Yo Sushi! The good, the bad and the Mochi

Konnichi-wa! That's hello in Japanese for those of you who don't know. See, my blog can be educational as well as entertaining, though some may say that it's neither. Those few are deviants however so lets not dwell on their opinions.

So if you can't guess from that charismatic and seamless introduction today's review has an aspect of the Orient about it. Only an aspect though, after all I only went to Yo! Sushi not all the way to the Japan. Someday perhaps I'll bring tidings and more than likely treats back from the Far East. Until that day we will have to settle for the South East... of England.

Yo! Sushi has always interested me. Seeing those tiny plates sailing past the customers like something from a game show appealed to my sense fun. Only the idea of not quite knowing what I could be eating and the possibility it could be seaweed was putting me off. Until recently that is when I finally bit the Wasabi, took a seat and let insanity and sushi wash over me.

They are even presented in a great way too!

Believe me I am glad, Yo! sushi is a truly unique experience. It really feels like your in a crazy TV show with the neon colors and waitress call system that plays a random sound clip like a buzzer. For those like me who are worried about the mystery aspect of the food system have no fear. Firstly there is a menu that describes what you see and you can order straight from it. I strongly recommend the Katsu chicken and Vegetable Yakisoba, two dishes only in fact found on the menu.

Secondly I urge you to try a random dish from the belt and really immerse yourself in the experience. In doing this I did genuinely end up eating seaweed thinking it was runner beans. However it tasted soo good that by the time I had realized I didn't care. Today's review isn't about seaweed however as always it concerns something far sweeter, dessert. I decided to top the meal off to try their two newest editions to the men chocolate and cheesecake Mochi.

Mochi is cooked sweet rice pounded into a paste and them formed into a ball. It has a squishy rubber like texture to it and contains a filling, traditionally red bean paste. Now I know that doesn't sound appetizing to the ears and actually they don't look that appetizing to the eyes either. To the mouth though it can be very appealing. The rice outside has no taste itself unless its coated and really just provides a squishy rubber casing that melts in a weirdly pleasing way when masticated. Then you access the filling which can pretty much be anything you could imagine.

So chocolate and cheesecake isn't traditional but believe me it was worth breaking with tradition. Firstly the chocolate one. It has a great taste of luxurious dark chocolate cocoa mainly due to the dusting of cocoa powder on the outside. The filling is a very thick and subtly sweet chocolate paste that contrasts with the bitter dusting. The outside picks up on these flavors brilliantly and the whole thing is almost akin to eating solid hot chocolate.

I made this recently, not relevant but I'm proud of it.

The cheesecake variant is even better believe me. Initially it was a bit disappointing as the outside dusting is soft biscuit. Had it been more like digestive, crunchy and oaty then it may have made the experience astronomical. Not that it wasn't once I got to the gorgeous cream cheese filling. Again a really thick and generous paste, starting off as subtly sweet before shifting seamlessly to a Philedelphia like cheese tinge. I was amazed by these Mochi, where my past experiences had found them to be rather dull and bland (I admit they were store bought) these were truly amazing.

Overall I'd recommend both Mochi and seaweed. However I'd recommend going out of your comfort zone and trying new experiences even more though. You never know what you might find. Lastly I'd like to put out an appeal for you guys to suggest things for me to find and try. I want interesting and odd ideas, things I may not have heard of is best. Comment below or tweet me @Snaxon.

Found
Yo! Sushi

Score
Choclate- 8 out of 11
Cheesecake- 10 out of 11

Final Thought
Sorry for lack of pictures, I was too swept up to capture the moment.

Macaron Madness!

Hey readers who's a better blogger than me the wonderful Amy Willow, that's who. I've kidnapped her just for you just for today enjoy but don't get used to it.
Hey everyone! I must say I feel rather honoured to be a guest here at Vote Snax-on, and I have something which I think is pretty special to share with you all. Sweets aren’t exactly my forte like they are Roy’s, however, I am rather partial to one of these when I come by them:

My precious.....

Oh yes, the wondrous macaron! For those of you who don’t know, a macaron (not to be confused with macaroon, the sickly coconut, chocolate things with rice paper on the bottom that you find in most supermarkets over here) is a pair of light almond flavoured biscuits sandwiched together by some sort of cream or jam. However, they are not just plain almond flavour, oh no. They come in a variety of flavours, but all have that basic nutty taste underneath which is what makes them so yummy.

I’ve always found macarons hard to come by, probably on account of living out in the sticks. But I’ve always had a weird obsession with them, which I must admit could stem from how pretty they are. I mean, they’re freakin’ rainbow coloured, look at them! To my surprise and joy when I last went into my nearest city I discovered that a Patisserie Valerie, a chain of classy French cafes, had opened up and they sold macarons.This makes sense as macarons are from France, although they are also popular in Japan (but over there they are spelled with a ‘k’ as you cannot write a ‘c’ by itself in Japanese. Random fact right there!) So anyway, of course I had to buy some. They came all wrapped up in cellophane and a cute paper bag, so swish.

I felt very fancy carrying this bag!

I got six macarons in total, one of each flavour they do: raspberry, coffee, lemon, vanilla, chocolate and pistachio. I was surprised that the pink one was raspberry as usually pink macarons are rose flavoured, but this only made me more eager to try it. When I opened the bag I was hit by the soft, sweet scents of almond and sugar. Not overpowering, just subtle enough to be pleasant and enticing.

