Cooking, Baking, and Food!: Day 8: Book Off Marathon

As promised I will write about my Book Off marathon. My mom and I drove to every Book Off in California. As I've mentioned earlier Book Off is somewhat of a book exchange. They import a large amount of books published in Japanese but they also purchase American books, movies, and CDs. What I likes best about these stores are their dollar sections. I have made some grrrreat deals! We started off in Gardena, moved on to Torrance, Costa Mesa, and ended up in San Diego. Unfortunately we had very little time at the San Diego store which seemed to be the nicest and biggest one in California. I also visited a variety of Marukai markets. I'll include some pictures of the snack and dessert aisles.

First thing first, I returned to the Vanille Patisserie. This time mom got a Raspberry Mousse. The mousse was light and fluffy yet the raspberry flavor was as still as strong as the pink hue of the dessert. There was a nice and thin layer of yellow cake on the bottom.

The dessert I got was an absolute object of chocolate simplicity and creativity. The top layer is a simple bittersweet or dark chocolate with some spots of white chocolate. The cake layers are very dense but thin and the combination of the two goes well together. While the coffee filling had a great texture I found it to be a bit strong. I always wonder hoe Japansee and French pastry shops are able to cut their layers of cake so thing. Unless the layers are baked that way.

First in our list of snacks is pocky! Pocky consists of a bread stick coated with chocolate. The name was changed to "Pocky," after the Japanese onomatopoetic word for the sound Pocky makes when bitten, pokkin. They have quite a few varieties. At the store I was at had choocalte, stawberry, banana, coconut, and giant pocky. I did some resear and found out a list of flavors that aren't available in American import markets.

-Men's Pocky (bitter chocolate)
-Marble Chocolate Pocky (dark and white chocolate)
-Chocolate Pocky
-Giant Chocolate Pocky
-Marble Royal Milk Tea Pocky
-Double Chocolate Giant Pocky (whole stick covered in chocolate)
-Little Chocolate Pocky
-Ultra Thin Chocolate Pocky
-1/4 Less Calorie Chocolate Pocky
-Strawberry Pocky
-Almond Pocky
-Coconut Pocky
-Mango Pocky
-Banana Pocky
-Coconut Milk Pocky

-Chocolate Banana Pocky
-Almond Crunchy Pocky
-Almond Crush Pocky
-Almond Crush Cafe Au Lait Pocky
-Almond Crush Mild Milk Pocky
-Almond Crush Honey White Pocky
-Almond Crush Anglaise Pocky
-Chocolate Orange Pocky
-Melon Pocky
-Pineapple Pocky
-Chestnut Pocky (marron)
-Blueberry Pocky
-Orange Pocky
-Kiwi Pocky
-Pudding Pocky

-Chocolate Mousse Pocky
-White Mousse Pocky
-Strawberry Mousse Pocky
-Green Tea Mousse Pocky
-Black & Latte Mousse Pocky
-Blueberry Yogurt Mousse Pocky
-Double Chocolate Mousse Pocky
-Hokkaido White Mousse Pocky (hi-quality chocolate)
-Royal Milk Tea Mousse Pocky
-Mild Chocolate Mousse Pocky
-Azuki Bean Mousse Pocky
-Custard Mousse Pocky
-Berry Mousse Pocky
-Bitter Chocolate Mousse Pocky
-Mont-Blanc Chocolate Decorer Pocky

-Creamy Mousse Pocky
-Tiriamisu Mousse Pocky
-Mango Milk Mousse Pocky
-Giant Rainbow Pocky
-Pumpkin Pocky
-Winter Chocolate Pocky (chocolate would melt during warm seasons)
-Spring Honey Pocky
-Summer Kiwi/Mango Pocky
-Marusaki Imo Pocky (sweet potato)
-Cocoa Powder Pocky
-Grape Pocky
-Yubari Melon Pocky (only available in Hokkaido)
-Kyushu Giant Mikan Pocky (lemon)
-Kyoto Powdered Tea Adzuki Bean Pocky
-Kobe Wine Pocky

