Oishi Koi Mori seaweed flavored rice crackers: These were sweet glazed rice crackers shaped like fish. They had a slight seaweed flavor but tasted predominantly of brown sugar. Overall, they were decent but forgettable. 3.0/5.0
asian nori hongkongsupermarket ricecrackers oishii koi mori seaweed flavored rice crackers 3.0
Nature's Soy Black sesame soy milk: I love Asian soy milk, which tends to be a lot less sweet and taste of actual soybeans/tofu compared to American soymilk (there's a very good chapter on this in the book Organic inc.), so when I went to Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown NYC, I checked out the refrigerated, fresh soy milk options. This brand happened to have black sesame and matcha soymilk, two of my favorite flavors. Since the half gallons we're quite large and black sesame is a bit more unqiue for this category, I purchase... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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Lonely God Japanese Seaweed Flavor Potato Chips: A quintessential Chinese snack whose name is likely the result of a mistranslation, these auger-shaped potato snacks are about 1.5 larger than Frito flavor twists and slightly softer in texture. They're coated in a savory sweet seaweed powder. Purchased from Hong Kong Supermarket, they're one of the many examples of Asian snacks commonly found in 7-11s in Taiwan, but difficult to find in America. Overall, I wish the snack were crispier, and they are sweeter than I prefer for a savory snac... (read more) 3.0/5.0
asian nori chinese hongkongsupermarket lonelygod japanese seaweed flavor potato chips 3.0
Mango Mango Mango Sampler: Purchased from the St. Mark's location of asian-dessert-chain Mango Mango, this platter contains a sampling of three different desserts. The first was starchy and slightly too firm glutinous rice balls paired with fresh mango fruit (the latter of which was ripe and sweet). The next was lychee jelly (very sweet and similar to the type you would expect to be at the bottom of a bubble tea) and a scoop of mango ice cream, which was a tad creamy and did not tasting distinctively of mango. The ... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Koh Kae Spicy Hot Pot Peanuts Mala: Purchased from HMart in Midtown, this can of peanuts has a uniquely spiced chili flavor that actually does taste similar to a schezuan-style hot pot. It’s savory but not overly spicy, with just enough heat. The roasted peanuts themselves were pretty ordinary, but the seasoning makes them worth trying. 3.0/5.0
hmart asian nuts kohkae spicy hot pot peanuts mala 3.0
PaTea Brown sugar oolong milk tea with boba: I really love living in NYC, but one thing that was missing for me was a mom-and-pop super-asian bubble tea shop, the kind that has an overwhelming number of flavors that isn’t a major chain like Gong Cha or Coco. Those types of shops are omnipresent in the Bay Area, but not so much here. However, that gap has now been filled by PaTea, a very small bubble tea shop a few blocks away from Union Square. There, they have the “chubby” bucket-sized bubble tea cups in a variety of milk and fruit te... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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