Food and Drink Review

Mochi Choco

Sara gave us this when we met her. It's mochi covered in chocolate with chocolate inside it. Tasted like a marshmallow egg but with a firmer texture. I am on-board with all marshmallow egg-esque things, so would eat again. 4 stars.

Orion beer

This is apparently an Okinawan beer. It had a stronger flavour than seems to be typical for beers in Japan, but was pretty good. I am bad at describing beers. 4 stars.

Kirin Chu-Hi (green cherry?)

I'm not real sure what flavour this chuhai was, but it tasted of cherry? I assumed it would be lime or apple but it definitely wasn't either of those. Anyway this tasted better than many chuhais (other than Cocktail Partner) I have had. 4.5 stars.

Slat (peach flavour)

[No picture]

I thought I had taken a photo of this but apparently not. This was super delicious, and probably even better than Cocktail Partner. The only downside to this is that as I remember it only has 3% ABV, so it's not going to get you super drunk. All the stars.

Orangina

Sara was excited about this because I guess this is a UK thing that maybe isn't around anymore? I guess this never came to NZ (or is before my time), because I had never tried it before. My first impression was that this tasted basically the same as those flavoured Deep Spring sparkling mineral waters. They are pleasant enough, but nothing to write home about. However, as I drank this, it became steadily more and more bitter. It got to the point where I could barely stand to drink the last fifth or so of the bottle. Orangina's gimmick seems to be that it contains bits of orange, but I guess it's the rind? All of the bits seemed to have fallen to the bottom of this bottle (and it didn't tell me to shake it before opening), so the end of this drink was just the pits. Not even its funny name could help it. First 20% of the bottle gets 3.5 stars, the last 20% gets 1 star. Average 2 stars.

Coffee (ice)

We got breakfast at one of the faux-European cafes that seem to be reasonably popular in Japan. Meals are commonly sold as part of a "set" that includes toast or whatever and then a drink. However, the only available drinks are coffee or tea. They wouldn't give us a green tea (even though surely that's the cheapest option? They only have to provide water and a teabag), so I decided to get a cold coffee that also seem to be pretty popular in Japan. I am not a coffee drinker, so this was not a good idea. The unsweetened coffee was so disgusting, I cannot believe that people drink this shit. The container on the right of the photo was filled with sugar syrup. I dumped the whole lot in and it got a lot more tolerable, but it still had an aftertaste that highly resembled butts. I gave up halfway through and had the coffee taste in my mouth all day. Coffee is gross zero stars.

Dragonball Z soda (Trunks flavour)

I think the gimmick of this soda is that there are nine different cans you can get, and you're supposed to collect them all? I was hoping for Vegeta but sadly I got Trunks, the most boring character. I'm not sure if all the cans are flavoured differently, but Trunks actually tasted not too bad. It's been a while since I had this, but as I remember it tasted basically of Fanta? Not nearly as bad as what I was expecting. Oh also this had a bunch of vitamins added to it, so I guess you're supposed to power up after drinking it? I did not, but it was still reasonably pleasant. 3 stars.

Gokuri (peach)

It is this. This is the best drink in Japan. 5 stars.

Reviews: London

No pictures here sorry.


Irn Bru

I know this exists in Sydney but I'd never tried it and everyone always wanks on about how great it is so I thought I'd give it a go. It tastes super super sweet. It reminds me of something I've had before that I wasn't fussed on, but I can't think of what. Maybe creaming soda? Anyway Irn Bru is not as great as everyone wants you to think; don't listen to them.

Rating: 2 stars


Rolo milkshake

This seems to be a thing in England, where you select a chocolate bar or fresh fruit and then they make a milkshake out of that for you for around 2.5 pounds. I had a Rolo one. DELICIOUS. This is up with cricket as the greatest thing you have ever invented England, well done.

Rating: 5 stars


Steak lunch at pub

This was real dry and terrible and also five or six pounds. BOO

Rating: 2 stars


Blackcurrent soda

I was at the pub and I asked the guy what sodas he had and he didn't understand, and so I asked him what soft drinks he had and he didn't understand, so I ended up getting this because Ro ordered this right before me. It is a glass of soda water with a bit of blackcurrent syrup at the top. This is the best drink because it is 30p for a pint. A+ would drink again.

Rating: 4 stars


Wanky fish and chips

On our first day in London we went to a wanky fish and chip restaurant in Covent Garden. It was like 11 pounds but it was real good, so probably worth it. Take off one star if you want to take into account how expensive it was.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Food Review: Tokyo 2

Weird spicy chips

I was emboldened from the last spicy chips I ate that weren't really spicy at all, and I thought these would be a piece of cake. The first few were not too spicy, and so I ended up eating about a third of the bag. Then my mouth went on fire, and hasn't really gone out yet. Really tasty though. About as hot as red hot cheetos, but definitely more delicious.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Weird panda biscuits

These were fake Hello Pandas, just small biscuits with chocolate on one side. However these guys have white and milk chocolate, which I don't think Hello Panda has? Anyway the white chocolate made these totally delicious. Would eat again.

Rating: 5 stars

Asahi Peach Juice

We were a little worried that this would end up being a Calpis-esque milk drink (which is okay, but a little weird and not that refreshing imo), but it was actually just peach nectar I am pretty sure. Had lumps of peach pulp in it too. This was totally totally delicious and I want to drink one million of them. A+ best beverage in Japan so far

Rating: 5 stars

Fanta weird energy drink thing

They have heaps of awesome Fanta varieties in Japan, but I had never seen this guy up until now. Judging by the branding and the relatively small size of the can, this was some sort of energy drink. It tasted pretty good for an energy drink. It tasted like green jellybeans! Probably got a bunch of shit in it that is going to give me cancer but whatever if I get tired and there is a vending machine around I am going to drink this again.

Rating: 4 stars