Chocolate Mushrooms - Product of Japan

This was one type of mushroom that not only was the boy willing to try - but asked for more and more!

Japanese products always seem to be esthetically pleasing. They are cutesy and fun.

When I saw this little box of mushrooms I wasn't quite sure what I was getting, but I'm pretty good at recognizing chocolate, so I figured these would be safe.

The outside package is unique in that you don't just tear open an end, but rather there are perforated edges on the front that you press down on and "cut out" a kind of circle design to open the box. There is a little notched tab on the front that allows you to seal the box back up. There are even directions (in Japanese) on the inside to show you how the tab works.

The inside package is even decorated.

What a fun surprise it was for the kids (and for me!) to see the cute, miniature cookie mushrooms. The stem is cookie and the top is a piece of chocolate. A great combination.

I think this box of cookies cost about $2.00...it is made by the same company that made Yan Yan. And as the boy pointed out - "the stem is like the Yan Yan stick and the top is just chocolate."

I just checked and Amazon.com sells these if you want to try them for yourself. A fun little gift for someone.

Yan Yan - Japan

Yan Yan is snack from Japan. These are little stick cookies that you dip in chocolate. This chocolate delight cost about $1.00.

The girl found this treat and bought it for herself. She was kind enough though, to give a taste to her brother and I.


The cookie part is plain tasting, but dip it in the chocolate and it's wonderful....you could pretty much say that about anything dipped in chocolate.

What is fun about this little snack is that each stick has a saying on it like "Gallop Away" or "Eat More Carrots."


As you might imagine, it's all pretty messy. Especially if you want to get all the good chocolate left at the bottom when the sticks are all gone.

Botan Rice Candy

I found these cute little candy boxes at the world food store and bought a couple to put in the kids' Christmas stockings.

There are about 4 or 5 individually wrapped chewy candies inside the box. My ds was needing my help to remove the plastic wrap from his candy - but it was so entwined with the candy that I said, I guess you'll have to eat the plastic too. Which he did, after we tore off as much as we could.

The next day he comes to me with the same problem and by this time I decided that it would not be good for his digestive system to eat all of these candies with the plastic wrap still on them (hey I saw the film when I was in school about what happens to dolphins when plastic bags get thrown into the ocean). Seems like I remember having a habit of chewing on (hopefully not swallowing but you never know) bits of plastic bread bags. Anyway - so I had my son pitch his last candy :(

Well then later - after it's too late to retrieve the candy from the trash I read a little notice on the tip of the candy box that is tucked into the box "each candy has an edible inner wrapper that melts in your mouth." We went and checked out sister's candy b/c the boy's was all gone (mother having thrown the last in the trash) and I tore off some of the "plastic", put it in my mouth and sure enough it melted!

So much for worrying about someone's innards becoming clogged with plastic!

Anyway - now we all had a taste of this chewy candy and liked it (I of course being careful to chew on the side of my mouth that did not contain the broken tooth!). Dd said "it tastes just like an orange slurpee". Orange slurpees by the way, are pretty much right at the top of the slurpee flavor chart in my opinion.

It had a good orange fruity flavor. Nothing scary - dd was worried it would taste "strange" and kids of course do not want strange tasting candy.

Do I feel bad about throwing away my wee lad's last Botan Rice Candy? Well being that he has been on a constant sugar high since about the beginning of the month, plus he still has a stash of other Christmas candy - I'd say definitely not.

Here is something odd - the box says "free children's sticker inside" and shows a picture of a flower (for a girl) and a racecar (for a boy)...also shows on the other side a cat and an elephant.

So what fun sticker did my 5 yr old boy receive in his box - a tattoo. Now normally he likes tattoos. But a pink breast cancer awareness ribbon was not quite what he was hoping for.