Category: Australia

Ramen 16: Great Southern Chicken

May 30, 2022

A new hemisphere has revealed new chicken ramen, just waiting for my review. With no further delay…

Fantastic Chicken Noodles (1449 kJ, 18.6 g fat, 1090 mg sodium)

It takes bravery to name a product ‘fantastic’, and is this case it’s absolutely misplaced. The inclusion of desiccated peas and weirdly green spices gave me pause, but the strangely root-like noodles were the biggest deterrent.

I was hungry when I prepared it, and dove right in, but this product tasted of weeds and dank places. The noodles were the worst culprit, with a spongy cellulose texture and the taste of wood pulp. This was a shockingly bad ramen noodle, and I’d fly to the other side of the world to never have to eat one again. I’ll score it -8/10

Maggi Chicken Noodles (1290 kJ, 10.2 g fat, 1515 mg sodium)

I read this is Australia’s best-selling noodle product (not just chicken noodle, but overall) and I’ve reviewed the brick version here over a year ago. The cup contained fewer than the usual amount of noodles, and the veggie pack was only finely diced carrots!

As with the brick version this was… only ok. I’ve eaten forty-something chicken noodle products now and this would be squarely in the middle: enough to keep you alive but nothing to look forward to. I used to love this flavor as a kid, but now obviously my tastes have matured: 5/10.

Choice Chicken Noodle Soup (1350 kJ, 13.7 g fat, 1150 mg sodium)

This is (I believe) the Woolworths store brand and the least expensive ($0.75) of those tested here. It looks like Fantastic spices combined with Maggi noodles and I wasn’t expecting much.

To my surprise this was pretty good! The noodles were better than most, and the spice taste was slightly peppery and more chickeny than the two above. The more I ate the more I liked it, and if I were to eat more ramen here in Oz this – so far – would top my list. A solid 7/10.

So far, I’ve found nothing too special or unusual on the shelves here. But there’s more to come, so maybe the next post will reveal a surprise or two?

Review: Cowboy Angus

May 29, 2022

This time I went to Hungry Jacks (the Australian version of Burger King) and once again ordered something I’d never usually consider: the Cowboy Angus.

As you can see I got the meal, and it may be a little difficult to see in the above shot but the box the burger was served in was massive. You could have easily fit a couple of Big Macs in there. I was terrified since I eat like a bird these days.

Here’s the marketing shot compared to what I got:

At first glance – and indeed at second – the bacon and onion rings seem absent. Perhaps they’re hiding inside:

So they were, albeit hardly as impressively abundant as the marketing suggests. You will also note the absence of any sauce, since I ‘had it my way’ and ordered the burger without mayonnaise, mustard or ‘sweet sauce’. I’m am not one to spoil perfectly dry food with evil sauces!

The first bite was ok and the second better. I had prepared for the worst after the debacle that was the macca’s burger, but about a third of the way in I realized this was fantastic!

This might be an ugly burger – and obviously it’s much too big – but the taste was quite wonderful. Each bite was an explosion of meaty goodness, with a hint of crispy onion and acceptable cheese. As much as I tried (did I say it was way too big) I couldn’t stop eating it and before I knew it had finished it all!

Of course I’ll never eat one again, but I have to say that overall this Grill Masters Cowboy Angus was delicious and worth the money Bernard is paying me to eat it! But I think that’s enough burgers for now… I think it’s time to try some chicken!

A Room Full Of Old Men

May 28, 2022

Today I visited the 2022 Newcastle Stamp & Coin Show.

By a stroke of luck when I was at a post office the other day the clerk mentioned the show and given the venue is walkable from mums I of course had to go.

Entry was free and the event was held in a very large hall with the two dozen or so booths reasonably well spaced out. I’d say they were about 60% stamp dealers, 30% coin/currency dealers and 10% supplies.

There were also hundreds of ‘panels’ showcasing articles on various stamp related topics and themes, many of which seemed to be written by club members. I particularly enjoyed a lengthy history (with examples) on depictions of dragons on stamps.

Dealers ranged from those selling inexpensive international stamps to a few selling high end pieces for serious collectors (the most expensive single stamp I saw was A$8900). I was very pleasantly surprised to find a few selling mint unused (Australian) stamps and I invested heavily: watch your postcards for examples of some of these!

The coin/currency dealers were bittersweet. On one hand it was astonishing seeing all the various limited designs of the $1 and $2 coins, but on the other hand they were so pricey! The cheapest I saw the brand new ‘tooth fairy’ $2 was $15! That’s too expensive for me so I’ll hope mum gets that in her change one day and passes it on.

Some individual examples of the coins were incredibly expensive, and I couldn’t determine why. For instance I saw one honey bee $2 coin priced at $185, and it didn’t even seem to be graded. I pondered this briefly and walked on.

Rolled Australian coins of all denominations were available at several sellers, often at a premium. I regretted not asking the price of a roll of old 1c coins. but the stall was busy and the other customers seemed serious.

A multitude of pre-polymer Australian currency was available, and I purchased a few. It was nostalgic seeing the old $100 notes; if I ever received one of them as a child then I felt rich indeed! (For the non-Australians, the country switched from paper to polymer notes in 1992.)

I even saw bundles of every type of pre-polymer note, but the above brick (1000 old $1 notes) was the most astonishing. It wasn’t priced but I believe I overheard the dealer tell someone it was $4000.

I’ll end with two more items that caught my eye. The first was the above sheet of 55 beautiful Japanese stamps issued in 2020 to commemorate ‘international letter writing week‘.

The other was phone cards! Several sellers had them, and I saw examples from Australia, Japan and Europe. One guy explained to me that for a brief while they had been popular with the same people that collect stamps, but now ‘no one wants them’!

I stayed for about 2.5 hours, but even though I was well masked I began to get a bit uncomfortable when the (almost entirely unmasked) crowd thickened so I legged it out of there just before lunchtime.

It was time to order another bold and unusual burger from a fast food joint… but you can read about that one tomorrow 🙂

Robot Claw