kawai

The 2 newest Fujiya Look chocolates at the Asian supermarket! One is a collaboration with Baskin Robbins! The graphics on the Look packages are always wonderful. Very colorful. The Baskin Robbins package suggests eating them after chilling them in the fridge. The inside flap of the Parfait A La Mode The usual set up of each package. From left to right: strawberry cheesecake, mocha coffee, orange sorbet and vanilla. The vanilla tastes slightly tangy so it seemed more like a sorbet than ice cream. From left to right: Blueberry parfait, pudding (flan) parfait, strawberry parfait and chocolate parfait. The parfait flavors come from the thick syrup. I think I like this set more than the Baskin Robbins ones. The blueberry and strawberry parfait syrups were tart so there's a contrast between the sweetness of the chocolate cream and the tartness of the syrups.

  I showed the flawed pieces from a previous post. I ordered 2 more individual sets from a seller on ebay so they can replace the flawed ones. They just arrived and I have gathered my favorite pieces to showcase. I think the best piece is the chocolate biscuit. Very nice details & color front and back. The chocolate details of Kiki & Lala are very sharp and clear. They are just like the Re-ment pieces from way back.  Whenever there are mini bakery items I like to buy more than 1 set. I sort of regret giving away the 4th  Mickey and Minnie mouse macarons. They are actually a perfect size for necklace charms but I don't want to use these 6 pieces since I might need them for a bakery display.   

After a while, some miniature pieces will have their stickers coming off. The edges are usually the areas where the adhesives have lost its tackiness. So I use Mod Podge (the one I used was the pale green bottle because I already had that laying around. Its the glossy one). Using a brush, apply a thin layer on the back of the exposed sticker area. If you apply too much, the excess Mod Podge will creep out from the sides and leave marks on the toy. You will then need to use your fingernails to scratch it off and it takes a lot of work. After application, press the stickers back onto the toy and immediately wipe off excess Mod Podge that has crept out. I like to press it for about a minute before wrapping rubber bands around the item. Let dry overnight and they will be ready for pictures or your display!

             I only get fresh fruits with frozen yogurt but a friend said frozen yogurt goes really well with tiny mochi balls. I never knew tiny mochi balls were one of the toppings. Saw these prepackaged mochi balls yesterday at the Asian supermarket and I decided to give them a try. This one's the mango flavor. There were strawberry and original flavor too. It was also super hot yesterday so it was a great excuse to treat myself to a large frozen yogurt and adding these mochi balls to it. However, when I arrived at my closest frozen yogurt store which happens to be Quickly, I was told that they don't offer frozen yogurts anymore! I ended up trying the mochi balls straight out of the package. They tasted exactly like mango gummy candies. I though it was slightly too sweet but I assume the tartness of the yogurt will balance the sweetness of these mochis. I wonder if the original flavored mochis are sweet a...

Back in the 90's I was super crazy about collecting Yes! cards from Hong Kong. They were almost the size of baseball cards w/ rounded corners. Each card would feature mostly Hong Kong celebrities on it. The cost was $0.25 per random card if purchased from the Yes! Card dispensers. Otherwise, the price can range anywhere from $0.50 to several dollars if you would like to select a specific card from the shops. I've sold most of my Yes! cards several years ago but I still kept the ones w/ Vivian Chow. There stored somewhere..... I usually use Picnik to edit my pictures, usually just cropping and adjusting the brightness. Then I discovered that you can round the edges of each image so I though it might be really cool to turn my toy pics into Yes! cards. Played around with 2 pics but both pics are sized differently. The Mickey Mouse steamed pork bun and the ramen bowl are actually key chain ch...

A friend just sent these two pics to me. They are super cute!!! I'm just crossing my fingers that the quality will be decent because I would like to purchase multiple full sets (I can't have just 1 of each bun in my mini bakery)! Not exactly sure when these will be released but I guess somewhere between Oct-Dec.

The quality of Re- ment minis have gone down dramatically lately but I didn't expect to get so many pieces w/ imperfections on them. There were at least 1-2 flawed pieces per box. The imperfections were either black marks on the pieces or missed spots while painting. Here are just some of the items: There are 2 missed paint spots. One below Lala and another on the lower left of the purple bear. Those 2 spots pop out more when looking at them in person. I was looking forward to this cake but the overall paint job was very rough. Lots of black or grey spots on top of the cake Near the tip of the dripped icing, there are a few missed paint spots. Lots of dirty marks on the back of the bunny. Even worst, there's a very obvious mark on her ear. The same thing happened to the purple bear or cat in set #7. Another black mark