Last week's terribly important discussion of the US junkfood industry's consistently laughable attempts at strawberry flavorings resulted in one or two name drops of Glico's Pocky in the comments section by people up on their game. Pocky, for those who don't know, is a really thin, long biscuit stick far spindlier in diameter than a Grissini (those prepackaged breadsticks) but not dissimilar in texture/pallor and dipped in chocolate.
"Men's" flavor means that the the stick is enrobed in dark chocolate. Which is apparently Asiacode for all dark chocolate products as seen by Toppo "For Men" (like Pocky but the chocolate's on the inside). Now, you'd think by this logic that white chocolate would be "Lady's" chocolate with "Tranny's" chocolate getting some sort of mottled swirly, in-betweeny treatment but this is not so.
In other inconsistent news, if you go to the Toppo's site, it's a magical place with cartoons and singing and dancing and little happy anthropomorphized Toppos scaling mount Toppo.
But if you click "English Version" it turns to this weird other geocities looking bootleg thing with "corporate philosophy" in cursive and this old timey white lady. Stuff white people like according to yellow people? Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe. Do (white) people know who that is? So confusing.
Pocky aint got nuthin on YanYan.
OH MY GOD YAN YAN !!
Panda YAN YANS!!!
Pocky is the poor man's Ppeppero.
I'll eat Pocky, but I really jones for those supercrispy, put-a-molar-out, arare rice cracker snacks in multiple flavours. Good thing that shit is expensive, and that soft mochi is life-threatening, because otherwise I would not stop eating it all day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arare_(food)
These Samoans are all the same. They have no faith in the essential decency of the white man's culture.
I admire the shape of your skull.
Let's get down to brass tacks. How much for the ape?
I'm glad you explained the Men's part. I figured it had some essential vitamins or something. I can't stand pocky but this strawberry flavoring issue you speak of is real, although I will confess a weakness for Rock creek Strawberry, Lime and Peach sodas respectively, I must admit My candy game is a tad weak, but I think Rock Creek and Minute Maid are bringing hard on the strawberry soda front. Strawberry is such a subtle flavor only true confectionary artists... or engineers in this case, I think, can really bring it. Do blue blow pops give you cancer?
"Essential vitamins" = dried tiger penis?
of course/yum
I like it that the biscuit is limp until a little chocolate stick is inserted. For men, indeed!
In Japan, only girls like sweet deserts. Mens deserts have to be tough and bitter, or concealed as something appearing tough and bitter.
John McCaindy?
Real men's Pocky is a bag of shredded squid (OMG OMG so good with a Sopporo black label)
Mmmmm, spicy dried squid. And only 900% of your daily cholesterol.
and 12,000% reccomended sodium.
Wait, is "desert" the delicious one, or is "dessert?" Because I went to a pretty bad medical school.
but dr. spaceman i have been assured by all my dr. friends (who themselves went to a rage of schools) that all medical schools are the same...
"range"
Abe S: I'm sorry you corrected that. I had assumed that rage was some kind of measure-word and a rage of med schools was like a pride of lions or something.
one s in sand two ss's in mmm
That english page seems to correspond with the Lotte page (http://www.lotte.co.jp/top.html) and not the Toppo page specifically, which accounts for some of the differences, but still.
Yeah but that's IT for all of lotte's english stuff. There is no toppo universe portal on that landing page or the cute choco koala page either AND even if you were to compare the lotte english version page to the lotte japanese version page there's a MARKED difference. Seems mean and witholdingish. Also, seriously, does ANYONE know who the white lady is?
Yeah, I think I understated it a bit with "some of the differences" considering the only similarity is the red & white color scheme and header bar.
Can't identify white lady. Looks like a painting from the (late?) 1700s, but I don't recognize it. My art degree is worthless!
Lotte, a/k/a Charlotte, of The Sorrows of Young Werther!
Unrelated
Oh, and it's not candy exactly but Softlips does a strawberry SPF20 that is the JAM.
next can we focus on that amazing eye drop shit with mint that will probably blind me by 40 but works SO well....?
DUUUUUDE YES! is it in a little container that looks like an ice cube? Like it has facets and stuff? What is in it? Why is it so spicy and effective? Can you get it in the US? Mine eyes, we need it.
Yes. This is ALSO available, as all thing Japanese are, in his and hers. I have tried a bunch of different kinds in the US, though have never been able to get the stuff I got in Ueno years ago. JAS Mart on St. Marks, in the basement of some restaurant, has a few bottles of it in the "personals" isle. Probably next to the Hello Kitty douche. OF COURSE!!!! now I go to look up a link to jas mart and it's closed. Stupid new york.
There exists Hello Kitty douche?
My Christmas list is half solved!
i bet you thought i was kidding
http://www.kittyhell.com/2007/11/08/hello-kitty-douche/
for a clean pussy say hello kitty? woah meow.
think i'll pass
"Pocky" evokes a mental image of facial scarring resulting from chocolate-induced acne.
It's quite a clever name.
Hey, maybe Edward James Olmos could be their spokesman!
During my years in Japan, I also learned that Pocky is often used at office parties in games where a "raifu saiba" (Life Saver) is relayed from person to person by mouth-held Pocky in a hands-free race, replacing the equally awkward "pass the orange using just your chin". Oh, the hilarity. (And once the "raifu saiba" is gone, you're left with a chocolate "raito saiba," Skywalker!)
that sounds like a gooooood way to catch Swine Flu.