Japanese Food Roulette

About a week ago friends of ours who came back from a visit to Japan invited us to do a Japanese Food Roulette with them.

'What is a Japanese Food Roulette?' you may ask. Well, our friends, who do not speak or read Japanese, bought some food items with writings almost exclusively in Japanese. That meant there was no easy way to necessarily know what the food item in the package was or what it tasted like.

My wife, @techslut, myself and a few other friends were invited to show our willingness to try weird and unidentified food stuffs.

This is what the table looked like before we started:

I tried to take pictures of everything we tried but I wasn't always successful. For more pics look for @techslut's post .

1. So the first thing we tried looked like a variant on Kit Kat except it was green:
   
   The chocolate itself was also green:
   
   I was told it had a slight aftertaste of wasabi, a green spicy substance derived from a sort of horseradish. I, having almost no sense of smell, didn't feel or taste any spiciness. For me it was just some slightly off chocolate. Not unpleasant, just weird.

2. We tried what looked like Japanese Pop-Tarts:
   
   It was very dry and the pink stuff in the middle was very artificial in flavor.
   
   I could tell it had lots of sugar but beyond that I cannot describe the flavor other than "pink".

3. The following item was a complete mystery until we opened the package. Seeing what looked like a sag egg on the package I had no idea what to expect.
   
   Turns out they were some hard candy in various flavors. I picked blue:
   
   It had a very interesting flavor and a bit of a pop to it, like Pop Rocks. I came back to finish it later.

4. There is a famous Japanese commercial for gum. Our friends got a few flavors and variations. They got melon and gum flavor in both the long and short version. This is the melon short version:
   
   
   As you can see there is a design in the back to assist you in making the decision on how to eat this treat. Each individual package had a different option. One had nothing but a blank space - sort of 'choose your own style' thing.
   
   I took a bite. And had to quickly swallow. it tasted awful. I had to drink some water to clean my palate. I did not get back to these gums.

5. This package looked like mini buns with some sort of cream inside. We had no idea if it was sweet or savory but our guess was sweet.
   
   They were really tiny and also very dry.
   
   One bite and mine was gone. Nothing to write home about.

6. The next thing we tried was dubbed "Barbie's Cookies" since they were small and pink.
   
   And this is what they looked like outside of the box.
   
   The flavor was also very pink. I'm sorry I don't have another word for it - it was just.. pink.

7. This was some sort of stick covered in something. Possibly like a pretzel stick dipped in something. This one was green.
   
   The image seemed to suggest it was green tea flavored but we decided to give it a try anyway.
   
   It was weird but still edible. I didn't like it but it stayed down.

8. We had one more packet of slightly different green Kit Kat.
   
   The package had the same tea reference as the green pretzel sticks. You can see some black spots in the chocolate, possibly this tea powder.
   
   It was disgusting. I have no idea what they put in it but if you can imagine the green gunk at the bottom of a cup of green tea that has been sitting for a while.. that is roughly the flavor I think. Truly it defied description. None of us could stomach it or even keep it in our mouths for more then a second.

9. A bit jarred by the awful flavor we thought we'd try to play it safe and chose something we could see through the package.
   
   It looked a bit like custard.
   
   And it was even wet when opened.
   
   @techslut thought it looked a bit like egg yolk.
   
   I thought it wasn't bad but most other people couldn't stomach it. It was suggested it might be more palatable after being chilled for a while. To me it tasted like a rather bland custard. It was probably marinated in preservatives.

10. There were more pretzel sticks but these looked like they were dipped in chocolate.
    
    They even looked like you would expect pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate to look like.
    
    I actually liked them. Finally something I could place the flavor of - salty pretzel and sweet chocolate. I actually had a few.

We had a few other items but we were getting tired (and a some of us had a bit of an upset stomach) so we decided to call it an evening not long after that.

I would also like to mention that one of us was a vegan and we had a very difficult time telling if things were OK for her to eat or not. A lot of the packages had bar-codes to be scanned 'by our international clients' but even then we didn't always see a list of ingredients.

One of the few things our vegan friend could safely eat looked like two small plums. Since it was just the fruit we figured it was safe for her to eat. There were only two so anyone who wanted took a small bite. Most just spat it right out. It was so so sour. Possibly pickled in some way. Almost none of us could stomach it. The vegan girl ate her whole plum though.

When we were almost done our friends took out another small surprise for anyone who had cats (most of us). A small plastic ball with something made of cloth inside. They were all various cat hats and they were ADORABLE.

Here's our cat, Gray, with his brand new bunny ears:

And here is a short video I took of the cat with the ears.

Well, That's it for tonight. I'll be happy to hear what weird mystery foods you have gotten to try recently.

Don't be afraid to try new things.

Good night.