Junk food from Japan is the new sex
This week my sister had some extra candy she got from a friend who's visiting from Japan. And that's how I became acquainted with peach flavored Kit Kat bars and giant Pocky. You're probably thinking that peach flavored Kit Kat bars sound really weird and you would be right. I'll get into more details about that later. Do any of you know where to even find something like this in New York? Because even though it was kind of weird, I want to have more of this stuff.
The giant Pocky is pretty much what you think it is. Pocky with giant disease. It's quite a bit taller and wider than a regular stick of Pocky. It still is a cookie in a stick form, covered with some chocolate for 3/4 of the cookie. I don't think one could eat a whole box of giant Pocky's though because they would be overkill.
Normally one would expect bigger version of a good thing to contain more goodness. However, the giant Pocky, while delicious, is not as good as regular ones. Regular sized Pocky sticks have a better chocolate to cookie ratio, and in the giant version, you just get a lot more cookie. No offense to cookie lovers, but me loves chocolate on a stick.
Best part of the snacks from Japan were the Kit Kat bars. Normally in the U.S., they're covered in milk chocolate. Here we see them in two different peach flavors. Yellow peach and white peach. The yellow peach one had a stronger flavor than the white peach one. These things aren't as addictive as the normal milk chocolate version of Kit Kats, but I could see how if you filled my cubicle with peach Kit Kat bars, it would be easy to be a convert. Addiction is a beautiful thing, when we're talking about candy bars from foreign lands.
Today I heard about someone who wants to label food as the new sex! See here. It's talking about how we view food the way we used to view sex. Supposedly we're fussy about food now, constricting ourselves with complex constraints about organic and sustainable and blah blah. Meanwhile we're less fussy about sex. "The rules being drawn around food receive some force from the fact that people are uncomfortable with how far the sexual revolution has gone -- and not knowing what to do about it, they turn for increasing consolation to mining morality out of what they eat." Nothing like hearing a republican tell us the sexual revolution has gone too far... shades of Ann Coulter.
I really don't think that's what's happening with food. It just so happens that some people who do love food a lot care about where their food comes from. This is not everyone. Most of my friends love food and love to eat food. Like me, they don't give a fuck where it's from. You could carry Kit Kat bars on a carry-on luggage and burn some jet fuel, or float me over some pocky snacks on a giant shipping vessel. It really is no difference to me. It just so happens that the people who care about where their food comes from, they are very vocal. The Alice Waters and the Dan Barbers. I think the other thing is that in a fast moving world with everyone leading complex lives, it can be a comfort to be immersed in something to call your own. Look, there are people who comfort themselves with the latest gadgets and keep up with contrast ratios on LCD tv's. Or people who know about the minutia of goofy sunglasses and skinny jeans and whatever style is in play right now. The only difference is that gadget folks and fashion people aren't telling the rest of us that shoddy LCD screens and fashion faux pas is going to ruin health care in this country and lead to an obesity epidemic.
To recap. Are Kit Kat candies like sex? Oh hell yes. Is food the new sex and are people making a fuss about it because people need consolation about the sexual revolution? Um.. maybe that's stretching it a little.
Wow, that guy must never have made it through the oral stage.
There are many kinds of pocky at the supermarket in K-Town. I bet they'd have funky flavored candy too. Pocky was my treat to myself when I was studying for my licensing exam.
Janice
February 27, 2009 12:28 pm
mmmm, pocky...
justin
February 27, 2009 4:59 pm
mmm poky
b ach
February 28, 2009 2:36 pm
If food is the new sex, maybe salmonella is the new gonorrhea.
bionicgrrrl
February 28, 2009 7:39 pm
I agree with Janice, you can get Pocky in Ktown or in Chinatown. In fact, when I was growing up my parents would do weekly food shopping in Chinatown and my brothers and I would go to the candy/snack aisle and we were allowed to pick one treat each.
The will def have all of this candy or even new things you've never tried.
Try Kam-Man which I think is on Canal or on Mott St. Any big grocery store there...
btw - love your blog....i'm an avid reader!
hellogirl
March 2, 2009 11:45 am
@Janice,
I have to look out for it next time. Usually at these Korean and Japanese stores, they're good about giving you snacks that's made by companies in that country. Very rare do I see exotic versions of US products shipped back here. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky though!
@Justin,
Yes. mmm.... pocky
@b ach,
mmmmm... yes. I want more
@bionicgrrrl,
hahahahaha. Oh man...
@hellogirl,
Ah yes, Kamman. My friends and I were just talking about that store this morning. It's a good place. I'm gald you like the blog! Hope to have you around and thanks for commenting! :)
Danny
March 2, 2009 2:37 pm
i've been eating an insane amount of Japanese junk food lately. I will keep an eye out for these and let you know if I spot any.
blondie
March 2, 2009 8:35 pm
What kind of Japanese junk food have you been eating?
Danny
March 2, 2009 9:10 pm
I brought some strawberry/blueberry KitKats as well as some muscat KitKats back from my latest Asia trip. I miss all the snacks, but thank goodness we can get most of them at Asian grocery stores around here!
talida
March 3, 2009 12:38 am
You need to head out to NJ to the mother lode of Japanese grocery stores -- Mitsuwa. It's just a 20-30 minute shuttle ride away from Port Authority. They also have an awesome food court. Make sure to save room for ramen at Santouka.
http://www.mitsuwa.com/tenpo/newj/eindex.html
Miss Needle
March 3, 2009 10:02 am
i'm particularly fond of the chocolate crush pocky myself. ditto re: mitsuwa.
heartkorean
March 6, 2009 5:58 pm
I make regular stops at Kam Man to scope out their Kit Kat selection. Sadly, they only have one flavor left: triple berry. My friend in Kyoto just shipped a box of various flavors to me last month, though!! So I'm still floating in the clouds off that stash :)
Jennifer
March 8, 2009 11:46 am
I'm still wrapping my head around soy Kit Kats... I saw them somewhere and forgot to pick them up. My waist says thank you but my mouth says something completely different, second word also you. lol.
As for sex=food... heh. here: http://www.endlesssimmer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/foodreplacesex.gif
Yvo
March 9, 2009 12:51 pm
I think exotic flavours of kit kat are nothing compared to the really weird foodstuffs reviewed by Jet Daisuke (http://www.youtube.com/user/jetdaisuke). Some examples are curry flavoured soda (ramune), cheese-filled fishcake bread (which sounds wrong on so many levels), alcohol-infused milk, cheese-filled pickled plums, milk pudding that is spread on bread... Well, if even the Japanese find these products weird, these must be weird indeed.
orbiter
March 31, 2009 1:44 am