Sunday, March 30, 2025

A nice can of sable cookies from Japan

Visitors gave us some souvenirs from Japan. These turned out to be small cans containing sable cookies. As is usual of omiyage or souvenirs from Japan, the packaging was interesting, attractive. Here is the can of cookies.

The can features popular representations of Japan including the Tokyo Sky Tree (the tallest building in Japan), Hachiko the dog, the Shinkansen or bullet train, temples, and sakura (cherry blossoms).

Details on the cookies including the manufacturer

Decorations on one side of the can.

The other side of the can.

Inside the can is bubble wrap to protect the contents and a pamphlet on the maker.

The cookies come in different shapes and each is a different kind of cookie. The mountain-shaped cookie is pistachio. The lighthouse-shaped cookie is ichigo (strawberry). The station-shaped cookie is cacao. The train and square-shaped cookies are butter. The small sakura-shaped cookies are blueberry. There are also small candies sprinkled around the can.

Here are the cookies.

The cookies side by side with the guide.

These were not large cookies but small or bite-sized. The taste is not really spectacular. They're regular as far as cookies go. The experience of eating them though is enhanced by the packaging. I keep the can as my pens and other items fit in the can. I have other cans like this that I kept and use to store a variety of items including office supplies and stuff for my hobbies.

-

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Chocolate milk from Carmen's Best

I found out that Carmen's Best, well known for their ice cream, also had chocolate milk. I saw this at a stall they had at a pop-up event at the parking lot of the UP Diliman College of Science Library. I tried one at first and easily finished 1 Liter during the day at my office. I ended up buying a couple of bottles to take home for the weekend. I forget the price of a 1L bottle but they had a promo for buying 2 or more bottles. I recall that the price of 1 bottle though is less than other milk brands from local farms.


Nutrition information for the chocolate milk

Information on the manufacturer and recommendation for consumption after opening

I haven't seen this being sold at supermarkets (yet) so hopefully there will be a Carmen's Best stall in future events at the University.  I will definitely purchase a few bottles for our consumption.

-

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Home-made brownies

Our daughter has been very interested in cooking and baking lately. They've been learning to cook at school and at home, she helps her mother when the latter is baking. We always have the ingredients for cookies or cupcakes at home so they can actually bake whenever they want to.

A few weeks ago, our daughter made some brownies from the mix we had. Half had cashew nuts in addition to the chocolate while the other half only had chocolate sprinkled on top.

Brownies half and half by our daughter

To be honest, he fudge brownies were good. I even brought some for my snack at the office.

 

It's not yet at par with the brownies I've enjoyed eating but I think we'll eventually get there. I use the term 'yet' because it is a work in progress. I prefer my brownies with nuts especially cashew (instead of almonds, macadamia, pecan or peanuts) but they're still good without the nuts.

-