Apr 14, 2011
Welcome to TRIAL: (The Rice is a Lie), a food review section where we delve into dissecting the fuel that powers the otaku to go around anime conventions: FOOD. I, the great Prawnt shall review what is known to be the staple snack of an average otaku; the Pocky stick.
So what about Pocky sticks? Don’t they all taste the same? Like the Pucca I’ve reviewed earlier, there is a distinct difference between Southeast Asian (SEA) Pocky and Japanese (JP) Pocky. In this episode of TRIAL, I dissected every detail to discern the taste of each variant. So what’s the difference between the two?
Round 1: Packaging
So how do they both look? They look almost identical don’t you think? However upon closer inspection you could see that JP Pocky would have a taller box than SEA Pocky’s. Nothing special about SEA Pocky’s box aside from its spartan packaging, however JP Pocky’s letters are in gold. Now that’s something that screams “premium quality”. I then opened both boxes to examine how the pretzel sticks were packed accordingly.
SEA Pocky only had one pack, but JP Pocky’s box had two! This is probably for the idea of “sharing the fun”. The JP Pocky’s packaging even had an “open me” slot for easier opening of the product. SEA Pocky’s packaging however was slightly harder to open and I had to use scissors to look in its contents. The quality of the JP Pocky’s packaging is clearly more superior than its counterpart.
Round 2: Price
Obviously SEA Pocky wins this round. SEA Pocky’s cheap material makes it an affordable snack for any otaku on a tight budget. At only 30-40php, one can share the fun with anyone. A box of JP Pocky would cost you around 110php!! But hey, that’s the price of something that screams “quality” right?
Round 3: Taste
The decisive battle! So how do both Pocky’s fare? I took a picture of both pretzel sticks for examination. At the top would be JP Pocky, and the bottom would be SEA Pocky (now don’t get any ideas you fujoshi/fudanshi out there!). Anyway, JP Pocky’s size is clearly larger than SEA Pocky’s. I tried tasting SEA Pocky first. The chocolate was very sweet, and the pretzel stick felt like it had a more biscuit texture, just like that SEA Pucca I reviewed before.
Then I tried JP Pocky. The chocolate had a more bittersweet flavor like how chocolate should be! Also, the pretzel stick was REALLY a pretzel stick! This is definitely the real deal here!
JP Pocky had one downside however, due to our country’s tropical climate, the chocolate has become stickier in a way which can lead to some Pocky sticks being stuck together upon opening. SEA Pocky’s chocolate wasn’t sticky at all which made it easier to eat.
Personally, if I had the money; I would definitely buy a box of JP Pocky. While SEA Pocky is more commonplace, JP Pocky can be found in places like Little Tokyo, Rustan’s Supermarket and even UniMart in Greenhills, San Juan.
And that’s about it. Remember that it’s all about your preferences and it’s still up to you, fellow otaku!
This is Prawnt telling you that an otaku marches on his/her stomach to become Ota-kultured.
