A New 10 Second Kitchen From Singapore

 Watching them prepare several bento boxes at the most relaxing Don Don Donki in the world.

Mixue, The Ice Cream Trend That I Didn’t Know Anything About

 My first experience with Mixue happened in Thailand. I was walking through a mall that I have visited many times when I noticed a new ice cream place. It appeared to be a soft serve ice cream shop, and I didn’t really give it much thought. Later that afternoon I walked by the shop again only to see a gigantic line forming outside the shop. This isn’t something new to Thailand as it’s a bit of a collection spot for trendy foods. I figured that that ice cream shop might just be the newest hip thing and eventually the lines would die down and maybe on a future visit I’ll give it a try. I’m not really the type of person to line up for soft serve ice cream, unless someone I trust tells me it’s worth the wait.

I few months later I was back in Thailand and once again I walked by this unassuming ice cream place and once again it had a huge line. It was a little peculiar as often the trendy places in Thailand die down in popularity fairly quickly, and in some cases they even shut down in a few months. This one however had some staying power. I once again didn’t get a cone, but I decided to keep an eye on this place.

A little while later I found myself in Singapore, and I happened to walk by an ice cream place, and once again it had a huge line. Upon closer inspection I realized that this was actually the same place that I saw in Thailand. Now I was seriously intrigued. After all it just looks like a run of the mill soft serve ice cream place, so why are people lined up for basic soft serve all over Asia? Could it be that there’s some kind of special treat they offer, or maybe the vanilla ice cream is that great?

When I past the first shop in Singapore, I didn’t have time to stop, but as luck would have it Allison and I came across another location and amazingly enough there wasn’t a huge line. It was just after supper and a soft serve ice cream would make for the perfect dessert. While there wasn’t a lineup, it was still a bit of a challenge to get a cone.

I’m not sure if this is the same at every Mixue location, but the stores in Singapore don’t take credit card. This is problematic for us since we were only visiting Singapore for a short time, and didn’t have much cash. We tried to go to the kiosks to pay and order only to learn that they only took certain forms of payment, none of them being credit card. In order to pay cash you had to walk up to the register. I didn’t even know what I wanted to order, so I used the self service screens to pick what I wanted and walked up to the register.

As it turns out, they offered a super cheap 1 Singapore dollar “World Famous” ice cream cone. Since it was world famous I figured that’s what I should probably get. I walked up to the counter and the person explained that if I was paying cash and only wanted an ice cream cone that I had to go to the walk up window outside the store. At this point the long lineup seemed very inviting. We made our way to the window outside the shop and by that time a short lineup had started to form, but we were already committed.

At the window there was one man frantically making ice cream cones and taking people’s dollar. My time came and fortunately I had a few people in front of me to show me what to do. I soon had a cone in my hand and I was super excited to see what all the fuss was about.

Turns out... the fuss was about nothing that great. I wouldn’t really call the ice cream bad, but I’ve had better. Give me a Canadian ice cream truck soft serve, or a cone from Joe’s in Wales any day over this. Sure the size was pretty good, and it looked cool, but flavour wise it was average. The cone was actually the highlight of the whole treat, it was a bit better than the store bought ones you get with most soft serve ice cream places.

That price was certainly worth it, but I’m not sure that this ice cream is worth the waiting time I’ve seen at some locations. I feel like the hype of this place and the nice mascot design is the real draw. I got my photos, ate my cone, and cooled off on a hot Singapore night, but I can’t say that I was overly impressed.

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Candy Critic Eats Food, A Restaurant Review - DC Super Heroes Cafe

For those of you who may not know me, not only do I love snacks, candy and junk food, but I’m also a bit of a comic book nerd. Before Candy Critic even existed, I had been reading comic books, and I even spent a few years working in a comic book store as a teenager. When I was a comic book reader, my publishing company of choice was DC comics. I know today DC has fallen behind Marvel comics in popularity (particularly with the movies), but I don’t consider myself that hip, so I don’t feel like I have to be down with what the kids are into.

