Dragon Ball Biscuits - Son Goku's Favourite Snack!

Dragon Ball is AWESOME!!! In case you are not already aware of this fact, I can assure you now that Dragon Ball is one of the most AWESOME things ever invented! The adventures of Son Goku, Vegeta, Picolo, Kuririn, Trunks and the rest of the gang as they shoot around the universe fighting intergalactic criminals, world conquerors, sorcerers and general bad dude's are some of the most exciting and enthralling things I had the opportunity to enjoy when I was a kid. 

Yes, behold the awesome and crazy characters above, a wide mixture of the top heroes and villains from throughout the 291 episodes of Dragon Ball Z. Their enormous planet destroying struggles and smaller everyday family issues made up an enormously complicated and detailed storyline with intricate character interaction across over 115 hours of programming. As with many kids, this was my definition of a great animation. 

Unfortunately none of the above holds true for the Dragon Ball Biscuits. Unlike the cartoon which was highly original, varied and exciting, the biscuits were plain, unexciting and exactly the same no matter which of the multiple different characters biscuits you bought. In fact the biscuits were essentially an established biscuit that has been sold in Hong Kong since I was a young kid, rebranded with Dragon Ball imagery on the packet. Now don't get me wrong, it's a tasty biscuit, nothing wrong with it, but I couldn't help feeling cheated as I'd been greatly looking forward to discovering all sorts of exciting, wild and fantastic biscuits like the feeling of discovering the Dragon Ball universe itself. 

In any case check out the review here and see for yourself what these biscuits were all about: 

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

Product Rating:

Chocolate Sparkling - The Greatest Drink Ever!!!

Now THIS is a drink!!! Forget Coca-Cola, forget Cream Soda even A&W's Root Beer doesn't come close to this. And what is it exactly? A very limited edition high quality Chocolate Soda released by Suntory, the same company that produces some of the top quality whiskies in Japan and that Bill Murray works for in the awesome film "Lost in Translation". Well it seems like Suntory are not only skilled at producing fantastic whiskey, but are also able to apply their considerable skill to soft drinks too!

As you can see from the images above and below the packaging for the drink is also extremely premium, giving a sort of "Royal" feeling with it's crest of arms above the drink name and with the gold labeling. The drink has been released from time to time, sometimes with variations on the packaging, though I believe the last bottling was at least one and a half years ago.

So what is it that makes this drink so special? Well first of all it is delicious with an incredibly accurate rich smooth chocolate flavour that is not too sweet, but is still very concentrated. Secondly it is remarkable, as it totally clear more or less resembling sparkling water, how you get such an accurate and strong chocolate taste without even a hint of brown colour is totally lost on me. Finally, perhaps the most remarkable thing is the texture - it is incredibly velvety and full bodied! Keep in mind this is a drink that has the colour and apparent consistency of sparkling water, yet when you put it in your mouth you realise that this is a creamy, smooth and full bodied drink. It coats your entire mouth and as crazy as it might sound seems much closer to a being a high quality chocolate milk than a traditional soda (although it is lightly sparkling). I'm sure guys think I've lost the plot, but that's the truth.

To see exactly what we thought of it and see our reactions to our first taste of the wonderful creation called Chocolate Sparkling check out our video 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

Asahi Mitsuya Cider - One of Japan's Oldest Soft Drinks!

Mitsuya Cider created in 1884 is one of Japan's oldest sodas, preceded by a few years by the famous Ramune Marble Soda which was created in 1876. The name "cider" is quite misleading, as the Japanese use of the word cider is something very different from it's traditional origins of alcoholic beverage made from apples. Instead cider in Japan refers to a non-alcoholic fizzy drink which tastes something like a cross between Sprite and Ginger Ale.

The brand Mitsuya Cider is currently owned and produced by Asahi and comes in a selection of flavours including grape, white peach, tangerine and lemon. "White Cider" is also released from time to time with it's own flavour variations including melon.

Something very interesting is that there is also a Mitsuya Cider candy which is carbonated! This is achieved by combining the melted candy mix with pressurised carbon dioxide (under around 600 pounds of pressure per square inch) which causes tiny pressure bubbles to be trapped inside the candy. We haven't tried this product yet, but I'm dying to review it!

