Junk Fud in London

 In this episode Allison and Chris talk about a recent trip to London (and only London) where they bought some special tea and ate a lot of sandwiches.

Pick Up Some Snack Facts

It’s about time that you brushed up on your snack facts. The best way to do that is to pick up my comic series all about that very subject (and even the name is the same).

Pick up Snack Facts right now at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

This Post Isn't So Much About Candy

I'm sick, and it's food poisoning. In the candy world it's very rare to get food poisoning, but I often travel/live in places where food hygiene isn't the best. That means that I suffer from fairly regular bouts of food poisoning. The reason I mention this here is that I wanted to point out that I'm still posting a new review, even though I'm not really eating solid foods. I can do this because the truth is I have a pretty big collection of pre-written reviews. There are many advantages to having this list of reviews, one of them being that I can still post a new review when I'm not even eating solid foods.  I'm at the point where things are getting better, but I think it's going to be a while till I write a new review.

Check out this new review, from my archives?

What is a Big Mac?

There’s a global trend that’s changing the landscape of fast food, and it’s chicken. Sure chicken’s been a part of fast food for ages, probably for as long as fast food has existed. However, when most people think of fast food, they think of hamburgers or pizza. This is changing though, and more and more fast food restaurants are becoming chicken experts. There are many competing theories about why this is happening. Some people suggest that global food prices are making beef too expensive, others suggest that it’s a choice people are making for health, some even suggest that it’s just a trend that people prefer eating.

What that’s lead to is many fast food chains adding more chicken to their menu, and McDonald’s is no exception. They’ve not only added many new chicken options to their menu, they’ve started to offer chicken variations of their classic burgers. One such item is the Chicken Mac. I decided to give one of these a try and it really made me think about how one defines “what is a Big Mac”.

The problem I ran into is that McDonald’s made more than one change to this classic sandwich. The most obvious change is that they went with two deep fried chicken patties instead of the beef. However, the other change they made is that the Big Mac sauce was changed to just regular mayonnaise. The rest of the sandwich was pretty much the same, lettuce, cheese, re-hydrated onion, pickles and the three layer bun. I didn’t actually research any of this before getting the Chicken Mac, and was kind of shocked by the lack of the Big Mac sauce.

It made me wonder, is it still a Big Mac (or any kind of “Mac” sandwich at all)? I suggested to Allison that I don’t think that this could be considered in the same family of sandwiches, and she argued that it could because it still had that unique bun and the same toppings. She also suggested that the rest of the burger still seemed Mac like. I’m not sure if I agree, but this is actually something that comes up a lot in fast food and candy.

When a candy company makes a different variation of a candy bar, can it still be in the same family. A great example is if we compare the Kit Kat bar with the Kit Kat Chunky (or Big as some call it). While a Kit Kat Chunky kind of looks like a finger of a Kit Kat bar, it’s really only one finger. The ratio of chocolate to wafers is different, and the size of the wafers is different as well. When you think about it, most chocolate bars are really just one finger as well. So does that mean a Kit Kat chunky really isn’t a Kit Kat bar? How far can you stray and how many ingredients can you change while still keeping a snack or junk food item in the same family?

Are all fast food sandwiches that have Big Mac sauce on them, a Big Mac? Can you put Big Mac sauce on a Quarter Pounder and call it a Quarter Pounder Mac? Or do you need that unique bun too? In the last 10 or 20 years it’s become really popular to make variations on popular snack and fast food items, but how far is too far? I argue that the Chicken Mac is not a Big Mac anymore.

The Super In Super Sour Means Business

 For the longest time I've believed that the Super Sour from Japan was the most sour candy I'd ever reviewed. I finally go my hand on another bag of them and after many years it's time to find out if the sour still holds up.

See what I'm up to right now on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

You can also read my fun book about candy and animals right now by picking up Treats and Beasts.

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That Blue Orchid Is Amazing!

 She’s going to kick some ass.

Make sure to pick up all the Blue Orchid comics and mech right now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/.

A Lot Of Kit Kat Bars

One of the things I've started to do on candycritic.org is collect Kit Kat bars. In particular I've started to collect reviews of milk chocolate Kit Kat bars from different parts of the world. It's been long thought that the British, Canadian and American Kit Kat bars while being similar, have some slight differences. I've also noticed that a few other countries around the world make their own version, and in some cases they to are different. Sometimes it's really hard to pinpoint the exact differences, but sometimes (like with this new review) it's really easy.

Check out this fairly unique milk chocolate Kit Kat bar.

Korean Barbecue in 10 Seconds

 Watching the meat rotate is so hypnotic.

