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.

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.

Sriracha Peas

Origin: Thailand
Type: Snack
description: Dried pea snack, Sriracha flavor

Sriracha is soooo good. It's one of my favorite spicy sauces to add to just about everything. It's made of chili peppers, garlic, vinegar, and sugar and can be found in many restaurants all over the world. In most American market's Asian aisle you can find dried peas that are usually wasabi flavored, but never sriracha flavored. I picked up these bad boys at the local foreign market.

They are surprisingly sweet! They aren't too salty, and they taste just like sriracha! They're so spicy though, I can only eat a little bit at a time. They're also kind of hard the teeth, but that's to be expected of dried pea snacks. These are pretty good but I probably couldn't eat them all the time.

Pierniczki Alpejskie

Origin: Poland
Type: Cookie
Description: Chocolate covered gingerbread with filling

When I first picked these up, I had no idea what they were. Were they candy? Cookies? Whatever they were, they were cute and looked good. I was about to find out just how good these really were.

Opening the bag, there's a faint smell of chocolate. Judging by the look of the treats you would think that chocolate outside would probably taste like that of one of those cheap chocolate donuts. Boy was I wrong! The chocolate outside is the best that I've ever tasted on a cookie or any preserved dessert for that matter. It's like a fine dark artisan chocolate was drizzled atop these delectable delights. Biting into it, you notice that the cookie part is so soft! Extremely soft gingerbread that's by no means overwhelming. It's just right.

Inside is a delicious strawberry filling. Its texture and flavor are also just right. Is this it? Have I discovered one of the most delicious delectable dessert treats of all time?! It's so good! Please try these, you won't regret it!

Bottle Green Tea

Green Tea

Origin: Thailand
Type: Drink
Description: Japanese style green tea

Yes! Japanese style green tea from Tailand. In most Asian countries bottle tea is the order of the day. Unlike artificial teas in America and Europe, most Asian teas don't contain artificial sweeteners like their western counterparts and are differentiated by their subtle flavor differences. Plain green tea in a bottle is really refreshing. This tea tastes very much like different Japanese green teas that I've had, but it's really light on the roasted earthy flavor that the other teas have. In fact, this may be even more refreshing than those! The flavor is very subtle and there's no weird aftertaste. It's just smooth and refreshing, the way bottled tea should be. I could drink this everyday, it's so good!

Toblerone

Origin: Switzerland
Type: Candy
Description: Chocolate with nougat

Toblerone is a pretty popular chocolate, and not just in Switzerland. Toblerone can also be found in many candy and grocery stores all over the world, including right here in America. The first time I had the pleasure of trying this sweet treat was years ago in my German language class back in high school (I was also in German club just in case you're wondering). Our teacher would bring in all kinds of European snacks and treats for us to try as part of the cultural experience. This was one that stuck with me for some time.

At most markets here Toblerone can go for as much as $3 but I was lucky enough to find this and the fruit and nut version at the local dollar store. Toblerone is delicious! it comes in a bar of break apart triangle shaped pieces. The chocolate is smooth and tastes like other Swiss chocolates that I've tried before.

Inside you'll find chewy pieces of honey nougat and almond bits. This is definitely one of those chocolates that's made to be savored. Letting it melt in your mouth and getting the full flavor of the chocolate and then enjoying the little nougat bits is the way I like to eat Toberone. Toblerone is one of my favorite chocolate bars of all time. If you find one at your local market, I suggest you pick one up and try it for yourself.

Mayonnaise Bread

Mayo Bread

Origin: Chinese Market
Type: Specialty Bread
Description: Bread with Mayonnaise filling

The best thing about going to the market a few minutes before they close is that everything in their bakery is 30% off. All the delicious breads, cakes, desserts, savory snacks, everything is at reduced price. It was the first time that I'd seen this particular bread. It looked good so I grabbed it along with other bread things that I'll probably cover later.

The top of the bread is covered in this powdery meat product. It reminds me of that shredded beef jerky you can buy in those little plastic containers that look like chewing tobacco. The texture and the taste was just like that! It's dry, salty and kind of gross. The bread itself was little more sweet, until you get to the center.

Inside the bread is the mayo filling. It's salty, greasy, not all that good. It has a unique flavor that I can't quite place and the texture is more like butter than mayonnaise. The individual parts of this bread thing are gross separately but if you take a big bite of all of the ingredients together, it's not bad. The sweetness of the bread meshes nicely with the saltiness and textures of the mayo and meat product. If you're an adventurous eater, it's worth a try.

Assorted Cheap Pate

Budget Pate

Origin: Croatia
Type: Topping
Description: Meat Paste

I'd never eaten Pate before, it's just not something that's all that popular state-side. These cans were only something like 60 cents a can at a local foreign food store so I picked up a couple to try them out.

Well, it's a meat paste. The ingredients include, pork fat, more fat, animal bits, and preservatives. Not exactly a healthy breakfast. I ended up spreading a heaping helping on a piece of toast. The consistency is a lot lighter than expected. The texture and flavor can be described as such; It's like whipped cream cheese that tastes like cocktail sausages and bland. I ate the piece of toast with the Pate but I didn't like it too much and had about 2/3 of a can left. It smells like cat food so I treated it as such. I left the remainder outside my front door for the stray cats outside to eat.

Italian Lemon Cake

Origin: Italy
Type: Dessert
Description: Unrefrigerated Dessert Cake

So this thing was sitting on the shelf, no refrigeration needed. I was curious, so I picked one up, took it home, and it sat in my kitchen for a week until I got around to finally opening it.

The cake is not so much a cake-cake, though that's what it looks like. It's more of a giant snack cake. It's got the consistency of a twinky with the hint of lemon. The frosting on top is too sweet and nothing particularly special.

It's a shame, really, because I usually like lemon flavored things. This cake, however, was kind of nauseating. I don't know if it was the flavor, texture, or added preservatives that did it, but I couldn't even finish a single piece. It tastes alright, but I wouldn't recommend it as it's just a sloppily put together glorified lemon flavored twinky.