I have to say that at the time when Arne and myself reviewed this drink we did not know anything about the history of Mitsuya Cider and rather unusually for myself, did not research it either, so we just evaluated it as an unknown drink and probably unfairly categorised it as a Ramune copycat drink in terms of flavour. In any case, have a look at the review and see for yourself:


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

Lotte Specialité Salt and Caramel Chocolate - Famous Korean Chocolate Maker Jumps on the Salted Caramel Bandwagon!!!

Ok, the first thing that annoys me about this product is that the rubbish quality screengrab from our own video is the best picture I can find of it on the whole internet - in fact it is the only picture! The second thing that annoys me about this product is that it sucks. I mean it really sucks. It's worse than the rubbish picture above. It tastes terrible, the texture is terrible, the consistency is terrible, basically it's just a terrible product.

Credit to Lotte for being ahead of the curve by a few years with the whole Salt and Caramel in everything trend (you can see from our reactions to the salt component that this was something very new and unlikely to be good sounding to us), but the product is just incredibly poorly executed.

Now I want to balance this review by stating clearly that Lotte are a great company with a long history and a tonne of great chocolate products and snack products. They were established in Japan in 1948 and South Korea in 1967 and have been going strong since then. It is unfortunate that the second product we reviewed from them was so bad! They do have a whole range of other unusual chocolate bars under their specialité such as:

Lotte Specialité Rum Cake Chocolate

Lotte Specialité Marron Glacé Chocolate

But sadly I've tried none of them and none of them seem to be available in Hong Kong anymore, so I'll never be able to find out if they were any good or not. I hope we'll be able to review Lotte's standout product "Koala no March" sometime in the future. In the meantime here is the review of the Lotte Specialité Salt and Caramel Chocolate:

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

Final Fantasy XIII Elixir - This Potion From One of the World's Most Popular Video Games Ever Comes to Life!!!

Well it doesn't get much cooler than this - Final Fantasy one of the most awesome video game franchises of all time have produced a series of special drinks based off the magical Elixir used in the game to restore your life force. Each can is designed in incredible and gorgeous detail and features a different character (or at least different pose) from the game. In total there are 16 cans that available for collecting, but unfortunately we were only able to get hold of two cans for our review and two extra cans for Arne to keep on his shelf! 

One of them was Lightning: 

Another was Sazh Katzroy:

Credit to the Japanese for sparing no expense or effort on the design of these cans which look truly beautiful - real collectors items for anyone who loves Final Fantasy!

This was our first ever "major success" for a Crazy from Kong video and by major success I mean that one day I checked the video views and they had jumped from the usual few hundred we were getting at that point to a few thousand. It was picked up by a couple of small video game blogs and a number of people watching other Final Fantasy XIII videos came to check it out afterwards. It was a big deal to us at the time, so if you were one of the original watchers thank you very much! 

As for the drink itself? Well I'm not sure if it restored my life force and plus it was difficult to concentrate on it's claimed healing effects because Arne spent half of the review waffling on about some old game called Einhander (terrible name, but apparently a great game). You can see what that looks like in this image: 

And for our final opinions on the extremely special collectors' edition Final Fantasy XIII Elixir you'll have to 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

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

Mong Kok Style Roasted Sausage Flavour Potato Chips - Crazy from Kong Review !

I LOVE this product! Not because it is the most delicious thing in the world, but because it is utterly ridiculous! Think about it, a 'Roasted Sausage' flavour bag of chips already sounds ambitious enough (define the exact flavour of roasted sausage instead of pan-fried, boiled or grilled sausage) but this bag of chips is going even farther - they are claiming that these particular roasted sausages have been cooked in a Mong Kok Style. As the title says these are 'Mong Kok Style Roasted Sausage Flavour Potato Chips" - now that is just plain ridiculous in the most AWESOME possible way!!!

For those of you who don't know Mong Kok is a district in Hong Kong, which itself is a Special Administrative Region of China. To be more specific Mong Kok is the most densely populated district in Hong Kong and Hong Kong is the most densely populated city in the world, making Mong Kok the single most densely populated area on the planet (have you noticed how much I'm repeating myself in this blog entry?).

