McDonalds Fish and Fries

In general I'm not a big fish eater but I do enjoy the occasional fish and chips so I had no problems trying out McDonalds latest seafood offering. While I would still prefer a mum and pop fish and chip store meal, I was pleasantly surprised with the McDonalds offeing.

The batter was nice and light and the fish was very mild in taste which is great for those like me who don't want an overpowering fishy taste. Having said that, because the tartare sauce has such a strong flavour it was sometimes difficult to taste anything else.

Rating: Tone up the fishiness or tone down the tartare, 6/10

Wish List: Skittles Bag

Laffy Taffy Mystery Swirl

I love a mystery flavour, so when I saw this Laffy Taffy Mystery Swirl I was on autopilot and picked it up without even thinking about it.

The taffy was a mix of green and purple (sorry about the lazy flavour) and had the typical Laffy Taffy consistency and chew (ie awesome!). As for the flavour, nothing specifically jumped out at me but my final guess was apple and grape. Any other ideas from readers?

Rating: And the mystery flavour was... YUM, 9/10

Cadbury Milk Chocolate Fingers

A recently released product from Cadbury is the biscuit product, Cadbury Milk Chocolate Fingers (also available in chocolate and honeycomb). The Fingers are a malt type biscuit coated in the chocolate all Australians love, Cadbury dairy milk.

I have to admit that I was not wowed by this product, in hindsight I probably should have gone with the honeycomb version. That's not to say the biscuits were bad, just underwhelming and not what I would expect from Cadbury. Having said that, I believe my issue was the coating of chocolate was quite thin and muted by the flavour of the biscuit, which itself was ok but nothing special.

Rating: I deal for those who want a toned down sweet chocolate snack, unfortunately I am not one of them, 5/10

M&Ms Orange

Mrs B1, my sister-in-law, was kind enough to taste these for me as, according to my taste buds, chocolate and orange should not be combined. I did have a sniff once the bag was open and the smell was reminiscent of jaffas. The orange flavour is in the shell, with standard M&M chocolate in the middle. The verdict from Mrs B1 was positive, a good version of the chocolate/orange combination.

As a second taste test, I took the remaining M&Ms to my baseball game for the team to snack on. I've done this with a few products and it gives me an idea of how good the product is, i.e. empty packet = good. For anyone considering eating this product, the overwhelming response from my baseball team was positive, giving them their second tick of approval after Mrs B1.

Rating: Unless you strenuously object to orange/chocolate flavour combination (like me and most of my family), a good snack, 8/10

Smiths BBQ Ribs Thinly Cut Chips

I believe this product has been around for a while.  Walking down the chip aisle at the supermarket, it seems that BBQ ribs is the chip flavour of the moment.  I settled on a packet of Smiths BBQ Ribs Thinkly Cut Chips for no particular reason, but plan on returning to pick up other brands to try and compare in the near future.

On opening the bag, the overwhelming smell was that of a typical BBQ flavour, however on first taste all I could think of was soya sauce. Checking the ingredients, soya sauce was indeed listed. While I did enjoy these chips, and indeed easily finished the whole packet, I can't say I'd buy them again as the soya sauce taste gets a bit tiresome after a while.


Rating: Not without merit, worth trying once off for the novelty, 6/10

KISS Icy Poles

A recent product to hit Australian shelves is the Peters KISS Icy Poles, released in honour of their 40th Anniversary Tour of Australia.

I was pretty excited when I saw these advertised because if there's one thing I love more than junk food, it's junk food with a pop culture tie in (I have a number of Spongebob products waiting to be reviewed!).

 From a bit of internet searching I learn that these were first released as a limited edition in the 80s, again to coincide with an Australian tour. The product is described as "a frozen thunderbolt of lemonade, raspberry and cola", my three favourite flavours of Peters Icy Poles.

The icy poles come in a pack of 8, with each individually wrapped in a wrapper depicting a KISS member and their autograph. It appears the members you get is random as I only got two different members, guess I'll have to keep buying more until I collect the set (well played Peters, well played).

The icy pole itself is pretty tasty. Each of the flavours is pretty mild, the lemonade being the strongest. The icy poles were not overly sweet which is nice for a hot summer's day (it being summer here in Australia). I'm glad I picked these up and within 24 hours have almost finished the box, definitely worth the effort to track down. Apologies for writing this entire post without a single lyric from a KISS song, poor effort I know.

P.S. For overseas KISS fans and memorabilia collectors, I am selling the box and wrappers on ebay under the username sgjunkfoodjournal.


Rating: Even without the KISS seal of approval these would rate 9/10

Haigh's Caramel Bars

When I'm wanting to indulge, this is my number one go to chocolate bar. Haigh's is a wonderful boutique chocolate store, originally started in South Australia but now with stores throughout Australia, around Easter and Christmas I have seen lines of people patiently stretching out the door. And tasting this chocolate bar, it is easy to see why they've been so successful.

The best way to describe this bar is perfection, from the chewy caramel to the perfect thickness of a delicious, rich chocolate, heaven! The other great thing is due to its richness, one bar is enough to satisfy any sweet craving.

Rating: If you know a better chocolate bar, let me know! 10/10

Red Eye Platinum Energy Drink

When it comes to energy drinks, I am a pretty loyal Red Bull drinker, it was the first one I tried and I've stuck with it ever since.  But lately, as I wander down the soft drink aisle, I have found myself looking at the variety of energy drinks available and thought, thanks to this blog, it was time to check out the other brands.

My first thought on trying the Red Eye Platinum was, OMG this is sweet.  Actually, that was probably the dominating thought on this product.  I don't shy away from sugar by any means, but I'm talking SWEET.  Once I could get myself away from the sweetness, the flavour itself is not too bad, it reminded me of fruit sticks you can get in supermarkets here in Australia (the ones that look like musk sticks).

Rating: Passable but will not replace Red Bull as my energy drink of choice, 5/10 (sorry, too sweet for me to rate it any higher)

Pancake Parlour - Cola Float and Cottage Fries

On this blog I don't often stray away from the more traditional junk foods, but after a recent trip to the Pancake Parlour I thought they deserved a special mention for two reasons.  Firstly, for the best Cola Float I have been able to find in Australia, I can't believe I'm saying this considering the use Pepsi rather than my much preferred Coke.  I'm not sure exactly how they make these, but it appears that a bit of milk is added to the cola, with the top grade ice cream perched on the side.  Delicious.

Rating:  A Cola Float as the candy gods intended, 10/10

The second Pancake Product I wanted to mention was the cottage fries (the above is a side serving).  I've never met a potato I didn't like, but these really stand out in my mind.  Once again, I'm not sure how these are made but I believe the secret ingredient is bucket-loads of butter.

Rating:  The number one reason I could never do an Atkins Diet, 10/10

McDonalds Monopoly Millionaire

I'm a sucker for a promotion so I decided to hit Maccas for a meal in order to collect some Monopoly game pieces.  Taking a break from my reviewing duties, I ordered my favourite meal, large double cheeseburger meal with extra tomato sauce/ketchup and sweet and sour sauce.

The only way to eat a cheeseburger, eat the pickle, load with fries and top with extra sauce.  The sweet and sour sauce goes with the fries (yum!).  Sadly I didn't score an instant win :(

Speaking of monopoly, I read today that the iron token is due to be replaced by...

 

a kitty!!!! I love cats, will be very tempted to replace my Monopoly board with this new one just to get the cute kitty!