With my love and fond memories of DC comics, you can only imagine how I felt when I was in Singapore recently and I stumbled across the DC Super Heroes Café. I had not read about this place in any of the guide books, nor had I heard about other branches of this café anywhere else in the world. Allison and I were just walking through a mall (mostly to cool down) and we came across this amazing place.

I’m going to assume that this place is fully licenced by the folks at Warner Brothers, and that each piece of merchandise and the menu items are fully endorsed by the company who owns these characters. I don’t know this for a fact, but there is one detail that really made me believe that whomever built this place had permission. Most of the time when you see unlicensed things in certain countries, you find discrepancies in the details.  For example, when I’ve come across unlicensed toys in the past, they often mix up the DC and Marvel universe, and you’ll see a Batman toy packaged with a Spiderman toy. This wasn’t the case at the DC Super Heroes Café, it was all on brand and very on the mark.

For the start of my review we’ll talk about how the DC Super Heroes Café is laid out and decorated. The place is split into two sections, the restaurant and the store. The store is pretty much full of all kinds of DC related toys, merchandise and art work. Some of it is very expensive, other things are more reasonable. There was nothing that you wouldn’t find in an average comic book shop, if all that comic book shop sold was DC merchandise, and no comics. The store (and parts of the restaurant) was also filled with life sized statues of various comic book characters, mostly from DC movie tie-ins. I’m not sure if these were for sale, but I’m sure the price tag was way out of my range.

The restaurant side was half take out bakery and half sit down restaurant. When we first approached the place, we just looked at the various cakes and drinks available at the front counter and didn’t really think about actually eating there. The restaurant side is not really cohesive in its design, and kind of looks like a bunch of comics from the 70s exploded everywhere (take that as you want to). The lack of cohesive design of the restaurant indicates to me that this might be the only one of these in existence, and that the person who opened this place has deep pockets to pay for licences, and not an eye for design. The lack of cohesive design actually made the place kind of fun, but also made it a little confusing.

The other thing that made this place confusing is the menu. Which we eventually decided was worth checking out after looking over the items for sale in the bakery case. When you think about a comic book café, you might think about trying some of the famous foods that might appear in comic books. I would want to eat a hamburger that Superman might enjoy, or a meal that might be served at Wayne Manor. Instead the dishes are just random diner foods with DC comics puns added into the name and all kinds of logos thrown all over them (mostly made of processed cheese and cut vegetables).  Things like the “Clarks Kent’s Crevettes Carbonara” and the “Doomsday Chicken and Waffles” were what was on offer. It didn’t really feel like there was a story behind these dishes, only “clever” puns and lots of logos.

There were also several drinks and cakes with puns in the name, and many of them also had colour themes that would go with the character that was part of the pun. Or in the case of the cakes, they were decorated with logos and colours, and some designs that would associate with the characters. I will give this place credit; they made some deep cuts when it came to the characters they chose to associate with the foods. Most restaurants would only use the characters that might have made it to the mainstream or in the movies, but this place had no trouble dealing with some of the more obscure characters including Bizarro and Mr Mxyzptlk.

I also like the fact that the restaurant was clearly interested in the comics and not the movies. The walls were decorated with comic book pages featuring the origins of some of the more popular DC characters. The chairs and the tables were all decorated with character logos from the comics. The colours everywhere were just bright and comic book like. Visually this restaurant was a feast for the eyes, but the food…

As described above, the food is basic diner food, it’s nothing fancy and nothing that creative. I ordered the Doomsday Chicken and Waffles, and Allison got the Batman Burger (that came in an amazing box). Both are meals were fine, but not amazing. I felt like the chicken and waffles was made by someone who had never actually eaten chicken and waffles before. It came with maple syrup on the side, but was already covered in nacho cheese sauce. I’m not an expert in chicken and waffles, but I’m pretty sure nacho cheese is not a part of it. Allison enjoyed her burger, but felt it was a little overpriced for what it was.

The experience of eating at this place is far more fun than the food itself. I feel like this place was designed by someone who really loves DC Super Heroes, but doesn’t really understand how to tie it into a restaurant. As I mentioned before, it was not cheap. I feel like we were paying for the licensing of the characters more than the food (if I find out that this place is not licensed than there’s no excuse at all). I’m glad I tried it once, but I don’t see myself ever going back, except maybe just to browse the store.

