Calpis steamed bum

It has been a long time since I've post my last review. I apologize for such delay, but life has been.... quite unpredictable. After exams, I returned home, Bangkok. Then, the earthquake and tsunami happened, which is so devastating. I then started the second semester of my first year, and I barely had anytime. Anyway, I'm back, and hoping to post at least 3 times a month. I've also started a part-time job (バイト) at Mister Donuts, in the bakery, so I do all kind of stuff like dip the donuts in chocolate, put in the cream and custard, etc.

Recently, during 春, spring, I have discovered that Yamasaki (ヤマサキ) made a seasonal bun (during winter, there was a strawberry bun, which I LOVE), and for spring, they made a Calpis (カルピス) series. At first, my friend and I thought it would be interesting to give it a try, as we both love Calpis Water. After tasting, I however was tremendously disappointed.

I tried Calpis steamed bun, but there are various kinds such as sandwich bread, or soft round type bread which are usually eaten with butter.

The texture of the steam bun was nothing particularly different than other steamed bun, the smell of the Calpis however was quite strong. I found that the taste of the Calpis was too strong for my liking, and I would have preferred for the Calpis smell and taste to have been minimal.

However, my Japanese friend loves all of the Calpis series bread, especially the steamed bun, so maybe it was just me, and my friend who could not stand the strong smell and taste of the Calpis in the bread.

I would obviously not buy any of the Calpis bread series, but I urge those who can gets their hands on, to give it a try. Quite a unique experience, if I may say.

Have a good summer holiday everyone! Beppu is going through a typhoon at the moment, the wind is SOOO strong I swear I would fly away if I was 5-10 kg. lighter! :P

Papico パピコチョココーヒー

Once again, I went missing for a month and a half. My excuse is life got really busy, and I was behind in testing out new sweets.

Even though it is still winter (冬) in Japan, that doesn't mean I would stop trying sweets that are stored in the freezer. In other word, ice-cream or ice-block.

You could say that Papico is one of the most common ice-block I see APU students eat. Mostly not during winter though.

To explain the ice-block in a simple description, Papico is a mixture of frozen chocolate and coffee.

As for the taste (味) of the product, I think it's... seriously delicious! The ice-block isn't too sweet, and I have a sense that during summer, I will purchase this product, daily. (hopefully, only once a day, as I don't think I can afford more...)

The price range of Papico is around a hundred yen. I think it's a price worthy.

As for eating ice-cream or anything that will freeze your brain, I don't suggest in doing so unless you are as crazy, or more, than I am.

パピコは本当に美味しかった。やばいなぁぁぁぁ。

Till the next time kiddies!

Tokyo Banana (東京ばな奈)

It has been awhile since I've updated, and I apologize for that. College seems to have got the better of me, and wow, it's 2011. Happy New Year everyone.

During the Christmas break, most of my friends went back home to celebrate the holiday with their family, however, some did leave to travel to various parts of Japan. 

Luckily, some friends did managed to travel to Tokyo for their holiday, and when they came back, I got to taste Tokyo Banana from the first time.

I have never been a fan of banana made sweets. It may have been caused by the fact that I had to swallowed down banana flavored Bactrim many times when I was a child. However, Tokyo Banana isn't one of those sweets.

At first, the cream inside the soft cake did give me the impression of the Bactrim, but it was soon overridden by the deliciousness of the snack itself. 

Within 20 seconds, I was able to consume not one, but three pieces of Tokyo Banana I was given.

I later found out that there are other kind of products that are classified as Tokyo Banana such as Tokyo Banana biscuits. I adore those because they were so good, especially the chocolate ones. (with banana cream filling of course)

If I do go to Toyko, I certainly will bring back a whole lots of Tokyo Banana. 

わっふる (Waffles) Poudre

Today's post is going to be different from the earlier ones. Instead of focusing solely on a snack, I'll be talking more about how to get to the place where the snack is.

APU → Oita


From APU, you have to take a bus (Line 50 or 51) to Beppu Station (別府駅). If you don't have a student ticket then it cost 430 yen.

Then, you catch a train to Oita （大分）which cost 270 yen. (540 yen for a round trip)

Even before you get to Oita, to do some shopping therapy, you can see that it is pretty expensive just to get there.

But the thing is... it's good to escape a small city such as Beppu once in a while. Just to change the scenery.

わっふる (Waffles) Poudre

On my first time in Oita, I did not dare to try the waffles as I found out it was not ice cream inside the waffles, but cream. Some of you may wonder why that is off putting for me, but I have never been a big fan of cream.

However, on my third time in Oita, I finally had the courage to try on the dessert because its' picture on the menu is so appealing.

The shop is located in the shopping area, very close to the Oita Station. If you see 'Zeus, The Amusement' building, it is right next to that. 

I chose a very basic flavor waffle, milk cream waffle. It is the cheapest on the menu and it only consist of cream, while others have fruits or some kind of pastes in them.

