Universal Yums Box: Israel

Every month, my group at work gets a box of snacks (one of my favorite categories of food to not only try, but also, to review!) from a different country, through the Universal Yums subscription service.  I've been loving it, such a wonderful change to try products that 1) I don't have easy access to and 2) I'd never pick.

We've discovered some hits, and some serious misses (er, acquired tastes?) through these boxes, and its always a fun surprise to see what comes next.  They always include some savory snacks, plenty of fascinating flavors of chips, and usually some interesting new chocolates too.  The products are often not in English, but the pamphlet that comes with each box tells you a story about each product (much like the Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer, only about half the context is actually about the item itself ...), and is generally pretty fun to read through.

I've previously not reviewed the boxes since you need to be a member to get these products (as a grouping anyway), or I've only reviewed an individual product when it was particularly interesting, but this time I'm going to try a hybrid: I'll review a handful of the items from April's box, from Isreal.  Let me know what you think of the idea!

And with that, let's dive into the snacks.

Kremli Nougat Bites

These were fascinating looking.  The name "nougat bite" made me expect a chocolate candy, but the image on front certainly indicated that these were a snack food, not a chocolate bar or chocolate candy.  And they had peanuts?

I really like peanut flavors, and have been enjoying finding them in crunchy snacks in other snack boxes, so these did sound appealing.

But were they savory?  Sweet?  What were they?

Kremli Nougat Bites

"Peanut butter coated cereal bites with hazelnut cream."

Fascinating is what they were, fairly different from any American snacks.  They were a bit savory, a corn snack, coated in a peanut butter powder.  And then, inside, a bit of hazelnut cream, slightly sweet.  Everything was fairly subtle.

The bites were a bit more dense than other similar snacks we’ve tried, and like other items in this box, I found them a bit small (is this an Israeli thing?).  I expected more generous filling ... you can see it here, but it is fairly minimal, and not very creamy.

Overall, I enjoyed them, but my American self wanted them super sized - bigger form factor, more filling, more peanut butter even.

Baked Garlic and Onion Puffs

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Next up, puffs, in a not too unfamiliar of a flavor: garlic and onion.

Baked Garlic and Onion Puffs.

 "Puff balls with garlic and onion seasoning."

These were pleasant, although they reminded me of food that was intended for toddlers - tiny little bite sized puffs, the size of breakfast cereal like Kix.

I found myself wishing they were bigger, and just cramming more into my mouth at the same time didn’t do the trick.  Still, I liked the light airy crunchy texture, and the garlic and onion flavors were strong and enjoyable.

Oppenheimer Chik Chak Everything Flavor.

What is a Chik Chak?  What does "Everything" flavor mean in the context of Israeli products?  

The former is just I think a fun name for a product line of snacky foods, and they make several different types of savory crunchy products.

I had no idea.  I knew not to really expect the only form of "everything" spice that I'm really familiar with, e.g. "everything bagel" with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion, garlic ... but I didn't know what these would be.

Answer?

These are branded as Oppenheimer USA, a kosher company, but are actually made in Israel.

Everything Chik Chak.

"​Wheat spirals with spices."

I give this product one tiny fraction of a point.  For the form factor.  They looked like curly crunchy little noodles!

But besides that ... they were horrible.  Foul.  Very high on the spit-me-out-immediately list.  

They were quickly relegated to the communal snack table.

The taste was so bad that I can’t really evaluate much else.  Perhaps they were pleasantly crunchy, I just have no idea.  And no i can’t describe the flavor as anything other than foul and muddled and just awful.

To be fair, there were a few people who thought they weren't awful, but they didn't have particularly strong praise, just, not nearly as offended by them as I was.

Lorraine's Patisserie, Sydney

Lorraine's Patisserie has been on my Sydney dessert list for years now.  Near the top of the list even.  And yet, it took until my October 2019 visit to finally get to try something from there!

So let me back up and explain.