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Yet Again, It's A 10 Second Kitchen - Peoples Park, Singapore

I love watching birds spin around, it strangely makes me hungry.

If you like this 10 Second Kitchen, you'll also like all the other episodes that you can find on our Candy Map.

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Even More 10 Second Kitchen For You To Watch - Marina Bay Sands

This is more than just cooking, this is a juggling act.

You can see all of our 10 Second Kitchen's, and where we shot them, on our Candy Map.

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It's Another 10 Second Kitchen - China Town, Singapore

I could watch machines making food all day long.

If you want to see all of our 10 Second Kitchen videos, check out our Candy Map.

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We've Got A 10 Second Kitchen For You - China Town Point, Singapore

It's amazing to watch people work as a team to make food.

Want to check out all of the 10 Second Kitchen's? Check out our Candy Map.

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We Got Some New Treats On Our Trip to Bali/Singapore - Dairy Milk In Lickables

This latest trip to Bali and Singapore was not supposed to be about snacking, it was one of the rare occasions where we went somewhere that I thought I wouldn't find too much to review. I was very wrong. Today's new review is just the tip of the iceberg, and we'll have more treat reviews from this trip going up over the next month, or even two. These Lickables were probably the most mysterious of the treats we found, and I couldn't wait to crack open the package and figure them out. As it turns out, everything inside this strange package was pretty disappointing.

Click here to find out why these disappointed so much.

Also be sure to check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds to see what else we came across on this trip.

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The Food Trend You’ve Never Heard Of - Salted Egg

Food trends are like all trends today, they appear on social media or television, then suddenly they’re at every restaurant and part of every snack as big name brands try to capitalize on them. These trends don’t often disappear, but they die down a bit. At one point every bakery specialized in cupcakes, now there are still many places that make them, but few specialize in them. Sriracha was once the hot sauce of choice on everything, it’s still popular, but it’s not a Krispy Kreme doughnut flavour. We tend to think of these trends as global phenomenon, where the entire world is discovering, and eventually getting sick of this trendy food all together. This can be the case, but it’s not always.

Salted eggs are a traditional Chinese food that was adapted into the snacking world, and is now taking parts of Asia by storm. A salted egg is an egg that is brined and soft boiled. It gives the egg a salty flavour perfect for a snack or as a side dish. A few years ago, a few industrious companies in Singapore started to discover ways to turn this simple salty egg into a crunchy snack. Their solution was a little un-orthodox from a western standpoint, but it became a hit. The new snack took these salted eggs, turned them into a batter, and used them to coat fish skins. These fish skins would then be deep fried, and turned into a crunchy snack.

Salted egg fish skins gained in popularity, and became a go to snack in Singapore. The main producer of these salted egg fish skins was a company called Irvins. They made this snack something more than just a salty treat, they would have lines out the doors of their stores, and would actually sell out of product before the end of the day. My first encounter with salted egg fish skins came about when I was flying through the airport in Singapore. Irvins had just opened a branch of their store in the airport, and I was perplexed about why it wasn't even open in the middle of the day. I was actually more perplexed about who would want to eat something called "salted egg fish skins".  Apparently, they had run out of stock that day and closed shop. On my way back from my trip, I again stopped in the Singapore airport and Irvins was open, and the lineup was huge. People were buying giant bags of these fish skins, and I had no idea what the deal was.

After this stop through I decided to learn a little more about this snack, and I discovered that this was one of the great hidden gems of Singapore, and people would seek out Irvins and get their salted egg fish skin fix. At first, I discounted this as just a weird trend in a particular country. Sometimes foods in a particular country will become trendy, but only locally, and to the occasional foodie that might be passing through. About a year later I happen to be visiting Singapore, and I decided to indulge in this trend. By this time there were a few companies making these fish skins, and I also discovered a few places (Irvins included) were selling salted egg potatoes (these are basically potato chips instead of fish skins). While I was in Singapore, I sampled some of this fish skins (and even wrote a review). I wasn't blown away at how great they tasted, but they were kind of unique.

