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Let’s Cook Desserts!

Sunday, October 3rd, 2021

Yesterday we made these:

It was fairly easy says KLS, who did most of the work. The box contained only three things: the meringue powder, an icing pen and a bag for piping. The power was mixed with egg white and whipped until fluffy:

Then the meringues were piped onto oven paper:

Here they are before cooking:

We then baked them on lowish heat (200F) for 75 minutes, then iced them before eating:

And they were – in a word – terrible! They tasted like the glue I used to eat as a child, and the aftertaste was even worse. My happy memories of melt-in-your-mouth meringues from my youth have now been corrupted by these sticky, inedible travesties!

But there was a secret! We chose the alternate cooking method which involved the addition of tonic water. This is basically sparkling water that contained quinine, which phosphors under UV light:

Apparently adding a tiny bit to the mix makes the meringues ‘glow in the dark’! Did it work? Judge for yourself:

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Ramen 10: I’m Not Stopping!

Sunday, September 12th, 2021

I’m not reviewing ramen today, just showing off a recent purchase. Specifically this:

It’s a noodle stopper, which is a figurine designed to help keep the top on cup noodles while they steep. Most of us probably use a fork or plate or some other device, but now you can use a cute figurine:

Yes this is a real figure designed for this use. They are made by the Japanese company Furyu mostly as UFO Catcher prizes, although the days you can just buy them on amazon. Mine is Hatsune Miku in a cherry blossom outfit, and I’m astonished at the sculpting and paint job considering how inexpensive she was ($20)! She also sits on the noodles very well and keeps the top nice and sealed while the hot water does its job.

Of course since I don’t want to damage her I won’t actually be using her for this purpose, and instead she’ll sit happily on a ledge in my office to remind that a piping hot cup of noodles is only a few steps away:

Noodle stoppers: an essential tool for the cupnoodologist! 🙂

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Ramen 9: Electric Chookaloo

Thursday, August 26th, 2021

Time for more chicken ramen!

Tradition Instant Noodle Soup Chicken Flavor Reduced Sodium (290 Calories, 14 g fat, 730 mg sodium)

Yet another product from this company, and as best I can tell virtually identical to the non sodium free version, which I gave a score of 0/10. So how does this stack up? Well, it’s even worse! The other had woeful noodles and no flavor at all (I even thought they’d forgotten the flavor packet), and this one has even less. It’s barely edible: -1/10

Oh Ricey! Pho Noodles Chicken Flavor (270 Calories, 6 g fat, 1600 mg sodium)

I’m bending the rules here a bit since these aren’t ramen, but since they’re a dehydrated brick noodle product I doubt anyone will complain. This is a rice noodle soup, with unusual translucent noodles that secreted a frankly disturbing slime when heated. The flavor pack is just a bag of sticky oil and the entire concoction, once prepared, was about as appetizing as something I’d award a score of 0/10.

Despite my reaction to this dross, KLS ate it. I just now asked her what she thought and she said “I don’t remember it!”

Cup Noodle Artificial Chicken Flavor (320 Calories, 11 g fat, 1620 mg sodium)

I can barely believe I haven’t yet covered a Cup Noodle ramen yet, especially since I even bought a model kit of one!

This is a Chinese version and I assumed it’s probably the same as the USA one. After trying it though, I’m doubtful. The noodles are good (as you would expect from the guys who invented cup ramen) but the taste was far too earthy for my delicate palette, and even had a hint of spiciness. Overall I think this is a good product, just probably not to my taste: 6/10.

Nine installments of ramen reviews so far, and there’s more to come! Stay tuned…

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Bonsai!

Friday, July 16th, 2021

I got this as a gift:

It’s a candy kit to make an edible bonsai! Start by kneading the chocolate caramel to make it soft:

Gently fill the molds with the candy:

After a half hour in the freezer it had solidified:

While I was trimming the flash Kristin was cooking a green sponge cake. It was as easy as powder and water mixed together and microwaved. It looked… unusual:

But stone the crows it looked convincing when broken apart and placed onto the branches:

And here’s the finished product (which was about 2 inches tall):

Looks good enough to eat doesn’t it?

And we did! It wasn’t bad at all; basically chocolate caramel mixed with cake. Easily one of the best candy food kits I’ve ever made – or eaten 🙂

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Ramen 8: World of Chook!

Saturday, July 10th, 2021

Time for more chicken ramen!

Lucky Me Chicken (300 Calories, 14 g fat, 1410 mg sodium)

This is a weirdly tasting product, vaguely like ‘Chinese food’ but not at all like (artificial) chicken. The more I ate the greasier it tasted, and about halfway through it had become so repulsive I couldn’t finish it. But I suspect this was more me than the product, and it may be a taste enjoyed by some? An unsure 4/10.

Mama (260 Calories, 11 g fat, 1420 mg sodium)

Another imported product, this time for the Thai market. Once again this tasted nothing like the ‘chicken’ taste I’m used to, and instead was reminiscent of burned toast. The broth was weirdly dark and oily, and the noodles gelatinous. One of the worst I’ve tasted in the dozens I’ve eaten so far. An easy 0/10.

Tradition Chicken Style Noodle Bowl (340 Calories, 15 g fat, 1430 mg sodium)

The last two products by this manufacturer were bad, but I wondered if one of them had a defect since it didn’t contain any flavor. So when I opened this larger-sized version of the same thing I was optimistic since it had not one but two flavor packets – and a tiny fork!

Alas, once prepared it smelled just as bad as the brick version that I also reviewed last time. It’s a truly awful smell – like a dark old house – and difficult to ignore. The noodles had the consistency of electrical wiring and the taste was like dirty water. After three products by this manufacturer, I wonder who their audience is?

I’d give this maybe 1/10, but this score is tempered by the fact that KLS ate it! I therefore asked for her comments, and she said: “Bland and inoffensive, 4/10!”

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