Robot Claw

Ramen 27: March Of The Black Chicken

August 6th, 2024

When I was a tiny lad, I once asked my father why I had been placed on this Earth. I remember his response as if he just spoken it: “Son, each man must forge their own path in life, but I believe that your destiny will include reviewing at least 70 chicken ramen products on your blog.”

Dad, this post is for you.

Dosirac Artificial Chicken Instant Noodle (370 Calories, 15g fat, 1550 mg sodium)

Rectangular bowls for these products are rare, so this caught my eye when I saw it for sale in NYC the other week. Before preparation it was unremarkable, but when I opened the seasoning bag and saw bright orange powder inside my ‘spicy’ alarms went off.

It prepared easily and the noodles cooked well, although I was a bit dubious of the weird chunks that floated up from underneath the noodle brick. The smell was ok so I steeled myself and tasted what I assumed would burn my mouth like fire. I was wrong: it wasn’t spicy at all. Instead it just tasted absolutely awful, like alien vegetables broiled in salt water. In fact, it was one of the worst instant ramen products I’ve ever tried, and was so bad I almost gagged. It triggered me!

An instant and unequivocal 0/10, or even -100/10 if I returned to my outlandish grading schemes of four years hence.

Maruchan Wonton Ramen Chicken (480 Calories, 24g fat, 2040 mg sodium)

I bought this curiosity some time ago and it seems to have disappeared from the shelves so I wonder if it already failed? It’s from Maruchan – no stranger to grocery aisles or indeed this blog series – and comes in a massive coconut-sized bowl. It’s a chicken ramen with wontons!

Firstly let’s address the madness that this product claims to contain three servings. Do they assume this will actually be shared? Is this a family dinner? Foolishness! But for one person it contains a stupendous amount of fat and sodium. Why isn’t it half the size with fewer wontons?

It prepared identically to any other ramen (aside from needing about twice the water) and tastes more or less like any other Maruchan chicken ramen, which isn’t a bad thing at all. But the wontons are a failure: they’re flaccid and tasteless and in my opinion offered very little. Just for taste I’ll give it 7/10, but it’s far too big and a normal Maruchan chicken ramen is a better buy.

Nissin ‘Zero-Second’ Chicken Ramen (362 Calories, 7.1g fat, 362 mg sodium)

And this we arrive at the 70th chicken ramen product reviewed (there have been other ramens in the companion series), and intriguingly this is a slight departure in that it requires no water!

The origin of this product is apparently an internet meme from several years ago where people in Japan started eating instant ramen without cooking it. Nissin – creators of ramen and still market leaders – took inspiration and released this version of their popular chicken ramen that is supposed to be eaten as a dry snack. It even says on the packaging that you should not add water. Apparently this is a salty snack that goes well with beer.

To me… this was a dud. It tastes as you’d expect: uncooked ramen noodles with a slight salty taste, and both the texture and taste I found disagreeable. I nibbled a few chunks to see if it got better and it didn’t. Into the trash then, for this 2/10 product.

Seventy reviews of chicken ramen?!? Could there possibly be more out there I have yet to try? In the world of instant chicken ramen, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected 🙂

Posted in Food, Ramen | Comments Closed

Cardboard R2

August 2nd, 2024

Bernard sent me this:

It’s a cardboard R2-D2 model kit! Here’s what was inside:

Six cardboard runners with pieces, an instruction book, and a tiny tube of glue (which I never used). It also includes a cardboard tool to assist in assembly, which is fairly useless (I used tweezers myself).

The model is assembled by punching out the pieces and putting them together using a tab/slot system. Most pieces have slots that need to be punched out, and this can be a little tedious since some of the slots are too small and need to be enlarged before use. Some pieces are scored to bend, and this works better than I expected. I had actually purchased a different kit from the same manufacturer before and assembly was a nightmare, so I was nervous.

The initial steps included a lot of framework and placement of curved pieces. Unlike the other kit I mostly failed on, this all went together surprisingly well and in a couple of hours I had finished the main body.

