Japanese Senbei

More International Snack from Japan.

This is Buson Haiku senbei.   Senbei's are Japanese Rice Cracker.  The ones they see a lot in Asian Grocery stores are rice crackers wrapped with seaweed.  But there are more varieties out there.

This one, like its name, has a haiku poem on it. 

What's inside: It has different shapes and colors.  There are burdock root, wasabi root, ginger, sakura (yes the flower), shrimp, shoyo (soy sauce), sweet potato, matcha, sesame, and sugared wrapped peanuts.  

This is a pretty neat pack.  Can't say that I liked the wasabi or the burdock root.  The rest are not bad.  What I like about these is that it's a small tray with variety.  It's definitely portion controlled so you don't over snack.  Pretty good deal.

 

Mutiny Wine Room

This will mark the 2nd time that I've been out to a restaurant.

This time, we're at Mutiny Wine Room, thank to a fellow mom's recommendation.

To start, we ordered the Coastline Board

It has a side of shrimps.

Salmon, bread, olive, sardine, and pickled veggies

Also some asparagus and smoked trout dip with caviar on top.  It's pretty decent.

I got the Cacio e Pepe. This dish is like risotto except with longer grain rice.  It is topped with an softly poached egg at 63 degrees.  Cacio e Pepe is really Cheese and Pepper.  The cheese is in the sauce, which they used pecorino cheese.  You see pepper on the dish there.  They had these crispy garlic flakes that reminded me of the fried onion from the casserole.  Overall, not too empowering, it's has definitely cheese flavor, just that I wish there's more and have some meat to it.

For dessert, I got the Horchata Flan with mini churro and dulce de leche.  I will say the little brown poo looking things are not poo, they're chocolate-toffee texture.  So if you dip your churro with the whipped cream and grab that chocolate together, it's pretty decent.  

The flan is pretty decent, I can't tell if it is truly horchata, but it is cinnamon-y enough for me.  

What as not shown, a glass of wine (I actually had one) and bread basket.  The bread basket was a hit, it came with several varieties and with different spread.  I would recommend getting it.

Overall, food is good.  Disappointed that the wine list is limited.  By limited, I mean they don't have what I want.  I was surprised that they don't have a more full bodied white.  They truly just serve wine and water in terms of drinks.  Their interior is super cute, but if you're like me, who's uncomfortable dining indoors, they have a lot of tables outdoors in their patio, worth doing.  They have a mini parking lot, they also have a valet.  If not, you can park down the street and be sure to watch the signs.  

Mutiny Wine Room

1124 Usener St

Houston, TX 77009

https://www.mutinywineroom.com

 

Japanese cookies

In case you haven't noticed, I'm on a Japanese snack kick.

I picked up a bag of chocolate covered cookie.  As a matter of fact, they promote themselves as a good afternoon snack, so let's see.

I love that the cookies are all individually wrapped.  It's awesome because in Covid times, you can put it out and everyone can pick up one and no cross contamination on the food.  

Is it a waste on the wrapping? Absolutely, but in this day and age proof to be handy.  For the Japanese, it is just good manner to not cross touch on the food. Or, if you grab a bag like this and go visit someone's home, or someone come to your home, you can easily serve this and it's a polite thing to offer with the tea.   Even in meeting rooms, they offer little plate of snacks and these are convenient for those purposes.

Ok, so what's inside?  This is what it looks like.  There's more chocolate than cookies, which we all appreciate.  The cookie is a very light in sugar since you got chocolate behind it.  It's great with a cup of hot tea.  Now, I will say, having one is never enough.  Just be careful not to have more than 4 or 5.

 

Milk & Cookies

One of my weekend 'norm' is to go grab a cup of coffee and sometimes I just can't help myself...

and order pastries. 

Grabbed an Almond Croissant - It's nice and light.  I, however, always left evidence all thanks to the powder sugar. 

