Category: Food

Review: McDonaldland Meal

August 12, 2025

Today the new retro-themed ‘McDonaldland Meal’ was released at (of course) McDonalds. As you’ll soon see, I had to get one.

This is one of those overpriced ($17) meals designed for adults, and of the two options (nuggets or a quarter pounder) I chose the nuggets. I won’t beat around: they were terrible and I only ate a few before tossing the rest.

But the packaging! This is a meal designed around nostalgia, and I think they’ve done a decent job. For instance here’s the bag it came in:

In addition to the nuggets (and fries, in the usual sleeve), the meal also comes with a special ‘mystery flavour’ thick shake:

It looks like bubble gum or cotton candy doesn’t it? KLS first thought it was birthday cake flavour, but quickly changed her mind. Macca’s hasn’t (yet) revealed what it is, but it’s believed to be blueberry or raspberry. Kristin said it “looked great but the taste was meh”.

The reason I bought this meal had nothing to do with the food, it was the ‘toy’ that it comes with:

You get one of these sealed boxes, which contains one of six different tins filled with goodies. Here’s the one I got:

As you can see I got Hamburglar, and while the embossed tin and stickers are great the postcards are amazing! Beautiful art, thick cardboard, rounded corners – these are the real deal, and in my opinion make the entire meal worthwhile!

So I have a conundrum. The food is terrible and Kristin doesn’t want another shake, but I really want more of these postcards. I don’t want to buy another of these, but I’d lie if I said the chance of me doing so was zero.

(Incidentally, if you buy one of these please consider sending me a postcard!)

Ramen Universes Beyond: Pokemon

August 9, 2025

It’s time to truly bend the rules with this licensed ramen review, since today’s product isn’t even ramen!

It’s a cup tteokbokki, which is a Korean sortof soup with rice cakes instead of noodles. This one is spicy flavoured. As you can see it’s Pokémon branded, and each cup contains one of 30 different Pokémon stickers.

The above shows the contents; a bag of rice cakes and a seasoning packet. To prepare, both are mixed in the cup with hot water and then the cup is microwaved. Here’s the finished product:

Of course I didn’t try this (Korean food is way too spicy for me) but KLS loves tteokbokki and said “This in the ok category of instant tteokbokki”. So it’s a good thing it came with a bonus sticker:

That’s Pokémon #906, known as Sprigatito in English, Naoha in Korean and Nyahoja in Japan. It’s a grass cat type that can mesmerize people with its pheromones!

I purchased this for KLS in NYC at a Korean grocer, and since they had two different flavors I got both. Here’s the other:

She said this one – which was plain flavour – was a little better. Here’s the sticker it came with (and how the sticker was packaged):

This sticker isn’t numbered, but is Pokémon #131, Lapras, who has the same name in English and Korean (and Laplace in Japan). This is a famous Pokémon since it’s been around for over 30 years now.

Have you tried instant tteokbokki? If not, and you see these ones in a shop, you may want to give them a go. Maybe they’re not wonderful, but you’ll get a cool sticker 🙂

Ramen Universes Beyond: Tamagotchi

July 13, 2025

Its been half a year, so you’ve undoubtedly been wondering when the next licensed ramen review was coming. Worry no longer; it’s time for Tamagotchi!

Tamagotchi are the original ‘digital pets’ that were first released almost 30 years ago. The toys are still available in many (including retro) forms, but the characters are also available on a wide range of merchandise. In Japan, Cup Star is using them to sell instant noodles, such as this soy sauce flavoured example:

Apparently there are 20 different lids, each featuring graphics from the 29-year history of Tamagotchi devices. I wonder if collectors are going mad trying to collect all of them?

Opening the lid revealed an impressive-looking product, generously filled with pieces of egg, shrimp and unidentified brown rocks. To my surprise it smelled good, and I immediately became curious about the taste.

I added hot water and let it steep for three minutes, and the above shows the finished product. It smelled even tastier cooked, and unlike most of the (over) 70 ramens I’ve tried these past years it was with no hesitation that I extended my fork…

My verdict: actually quite good! If I had cooked this up in my Hakodate hotel room I would have been perfectly happy with it, and it’s only due to me simultaneously preparing a chicken ramen that I didn’t eat it all. Special props need to be given to the tiny shrimp, which rehydrated well and were very tasty.

As mentioned I purchased this in Hakodate, at a large and impressive supermarket. It was part of a large endcap display with all sorts of standees and point-of-sale graphics, none of which I bothered translating. This was a mistake, since I didn’t know that buying one entitled me to a free sticker, which almost certainly would have gone on that day’s postcard. 🙂

Robot Claw