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)

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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.

Food review

Fanta (melon Calpis)

Karaoke came with all you can drink soda, which was pretty awesome. The only soda I hadn't already tried was melon Calpis Fanta. Melon Fanta is already by far the best Fanta, and this tasted as you would expect it to, like a combination of melon Fanta and Calpis. Basically like a ice cream soda but with melon Fanta. I think I prefer regular melon but this was a nice change. 4 stars.

Crunky

I got this mainly because of the name. It's just chocolate with "malt puffs" in it. I think there's a candy bar in Australia that is the equivalent of this ("Crunch"?). 3 stars for the candy, add an additional star for the name.

Pocky (nutcream)

Haha okay I definitely bought this for the name. Nutcream Pocky is very delicious. I guess it's just Pocky with peanut butter on it, but I liked it more than regular Pocky. Would buy again. 4 stars for the candy, add an additional 2 stars for the name. YES THAT IS SIX STARS THAT IS HOW FUNNY IT IS TO SELL YOUR CANDY AS NUTCREAM FLAVOURED.

Okonamiyaki

I had this for lunch. This was a pancake type of thing with pork and plum in it. It was pretty good, but there were some bites that were very plummy and then other bites that weren't plummy at all. We cooked this ourselves but the restaurant lady was the one that mixed up the batter, so that's on her. 3.5 stars.

Pancake thing (chocolate)

This was a pancake filled with chocolate. Shara thought this was delicious but it was a little rich for me (plus I was still full from lunch). 3.5 stars. 

Crepe cake

This was Shara's dessert at dinner. It was a cake made out of alternating layers of crepe and cream. I had some, but again, a little too rich for me. Still good though. 3.5 stars.

Icecream sundae

Oh man this was delicious. This was my dessert at dinner. Icecream sundae with strawberry topping BUT the entire bottom half of it was some sort of strawberry froyo/gelato type of thing that was v. delicious. I was pretty full at this point but I would eat again. Also it was 200 yen. 4.5 stars.

Liquor review: Slat (Grapefruit and ???)

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that chuhais own. My preferred Cocktail Partner was not available at our hotel's vending machine, so I had to make do with Slat. I had a choice between a Slat that was clearly lemon, and one that was either grapefruit or blood orange. I went with the unknown. Looking more closely at this can, it appears to be grapefruit and something else, but I'm not sure what. Orange maybe? I am a huge antifan of grapefruit, but it was actually pretty good here. You could taste the grapefruit but it didn't have that horrible bitter aftertaste, it was just sweet. I later found out that Slat's gimmick is having chunks of fruit pulp in their drinks. It's pretty great, but it was a bit of a surprise to start with. Anyway this was pretty good, but my aversion to grapefruit still knocked it down a few points. Give me Cocktail Partner any day. 3.5 stars.

Food review: America

Bill and Kristen bought us many delightful treats and I ate most of them so here we goooooo~

TGI Fridays Potato Skins (Cheddar & Bacon)

These start off great, and then get worse the more you eat. They originally taste like Rashuns (which is awesome because Rashuns are awesome) and then after the fifth one they taste like feet. They are not potato skins btw, they are just reconstituted potato like everything else in America.

Rating: 2 stars (4 stars if you only eat a couple)

Burger King Ketchup Chips

I didn't eat these because tomato sauce is gross. They smelled a lot like Tomato Munchos though. Which probably means they are gross. Bill liked these.

Rating: 1 star (estimate)

Doritos: Late Night Taco flavour

These tasted exactly like what they are, which is Doritos that have been dusted with the seasoning sachet you get in an Old El Paso taco or burrito kit. They tasted okay, I guess. Would be easy for non-Americans to replicate.

Rating: 3 stars

Sun Chips

Inferior Grain Waves.

Rating: 3 stars

Peanut Butter M&Ms

I will never understand America's boner for peanut butter. These were the worst M&Ms I have had. They are better than if someone made M&Ms with raisins inside, I guess? They are still M&Ms though. Everyone else seemed to like these for some reason.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Almond M&Ms

Superior Peanut M&Ms. Would eat again.

Rating: 4 stars

Pretzel M&Ms

THESE ROCKED MY WORLD

Rating: 5 stars

Milky Way

I didn't try any of this, but it just seems like a Mars bar without the caramel? How is that good on any planet?

Rating: 2.5 stars (estimate)

Butterfinger

I did try this, but I can't really remember it. It was really chewy? Maybe a wafer or some form of nut at the bottom of it? I dunno I don't remember it being that exciting. Butterfinger is a really unappetizing name btw

Rating: 2.5 stars

Baby Ruth

Again, I think I tried this, but I don't remember it too well. Kind of like a Picnic I think? Maybe this was the chewy one. I do remember this being significantly better than the other ones.