I felt like I should take some in depth photos for this review, so here you go:

If I didn't know better I'd say this was wasabi!

Dissection time...

It took me a few days to munch my way through them all, but I have to say that the lemon one was my favourite. It was refreshing in the way that only citrus is, and had a proper fruity taste which was not at all synthetic. All of the macarons were like this though; they all tasted like of exactly what they were supposed to with no hint of anything fake or dodgy. However, I found the chocolate and coffee ones very rich and the chocolate especially was quite sickly and heavy. Instead of a thin cream in the middle like the others it had a dark chocolate paste which was highly cocoa-y and so pretty bland. The raspberry one too was a bit of a let down. It was nicely fruity like the lemon, but the jam holding it together was sticky and more sugary than fruity. The vanilla and pistachio ones made up for it though! Despite the unappealing green colour of the pistachio it had a brilliant nutty flavour on account of the underlying almond, and the cream was soft and refreshing like in the lemon one. The vanilla too, although slightly more basic in flavour, was light and satisfying. Plus they all had that great crumbly, melt in the mouth texture. Crunchy, yet squidgy. Aerated sponge encased by brittle, almond-y sugar. Perfection.

All in all I was definitely impressed with Patisserie Valerie. At least they make their macarons properly, even if some of the flavours aren’t to my liking. I’m sure someone else might appreciate thick jam and seductive dark chocolate. I would buy macarons from here again for sure.

And a word of warning: if I ever go to Japan and encounter a shop full of these then you will hear the squeals as far away as Pluto.

My Neighbour Makaron!

Thank you to Roy for letting me post, it’s been really fun! And keep reading his blog and supporting him because y’know, he’s pretty damn awesome.

Take care, readers!

Score
8.5 out of 11

Found
Patisserie Valerie

Final Thoughts
I want to make pumpkin macarons. And put them in fancy paper bags.

Roy's Final Thoughts
You guys should check out Amy Willow's blog here
Also follow her twitterage @amywillowwrites 
(she's so much more professional, she has her own sign off danmit!!!)

Edo Bears Thankfully Not A Typo

Yes, I am basically a geeky man child! I’m sure anyone who has taken the time to read my other posts can quite easily attest to this. Therefore it should not come as much of a surprise to anyone that I bought these pretty much because of their name.  I couldn't help it, after all these beauties are one letter away from being that famous internet meme that you wouldn't want anywhere near your mouth. Also the fact that the bears look rather grumpy (to be fair it’s justifiable with that name, for a start I bet the postman misbelievers some of HIS post to them) makes me giggle whenever I look at my packs.

I did also buy these for a sensible-ish reason and that’s their similarities to Hello Panda biscuits. I love Hello Panda; it was after all one of the products that kick-started my obsession with seeking out new foods. So proud was I of my first box that I still keep a photo of it on my phone. A bit extreme possibly, but you wouldn't judge someone for having a picture of their kid would you? (Ok a bad comparison there perhaps.)

Don't you judge me!

Whilst I knew that these wouldn't be as good as their panda cousins I bought them anyway. They do have one advantage over said panda’s in that they are sold in snack pack multi-bags. This means they keep fresher for longer (although not a problem I often have once I’ve opened a pack) but more importantly can be stuck in my bag for my many expeditions. I know you can get snack bags of Hello pandas too, but these are rather hard to stumble upon and don’t come in multi-bags. Usually I can only find the cardboard tube varieties.

Now I’m not sure what type of bears these are supposed to be. In all honesty I’m just glad they aren’t That aforementioned bear. If I had to guess I would say they are some kind of Koala, specifically of the harassed variety. Even on the biscuit themselves the printed pictures seem a bit peeved to be there. Then again they are a bit faded so perhaps their annoyance lies with the makers who used a lower quality ink than Meiji use. Each picture is slightly different however so they get points back for that, after all variety is the spice of life (especially when dealing with bears, right?).

This is my biscuit back off! We've all been there.

I wasn't sure what country these came from and so did some research, I’m good like that. Worryingly the first site had their country of origin listed as “No”. After consulting my GCSE in Geography (where we learnt mostly about clouds.) and more accurately an atlas I found no country with such a name. Just when I almost began to question these biscuits very existence I found a vague reference to them being a Korean snack and my mind was put slightly at ease and so I opened them up. I was met with a pleasant surprise. Whilst they look like a small bag that will contain a stingy serving they instead contain about twelve or so bears. Perhaps overcrowding is the source of their anguish.

So what are they like? Well I was expecting them to taste like a sub-par panda but once again they surprised me. They aren't as nice but not cheap tasting like I was preparing myself for. More hollow than I had hoped but what chocolate it did contain was a nice, creamy and good quality chocolate. The biscuit is light and crunchy, although not quite as sweet as they should be perhaps. It has been a fair few months since I’d bought these and was worried that they may have gone a bit stale. Yet they had stayed fresh longer than many other biscuits would, especially when you remember that they would have been imported as well.

This ones annoyed at my frankly lacking photography skills.

Overall these are rather nice and very handy being sold in small grab bags making them easy to take out and about with you. I think the biscuit could be a bit sweeter; however this may not have contrasted as well with the chocolate and brought out its flavour. Now they won’t be toppling my beloved pandas off their pillars anytime soon but they have made a valiant effort. Hee-Hee Edo bear.

Score

7 out of 11

Found

Local Chinese market

Final thought

As i write this the Tv is showing a 

programme called "Do Pets Deserve Funerals?", just what?