The legs were a lot more finicky, and there may have been some cursing trying to get all the pieces together well. Once or twice I had to cut off tabs since (curved) pieces didn’t go together correctly, but I was able to do this in a way that was transparent to the final version.

After about 6 carefree hours I’d finished the four main sections, and it was time to put them together. This was also a bit nerve-wracking, since the potential for damage seemed high. But my worry was premature, and this final step was almost effortless.

And here he is! Doesn’t he look great? He’s about a foot tall and surprisingly sturdy considering he’s cardboard. As I said I didn’t use glue, but everything is together tightly and I don’t feel I need to be fragile moving him around.

Here he is compared to the two of my other recent R2 pickups: a Lego version and a vintage action figure.

Overall this kit gets a resounding thumbs up. As it turns out when Bernard sent it to me I had already purchased one myself, and I’ll therefore be sending him back one so he can make it for himself.

As for mine, I could just put him on the shelf, or in my office… or I could set him on fire and post dramatic photos on this blog! Let me know in the comments which is preferred?

Posted in Crafts, Models | Comments Closed

Bloomburrow Prerelease

July 29th, 2024

On Saturday I attended the prerelease for the new Magic The Gathering set called Bloomburrow. This was my first prerelease in a decade.

The event was held at a gaming center opened by my local game shop back during the pandemic. I’d never been and was surprised by how large and well equipped it was (it even has a cafe serving hot food)! At first I was a bit taken aback by how many people were there, but then I realized there would be simultaneous Lorcana and Warhammer 40k events being held. Only 12 people showed up for the Bloomburrow prerelease, which seemed very low for such a popular set. The events have become far less competitive than when I played years ago, with only three rounds and prizes of a pack a round for the winners. (So the most you could win was three packs.)

The above was my bonus card, and he’s very strong in the right deck. Alas I couldn’t make him work with the cards in my packs, and indeed it was difficult at first to decide what sort of deck to make. In the end I went with a mostly red/white deck with a tiny splash of blue (since I had two counterspells) with which I faced my first opponent.

My first opponent was inexperienced and demonstrated some quirks of a new player, but had a very strong deck for a prerelease. It was green/white, heavy on rabbits and fliers, and also not sparse with land/card draw. We played two games, both of which went too long since he took forever to make his plays, and both of which could have ended quicker if he had been bolder with his attacks. In fact in the second game, after three turns of him not triggering an obvious win condition, I showed him how he could have already won (which he admitted he had not noticed). He won both games, but he could have won them much faster! (I learned at the end he would go on and win all three of his rounds.)

My second opponent played blue/green/black, although I never saw him actually cast a black spell. His deck wasn’t as strong as the first guy, but it was very irritating with a lot of stuns, bounces and evasive attackers. The games were very short, and he beat me 2-0 handily in only about 15 minutes. Some of this was my poor land draw, but it was also the fact he was obviously an experienced limited player and knew how to build a winning deck from sealed packs. Before facing him I had removed the (three) blue cards from my deck, and he took a look and made suggestions for minute (two cards) further refinements which I gladly adopted.

The above was the deck I faced my final opponent with (which differs from my initial deck by only 5 cards). He was very inexperienced – this was his first prerelease and he’d only been playing for two weeks – and he played unsleeved! I didn’t get much of a feel for his (white/blue) deck since I beat him very quickly in both of our games.

And thus I won a single pack 🙂

Every opponent had asked if I was interested in trading away my legendary mouse card (Mabel) and afterwards I went back to the first guy to see what he had. As it turns out he was friends with my third opponent and between them and their two other friends I traded essentially my entire card pool for their squirrel and basic land cards. They definitely got the advantage due to value (I had three mythics) but I was happy because I only wanted the cards they gave me.

My thoughts on the set: it’s a lot of fun to play although very token-heavy, and the art is beautiful. I think it lives up to the hype. As for the prerelease itself I enjoyed it, but definitely found myself getting tired after four hours. Will I go to the next set release event? As of right now, that’s undecided.

Posted in Miscellaneous, MTG | Comments Closed

Ten Things We Saw At The Fair

July 28th, 2024

Kristin, Dohoon and I went to the Saratoga County Fair the other day. Here’s some of what we saw.

