black bun. This has been mentioned in a lot of other news outlets that are far bigger than my blog so I don't want that to be the only focus of this post. The burger is to bring attention to the fact that it is Burger King's 5th anniversary in Japan. The thing is, it's not really their 5th anniversary. Burger King was in Japan far earlier, but they failed and disappeared then returned. They opened their first business in 1982 and closed in 2001, so this celebrates the last 5 successful years from 2007-2012. It's a little like Liz Taylor's two marriages to Richard Burton and pretending the first time never happened.

Image taken from Burger King Japan's press release on their web site.

The burger's bun is black because it has been mixed with squid ink. I'm sure that'll get your mouths watering. There is also something about bamboo charcoal being used to bring out the flavor of the burger and the bun. Some outlets are mistakenly reporting that the buns are black because of the charcoal, but I think that's a mistake as they'd have to be burned to a crisp to be so black due to any sort of cooking. There's also paprika as part of the flavor profile.

If I were still in Japan, I wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole because I don't eat beef. My husband probably would have tried it, but I'm guessing even he might have been put off by the notion of squid ink in his food. I'm sure that it's far less disgusting than it sounds, but it sounds fairly gross. Anyway, by the time you read this, the burger will be finished since it'll only be available in limited quantities for one day.

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Image taken from McDonald's web site.

On the side of BK's rival, McDonald's, there is a somewhat more compelling item. They're selling a "MacFlurry" which is blended with strawberry sauce and little bits of KitKat. I don't know if it is a coincidence, but this is being released on the same day as the black burger (September 28). It's available for 230 yen ($3.07) from 10:30 am and can't be had at all shops, but it will be around for longer than a single day.

The image makes it appear that the bits of KitKat are actually pretty tiny. This isn't surprising since too much candy in it would make the result too sweet for Japanese tastes. The big focus is on the strawberry sauce. If anyone in Japan gives this a try, I'd be curious about the sweetness level and the textural aspects. It seems like very little of the wafers would come through with such specks of KitKat as shown here.

Random Picture #132

Click to see a larger version and read the heartfelt message on the package.

I never bought Sanritsu's "Genji Pie", but I was given plenty of snacks of the exact same type throughout my employment at a Japanese company. Such pies are not very sweet, very flaky and have varying degrees of margarine or butter flavoring. My husband is a fan of such treats, but they don't tend to do much for me. I think it's the fact that they're always shedding bits of pie off like errant dandruff with every bite. I should note, incidentally, that one of my strongest memories of my earliest visit to Japan relate to the blueberry pie that Sanritsu made. It was one of the few snacks that my husband trusted before he understood what he was buying.

The message on the package is of special interest to me because, though the English is correct, the message is the sort that you would only find in Japan. It's so genuine and inappropriately warm for a product, especially a shelf-stable mass produced flaky pie-crust cookie. It's not like it was lovingly crafted by teams of grandmas, or even Lucyesque wacky grandmas trying comically to quickly make these pies on the conveyor belt. No, it's the cold hand of technology that is attempting to warm me up, and it can't do it with a mere pie.

Taiko Brown Sugar Sticks

The translation of the word "bo" to English from Japanese is usually "stick", but a better translation of these would be "tube". In America, I can't think of any snack that is commonly sold in this format, to be honest. In Japan, there are both savory and sweet airy, crispy tubes to be had. The style allows you to present a large-sized snack without giving a heavy volume. It's easy to eat one or two and be satisfied and have the illusion that you've eaten a decent amount without putting away too many calories. I'm sure that really has nothing to do with why these are formed as tubes, but it is a little side benefit.

Thinking about this makes me wish I could have visited a factory at which this style of snack was made. The most popular "bo" snacks are made by Yaokin, a maker of oily, spicy corn-based tubes sold in foil packages with colorful cartoons on them. I'm guessing they would have been the most likely to allow for a factory tour, but I'm not sure they'd want my gaijin (foreigner) cooties nosing around their nice, clean corn snack facility. At the very least, they probably would require me to put on a hazmat suit and an industrial-sized hair net (I have a lot of hair).

Getting back to the point, I'm guessing these are tube-shaped because they are prepared on some sort of spindle. The hole in the center is likely whatever pole they're baked around. The fact that they're oblong means the batter droops off of the stick they're hanging on as they're prepared. It is likely an old-fashioned way of making things which America never adapted as it's a younger culture and most of what we have is shaped by the cold hand of technology and the assembly line rather than a process designed to be manipulated by human hands. It feels like a bit of cultural anthropology to over-think this, but it does seem that older cultures that build their cuisine on what was once a single portion size made by and sold by hand and sold to individuals that continue the same size even in the mechanical age have a leg up on portion control. History plays a part in such things, I believe.

This is my second go at Taiko's stick snacks and they earned my trust with the sweet potato cookies I sampled before. Just as I scored those at the Daiso Japan in Mountain View, I scored these. It was a toss up between a vanilla flavor and brown sugar and this won by virtue of being on sale for a dollar/78 yen (marked down from $1.50/117 yen). Also, I love brown sugar, though it's important to note that Japanese brown sugar is different from that in America. It's hard to quantify a flavor difference, but there is either less molasses in it or a different sort in the Japanese variety.