-Strawberry Gateau Decorer Pocky
-Fraise au Chocolat Decorer Pocky (strawberry chocolate)
-Caramel de Chocolat Decorer Pocky
-Gateau Decorer Pocky
-Banana Semi-Sucre Decorer Pocky
-Peach & Strawberry Decorer Pocky
-White Wedding Chocolate Decorer Pocky
-Berry Decorer Pocky
-Lemon Decorer Pocky
-Monburan Decorer Pocky (whipped chestnut)
-Apple Cream Custard Decorer Pocky
-Grape Mild Chocolat Decorer Pocky
-Peach Decorer Pocky
-Chocolat Decorer Pocky
-Marron & White Chocolate Dessert Pocky

-Shiroi Mont Blanc Dessert Pocky
-Double Chocolate Dessert Pocky
-Strawberry Shortcake Dessert Pocky
-Banana Chocolate Sponge Cake Roll Dessert Pocky
-Orange Double Chocolate Dessert Pocky
-Reverse Chocolate Pocky (chocolate cream inside)
-Reverse White Pocky (white chocolate cream inside)
-Reverse Strawberry Pocky (strawberry cream inside)
-Green Tea and Chocolate Pocky
-Rum Raisin Pocky
-Caramel Marbled Pocky
-Mix Berry Marbled Pocky
-Chocolate Raspberry Pocky
-Salty Caramel with French Milk Pocky
-Salty Vanilla with French Milk Pocky

-Milk Pocky
-Almond Cereal Pocky
-Glico Caramel Pocky
-Yogurt Pocky
-Kinako Pocky (soy bean powder)
-Kurogama Pocky (black sesame seed)
-Cheesecake Pocky
-Tahitian Vanilla Pocky
-Chocolate Whole Wheat Pocky
-Men's Coffee Pocky
-Honey & Milk Pocky
-Crush Chocolate Cookie Pocky
-Crush Vanilla Cookie Pocky
-Crush Bitter Cookie Pocky

That is quite a looot of flavors. For images visit http://www.intothesea.com/PockyShrine/GalleryPocky.htm . They even have a pocky shaped cake!!

Next on our list is the very similar cookie with chocolate...yan yan which is also produce my Meiji! Suprisingly enough, the chocolate dip for yan yan cookies is in face a soft, super-emulsified chocolate cheese spread. That's rigt chocolate cheese! It even lists cheddar cheese as one of the ingredients. Each stick features a cute animal and a short saying...the ones I've found include:
- Cat - Say Meow
- Snail - Snail Mail
- Chicken - Kokekokko (equivalent to cock-a-doodle-doo)
- Squirrel - Your Best Friend
- Horse - Gallop Away
- Rabbit - Eat More Carrots
- Mole - In a Hole
- Squid - Black Ink
- Zebra - Herbivore
Othe flavors include vanilla, yogurt, strawberry, and hazlenut.

Yet another biscuit/chocolate-based snack is Hello Panda. Hello Panda is a brand of Japanese cookies, produced by Meiji. Each cookie consists of a small hollow shortbread layer, filled with either vanilla, strawberry, peanut butter or chocolate filling; chocolate is the most commonly available variety. Recently a yellow-boxed version containing the biscuits with a chocolate shell was released.

Other candies I found in clude Flan shaped caramels that I sadly was unable to try. Choco Melon Pan (though the contain the word choco in their name) are actually small cake-like cookies with a light orange color similar to that of a cantaloupe with a very strong, yet refreshing melon flavor. The cookies are very similar to the actual Melon Pan except the fruit flavor is even more potent. There was another variety called Choco A~npan. It seems that these actually do contain chocolate (as supported by the cocoa pods on the box) but I didn't buy these. One of my personal favorites were these mini hamburger cookies. The bun is a crisp and slightly sweet sesame cookie. Between the two is a layer of chocolate to represent the meat and a thinnner layer of orange-tinted white chocolate to represent cheese. My mom got this candy called Poifull that I take to be the Japanese version of the jelly bean. Unlike American jelly beans the consistency of the shell to the inside is not as distinct. I have absolutely no idea what the final candy I actually purchasesd was. They came in a package the size of a 5-piece pack of Bubble Yum. The candies were individually wrapped with a size and consistency similar to a starburst with the taste of a vanilla nougat. Inside each candy were little colored gummys. They were quite delicious but my mom ended up eating most of the pack. They reminded me of the jellybean nougat that Brach's makes.