This is what Mong Kok looks like:

And if you're wondering where the inspiration comes from for having a "Mong Kok Style" of roasted sausage flavour bag of crisps, then check out this photo of a typical street-food stand in MK below (sadly no actual sausage in this awesome pic):

I should also say a few words about the company that makes these rather awesomely bizarre chips as well... Jack'n'Jill was established all the way back in 1966 by Universal Robina Corporation, a large Philippine snack maker. When I was a kid in 1977 in Hong Kong, Jack'n'Jill Barbecue flavoured chips were the only flavour of crisps you could buy in Hong Kong (followed a few years later by Calbee Salted Potato Chips) and they were so fresh and handmade that half the chips would be burnt when you opened the pack!!! Here is the original BBQ flavour barely changed since the 70's:

Well after all that if you want to know what Mong Kok Style Roasted Sausage Flavour Potato Chips actually taste like and whether they catch the authentic Mong Kok charm then you'll have to check out our Crazy from Kong review 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

Fanta Shake Shake - This Remarkable Drink Combines Fanta With Liquid Jelly and Comes in Grape & Orange Flavours!!!

Now this has to be one of the most awesome products ever and is definitely one of my all time favourite drink products that we have reviewed! Essentially a cross between a regular Fanta soda and a Fanta flavoured jelly, this is one of those bizarre marriages that shocks you by what a great success it is. Coming in two delicious flavours: the traditional Fanta Orange (below) and my personal favourite Fanta Grape (above), the idea is to take the can which is filled with a soda and jelly combination and shake it up aggressively till both ingredients are perfectly mixed. Then gulp down the soft, fizzy, squishy and sweet result in a moment of pure self-indulgent pleasure! 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure these tiny little cans are bursting over with teeth rotting sugars and probably filled with more colouring agents and funny chemicals than science laboratory, but heck you're not buying the product for it's health value, you're buying it coz it's ridiculously delicious and a childhood-like guilty pleasure! 

Check out our review of this wonderful product 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

Lotte Pepero Nude - The Most Famous Biscuits in Korea!

Pepero is an extremely popular Korean biscuit produced by Lotte since 1983, though it is actually a copy of the Japanese biscuit Pocky which has been sold by Glico since 1966. Pepero has become so popular in Korea that there is even a "Pepero Day"!!! This is basically the equivalent of Valentine's Day in other countries and consists of young people and couples Pepero Sticks, candies and romantic gifts. It's held on 11/11 every year and is said to exist because the date resembles 4 of the biscuit sticks. Lotte does about 55% of their Pepero sales for the year in November and all kinds of special versions are available at that time as you can see here: 

Typically Pepero (and Pocky for that matter) is a long thin biscuit dipped in chocolate or flavoured chocolate. However, the Pepero we are trying today are "Pepero Nude" which as the name implies are a type of "naked" biscuit by Pepero standards, with no coating on the outside. Instead there is something quite unexpected about these particular Pepero. 

Check out our review video below to find out more: 

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

Ebi (Shrimp) Burger - Our 1st McDonald's Review!!!

The Ebi Burger, which means Shrimp Burger in Japanese, was the very first ever Asian specialty burger from McDonalds that we ever got to review!

It was really fun getting to eat and then share our experiences and opinions on one of the wacky (yet often delicious) burgers that McDonalds release specially for the Asian marketing. Honestly you Americans, Canadians, British, French etc. really miss out! I know they do release specialty burgers in all countries around the world, but nowhere near as frequently as in Asia and nowhere near as crazy, wacky and fun. Of all Asian countries, Japan has by far the most crazy and the most frequent specialty McDonalds Burgers - Carbonara Burger, Idaho Burger and Shogun Burger - to name a few, but Hong Kong (where we are based) is not too far behind and we get some really weird and great McDonalds products out here. The last special burger I had was today; it was the McDonalds McCurry and it was fantastic!

The Ebi Burger also has a big brother, the Mega Ebi Burger, which is a double patty version. You can see what one of the real burgers looks like here:

By the way, this was the first review where we added a short humourous piece to the end after the credits. This has become a little feature of our show since then, as we always try to find an amusing outtake or scene to put at the end. So make sure you watch it all the way through!

I really want to tell you exactly what it tasted like, but then that would be giving away the game... So to see whether the Ebi Burger was good or not, you'll have to check out our Crazy from Kong 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