Lorraine's Patisserie is old school Sydney famous.  Not Instagram famous, not trendy, just, very well known, for a long time, for really quality items.  And in particular, for being the maker of the date tart from Rockpool.  Which gets to the story of Loraine.  She came to her fame as the pastry chef at Rockpool, but before that, worked with Neil Perry at his other restaurants, as she was discovered by him, and it is in his kitchens that she got started, and honed her skills.

She now handles desserts for many of the Rockpool establishments, and has the small storefront patisserie attached to the bakery, tucked away on a little side alley that gets no foot traffic really.  You need to explicitly seek it out.

Which I did.  Many times.  But it is not open on Sundays, often my free day in Sydney, and closes at 5pm during the week, a time I am never able to make it.  I did rush from my office a few times, and made it in the door before 5pm, only to find they were sold out of everything I wanted.

But finally, finally, I got to try the item I was most seeking (not the date tart, actually, although I do want to try that, it is rarely available, as it is so labor intensive to make, and can't be mass produced).  I wish I could claim credit for my success in acquiring a treat, but alas, the credit goes to my co-worker, who picked it up and delivered it to me.

I owe her one.  Because this thing was fantastic!

The pattiserie carries a range of pastries like croissants and muffins, simple takeway treats like cookies, brownies, fancy marshmallows, and truffles, plus a slew of fairly well known items like a rhubarb pie, kalamansi cake, a few other tarts, a classic cheesecake ... but I was there for another famous item: the mascarpone cake.  If you've heard of Black Star Pastry, and their famous strawberry watermelon cake, it is said to be the inspiration of that.

Mascarpone Cake. $10.

"Lightened mascarpone, layered with crisp coconut dacquoise, fresh strawberries."

So, what do we have here?  A layered cake, three layers of coconut sponge, mascarpone and whipped cream, fresh strawberries, crispy coconut, and a lightly torched bruleed top.  Oh my.

This cake just nails all the elements of texture and balance.  Slightly crisp top.  Crispy bits throughout from the toasted coconut.  Creamy mascarpone.  Fluffy whipped cream.  Juicy fruit.  Soft cake.  Sweetness from the fruit, heaviness from the mascarpone, lightness from the cake and whipped cream.  Really, just amazingly well designed and executed, nothing dominated, yet everything was able to shine.  It would be so easy to have the ratios slightly off, too much mascarpone would make it too heavy, too much whipped cream would dilute the flavors.  This was just perfect.

For me, the only thing I didn't love was the coconut.  I do like coconut, but sometimes I just don't want it.  And this was one of those times.  I still wanted the textural component, but, I just didn't really want the flavor of it.  That is just my preference though, as this was basically perfect.

Yomie's Rice X Yogurt

Bubble tea started out so simple - generally, low grade powders, way too much sweetener, and non-dairy creamer.  Then places differentiated themselves by offering higher end teas, options for alternate milks, house made boba.  It became trendy.  Crowds formed.  Then there was an explosion of the types of mix-ins you could add to your drink.  Soon, plastic cups would no longer do, and beautiful glass bottles were introduced.  Carrying multiple drinks back to friends got hard, so carrying cases, branded of course, emerged.  Then there was cheese foam, or cheezo, or milk foam, or salty foam, or whatever a specific shop decided to call the rich, but slightly savory and salty, decadent topping.

Sydney embraced these fads full on, years, literally, ahead of even major cities in the US.  Every other shop was seeming to be a dessert drink shop.  By mid-day, no one was walking down the street with coffee anymore, it was all bubble tea.  On my recent visit to Sydney, I decided to try out the latest in drink innovation: yogurt rice.  Drinking rice.

Yogurt rice does not really sound like something I'd like.  I ... don't really find yogurt to be very interesting (although, I will admit the yogurt I've liked most in my life has been in Australia, at the Air New Zealand lounge at the airport, of all places ...).  And, I don't really eat rice ... well, savory rice, I do adore rice pudding.  The concept still didn't sound great to me.