Rating: 4 stars

Today we ate lunch at the self-proclaimed best pizza in New York, Lombardi's. It was pretty good, 4.5 stars. I had a beer that cost me $7 with tip (I was not aware it would be this much before ordering).

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

cupman, explained

Previously I posted a picture of cupman, but the text didn't email through.

I bought this guy in a fancy department store for ¥750, which I feel is worth it. His sole job is to hold down the lid of your pot noodle, rather than struggling with a fork. As the noodles cook, his arms go white, to entertain you!

I made a point that Japan has superior instant ramen technology, in the above noodles it has a separate tear off section to easily and safely pour off the water from your ramen without losing any of the tasty cabbage & meat cubes inside.

The ramen above is UFO (¥168), and is super tasty. The dehydrated meat cubes inside are DELICIOUS! We might take some to Iceland because we won't be able to afford any other food - 4.5 stars.

breakfast times!

This sushi guy had bits of seaweed mixed into the rice perhaps? There was nothing inside and it tasted weird so I gave it to Shara - 1 star

I like these weird triangle guys! You have to read the instructions for opening because the rice is wrapped in plastic and the nori and separated, so you have to construct it yourself. I was a bit scared of these though because I know that having a plum inside is very popular but this guy had a picture. It was kind of sweet, maybe teryaki? - 3 stars

This triangle guy had a picture with mayo so you can't go wrong! It had tuna and was delicious! The only downfall was that soy wasn't included - 4 stars

Shara bought this without realising that it was coffee (despite all the coffee beans on the packaging). This came in a plastic bag and was in 2 types of plastic case and also had plastic on top of the cream. The cream was the bulk of the cake but it was fresh, and the cake had a very light flavour - 5 stars

Shara had this as her breakfast dessert but I had some too. It was a crepe but inside was a piece of sponge, some cream, some crunchy crepe covered in chocolate and some custard! Amazing!! - 4.5 stars (Shara rated it 4.5 stars too)

---

Yesterday we spent about 5 hours watching tv after lunch which was insane but also so amazing. It's fun to try and figure out what the hell is going on.
When we went to Namjatown we were unsure if we should be spending ¥300 on entry to what was probably just a food court but WHOA it was so amazing I mean you got a cute ticket to put through train ticket gates and the section before Ice Cream City had a WWII themed section with lots of skeletons without heads, but there was calypso music playing everywhere? I guess it's because Japan.

I'm not sure what we are doing today, everything has been amazing without even trying!

Japan.

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

Namjatown

Last night we went to Namjatown, it was real great! It is an amusement park that is in the place we are staying that is run by Namco. It's basically a repository of arcade games made by Namco that you have to pay to get into, but it also has GYOZA STADIUM and ICE CREAM CITY, which are collections of many different stores that sell gyoza and ice creams respectively. Lyndal found a super fun drum game and played it (the people in the video are very bad at this game). Judging by ads on TV this game is coming out on DS shortly so if you know what it is called you should tell us immediately. [Addendum I have just found out that this game is called Taiko Drum Master and it is out on PS2? It is fun and I want to buy it]


This was a burger store at Namjatown. Should we have eaten here? Yes that burger does have corn in it. They also sold an America burger with a USA flag in it and some cheese with "HERO" burnt into it, p. great.


These cats were all over Namjatown, together with a really surly cat with a monocle and a pocket watch. Is this some secret mascot for Namco I don't know about? Anyway these cats are hilarious.


All of the stalls in Gyoza Stadium have these info sheets that tell you how big their gyoza are etc. We chose this lady because when we walked past she rushed out and told us that her gyoza were NUMBER ONE, which was good enough for us. Also this lady was literally half Shara's height.


She recommended the regular gyoza, so I tried that. Very salty and garlicy but I liked em 4 stars!


She also recommended the garlic butter gyoza, and Lyndal got excited and ordered that. It turned out that garlic butter gyoza is just regular gyoza but with a lump of butter and some dried garlic on top. Still the gyoza themselves were good and she liked them well enough, so she gives this 3.5 stars.



I ate this icecream. I got it from a place specialising in soft serve in Ice Cream City. They had like ten different soft serve machines to dispense many many flavours. This is chocolate and strawberry. It was pretty good 4 stars. Shara and Lyndal bought some crepes from Ice Cream City that will be reviewed at a later date, when we get the photos off Shara's camera.