Also got a Chocolate Croissant for the next morning.  I like that they have a nice filling of chocolate inside.  Do I want more?  Of course!  That said, it goes really well with a cup of coffee.  

I often come here and get the Lavender Honey latte.  As my coworker pointed out, it's such an. oxymoron, as Lavender Honey is known for soothing, while coffee is to give you a jolt.  But the taste is awesome, so I continue to get it.  They actually do a very good job making my latte.  They serve coffee all day, pastries up to around 11-ish.

Tiny's Milk & Cookies

3535 Rice Blvd

Houston, TX 77005

713-352-3086

https://www.tinyboxwoods.com/location/west-university/

 

International Kit Kats

Few years ago, I did the International Kit Kats, this is another round.

I think they finally caught on that people would like to get a variety of them instead of bag by bag.  So they came up with this box that has 60 Kit Kats with 18 different types. 

I picked out one of every kind that I can find.  Almost all are regional specialties.  Too bad I don't read Japanese.  I can't tell you what they are inside.

I can tell you that there are some from different regions, some famous locations in Japan, some with different ingredients. 

Speaking of different ingredients, there are different kinds of alcohol mix in there.  Don't worry, it won't get you drunk, but you definitely taste a hint of the alcohol.

It's cool, for the different region, even though they may have the same color, but each has their own design.  I haven't gotten thru all of them yet, but will report back if there's any super yummy, noteworthy ones.

This is one of the skinny ones.  I've never seen these before where they have the flavor on top.  These are encouraged to be part of your daily in-take.  If they're all this tiny (and if I can stop myself), that wouldn't be a bad idea.

Here's my tip, if you are thinking about getting a box.  Get them no later than April, as they have to have time to ship and depending on where you are, as you know, they may melt during delivery.  So April is the latest to order them from Japan.

 

Papparich

I don't usually get to try places the first weeks they open now that we're in Covid times.

But I saw my friend posting about this place, I was highly curious.

First thing: this is the 3 layer Iced Tea - this is a milk tea.  I haven't figured out what the layers are, but the texture is tea for sure but not super milky like a true milk tea.  If anybody knows, please educate me.

Curry Fish Ball - the texture is fresh for sure.  The curry is not too spicy, whatever left over is great to put over rice for another meal.  Trust me on that one.

This is the Seafood Kway Teow - Kway Teow is the flat rice noodle that's popular in Southeast Asia.  This one as you can see, tons of protein in the mix, no shy of shrimp and mini mussels.  I kinda wish it has more heat to the dish.  Looks great, taste average, lack heat. 

For the Hainanese Chicken rice set - it comes with broth, rice, chicken and sprouts.  It's uncommon that the broth is thin and light, I'm accustomed to seeing it accompanied by coconut broth.  The rice of course is cooked with coconut milk.  The chicken is not shabby, what was shabby was that they skimmed on the ginger sauce that comes with the dish, they didn't even fill up half of the little tiny container... that was not cool.

Overall, I think the dishes can be better, I have yet tried their Nasi Lemak which is popular in Malaysian dish.  So I'll hold my judgement there, but I'll come back in a few months to see how these dishes are as the new shop get acclimated to the business.

Papparich

9393 Bellaire Blvd

Ste A1

Houston, TX 77036

281-974-1115

https://papparichusa.com

 

Ovaltine cookies

You read correctly, this is the Ovaltine you know and love. 

Who knew that outside of the country, they are making these varieties that we've never heard off, but just as delightful.  

Basically, this is Chocolate Waffle cookies made with wheat.  The 'chocolate' portion of the program of course came from Ovaltine.  The texture is is like a waffle cookie, not too dense and not too dry.  Not too much of chocolate flavor to speak of, but definitely not like you have vanilla style, which is sweeter.  

A box like that comes in 2 medium size bags.  Seeing how small the cookies are, with added air to protect the crunch and the cookie from being crushed, there is a lot in the box.  It is good with coffee or hot cocoa.