Last year, when I visited, I saw the lines for Yomie's Rice X Yogurt. They were epic.  An hour or more, to get your yogurt rice drink.  "Authentic Natural Yogurt", the signs boasted.  People talked about how healthy and refreshing it was.  It was the only place in town doing something like this.  I didn't give it another thought.  One of my last nights in town that year, I visited The Original Royaltea, and tried their sesame taro milk with red sticky rice (and cheese foam of course, because, um, yes, I am obsessed with that).  While the overall drink wasn't actually a winner for me, I did find the rice mix-in very successful.  It got me thinking about the concept of rice in drinks, at least.

So this year, when I visited Sydney, and found that the yogurt rice scene had expanded pretty dramatically, I decided to give it a try.

I didn't go to Yomie's Rice X Yogurt though, as the lines were still epic.  Any time of day, morning, afternoon, evening, night.  Maybe more than an hour, but usually still at least half an hour.  Meh to that.  My first yogurt rice drink came from Koomi (review coming soon), and ... I adored it.  I had another, a day or two later, from The Moment (yup, review soon), and enjoyed it too.  And so on, for the course of the 1.5 weeks I was in town, yogurt rice became my new obsession too.  Some I didn't like, but mostly, I was in.

So finally, finally, my last night, I decided to get the original: Yomie's Rice X Yogurt.  I somehow had magic timing, finding a short line, only about 15 minutes to order, 10 minutes to get my order after that.  So I finally did it.  I tried the original yogurt rice.

And I hated it.

Setting

Yomie's Rice X Yogurt is located on a corner in Haymarket, right on George Street.  To find it, just head towards the crowds. 

Interior.

You line up to get inside, once inside you continue in the line to order, and then you take your number and wait.

There is no seating and very little space inside.

Numbers are not called out, but instead, a board, just like at the deli in my youth, flashes the current number being served by.  If you aren't paying attention, and miss your number, oh well.  My understanding is that usually the wait, post ordering, is even longer than the wait to order, which can make the line look not quite as intimidating, if you think you'll get your treat soon after.

Drinks

So, what does Yomie serve?  Well, to start, they are a one trick pony.  Yogurt drinks.  No bubble teas here.

And, um, they are an ... opinionated drink shop.  No customizations.  No modifying sweetness, no adding mix-ins.  They have preset drinks, and that is what they sell.  And ... no cheese foam.

Top 9.

Most people tend to order one of the Top 9, proudly displayed all over the place.  

The top 9 start with the basic purple rice yogurt, or, oat yogurt, if you prefer.  These are hands down the top sellers, the classics.  A trendy avocado yogurt comes next.  From there, there are exactly 3 other varieties of purple rice yogurt, with haw, jujube, or red bean.  Passionfruit, melon, and strawberry round out the top 9.

Note that the later group, just like the avocado, cannot have rice (or oats) added.  If you want rice, you must pick between the rice options.

The full menu does list out all the options they have, but again, no real customization, although it includes the less popular options like any of the rice drinks, just made with oats instead, and a few more flavors of fruit smoothies.  Again, no mix-ins, no bubble tea, no toppings.  And certainly no sweetness adjustments.

I'll admit that nothing called out to me.  Where was my taro?  My foam?  I felt limited, and a bit bored by the menu, but still, I dove in.

Haw Purple Rice Yogurt.

I went for a purple rice creation, and, not feeling inspired by the red bean (I thought that would be way too heavy with the protein from the red beans, the yogurt, and the rice ... this wasn't a meal replacement for me ...), not really wanting jujube, and bored by the idea of just rice and yogurt, so, haw it was.  I'll admit that I had never had haw before, but reviews talk about the sweetness being a nice compliment to the tart yogurt.

I'll start with something positive.  It was well blended.  For me, that was actually a downside, I loved the clumps of sticky rice, having something to chew on, in my drinks from other places.  This was fairly pulverized, and I didn't get that chewing satisfaction.

It was also icy.  Not ice chunks, since again, so blended, but it was crystalized.  Other places were certainly more about the yogurt having richness, less about the icy smoothie aspect.  I didn't care for that either.