Half of the waffle cost 150 yen, and I thought that was pretty expensive. Usually, I don't mind the price as long as it is somewhat filling or worth its' price.

Close by to the waffle shop is a Starbuck store, so my friend and I went in for some hot drink on a somewhat cold day. 

I ordered a hot cocoa, which cost 410 yen. I would pay for this than buying the 110 yen canned one, because those ones taste like water. Seriously, I don't know why they are so watered down, but all of the canned cocoa I've tasted so far are certainly not what I've expected them to be, and that's in a bad way.

Despite the price of my afternoon snack, I thought the waffle went really well with the hot cocoa. When eating with hot drink, I thought the milk cream in the waffle was smooth, and not too overwhelming. It was simply perfect. By the last bite, I was contemplating whether to run out of Starbucks and get another one. Overall, I was happy with the waffle despite its' maddening price.

Here are some pictures I've taken while I was in Starbucks.

Vegetable & Fruit Juice by Kagome

Today, I'm not going to be talking about a sweet. Instead, I'll be review Kagome's vegetable and fruit juice. 野菜

I've never been a fan of vegetable juice. Let's say my first impression of carrot juice was... "Umm. Ewww. No more."

However, I was shopping at Hirose a couple of weeks back, and got really thirsty. Initially, I was going to buy water, but then I saw the small-ish pocket size juice, that my friend made me tried it a couple of days back. (whom I will have to thanked... big time!)

I'm not too sure if many will like this juice, because well, it's quite watered down. The taste is not as prominent or as concentrate as others I've tasted back in Thailand.

Apparently, it has 21 different vegetable juice, and 3 fruit juice in it. One of the funniest thing seems to be that this particular juice has eggplant (なす) juice in it as well. I mean, it would be true, and all, but I haven't heard of eggplant juice before...

At first, when I noticed that there were a list of fruits and vegetables on the carton (with pictures), I got a bit TOO excited, and tried to guess from the pictures what's the name of the vegetables in English. Yes, it was very silly, and no, I couldn't guess what all of it are.

I purchase a 1L carton for 425 yen at Marushouku, but this week, I saw it at Hirose for 180 yen. At ¥180, I think is quite reasonable, and affordable.

Overall, I don't think the juice taste amazing, but I guess at least, I'm drinking something that is considered to be healthy.

Chanoka (Langues de chat) by Malebranche

Since arriving in Japan, I've become quite a shopper for snacks or sweets. This however, was not originally discovered by me, but indeed, by my parents. They were in Kyoto for a couple of days after sending me off to the beautiful (きれい), but rather quiet (しずかな) town, Beppu.

After a few weeks of talking about the so called 'delicious green tea biscuits' they brought it back home to Thailand with them, I was offered a chance to order the Langues de chat online! (Have I told you how much I love the fact that I own a piece of plastic that is called credit card?? XD)

After the few days of going online, and trying to read all the information on the website that is ONLY in Japanese, I've come to a conclusion that I needed help. I went to a senpai (senior student), and asked him to translate and place an order. Funnily enough, he taught me a valuable lesson, and that is, 'google translation' can save your life. I mean, the thing can translate almost anything. Of course, there are times that the translation piece makes no sense at all, but most of the time, you can understand what it is trying to tell you.

Langues de chat are classic French butter cookies. You often see them beside ice-cream in restaurants. They are sometimes known as 'Cat's Tongues' because of its' oval shape.

A box of 茶の果 (Chanoka) [30 pcs] at a price of ¥3,780, with an extra ¥427 for shipping. However, the product also comes in 5, 10, 16 (comes in a beautiful metal box, which my friends have convinced me that it won't be much use after I've eaten all the biscuits), and 20 pieces.

After you purchase the product, you will get one confirmation email, that order has been sent to the company. After a few days or so, you will receive the 2nd email that contains the shipping code, so that you can check online about your purchase's whereabout.

Not even a week after I've ordered Chanoka, the product was delivered to me, refrigerated.

Here's the package.

Now, onto the inside of the package. 

In a way, 茶の果  is two pieces of thin green tea biscuits with white chocolate between them. On your first bite, you may be shock by how strong the green tea flavor is, without realizing the smoothness of the white chocolate. However, on your second bite, you would be able to feel the richness of the chocolate that is well balanced by the green tea biscuits. 

There is a bit of an aftertaste of the green tea itself, but overall, I thought it was worth every ¥127 for each pieces of Chanoka!

TIPS: Before eating, if it has been stored in the fridge, put it outside for awhile before eating, as it makes the chocolate soften, and personally, I find that it's taster when you eat it when it's not so hard, and cold.

Whenever I have the chance to travel around Japan, I definitely would make a pit stop in Kyoto to visit Malebranche, and try other famous sweets!

For those who are interested in Chanoka or Malebranche, please visit their site.

Introduction

Hi. I'm Nat, and I'm a university student at APU in Beppu, Japan. I enjoy trying new sweets and snacks. I'll try to review one kind of snack every week, but no promises.