We did not go to this restaurant but maybe we should have so that we could have eaten rice in the shape of a cat and a gigantic goblet full of jelly and icecream?


On the way back we saw this guy standing around a courtyard in a mall at 9pm. He was trying to catch a bug in the net he is holding. This appears to be his job. Also the courtyard was very large and encompassed two floors, so the bug could just fly away. Japan

Food Review: Tokyo 1

We have been eating quite a lot of things, but many of the pictures are stuck on our phones at the moment and Lyndal and Shara haven't got around to reviewing stuff yet. In the meantime, here are some things that I have eaten.

Weird spicy chips

I got these at Lawson Station (Lawson Station is the best convenience store btw) for about ¥280 (pretty expensive). They are some sort of spicy crisp, but they are way less spicy than the bag makes out. I am a wuss when it comes to hot things but these are no problem. The aftertaste feels a little lacking though. Maybe it tastes... prawny? I dunno. Still good, though. Shara and Lyndal seemed to really like them.

Rating: 4 stars

Meiji Chocolate

This isn't super good chocolate or anything, but it's only ¥100 for a chocolate bar, which is pretty cheap. Enjoyable enough.

Rating: 4 stars

Bag of French Crullers

Shara bought these from Lawson Station (Lawson Station is the best convenience store) for less than ¥300, which seems super cheap to me! I have never eaten a cruller so I can't say how authentic it tasted, but I thought it was real nice. It was megasweet and kind of crumbly. It kind of dissolved in my mouth which was interesting. These tasted like the waffles we used to buy in Shin Osaka JR station which are AMAZING, so they are good. GG Japan.

Rating: 5 stars

Candy Review: Chunky

Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, nonfat milk, milkfat, lactose, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavors, PGPR - an emulsifier), peanuts, raisins, TBHQ and citric acid (added to preserve freshness)


After the Whatchamacallit, I was heartened to see that "chocolate" was the first ingredient here (although actual chocolate was a minority ingredient in that "chocolate"). Nestle bills this as "milk chocolate with peanuts and raisins". Pretty standard, just fruit and nut in a little 40g square. Shara opened this, and was overwhelmed by the smell. Indeed, having consumed this some time ago, the smell coming from the wrapper is still quite powerful. It smells like chemicals. A lot like chemicals. The taste was a bit better, but still not great. The raisins and nuts were fine, but the chocolate itself didn't really taste of anything. The closest it got to chocolate flavour was a very mild taste of instant coffee. Shara said it tasted like charcoal but I thought it just tasted like a bunch of sugar with some peanuts in it. Again, I feel much worse after having consumed it, but I don't want to put all of the blame for this on the candy bar.

My rating: 2.5 stars
Shara rating: 0.5 stars

Candy Review: Whatchamacallit

An associate has provided me with a number of candy bars from America. As I make my way through them I will document my progress and give you the definitive outsider's view of amusingly named high fructose corn snacks. Today's is the Whatchamacallit.

Ingredients: Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, crisp rice, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel and soybean oil), vegetable oil (cocoa butter, palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil), partially defatted peanuts, non-fat milk, chocolate, partially hydrogenated coconut oil, corn syrup solids, whey (milk)


This is the candy bar I was most excited to eat. The wrapper claims it is made with chocolate, peanut flavoured crisps and caramel. That made it sound like a cross between a Snickers and a Kit Kat, which is a great concept for a candy bar. That's more or less what it turned out to be too, but to be honest I found it a little underwhelming. It felt like the rice, peanut and caramel were all competing for attention rather than working together, and this made the experience a little forgettable, at least compared to, say, a Snickers. The chocolate was pretty thin and bad too. I feel it could be improved by replacing the rice with wafer a la the Kit Kat, or perhaps swapping to dark chocolate. I should note that this candy bar contains 9 grams of saturated fat, which represents 45% of your recommended daily intake (this is slightly less than one Big Mac). I do feel incredibly sick afterwards, but to be fair to the candy bar, this could be just as easily due to the popcorn I ate for dinner.

My rating: 3 stars
Shara rating: 3.5 stars

Food Review: Day 6

Red Hot Cheetos

I am reusing this picture but I actually never got to eat these (and Lyndal is real cute, amirite fellas?) and I ended up buying a different bag of various red hot snacks (pretzels etc). I only ate a cheeto though. This was way way too hot for me. Australian supermarkets don’t have a lot of really spicy snacks (unless you go to an Asian supermarket or something), so I am not used to it and can’t handle much. This made my mouth hurt, so I gave the packet to Ryan, who gladly ate the rest.

Rating: 1 star
Contains MSG? Probably

Carl’s Jr Chicken Strips

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These were pretty mediocre. They were undercooked and soggy, and the meat wasn’t great. I did not finish them.