The yogurt itself seemed kinda runny, not a thick, rich style I prefer.  It was kinda tart.  But really, not interesting.

But none of this really mattered. As there was something else about the drink that I disliked even more.  The sweetness.  It was way, way, way too sweet.  I guess this was the haw?  What if I had just gotten the plain one, would it have been tart?  I don't know, but this was just overboard sweet.

So basically, I hated it.  Runny yogurt, pulverized rice, icy bits, and way too sweet.  Chunks of sticky rice, rich thick yogurt, flavors and mix-ins I liked - like fresh taro!, and of course, cheese foam toppings, are what I loved about other places, and this had none of them.

That said, this is the original.  This is what started the fad.  This is what people ... seem to like?  Just, not me.  I won't go back, even to try the simple plain one.

Bambu, Sunnyvale

Update Review, March 2019 Visit

On a recent visit to Mountain View, I was craving Vietnamese desserts.  I remembered Bambu from a previous visit (which of course I reviewed) to Sunnyvale, and was pleased to see they would deliver to my office, since I wasn't going to Sunnyvale itself.  To make it worthwhile, I ordered a few items, hoping some would keep a few days - a technique I started in Sydney, when I once accidentally ordered a crazy large drink, and realized I could save what I couldn't finish, and it was perfectly fine the next day, and then discovered all the "2 for 1 deals on bubble tea drinks in Sydney ... #stockUp).

I ordered via Doordash, and, well, it was a disaster.  The driver called me after the set delivery time (I had ordered at 11am for a 12:15 -12:45pm delivery), and he asked me if I had gotten my order.  I was confused, and said "no ...".  He told me Bambu said someone else already picked it up.  MANY back and forths with Doordash later, the items finally arrived at ... 2:35pm, causing me to need to run out of a meeting to fetch them.  I'm not sure who was at fault for everything, but, wow.  So much drama, and many, many back and forth exchanges with Doordash.  That part, I absolutely do NOT recommend.

But the goodies from Bambu, I do.

Smoothies (Sinh To)

None of us tried a smoothie on our previous visit, so I decided to mix it up and try smoothies.  I had no idea what style they would be (blended with ice? Non-dairy creamer? Coconut milk?), but the flavor lineup was pretty extensive and interesting.  As a bonus, all come with 2 free mix-ins (additional for $0.50).  Sadly, only the standard bubble tea mix-ins are available (e.g pearls, pudding, jellies), not things like pandan noodles.  Regular smoothies are $6, with the premium offerings coming in at $6.50.

I ordered two smoothies, and enjoyed them both (not at once!).  Bambu does a great job with the texture and blending of the smoothies, but both suffered from inconsistent prep (one had way too much topping, the other too much mix-in), and both were sweeter than I really wanted.  Still, I was pleased with them, and would get smoothies again.

Durian with fruit jellies, sea salt foam. $6.50.

Yup, durian.

I ordered a durian smoothie, because ... I dunno, can I say I was kinda craving it?  I was kinda craving it.  Can't really explain that, but I was.  Yes, durian.

I opted to add fruit jellies to sweeten it up and perhaps break the funk, and sea salt foam to try it as I adore these foams, cremas, clouds, or whatever places choose to call the savory-sweet creams they put on top these days.

The foam I was really excited for, but I didn't really care for Bambu's version nearly as much as other places.  Specifically, it wasn't much of a foam, it was much richer, denser, and not light in any way.  Slimy even.  I also didn't taste sea salt, but I guess it was a little savory.  And, as you can see, there was kind of a ridiculous amount of it.  Maybe they wanted to help cut the durian flavor?

The smoothie was perfectly blended, little tiny bits of ice-y, really almost like ice cream the bits were so little.  It didn't separate at all.  Very well made.  I think maybe they blend frozen durian?

And yes, it tasted, well, like durian.  Which I liked.  Funk and all.  Great texture, strong durian flavor, although sweeter than I was expecting, from whatever they blend in.  Is it coconut milk?