These sticks didn't taste as I expected. Mainly, I expected a more profound sweetness (though they are sweet, don't get me wrong) and stronger brown sugar flavor. The odd thing is that they were rather less sweet than the sweet potato ones despite being essentially sugar-flavored. I also felt that, while black sesame seeds (goma) paired extremely well with the sweet potato version, it wasn't quite so natural a complement to brown sugar. That is not to say that these are bad at all. They're perfectly serviceable and have the same satisfying crispiness and light airy quality as the other one I tried and less sweetness didn't necessarily mean they weren't good. The main drawback was that there was an odd taste which I would say was somewhat caramel-like or coffee-like which I could not pin down. I didn't care much for that flavor. I'm guessing it is something about how they are baked that creates it, not an actual additive since the ingredients list is brown sugar, sugar, wheat flour, bread crumbs, corn grits, vegetable oil, sesame, caramel color and soybeans.

I liked these pretty well, but not as much as the sweet potato variety. I love the texture and crunch of this line of snacks and will definitely try other varieties, but this isn't a flavor I'm likely to try again if I have other options. If I have no other choice, I would definitely get these again though rather than eschew them.

Temple of Heaven Gunpowder Green Tea

I've heard for years that the Chinese eat all sorts of weird things, and I've known for some of those years that things like 1,000 year old eggs aren't actually as nasty as they sound. Some other things, like bird's nest soup, are even worse than they may appear. FYI, 1,000 year-old eggs are preserved for a mere 100 days, which is somewhat less gross than those ten times older. Bird's nest soup, which sounds like some sort of crunchy Euell Gibbons bark-eating extravaganza that'll keep your bowels in working order, is made with a nest that is made with saliva, which is an incredibly disgusting notion.

Keeping in mind that oddly named Chinese food is an adventure, I found it hard to walk away from this box of "special gunpowder" green tea when I found it on the shelf of a middle eastern market for a mere $1.89. The market, if anyone is interested and in the area, is in Santa Clara, CA and is called "Zad Grocery". I mention it mainly because this is a very low price for this tea compared to what I found for it via online sellers. Amazon carries it for $5.69, but I'm guessing that ethnic groceries in various areas would offer a more competitive price just as Zad Grocery did for me.

When I bought this, I didn't really believe it was going to include gunpowder. Well, I sort of felt it might be. After all, bird's nest soup does include a spit-based bird's nest. Sometimes things are what they sound like. However, before I set the tea a steepin', I investigated it to see what the deal was and it is one of those things which has a name based on appearance rather than on ingredients. The tea leaves are rolled such that they resemble gunpowder. No actual gunpowder was to be ingested. Part of me was relieved. Part was disappointed. The latter part must be some sort of suicidal streak for which I should seek some sort of psychological intervention.

As for this tea, one thing I was careful about was the steeping time. I know from experience that over-steeping green tea of any sort can render it undrinkable. While overdoing black tea (English tea) can make it bitter and involve large lashings of milk to off-set the tannin overload, it completely kills green tea if you let it soak too long. I used a timer and watched the color and it seemed that around a minute and a half worked well for my tastes. It was strong enough for some distinct flavor, but not at a funkified state. Note that I used a tea ball infuser and only about half a teaspoon of tea leaves so there was plenty of room for them to bloom as it steeped. I also swished the infuser around several times during the steeping. The water was a shade below boiling.

I usually don't make hot tea in this sort of glass, but I had to use something clear to show the color. I risked burning my hand for my dubious "art". 

Note that I read awful reviews of this on Amazon from people who claimed that there was "dirt" in the tea. My guess is that they expected it to be like Japanese green tea which is, well, green. I've had "golden" green tea from Hong Kong before and it is actually brown. This tea is also brown. That's not because it's dirty or has dirt in it, but because that's rather a natural color for certain types of tea including black teas. You'd think people would be a little less freaked out by brown tea after years of Tetley and Lipton in their cups, but I guess they took the "green tea" part literally (though I'm guessing they didn't get nearly so worked up that it wasn't a box full of gunpowder and that that was not something they took literally).

 The smell and taste of the tea reminded me strongly of oolong tea. It had just a hint of chlorophyll which moved it a notch closer to Japanese green tea, but it's such a vague whisper that I may even have imagined it. This is a very serviceable tea for those who like it straight and with a vague almost "roasted" flavor and earthy highlights. I've heard that oolong tea is made by allowing the leaves to wither on the vine a bit, and I think that is what separates it from Japanese green tea.

I wouldn't say this is the most incredible tea I have ever had, but it is tasty and suits one on a cool autumn evening or a cold winter night. I imagine it'd be just as good or possible better served cold in summer. If you can get it economically, as I did, it's absolutely worth a try. I'm not sure I'd pay more for it than oolong tea, but I wouldn't mind always having a box around for when the mood strikes me, and I'm guessing drinking it may have some health benefits as well. Besides, having a box of it on your shelf is sure to be a conversation starter for those evenings when you're entertaining boring guests or relatives.

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Photo courtesy of BlogD. (used with permission)

Have you ever asked yourself what the next frontier in coffee should be? It already has had milk, sugar, and various flavors added to it. The beans are roasted to various shades and harvested from different areas of the world. You can eat the beans by themselves coated in various candies, you can steep them in water, and chill the result or consume it hot (but never, ever reheat it!). You can bake it into a muffin, add it to a brownie, even put it in sauces for savory dishes. There is one thing that I personally believe that you should not do to coffee, but clearly, Suntory begs to differ. I don't believe that you should ever carbonate it. This has to be one of the most disgusting concepts I've ever heard of. Now, I'll just wait for Suntory to perform the same evil on tea.