At this point I still figured that this was a niche Singapore thing, and nothing more. It was fun to eat, but I figured I wouldn't hear about them again, unless I went back to Singapore. Then something weird happened. I was walking through a store in Cambodia, and I saw salted egg fish skins. Huh, I thought. I was a little surprised to see them, but not convinced that it was a full on trend. I say this because Cambodia generally doesn't have much of a snack (or candy) creating scene. Most of the snacks in Cambodia are just imports or copies of imports from other parts of Asia, with a few Australian and North American treats thrown in. Don't get me wrong, there are some great foods in Cambodia, they're just not into making original snacks right now. While seeing these salted egg fish skins in Cambodia tweaked my interest, I wasn't convinced.

Then last week (about 6 months after discovering them in Cambodia) I went to Bangkok, and my mind was blown. Bangkok is a place that is loaded with trendy stores, cafes, and restaurants. I would say that it's one of those cities that seems to really be into trendy things, and last week Bangkok was really into salted egg. The stores were packed to the gills with salted egg fish skins and potatoes, but there was more. I started to notice international brands jumping on this trend. Most notably I saw a bag of salted egg Lay's potato chips. This is when you know something is more than a niche local trend, when a large brand jumps into the game.

But this wasn't the only example. In Thailand (and I imagine in other parts of South East Asia (and maybe further) salted egg is becoming a flavour that every food company wants to be a part of. I found salted egg ice cream, salted egg meals, and even salted egg doughnuts at Krispy Kreme. It was as if everyone wanted to be a part of this new food trend. I couldn't resist trying out a salted egg doughnut, it was surprisingly good. Having said that I was expecting it to be horrible, so even partially good would have been an improvement.

Seeing as I'm still living in South East Asia, I'm not sure if this trend is moving outside of this area (although apparently the cheese doughnut I thought I ate at Tim Horton's in China was actually salted egg). I think the salted egg trend would work all over the world. I think North America and Europe could get on the salted egg train too. I think Krispy Kreme and ice cream companies may have a hard sell for this, beyond it being a novelty, but I think chip companies would do really well. Maybe the fish skins might not be very popular, but the salted egg potatoes would be a big hit.

This trend could spread, and it could be something we see all over the globe, or it might just be an "Asian thing". I hope not, because it's not often that you get something that's just a little weird, but actually works, and I'd really like my friends to be able to try this flavour out.

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Candy In The Media - Make It Rain Cotton Candy

This is probably the most unique and beautiful way to sweeten your coffee.

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We Just Finished A New Episode Of Junk Fud On The Road!

In this episode Allison and Chris talk about their fairly recent adventure in Singapore. We learn about Allison's love of Mr. Bean cakes, and Chris samples a Singapore classic, salted egg fish skin.

To keep up with all our travel adventures, make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

To keep up with all our podcasts you can follow us on SoundCloud, YouTube, or just click here regularly.

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It's A Very Special Episode Of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

This is not only a double episode (two snacks), but both parts were filmed on the road (Singapore and Thailand). In this episode we try two very unique McDonald's pies, both on the savory side. Savory McDonald's pies are rare in North America, but all around the world they have some pretty unique savory pies, and some of them are actually pretty good.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to find out what we're eating next.

Also make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with everything we put out.

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It’s An Episode Of Chris’s Monday Morning Breakfast Thoughts From Singapore!

There’s no new review today, however we have a special episode of Monday Morning Breakfast Thoughts shot live from Singapore. In this episode Chris (and Allison) talk about their travels, and also about some future episodes of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! that they’re working on. It’s the first time we’ve recorded an episode from abroad, but not the last as we have lots more travel coming up.

To keep up with all our fun trip news, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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The Biggest Continents Biggest Candy Store

A resort in Singapore has just opened the largest candy store in Asia. It apparently has a huge selection of treats from all over the world as well as the largest lollipop tree in the whole world. I think a trip to Singapore might be in order.

Click here to read more about it.

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