The jellies were what I expected, a rainbow mix, slimy, fruity, slurpy, and I appreciated them in the mix.

Overall, this was good, although I really did just want whipped cream on top, the sea salt foam was just too heavy.

Jackfruit with red tapioca, cheese foam. $6.50.

Just in case the durian didn't work out, I also ordered the jackfruit smoothie, planning to stash it in the freezer if I loved the durian one, and drink it later.  To that I added the red tapioca I remembered loving in the Fruit Lover Che, and the cheese foam, because, again, I'm addicted to savory foams!

Much like the sea salt foam, this "foam" was crazy heavy, crazy rich.  This one came with a more reasonable portion at least.  And like the sea salt foam, I didn't really taste the more savory cheese flavor I was hoping for.  The two foam varieties were actually indistinguishable.

Just like the durian smoothie, the texture was perfect, so well blended.  They really do a nice job on the blending of smoothies.  The jackfruit flavor was good, but this one was much sweeter than I wanted.  I ended up watering it down, and then adding some soy milk, and that created a really pleasant creation.

The red tapioca I again loved.  Crunchy inside (water chestnut?) and slimy soft tapioca outside.  So tasty.  Although this was loaded up with a too generous serving, I found myself wanting some sips without them, and it was hard to get that.

I did try freezing the second half of this, and, the smoothie froze fine, but the red tapioca got fairly gross - the texture was very offputting after a defrost.  I don't recommend that at all.

So again, another success, although sadly again the foam wasn't for me, and I did like it better once I reduced the sweetness by watering it down.  I wish Bambu offered sweetness adjustments.

Milk Teas (Tra Sua)

Bambu offers a large range of milk tea (or regular tea or fruit tea if you prefer), most available warm, cold, or some even blended.  When ordering online, there is no option to add any mix-ins/toppings, which seemed wrong to me, so I tried to add grass jelly by putting it in the notes.   There is also no customization about sweetness level nor amount of ice, both of which I also tried to add in the notes.

Taro Milk Tea. $4.25.

Taro milk tea is only available cold, unlike most of the others flavors, so, cold it was.  I hoped this meant that it was fresh taro milk?  Unlike many milk teas, it does not use black tea in the base, rather, it uses pandan leaf water, but I didn't taste the subtle pandan flavor.

I put in the notes that I wanted grass jelly added, and less sweet, and no ice (since I was going to drink it later).  It did show up with grass jelly and no ice, so, that was granted.  It still seemed very sweet to me, but that seemed to be a theme, and I'm not sure they do allow adjustments anyway.

Unlike the other drinks, this one arrived sealed, which is what I was hoping for, so I could stash it for later.

It was ... fine?  Not much notable to say, other than that it didn't seem like fresh taro, and I didn't taste the pandan.  Fairly standard taro powder tea.  The grass jellies were good, large size blobs, and plentiful.

Che

Of course, Che is the main attraction, and I decided to be boring, and get exactly the same type I had before.  I really was interested in trying something else, but ... I really liked it before, and wanted all those amazing fruity mix-ins again.

Fruit Addict Che. $6.

"Lychee, longan, red tapioca, jackfruit, palm seed, jello, pandan jelly, coconut and coconut milk."

Like last time, I again wanted the fresh taro added, so I added that in the notes, hoping someone would see it.  And I requested no ice, since I was planning to consume later.  Sadly, it came with ice and without taro.  Oh well.

It was just as good as I remembered, a layered creation, just so full of goodies.  In the bottom, mostly the pandan jellies, smooth soft noodles-like, and then a layer with pieces of jackfruit (love these!), slimy young coconut, and some whole lychees and longans, and then tons of the red tapioca above all that, with coconut milk rounding it all out.  I'm not sure I found any palm seeds nor jello, but its hard to tell sometimes what you are slurping up.

I again really enjoyed this, although I did find it sweet, it was a fun adventure, and I just wished I had the taro I requested.  I ended up adding scoops of the goodies into my other drinks quite successfully too.

