Jinga rice wine cake: Korean rice flour "cake" that had a glutinous yet spongy texture. Traditionally called jeungpyeon, it is similar in flavor to sake-steamed glutinous rice desserts you might have in Taiwan. Unfortunately, this version is dry and difficult to eat, and the flavor is one dimensional. 1.5/5.0
jinga korean ricecake glutinous rice avoid hmart wine cake 1.5
IKEA Tarta Mandel almond cake: As part of my free meal at IKEA, I got a slice of their almond cake, the most harmless looking dessert on display. It consists of two thin layers of cake with butter cream in between; sliced almonds are sprinkled on top. While the portion size was not very large, it was difficult to get through given the over-sweetend and gummy icing. The nuts offered neither texture nor flavor. It was free, but I would not choose to eat it for free again. 1.5/5.0
avoid ikea tarta mandel almond cake 1.5
Oshidori Milk Cake: I bought this candy because of the cute but somewhat dated-looking packaging, which made me think it was probably an older classic snack. Inside the bag are individually wrapped milk cakes, hard sticks about 2x in length as a stick of gum. They are completely opaque in color but have some air holes in them. Each stick is fairly brittle so that they snap when you bite into it. Flavor-wise, this was definitely one of the worse things I've eaten in Japan. It tastes kind of like I'd imagine... (read more) 1.0/5.0
avoid japanese candy oshidori milk cake 1.0