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thistlechaserI have four different candies/cookies/claimed-food-items left to try before I have to go shopping for more. One looks okay, one looks "oh my god, why did I buy that?", and the other two are in the middle. As mentioned in my last post, I'm hungry. I let that influence my decision on which one to try. We're going for the okay-seeming one!
"Ginbis Animal Biscuits" look so cute. They're actually the only one of these candies that I bought because I wanted to and might have bought even if I wasn't trying all of these new things. (Well, okay, I might have bought that "Jelly Drink" one because I saw them drinking it in Digimon, but ... *twitch*twitch* ...if we continue to talk about Jelly Drink, I'll never be able to finish this one.)
So anyway, these Animal Biscuits (which I'm strongly hoping will be mostly just animal crackers), come in a way too cute box. A pink kitty cat and a ram sharing milk (next to a happy cow drinking something yellow), a lion and a hippo offering plates of cookies... And look at that cute alligator!
Turning the box over, we come my next reason for wanting to buy these. Check out all those shapes these come in! Panda, bat, goat, hawk, sparrow, rat, porcupine, pelican, peafowl, macaw... Why don't American animal crackers come in so many shapes? This is just too cool!
Opening the box, I see they come in a foil wrapper (much like most every other foreign cookie/cracker). Printed on it are the animal names in English and in (I assume) Japanese. Another bonus!
Ripping open the foil... There's a little bit of an odd smell, but not too too bad. Wheaty. No sweet smell at all, it smells just like strong wheat. The cookies are handily marked with what they are. (Oh look! There's one of Hyper! I would have taken a picture of the cock shaped one (heh heh heh) for Chia, but I didn't get one in my bag.)
On the side of the box is even a recipe! While it's not in English, it looks simple enough to follow: Alternate layers of cookies and what must be (I hope) chocolate pudding.
So I guess it's time to try it... As has becoming my norm, I'm checking the box for a list of ingredients before I try one. (I worry that some Japanese company somewhere is slipping squid or tofu or some poisonous puffer fish into their candies to try to trick us unsuspecting Americans...) In the order listed:
Wheat flour (which would explain the smell), sugar (good choice there), red bean powder (?? Uh?), oil, condensed milk, leavening, calcium (odd), salt, flavorings
Well, nothing in that list should kill me. So let's try one! How about tortoise?
How very odd. My first thought (and second and third) was that they have no taste at all. Nothing bad, nothing good, just a crunchy no-taste thing. Trying another one, I get the faintest taste of sweet. If I hold it in my mouth a while after chewing, I get a really distant wheat taste. The surface of the cookies are unpleasantly oily to the touch, and I need to wipe my fingers off before typing. And, after eating two, my tongue feels like it has a coating of oil. That's pretty gross.
So, if not for that oil issue, they... ew. Just ate a third one, and it must have had a big lump of salt in it. Blech. With the oil issue, their score needs to be reduced some. However, the packaging gives them a bunch of points, so picking some number at semi-random, let's go with 7/10. If I come across them again, I'd buy more, but only to have the boxes to display.
"Ginbis Animal Biscuits" look so cute. They're actually the only one of these candies that I bought because I wanted to and might have bought even if I wasn't trying all of these new things. (Well, okay, I might have bought that "Jelly Drink" one because I saw them drinking it in Digimon, but ... *twitch*twitch* ...if we continue to talk about Jelly Drink, I'll never be able to finish this one.)
So anyway, these Animal Biscuits (which I'm strongly hoping will be mostly just animal crackers), come in a way too cute box. A pink kitty cat and a ram sharing milk (next to a happy cow drinking something yellow), a lion and a hippo offering plates of cookies... And look at that cute alligator!
Turning the box over, we come my next reason for wanting to buy these. Check out all those shapes these come in! Panda, bat, goat, hawk, sparrow, rat, porcupine, pelican, peafowl, macaw... Why don't American animal crackers come in so many shapes? This is just too cool!
Opening the box, I see they come in a foil wrapper (much like most every other foreign cookie/cracker). Printed on it are the animal names in English and in (I assume) Japanese. Another bonus!
Ripping open the foil... There's a little bit of an odd smell, but not too too bad. Wheaty. No sweet smell at all, it smells just like strong wheat. The cookies are handily marked with what they are. (Oh look! There's one of Hyper! I would have taken a picture of the cock shaped one (heh heh heh) for Chia, but I didn't get one in my bag.)
On the side of the box is even a recipe! While it's not in English, it looks simple enough to follow: Alternate layers of cookies and what must be (I hope) chocolate pudding.
So I guess it's time to try it... As has becoming my norm, I'm checking the box for a list of ingredients before I try one. (I worry that some Japanese company somewhere is slipping squid or tofu or some poisonous puffer fish into their candies to try to trick us unsuspecting Americans...) In the order listed:
Wheat flour (which would explain the smell), sugar (good choice there), red bean powder (?? Uh?), oil, condensed milk, leavening, calcium (odd), salt, flavorings
Well, nothing in that list should kill me. So let's try one! How about tortoise?
How very odd. My first thought (and second and third) was that they have no taste at all. Nothing bad, nothing good, just a crunchy no-taste thing. Trying another one, I get the faintest taste of sweet. If I hold it in my mouth a while after chewing, I get a really distant wheat taste. The surface of the cookies are unpleasantly oily to the touch, and I need to wipe my fingers off before typing. And, after eating two, my tongue feels like it has a coating of oil. That's pretty gross.
So, if not for that oil issue, they... ew. Just ate a third one, and it must have had a big lump of salt in it. Blech. With the oil issue, their score needs to be reduced some. However, the packaging gives them a bunch of points, so picking some number at semi-random, let's go with 7/10. If I come across them again, I'd buy more, but only to have the boxes to display.
