Thursday, February 06, 2025

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.

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

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.

Monday, February 03, 2025

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.

Friday, January 31, 2025

A Little Dark

 So let me get this straight. The little rice crisps spend time constructing a bar and will eventually be trapped on that bar, only to be consumed by you.

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Time for Junk Fud on the Road From Iceland

 Allison and I took a drive around the entire island of Iceland taking in the nature, restaurants, grocery stores and truck stops.

Monday, January 27, 2025

Blue Orchid Is Fun!


If you haven't picked up the latest issue of Blue Orchid, then you're missing out!

Pick up your copy and any other merch right now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/

Bar Form Is Not An Improvement

I have yet to taste an M&Ms (or any candy coated chocolate treat) bar that's actually an improvement. It seems like an odd thing to do if you think about it. You take a colourful candy and hide it in brown. It's like building a giant colourful sign for your business, then building a building right in front of it. It even ruins the eating experience as well. For some reason when you put candies like this in a chocolate bar, the candy coating turns into a gritty texture after a few bites. I'm glad they're trying new things, but I'm not sure this is really working.

Check out my latest M&Ms bar review to see why it doesn't work.

Friday, January 24, 2025

Love At First Breath

 I always love how in candy commercials, fresh breath can lead to love.