Shortly arriving we watched a ‘wild west’ show which featured lots of trick shooting and knife throwing and crazed whipping! The above was taken during a routine where he set two whips on fire and cracked them so sparks flew everywhere and it looked like fireworks. Later we watched an extremely talented ‘comedy juggler’ that (briefly) juggled six items. Yesterday I tried three myself, with questionable success 😉

That’s a rabbit! Of course there were lots of animals on display, and we had a look at them all.

Kristin got a ‘roll ice cream’ which is made from a liquid state by freezing it on a flat plate and then rolling it up. The young guy who made it was very fast, and it was incredibly delicious! We saw places selling this in Japan and didn’t try it; I’m sure we will next time.

The legality of the real money coin pushers seems questionable, but this hardly stopped me from putting $2.50 in quarters into this one since I wanted to win that $50 hanging over the edge. I reject outrageous claims it’s probably superglued down! (I won nothing.)

A master chainsaw artisan was doing demonstrations and his creations truly were impressive. He had about ten chainsaws and other tools, and all of the statues began from an approximate four foot tall piece of wood. He paints them himself, and all of them are auctioned at the end of the fair.

This horse was getting new shoes, and it was a bit icky watching the guy hammer the nails in and trim the hooves. I learned horses get new shows about every six weeks, the process is painless for the horse, and the shoes can be reused after the hoof is trimmed and the pad replaced.

A dramatic painting of a dragon either breathing fire or vomiting blood down onto a house! This was done by a teenager, and as you can see was selected for the upcoming New York State fair! I like the minimalist choice of colour. Maybe I’ll rip this off for one of my future creations…

Fries made by cutting potatoes super thin and frying them. This is essentially potato chips cooked in front of you, and was delicious (and I’m sure extremely healthy). Fair food is outrageously pricey now, so it’s good it’s also tasty!

There was a traveling kangaroo petting zoo! It was $10 so only I went in but the owner refused my money when he learned I was Australian (I paid him anyway). Above I’m holding a 7-month old Joey who occasionally opened her eyes to look at me. She was above as heavy as a young cat, and incredibly cute. They also had five eastern greys, two wallabies and a red, and I patted and said hello to every single one! This was my highlight of the fair 🙂

And, of course, I loved the rides. I didn’t go on any, and regretted it afterwards. Next year I will!

I didn’t take any photos but Dohoon and I also competed at shooting air rifles. In fact we did it twice to remove the question of one gun being better than the other. The result: a tie (both of us hit the center of the target). But we also did some archery and it turns out he was extremely good, hitting close to the center with every arrow compared to my 50% rate of even hitting the target. The green pennant I wear in the kangaroo pic was given to use after the archery 🙂

I believe this is the only fair we’ll be able to go to this year, and after a year in which we went to none it was a lot of fun.

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New York, New York

July 25th, 2024

Stickers are the new graffiti, and they cover every postbox and lamp post and whatever the thing in the above pic is. They also seem to change every time I’m here. Do they get removed? Do they just fall off due to weather? And who’s applying them and when?

Almost every street corner in Manhattan has one or more food trucks or carts. Down near Times Square the proliferation of these is incredible: I counted nine in total at one intersection. I buy drinks from them sometimes, but in all the years have never bought any food aside from the sugared nuts.

I sent loads of postcards this trip, since I had been ‘saving up’ Postcrossing cards. I think over 40 went into mailboxes during the past three days. I also bought over 100, many of which cost only $0.10 each!

The above statue had a matching friend on the other side. It’s a clever illusion, but I thought the pallet he was standing on was best since it’s also painted metal (I think).

Times Square is full of people – usually middle aged Hispanic women – dressed as Disney/Marvel/Minions characters who will pose for photos with you for a price. Yesterday on the subway I saw a lady in a Pac Man ghost outfit, with the head off, no doubt heading to work 🙂

I had fun these few days in the city. I already look forward to the next visit at Kristin’s birthday.

Posted in NYC | Comments Closed