Yakisoba and chocolate : Valentines match made in heaven?

Japanese manufacturer Myojo is well known for selling their popular and super convenient 'Ippei-chan' yakisoba noodles. They apparently thought that their marketing needed something completely wild and crazy and jumped on the Valentine's bandwagon, by adding...chocolate sauce, what?

As soon as I saw the promo for this on the internet I decided on the spot that I HAD to eat this. Who the hell thinks of chocolate and noodles together? Typically yakisoba is ramen noodles fried in a slightly salty soy, Worchestershire kind of sauce. Some flavour combinations just naturally don't work together. You aren't going to add whipped cream to your squid and you won't put baked beans on a chocolate cake. So how anyone decided to make this combo is beyond me. But I remained faithful, after all, adding chocolate to a curry is a great way to add some bitterness to it, maybe this would work?

My local supermarket had an ample stack that was larger yesterday.

Sites like RocketNews have gone for the 'sensational' OMG it's so gross, so unique, rare and hard to find reporting approach. Whilst it will certainly disappear quickly like all limited edition flavours here, within a week or two max, I could find them in pretty much every convenience store and supermarket. Interestingly, it is a good 50 yen cheaper than the standard flavour, I guess even the most adventurous need a little cash incentive...!

So you buy a packet, what do you get inside?

You get the standard packet with the cool drainage lid and 3 packets that you simply need to add after boiling the noodles and draining them, then just mix the hell out of it. Adding the furikake packet last, which is kind of the crunchy topping. Even if you don't know Japanese, the instructions are crazy simple.

So you mix it all up, wait with anticipation and you see this...oh.
I'm sure the obvious comparison is very clear...I tasted a quick sample of the sauce before putting it on an it did indeed taste like legitimate chocolate sauce!

Appetizing?

However, if you go beyond the visuals and mix it up, the taste is pretty surprising.
The texture is very much the same as your standard yakisoba but with a little added crunch from the topping. The starchyness of the noodles actually helps to mellow out the chocolate taste into something a bit more natural.
My immediate comparison would be a standard chocolate mister donut's donut. What I hadn't realized until I had began eating is that it is noodles plus chocolate AND cinnamon. This was a real deal breaker. The cinnamon, for me actually added a nice after taste and complimented the natural noodle taste. You could even say it was pretty good!

Mix, mix...!

That's a bit more natural looking...!

It became one of those dishes where the more you eat it, the more you begin to like it. I found myself saying "Hey...I could actually eat this again!" and not just to be edgy. I have had worse tasting regular yakisoba's. Perhaps I have a more forgiving palate but for that combination and for so cheap, it was a nice surprise!

If you want to try this novelty noodle dish I really recommend you go out and grab one within a week or so otherwise you will have to hunt hard. It has been released for valentines but often it seems that Japan removes these items way before the event has actually finished, marketing is weird.

If you give it a go, let me know what you think! 

Tower Cheese Monstrosity Returns!!

Cheesy Monstrosity was back for one day only!

Despite my intended focus of this blog being games and Japanese media and culture I keep getting sucked into the wonderful world of Ltd. Edition foods and drinks that are constantly being churned out here!

On 20th November, the hamburger chain Lotteria re-released their limited edition tower cheese burger for one day only. The last time they did this they sold out so quickly, but this time I got lucky!
For ¥500 you get just the burger, or for ¥700 you get a small drink and fries too. The drink is essential for all the damn meat you are about to eat...!

The tower cheese burger consists of a bun, 5 big meat patties and ton of cheese wedged inbetween. I saw some pretty horrific monstrosities on twitter the last time this promo took place so was pleasantly surprised to see that mine sort of resembled the promo photo!

It's difficult to eat, being bigger than the average mouth. I chose to attack it from the side, a salaryman infront of my tries to attack it from the bottom but he became a greasy mess within seconds...! The meat is...disappointing. It is edible but one word I would use to describe it is 'mushy'. Didn't feel solid at all, compared to other popular burger chains this is definitely dog food tier meat. There is no way cheese should have that bright yellow colour either, just doesn't look natural!

The main problem was grease, the bun inevitably gets soaked and makes your hands stink! I had to use a bunch of gatsy wipes to get rid of it. As you can see here, the greasy aftermath after you have finished instantly makes you regret your decision.

Is it worth it? For ¥500 you can argue that it is cheap for what you get, 5 patties is filling! But the taste leaves a lot to be desired. It is a good novelty burger to show your friends (...or the internet/instagram!)

If you are interested, I recently saw a sign for another one day only buying chance for the 10th of December, so go find a Lotteria near you and try one!