A Beastly and Treatly Book

 If you love reading about snacks and candy, as well as interesting beasts in alphabetical order, do I have a book for you.

Pick up Treats and Beasts right now at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

So Many Pocky

I think Pocky probably ranks as number 2 on my list of candies with the most varieties, number 1 being Kit Kat. You wouldn't imagine that there could be so many varieties of a cookie stick covered in chocolate, but here we are. As of this moment I've reviewed 19 different variety of Pocky, and there are still a few out there I haven't tried, as well as new versions coming out all the time. I can't say that I've loved each and every version, but they have yet to make a real gross out version (like wasabi Kit Kat).

Check out my latest Pock review.

That Jolly Bee

This isn’t my first Jollibee experience, but it’s my first at a Jollibee in the Philippines, and I think that can be important. My first Jollibee experience was in the Middle East, and it was okay, but not great. There were two problems with that visit that were completely eliminated this time around. The first issue was my own, I didn’t know what to order. It seems like a silly problem, you should be able to order anything on a menu at a fast food restaurant and enjoy it. The reality is that it’s not the case. Fast food restaurants offer different items for different tastes, and some items are more popular than others. The popular (or better) items may not be intuitive to people unfamiliar with the restaurant or the culture where that restaurant originated. In other words, I ordered a burger at Jollibee the first time I went and it wasn’t great.

The second problem when I visited Jollibee in the Middle East is an issue with importation. One of the balancing acts fast food places must do when expanding outside of their original country of origin is authenticity versus adaptation. Authenticity is the attempt to offer customers at their new restaurants the same thing that they had at their original restaurants. Adaptation is the barriers you have in this new country, which could include limited ingredients, staff that may not have experience cooking and serving that food and dinners who may not like all of the aspects of the food you're serving. It can be very complicated and can lead to the experience I had at the Middle Eastern Jollibee.

This time however I was not only prepared (I know the fried chicken is the thing to eat), but being in the Philippines I know I’m getting the real deal. My experience this time was totally better. First of all the chicken is amazing, juicy on the inside and a nice crunchy coating. We had 3 pieces of chicken between the two of us and there wasn’t a bad one.

The spaghetti is the one item I ordered from both the Middle East Jollibee and the one in the Philippines. The difference was pretty significant. I remember the spaghetti in the Middle East being sticky and over cooked. The cheese was also not as plentiful and I could be wrong but I don’t think it was the same kind of cheese. It could be the quality of the cooking, or just my imagination, but the sauce this time didn’t seem as sweet. Don’t get me wrong, Filipino spaghetti sauce is very sweet compared to western spaghetti sauce, but this didn’t feel like I was eating sugar glazed spaghetti.

We also decided to try out the desserts this time, since I heard the pies are amazing. We also got a cookie sundae as well. The sundae was good, but the pie was excellent. While Allison actually preferred the sundae, I thought the sundae was fairly average with the two improvements being the quality of the cookie bits and the fact that they used a hard shell chocolate sauce. The pie on the other hand was perfect. The filling tasted a bit more like peach than mango, but frankly I really enjoyed that. The crust was crunchy and deep fried (seriously why did McDonald's start baking their pies in some countries), delicious!

It was a fine meal, and as of writing this we still have a few days left here in the Philippines and another stop at Jollibee is completely possible. I’m not sure how I feel about attempting another Jollibee outside of the Philippines, because of my previous experience. This did however make me think about a few of the other fast food and restaurant chains I’ve tried outside of their country of origin, particularly the ones that I didn’t really like that much… I’m looking at you Hardee’s.

Quick List - The Best Candies For Each Letter of the Alphabet - V-Z plus Numbers

 A quick list of the best candies from each letter of the alphabet. This time we're going to be checking out V through Z as well as numbers.

Snack On Some Facts

 

If you’ve ever wondered where potato chips were invented or how Haribo got its name, make sure to check out Snack Facts.

Get your copy of this fun comic series right now at candycritic.org/snackfacts/buy.htm or on Amazon.

It Looks Cool I Guess

One of the problems I have with candy is also one of the things I love about candy. In many cases how a candy or snack looks is as (or more) important than how it tastes. We can all agree that the visual esthetics of candy is important, but should it really be as or more important than taste. I feel like there's always a chance to make a candy taste great, but I also feel like tasting great isn't as important to many candy makers. I would even argue that some candy fans might choose a candy that looks great over tasting great. Just look at Instagram famous foods, so many are just not that tasty to eat.

Check out this latest candy review that really tasted okay, but it looks fantastic.