Category: Food

“McFeasting With The Heroes”

  • May 23, 2024

We returned to Newcastle yesterday (in a car driven by one of Chris Hemsworth’s private drivers!) and since it was an unremarkable day this is as good a time as any to provide an update on the Happy Meal situation down here.

Astonishingly, the current promotion is a collaboration between Yu-Gi-Oh and Hello Kitty. This is apparently a worldwide Happy Meal promotion although it has so far only launched in Australia and a couple of European countries.

I had no idea what I’d find inside and was surprised to see a boxed toy! I would later get a second meal so I’ve now received two of the toys:

They’re surprisingly well made little stuffed toys. There’s apparently ten in total but – and I’ve checked – no Gudetama. I like/hate them enough I’ll probably try to get more 🙂

Another Maccas visit gave me this strange box. It’s got a variety of Warners Brothers characters on it and refers to ‘multi versus’ event. You may also note that it is heavily perforated, and indeed the box itself is part of the toy:

It converts into an arena in which the characters on the box ‘fight’. Adam would love this since he’s such a big fan of Wonder Woman Bugs Bunny so perhaps I should have saved it for him? The toys for this promotion were little metal tins but apparently the Maccas had run out since that’s when I got my second Yu-Gi-Oh toy.

Stay tuned (perhaps) for a similar update on the Japanese Happy Meal situation in a couple of weeks or so…

Ramen Universes Beyond: Pusheen

  • April 23, 2024

If you’re keeping track, this is the 5th ‘Universes Beyond’ post and the 31st ramen-related post! What do we have today? This:

Pusheen is a character created in 2010 by an American illustrator. In the years since the fat fluffy cat has become heavily merchandised and there’s a large array of Pusheen items available today. Apparently he’s big enough he now has his own ramen!

You can clearly say the package is labeled ‘chicken ramen‘, but when I opened it I found this:

That’s not ramen! Those are pho noodles, and since I’ve never tried a chicken pho that I liked I was immediately suspicious of this incorrectly labeled product.

I followed the sparse instructions and – like most other instant pho soups I’ve tried – the noodles hardly softened. My suspicion only deepened since the smell was abhorrent, but I sealed it and let it steep another few minutes.

Eventually it was time to sample it and – surprise, surprise – the taste was reminiscent of weeds and the noodles had the consistency of elastic bands. A dreadful product, not even worth 1% of the $4.99 I paid for it. Pusheen can go to hell!

  • Posted in Food
  • Robert

I Made Sushi!

  • April 7, 2024

I purchased the above model kit in Japan for about $6. It’s as much a puzzle as a plastic model since it doesn’t contain any instructions and acknowledges its own difficulty. Here’s what’s inside:

Three parts for the shrimp, and two runners containing 364 identical pieces of rice:

The rice grains are translucent and very convincing. Here they are off the runners:

The challenge is to make a piece of shrimp nigiri. With no instructions you’re free to assemble the rice as you see fit, which obviously requires plastic cement.

This was indeed a challenge. My glue is very fluid so I used a paintbrush to apply it and applied the rice grains individually with tweezers. It was difficult to get them to adhere and form a blob naturally, and the fumes from the glue quickly became overpowering.

I did this for an hour, applying exactly 177 grains before deciding I was done. It was an accursed procedure, akin to making a monochrome jigsaw puzzle. The translucency of the rice made it difficult to see individual grains once applied, and my eyes were in agony when I stopped. Here’s what I had created:

And here it is turned correct-side-up:

An imperfect shrimp sushi perhaps, but undeniably recognizable.

What do you think? Did I pass this challenge?