Original Review, May 2018

After a fairly disappointing meal at Dumpling Depot near downtown Sunnyvale, my group wanted something to kinda make up for the lackluster meal.  We weren't necessarily hungry, or really wanting anything, except, well, a better experience.

I pulled up Google Maps, searched for "dessert", found only two places nearby (Pinkberry or Bambu), did a quick Yelp reference check on Bambu, and saw 4 stars.  People said it was a nice place to hang out, which also is what we were looking for, to continue talking, hopefully somewhere more comfortable than the cold sterile interior of the dumpling shop.  Ok, we were in!

I didn't entirely know what Bambu was, except that it looked like an asian dessert cafe.  That was all I needed really, since I love dessert, and trying unfamiliar desserts is always fun for me.

It turned out to be a surprise great pick.  Nice environment, friendly efficient service, and unique tasty treats.  I'll gladly return.

Front Counter.

The front counter had a display of cute macaroons (in flavors including durian!), and freezers with mochi ice cream (again, great flavors, ube!), but the real focus is on the drinks and desserts.

The menu has a slew of drinks (bubble teas, infused teas, milk teas, coffees, juices, smoothies), a single pandan waffle offering, and, a huge selection of signature chè.

I was tempted to get a taro smoothie with mix-ins, but, I wanted to be more unique.  I don't get chè often at all, and the others had never had it before, so, we all went for chè.

Cute Seating.

The interior isn't huge, but there were a couple different types of seating, including a small private back room, standard tables, and an area with couches.  We settled comfortably onto leather couches to await our desserts.

Our orders were quickly prepared and our number called out.

Fruit Addict Chè (+Taro). $5.95.

"Lychee, longan, red tapioca, jackfruit, palm seed, jello, pandan jelly, coconut and coconut milk."

For chè, the menu had at least 15 different pre-made combinations.  I started at the top of the list, and liked the sounds of the first one, the "Bambu Special" with coconut pandan jelly, longan, basil seeds, and coconut water.  And then I liked the next one.  And the next one.  And so on.  I really would have been happy with nearly any of them.  So many ingredients I love: taro. Pandan. Jackfruit. Jellies. Coconut milk or coconut water.  OMG.

I went for the "Fruit Addict" in the end, as it had a ton of things I wanted, but I added in taro, because I love taro.

It was a wonderful adventure of a dessert-drink.  Each layer was a unique color and texture, and it was incredibly fun to dig through, sip at, and just generally make a mess of as I discovered all the elements.    It was all in a sweet coconut milk base, topped with slush that melted in as we enjoyed.

The lychee and longan were perhaps the most boring, just whole pieces of fruit, sweet, juicy, but not very unique.  Same with the coconut, not fresh soft slimy young coconut as I hoped, but instead more mature large pieces of coconut.

The green pandan jellies were equally a bit boring, a bit chewy, fine, but not all that interesting.

Close Up.

But the jackfruit slices I loved, always a favorite ingredient of mine, my second favorite thing in the mix.  You can see a bit of orange on the left here, that is the jackfruit.

The red tapioca I also really liked, I think it was water chestnut bits coated in red colored tapioca, not just red tapioca balls.  They had a slight crunch in the center and soft exterior.  It reminded me of the Tup Tim Grob from Chat Thai in Sydney, but, actually good.  My third favorite element.

I know you are expecting me to say the taro I added was my favorite, but, it wasn't.  I wasn't sure what format the taro would be, little taro balls, taro flavored mochi, etc, but, it turned out to be a taro cream.  A bit odd actually, and not my favorite.  Interesting texture, interesting experience, but, not how I like my taro.

What was my favorite?  The palm seeds, although I only found 2 slices.  Soft, slimy, and sweet.  And just not something I have much.

Overall, this was a unique dessert for me, full of texture, ingredients I like, and surprise.  I enjoyed it, and would love to try more of this style of Vietnamese dessert.