Kanikko Crab Snack - Eating Baby Crabs...

Well these were really a weird snack! This snack was bought for us by Emma Moosa and was essentially a bunch of tiny little deep fried crabs inside of some giant crab packaing. You can see what they looked like here: 

As you can see from the picture above, the crabs were presented in their entirety with their tiny legs, claws, shells and even eyes intact (presumably their tiny little brains too...). On top of that, these were not a variation of the ever popular "soft shell crabs" that are served in Japanese and some other Asian restaurants all year round, but rather appear to be regular hard shelled crabs just in small sized and fried to crispy. As a result they were still pretty tough and brittle, as Arne described "it was like eating teeth". The flavour was intensely fishy and they were pretty stinky to boot.

Overall this was very far from being a tasty snack and I think was a pretty gruesome experience for all involved. Check out our video review to see our full reactions and meet our special guest star Emma:  

Check out all our reviews of bizarre Asian snacks, foods and drinks here: Crazy from Kong!
And you can check out my blog here: Spencer Douglass Blog

Every Burger - The World's Teeny-Tiny Smallest Burger!

I gotta say I LOVE tiny things!!! They just look so awesome and cute, and no more so than when they are super detailed and accurate replicas of the usually much bigger things they represent. No one is better at making amazing, incredibly tiny things than the Japanese. Their bizarre obsession with detail to the most minute level is perfect for the extra-small industry and as a result you can find almost everything in perfect miniature replication in Japan, eg: cars, robots, buildings and of course food! 

Now despite it's incredible accuracy in appearance, this is not actually a meat burger but rather is a tiny burger shaped cookie. The various component parts consist of the two "toasted sesame seed buns" which are essentially the cookie part, a dollop of thick chocolate which represents the "meat" and a third item representing the "cheese" slice which as far as I could tell after ripping apart multiple "burger" and licking off the cheese slice, seemed to be just butter or something made with a lot of butter. Every Burger is in fact available in two versions, one with cheese and one without! 

In Japanese these are known as "Eburi Bagaa" and they are made by the famous chocolate and cooke company Bourbon which was founded in 1924. As with almost all Japanese snack products this wonderful invention arrives in very attractive packaging, either a red or white box, with a small tray inside holding 8 of the cute little burgers and with a weird cow mascot printed on the inside of the lid. 

So as always the most important question is "how did they taste?" and the answer is they were absolutely delicious, completely fantastic!!! Both me and Arne agreed that these were among our top Japanese snacks ever (of which there are many many great ones). The combination of the incredible cuteness, the accuracy of detail and the scrumptious flavour combined with the fact that the "buns" actually tasted remarkably like real toasted sesame buns just blew us away. This is a product I would advise anybody to buy and try immediately if they have a chance. It's so much fun eating what exactly resemble super teeny-tiny little burgers and they really do taste good too! 

To see our full review and our reactions including Arne completing the world's Ultimate Burger Challenge, check out our video here: 

Check out all our reviews of bizarre Asian snacks, foods and drinks here: Crazy from Kong! 
And you can check out my blog here: Spencer Douglass Blog

Ume (梅酒) Sour Plum Soda Kit Kat - This Limited Edition Japanese Kit Kat is Flavoured with Sour Plum Alcohol !!!

Well this week it was time to review a really unusual Kit Kat which was a mix between a very traditional Japanese drink the Ume (梅酒) Sour Plum Soda and a traditional chocolate Kit Kat. You've got to credit Nestle with the their remarkable ability to come up with ever stranger, but interesting flavours. 

This time the Kit Kat bars themselves were a sort of toxic green colour to go along with the bright green and yellow coloured Japanese Plums on the cover of the box.

As far as flavour goes, I would say that it is very close to the original fruity inspiration, since the Kit Kat has the signature strong and odd sour and salty flavour of the Ume Plums and at the same time it has a bizarre flavour / texture / effect while you are eating it that could only be described as fizzy! It was a very strange experience for me eating this Kit Kats and not one I would call enjoyable. 

To see my full opinion on and reaction to this very unusual treat from Nestle Japan check out the review below: 

Check out my blog here: Spencer Douglass Blog

Kabaya Hard Stick Biscuits - These Sticks Are Hard and Sweet !!!

This week's episode of Crazy from Kong consists of a review of the rather unfortunately named "Hard Stick" from Kabaya, which is a type of cylindrical long thin biscuit basically copied from Pocky. The specific flavour we reviewed was Blueberry chocolate from their fruit series. 

I'm not a great fan of Kabaya snacks, as they generally taste like a cheap copycat of the much superior products of Glico and Lotte (Pretz, Pocky, Pepero). Some of the flavours sound interesting when you see them, but they don't seem to be able to carry them through to actual taste, unlike other quality Japanese products. 

Overall they are far from my favourites, but take a look at the review and see what you think:

Check out all our reviews of bizarre Asian snacks, foods and drinks here: Crazy from Kong!

And you can check out my blog here: Spencer Douglass Blog

Meiji Yan Yan Yoghurt Cream Snack Review!

Yan Yan is a pretty interesting kind of snack from Japan which essentially consists of a bunch of stick shaped biscuits and one or more types of a thick creamy frosting type substance to dip the biscuits into. The most common flavours are chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, though in this episode we are reviewing the yoghurt version. 

You can see what a Yan Yan package looks like inside here (I couldn't find a pic of the yoghurt version so this one is chocolate + strawberry called Yan Yan Duo):

The snack is made by Meiji Japan and has been around for some time, at least since I was a kid (I'm 38 now...) and is very popular throughout Asia. You can see how to eat this tasty snack here:

To see what Arne and I thought of the Meiji Yan Yan Yoghurt Cream Snack just check out our review from Crazy from Kong below: 

Check out all our reviews of bizarre Asian snacks, foods and drinks here: Crazy from Kong!

And you can check out my blog here: Spencer Douglass Blog

Our 3rd Review - Red Bean Cake !

For those of you who live in the West you have probably never eaten this sweet snack before, but it is extremely popular in Japan and other forms of it are also eaten throughout Asia, especially in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. You can see another more traditional version of red bean cake which is popular in Chinese territories, as well as Japan here: 

All red bean cakes are essentially made of a different type of outer layer usually either a modern sponge cake like covering or the more traditional glutinous rice based cake and then a filling of a type of thick "red bean jam" made from Azuki beans and sugar. 

The concept is not too dissimilar to the idea of a "Jammie Dodger" in England (a kind of jam filled biscuit) or Jelly Donuts in the States. But in this case instead of being made from a naturally sweet fruit based jam, the filling is produced from beans which would typically be used for making savoury dishes in the West.
To find out what we thought of the Japanese Red Bean Cakes we ate, check out our review below:

Check out all our reviews of bizarre Asian snacks, foods and drinks here: Crazy from Kong!

And you can check out my blog here: Spencer Douglass Blog