Melon Cake

Origin: Philippines
Type: Snack
Description: Melon flavored cake

These small cakes are sold in packs of 10 or more and are extremely affordable at less than $1 per cake. When you open up one of the individually wrapped treats the smell of sweet melon fills the air. It's smells delicious!

As a cake flavor, it's a little strange at first because it tastes so much like perfectly ripe melon! Usually this flavor is used for candies and drinks, so the sensation of cake with the same flavor may be a little overwhelming at first. It's sweet, but a little dry. These come in other flavors as well and go great with coffee.

Sweet Potato Chips

Origin:Japan
Type: Snack
Description: Dried Sweet Potato Chips

The packaging for these is really elegant. I swear, that's how they get you! I dropped a whopping $4 on this small bag of chips because I thought they may be worth trying. Now I've tried dried vegetable chips before, but these are a little bit different. They're of course, shaped like fries rather than the standard potato "chip", and they are covered in a shiny glossy coating and sesame seeds.

They're too hard! They're harder to chew than banana chips! The flavor is okay, very subtle, salty and sweet. The sesame seeds don't do much other than remind you that these are supposed to taste like roasted sweet potato. I only ate a couple because they are just so hard! I tried to let them sit for a while to see if maybe letting them get a little bit stale would soften them up, but they didn't. Still too hard. Totally not worth the price. I might buy these again if they came in smaller quantity pouches or something, and only if I was really in the mood for them. Don't waste your time unless you're a sucker for fancy packaging.

Seaweed Snack

Origin: Korea
Type: Snack
Description: Seasoned Dried Seaweed

 Long ago, I once had a roommate from Korea. He would take me along with him when he made a grocery run. That was the first time that I encountered these wonderful seaweed snacks, and I still buy them today. There are quite a variety of brands to choose from, but this is the one that I purchased most recently.







It is exactly what it looks like, a small package of dried seaweed. They look like little sheets of paper, and smell like sesame oil. The texture when you bite into them is crispy, but not hard. It's soft and dissolves in your mouth, much like rice paper but with a better flavor. It definitely tastes like roasted seaweed, a little bit earthy, bitter, sweet, salty, all at the same time. The texture and flavor definitely fit. These can be eaten by themselves, with rice, as a side dish, or even use it as a garnish.

Calpis Gummy

Origin: Japan
Type: Candy
Description: Calpis Flavored Gummy

A few posts ago I covered Calpico (lychee flavor). Calpis is about the same thing. It's a popular soft drink in japan that is made from water, dry milk and lactic acid. It tastes similar to a sweetened plain yogurt in drink form. These are a Calpis flavored gummy candy.

Simple enough, these gummies are shaped like your basic gum drop. Wow! These are sweet and very tart! They taste just like Calpis but a little bit more sour. They are a very nice texture too. They're gummy, but the kind that doesn't get stuck in your teeth. They're easy to chew and easy to eat a bunch of at once. I wouldn't recommend it though, they're kind of pricey. Since they are Calpis brand, a small pack like this one runs about $1.75. They're good, but not good enough for me to want to spend that much on such little product.

Eurocrem Blok

Origin: Yugoslavia
Type: Candy
Description: Layered Hazelnut Chocolate Bar

Upon opening the package, you'll notice that the chocolate bar itself is as flat as the packing design. It's a heavy dense block of supposedly hazelnut flavored chocolate. Let's see how it tastes!

Not very much like hazelnut apparently. This chocolate is very bland! It's like the cross between chalk and wax with just hints of chocolate. You can't really taste any hazelnut at all. This reminds me of something that you might find in an MRE or maybe candy you would give to someone you don't like. It might serve better as a topping or garnish on something more sweet. I don't too much care for it myself, but it's okay for the price. This big block of chocolate will only run you about 80 cents at your local foreign food mart.

Orange Fizzy Jelly Drink

Origin: Chinese Super Market
Type: Drink
Description: Carbonated Jelly Beverage

This can made it's way into my shopping cart unknowingly. Seriously, I don't remember how it got there. I don't mind though, it has a fortune cat on the can! I also don't mind trying new drinks! On the outside this may look like an ordinary, perhaps ornate, orange soda. Open it up and you'll soon find out what makes this drink so unique.

Not only is it a jelly drink, but a fizzy jelly drink! Not that the liquid is carbonated, but the actual jelly is what contains the carbonation. It's such a weird sensation! I'm not sure whether to chew it, slurp it, or just drink it down. The flavor is really yummy! One of the best foreign orange flavored drinks I've had in a while, tastes like candy! The fizziness of it feels like tiny itty bitty bubbles that dance across your tongue. I have a feeling that I'd probably get a tummy ache if I were to drink more than one of these at a time as they're pretty filling. This is a novelty drink for sure.

Kafa Saraj

Saraj Kafa

Origin: Bosnia
Type: Drink
Description: Instant Coffee

To tell you the truth, I'm a sucker for caffeine. If it's got caffeine and a unique flavor, you'd better believe that I'll be on it! I found this, Coffee Saraj, at a store down the street. I was interested in getting some after I'd first tried it at a local hookah lounge that served it. As you can see here, it is an instant coffee. Just add hot water!

The flavor is strong! The initial smell is terrible but it is really earthy tasting when compared to most western coffees. It's not bad, though it might be an acquired taste. It finishes with notes of honey and nuttiness. Definitely try this one out if you want to try something different.