Rating: 2 stars
Contains MSG? Probably

Carl’s Jr Fish Sandwich

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Tasted like a fish burger you’d get from a fish & chip shop, 2 small battered pieces of fish with lettuce and tomato. Pretty tasty, would eat again.

Rating: 4 stars
Contains MSG? Probably not

Soda Review: Day 6

Fanta (Orange)

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I tasted this briefly in Carl’s Jr. It tasted pretty similar but marginally inferior to Australian Fanta. Don’t know if it holds up if you get a whole bottle though.

Rating: 3 stars
Contains HFCS? Yes

Dr Pepper

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Just tastes like Diet Dr Pepper.

Rating: 1 star
Contains HFCS? Yes

Fanta (Raspberry)

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I only had one mouthful of this but it was unbearable. I seem to have blocked the experience from my mind but I can vaguely remember it tasting like bleach.

Rating: 1 star
Contains HFCS? Yes

Carl’s Jr Oreo Shake

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This shake has like 39 grams of fat in it, and 25 grams of saturated fat. It just tasted like a vanilla milkshake with Oreos in it. Not bad, but not fantastic. Certainly not worth 25 grams of saturated fat. By the way Carl’s Jr milkshakes are “handscooped”, which I can only assume means that the employees scoop the icecream into your container with their bare hands. WHY WOULD YOU ADVERTISE THIS, CARL’S JR? ALSO WHAT IS WITH YOUR NAME? THE APOSTROPHE ESS IS IN THE WRONG SPOT.

Rating: 3 stars
Contains HFCS: Probably

Soda Review: Day 5

Olde English

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This is the malt liquor I bought. I picked up a 40 ounce (1.2 litre) bottle for about $2.70. The alcohol content was about 8%, so it must have had at least eight standard drinks in it. For $2.70. I thought it would taste disgusting but it really tastes exactly the same as any non-fancy Australian beer. But with twice the alcohol content. And it costs $2.70. If they sold this in Australia I would drink it exclusively. Well done America.

Rating: 4 stars (5 stars when factoring in price)
Contains HFCS? Unknown

In-n-Out Chocolate Shake

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This tasted okay, but it wasn’t very chocolatey at all. It tasted more like a vanilla shake. Nothing wrong with it though.

Rating: 3 stars
Contains HFCS? Probably

In-n-Out Neopolitan Shake

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This is supposed to be vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but really it just tasted like strawberry. I kind of hate the artificial flavour in strawberry milkshakes so I didn’t like this much. Take note: this is part of the ‘secret’ menu at In-n-Out! You have to know about it to order it.

Rating: 2 stars
Contains HFCS? Probably

Soda Review: Day 3 and 4

Coke (Mexican)

We bought this because Coke bottled in Mexico does not contain high fructose corn syrup. Also the bottle was real awesome. The Coke was actually really great. It tasted a bit like Australian Coke that had been slightly watered down. I found this a refreshing taste. It also had an aftertaste of a weird kind of spice at first, but after a few mouthfuls that went away. This was enjoyable to drink even though we drank it at room temperature. I would say it was as good as Australian Coke, but for different reasons.

Rating: 4 stars
Contains HFCS? No

Jarritos (Fruit Punch)

This is Mexican soda we managed to find at the supermarket. This one was fruit punch flavour which seems to be reasonably popular in America. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to taste like, but given the few fruit punch drinks we have had I think what they are going for is cough syrup. I have to say they nail it pretty well. This was much better than the fruit punch Vitamin Water, but I still did not think it was particularly great. I think Shara and Lyndal thought it tasted like sherbert and was okay though.

Rating: 2 stars
Contains HFCS? No

Churrito (Guava)

I thought this flavour was much better. I can’t remember exactly how I would describe the taste now, but I remember quite liking it. Obviously not that memorable though. Shara and Lyndal didn’t like it.

Rating: 3 stars
Contains HFCS? No

Pepsi

Tastes like Australian Pepsi.

Rating: 2 stars
Contains HFCS? Yes

Sweetened Raspberry Nestea

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Shara got this at Carl’s Jr because we had tried all of the other sodas they had and they were disgusting. This was actually reasonably good. Still probably way too sweet and nothing like tea, but better than, say, American Coke. Just really tasted like raspberry cordial.

Rating: 3 stars
Contains HFCS? Probably

Sam Adams Spring Ale

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I really liked this. I am no good at describing beer but it seemed like a pretty light beer with a vaguely spicy flavour? I thought it was real refreshing and one of the best beers I have had. I drank all of the bottles Peter had.

