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

Ninja Hot Plate Potato Rings - The World's First Snack Food for Highly Trained Assassins !!!

Ninja Hot Plate Potato Rings!!! This is a review that is dear to my heart for many reasons, firstly and obviously because it is a ninja snack and what could be cooler for a reviewer like myself than to review a snack created for ninjas? I feel 50% more like a ninja just because I ate these! Secondly, because as I mentioned in a previous post about "Mong Kok Style Roasted Sausage Flavour Potato Chips" , Jack'n'Jill made the only flavour of chips that was available when I first came to Hong Kong, so anything made by that company brings back lots of memories for me. And thirdly and finally because this was the first time ever that my good friend and now co-host of Crazy from Kong - +Joe Fiorello, made his first ever contribution to the series, in the form of one of the wackiest and most awesome videos to be found in youtube, which you can check out here: 

This video is actually one of my favourite things on the internet - every time I watch it I laugh! "Joe Pejuji - waaaahhhh!" hahaha. Oh Joe...

Well after seeing this completely insane video that Joe had put together, we decided we would definitely have to get him on board for Crazy from Kong, though it didn't happen till a little while later.

Back to the review, so what do chips made specially for Ninja's taste like? I'm afraid to answer that question you'll have to check out our review here:

By the way this was our first ever product from Malaysia!

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

Meiji Hokkaido Cheese Chocolate - Instead of Milk Chocolate they Made This Stuff With Stinky Cheese!!!

Ok, I don't think it's going to be giving the game away by letting you know that this product was disgusting... I mean was anybody ever expecting a cheese flavoured chocolate to be good? And let's go one step further, if I understand correctly this is not just a cheese flavoured chocolate, this is a chocolate where the milk is replaced by cheese in the production process! To make matters worse the cheese they use appears to be a strong, stinky, brie type cheese of the more pungent variety. This is just not a good combination. Heck this is not even a good idea. Whoever came up with this was a nut job. What's perhaps even more shocking is that this product has now been around for years and people are still stupid enough to buy it... Maybe once as a shock / novelty item, but if you have common sense or taste buds for that matter, then you will not be silly enough to punish yourself with it a second time.

Surprisingly this product is made by the long-standing and very famous Japanese confectionary and chocolate company Meiji Seika (usually known as Meiji for short). 90% of their products usually range from good to excellent and very few are even below average, but this one is really on a different tangent. At the risk of getting sued I'm going to imply that perhaps the creative team were on drugs when they invented this one.

The cheese they use in the chocolate comes from Hokkaido, the second largest Island in Japan and one of the cleanest and most beautiful places on the planet. Since Meiji own dairies (Meiji Dairies) I assume that this cheese is produced fresh by them on Hokkaido, before they make the stupid move of blending it into their usually delicious chocolate.

And if you think this is the end of the story, think again, coz they have another unwise cheese chocolate product, the Meiji Hokkaido Premium White Cheese Chocolate made with what appears to be a Chaumes / Port Salut / Brebis type of cheese. I have unfortunately or fortunately not been able to acquire this product yet, but you can check it out here:

Well as you can probably guess from what I'm writing here, this entire experience has rather confused and distressed me. To see the exact reaction I had when trying the product, 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

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

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