Japanese Product Roundup

So I'm betting that quite a few of you are wondering what awesome crazy new electronic gadgets are on the Japanese markets these days and why I haven't shared my thoughts on them with you.. Well keep wondering, I'm not talking about those products today. What I am talking about is snacks. Super-awesome face-filling morsels of goodness (I may have actually seen that slogan on a pack of something somewhere, so don't laugh, or rather, please do..).

Our first contender is something that on first glance sounds both extremely disturbing and oddly intriguing at the same time..

Mitsuya cider's new flavour... with condensed milk?!? It may or may not be visible on your screen but the red text reads, "Cider Meets Condensed Milk", which is really weird considering this is a carbonated drink. I first noticed this on something like my second day in Japan, and I've had it once or twice since then. Unfortunately, it doesn't really taste much like condensed milk. For that matter, it doesn't taste much like cider. Maybe they both got confused enroute to the rendezvous point and two entirely different flavours decided to meet up: bubbles and sugar perhaps.

Continuing on the theme of condensed milk, there's a couple of really tasty ice cream bars that I've been frequently making a pig of myself on. The first is this chocholatey goodness bar (not the actual name) which as the picture shows is filled with condensed milk. The second, for which I don't have a pic, is like shaved ice on a stick. Picture a bar of strawberry flavoured shaved ice, surrounded by a layer of hardened condensed milk. But just when you think that's all there is, when you get to the middle, there's the same soft condensed milk as the chocholatey bar. Aaahh.. goodness.

And not to be out done, just when you thought that things couldn't get any more interesting, let me present to you.. chicken wing flavoured chips. Well more like a "Cheeto-esque" kinda thing, but it comes in a bag and is supposed to taste like chicken wings.. 'nuff said. When I saw these in the convenience store there was absolutely no question... I had to buy them.. They taste surprisingly ok, and even slightly like actual chicken wings (the dry kind with just seasonings and no sauce), so I was much impressed. The package says that it's apparently good with beer.