Rating: 5 stars
Contains HFCS? I hope not

Sam Adams Winter Lager

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This was a heavier beer that tasted more chocolatey. I didn’t like it as much because all beers like this (do you call them full beers?) taste kind of like peat to me.

Rating: 2 stars
Contains HFCS? Who knows

Some weird beer Ryan loves

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Ryan wanted me to try this because I said I liked the other beer that was reasonable spicy. This one was way way spicier and full of “cilantro” (lol). It wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t particularly nice. Sorry Ryan!

Rating: 2 stars
Contains HFCS? Unknown

Mountain Dew Blue slurpee

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Lyndal got this because she thought it would be the safest slurpee flavour, given that we had already tried the blue Mountain Dew soda. This was totally awful in incredibly varied ways. The main flavour was just sugar but it had an aftertaste that kind of tasted like vomit. Lyndal only bought a tiny cup but she ended up throwing most of it away.

Rating: 1 star
Contains HFCS? Absolutely it does

Diet Dr Pepper

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Bill got a “double gulp” of this, which is 64 ounces (1.9 litres). It cost him like $2. He gave me a taste and it was terrible in ways that defy description. It mostly tasted like American Coke with a bunch of cinnamon thrown into it. Why would someone think that is a good idea for a thing?

Rating: 1 star
Contains HFCS? Yes?

Food Review: Day 2

Starbucks Bagel

This bagel was awesome! I think maybe because it was mainly full of butter. It tasted exactly like croissants! America does bagels well.

Rating: 4 Stars
Contains MSG? No

Twinkies

Lyndal: An American classic food, I was excited to try this. A major disappointment. The cake was ok, but the mock cream was disgusting. Far sweeter than mock cream I have had in packaged cakes before, and worse than the cream on top of the Jack in the Box shake.

Rating: 1 star
Contains HFCS? Yes
Contains MSG? No

Donettes (Chocolate)

Lyndal: I chose 'frosted' (vs. 'powdered sugar' and the terrifying 'crunchy'), but these tiny donuts were just dipped in weird sort of compound cooking chocolate. The actual donut was on par with a supermarket donut in Australia, Webber said the chocolate coating was also the same. Enjoyable, but very sweet. Only eat one at a time.

Rating: 3 stars
Contains HFCS? No
Contains MSG? No

Pinks Hot Dog (Guacamole)

This was good I got it all over my face!

Rating: 4 Stars - Shara, 5 stars - Lyndal
Contains MSG? Probably not

Chicken Teriyaki

Shara and I got this at the Korean joint we went to for dinner. It came with combination tofu soup, which apparently means tofu soup plus a whole bunch of things you are supposed to put in it including a big ol fish? The chicken teriyaki was real good, there was a whole bunch of chicken and the rice was also good. I didn't really have much of the soup because it was bubbling hot when we got it, and then by the time it had cooled down I had filled up on chicken. The bit I had was nice, but I'm not a huge fan of this falling-apart tofu. The tiny bit of vegies/kimchi I had seemed nice, but I was too full and too scared to try egg and fish. Shara said the chicken was good but she thinks it made her real sick, so she is sad about that. Oh also they served the rice out of stone jars and put hot water in the jars, and then came back ten minutes later and served us hot rice water??? I didn't drink it in case it was secretly for washing your hands or decoration or something. This would have been much easier if Jono and Jo had have taken us to Korean in Sydney first!!

Rating: 4 stars
Contains MSG? No

Dumpling Soup

Lyndal: Same soup as everyone else, there were 3 meat wontons in total which were very tasty. The tofu was the kind I like, very soft like the stuff you get in miso soup. I braved cracking a raw egg into my soup but it kind of just disappeared and melded with all the tofu. Was also given some rice? Anyway this was great, better than wonton soup I have had previously which is usually just clear broth.

Rating: 4 stars
Contains MSG? No

Salad

endlessmike got this one. This was an incredibly huge salad. endlessmike said it was reasonably good, the dressing was apparently quite lemony and tasty. It did just seem to have fancy lettuce, tofu, olives and carrot though? So maybe a bit boring. I am estimating her rating. Lyndal and Shara had some of the tofu in this and said it was not enjoyable. Shara said it was like egg bread covered in sugar.

Rating: 3 stars
Contains MSG? No

Weird Dried Fish Thing

Lyndal: Arrived warm. Picked some flesh off the fish, ended up with a bone stuck in my throat. Meat was tasty enough. Nobody was sure what you were actually meant to do with this guy in relation to the soup.

Rating: 1 star
Contains MSG? No