LoloYum Snacks

I'm a serious snack-o-holic.  I fully admit it.  I like to snack.  I love to much on things.

I'm also ... obsessed with furikake.  It is my condiment of choice, for nearly everything.  Some people use table salt and pepper on their veggies, some grind fresh black pepper over plates of creamy pasta or salads ... I *generously* sprinkle on the furikake.  All the time.  I carry little packets of it (I use little mini pill bags!) with me everywhere I go.  Like I said, obsessed.

Many years ago at this point, the catering department at my office introduced a new item: Japanese Chex mix.  Yes, that would be housemade Chex mix, made with furikake.  It is sweet and salty.  Beyond addicting.  And thus, a monster was created.

Over the years, I've ordered it, and saved all the leftovers, at every chance I get.  I'm sure my group is sick of it, but I just can't get enough.  (Side note: Just like popocorn, it is even better if you freeze it!  Super crispy!).  Obviously a great snack by the handful, but I also love to throw it on top of salads for crunch and flavor.

Since then, I've also gotten my mother, a Chex mix affectionado herself, to learn some Japanese Chex mix recipes, and she always makes me batches when I go to visit, made even more special by customizing with my favorite brand pretzels, my favorite other mix-ins.  A worse monster has been created.

And then ... a pastry chef I know launched his own business, and ... introduced furikake Chex mix to the line up.  And *white truffle* furikake Chex mix.  Are you kidding me?  The bar just got higher and higher, and I can attest, yes, his *is* the best.  Sorry mom.  (MackBox review coming soon!)

But sometimes, I don't have an excuse to order from my catering team, my mom is on the other side of the country, and, well, I'm not ordering from a fancy pastry chef. So I need to look retail. And imagine my surprise when I was able to actually find furikake Chex mix!

"This delicious sweet and salty Hawaiian inspired snack mix is traditionally made in small batches at home. Sticking with our goal of providing all-natural products, we’ve developed a clean-label recipe with no high-fructose corn syrup, no preservatives. It features furikake seaweed and is available in 3 flavors."

Yup, meet LoloYum, a snack food company that makes exactly one product: furikake snack mix. Oh yes. Sure, theirs is also non-gmo, small batch, baked not fried, no HFCS, yadda yadda, and I kinda might prefer versions with MSG ... but hey, making it slightly better for me is not a bad thing. And, they are based in San Francisco, so I feel good supporting a local business.

It comes in 3 varieties: Original, Matcha, and Japanese Seven Spice.
I was seriously excited to try it.

Original Furikake Seaweed Snack Mix.

"Our Original Furikake Seaweed Snack Mix provides a unique blend of sweet and savory flavor combined with crunchy goodness of different shapes and textures. Seasoned with premium seaweed and yummy seasoning, this snack will leave you wanting more."

I started with the original.

Everyone has their own preference on what to mix in, and since LoloYum doesn't partner with Chex brand, they do not use Chex cereal, but rather "crunchy pillow puffs" (on my packaging, "corn puffs" now on their website).  My mom started adding Bugles cereal to hers, which at first I was opposed to, but I decided are a great addition.  I was pleased to see that although they also don't partner with Bugels, they added "crazy cones" (on my package, "Bugle Shaped Snacks" on their website now).  The mix is rounded out by standard, thin style, buttery pretzel sticks, and bagel chips (not found in any of my other favorite mixes).

And of course, plenty of furikake and sesame seeds.

It looked great, well coated, clearly caramelized and crispy.

Original Furikake Chex Mix: Close Up.

So ... how did it measure up?

Well ... I'll cut to the chase.  I didn't like it.  Sure, I knew it wouldn't be as good as MackBox, nor as my mom's custom version, but I thought I'd at least want to eat it at some point.  I found myself trying it over and over, and just never wanting it.

Component-wise, it was fine.

The "pillow puffs" are larger than Chex, and have more edges.  They are puffier, which just made them more munchable, an improvement of sorts.  The "crazy cones" were really no different from Bugels, another good form to have in it.  Pretzel sticks were standard.  The bagel chips were an interesting addition, but also the worst component - they seemed burnt, way too crispy.  I wanted crispy, but these were rock solid.  I do like to have some kind of nuts in the mix, but they aren't necessary, so it was ok to me that this was nut-free (bonus points though to macadamias when included!)

The real issue though was the seasoning.  Yes, there was furikake (ok, shredded nori, sesame seeds, salt).  And the expected soy sauce, butter, and sugar needed to coat it and make it savory and sweet.  There was also ... "liquid butter concentrate", with soybean oil and soy lecithin as main ingredients, and not actually any butter, but, I looked past that.  The dominant flavor was sesame.  Hearty sesame.  Burnt sesame.  I almost wonder if my batch *was* burnt, given that the bagel chips and overall taste just seemed burnt.  But it didn't look that dark ...

Anyway, yeah.  I didn't care for it.  It was hearty, but strangely sweet.  It tasted healthy.  But not, since so sweet.  Such an odd combo.

I tried it as a snack, I tried it frozen, I dried it tossed in salads, and in the end, I ground some of it up to just use as a sprinkle on salads, but I never actually liked it.

I didn't try the other flavors after this.

Sun & Moon Thai Restaurant

Ah, Thai cuisine in San Francisco.  I'm still on a neverending quest to find somewhere as good as the places in Sydney.

My recent adventures kept me local, finally trying out a newer, higher end Thai restaurant in the neighborhood that I've been eying for a while: Sun & Moon.  I knew that reviews were solid for the food, but, people complained about prices.  I knew it would be expensive, but, I also knew they take pride in the quality of the produces they use, and I wanted a seafood item, so this mattered to me.  Plus, it was in COVID-19 days, and staying nearby to get takeout was ideal.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of pickup and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes ...

• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]

I haven't visited the restaurant to dine in.

Setting

Sun & Moon is located on Brannan Street, just a block away from South Park.

Not much signage!

The first time I went to Sun & Moon I wasn't sure where it was ... there was no big dominant sign with the restaurant name that I saw, just a small open sign, with a paper notice of the takeout/delivery service options.

Pick Up Area.

Since this was in the pickup only days, entering the restaurant was not possible, and they had a makeshift counter blocking the front door inside.  To alert the staff that you are there, you just ring the bell and then they call out "yes?!"

The first time I ordered from Sun & Moon a few weeks ago was really early on in the process, and my order actually was not ready when I arrived.  In fact, they didn't even know about it, as the internet had disconnected, and they weren't getting any orders.  Doh.  They did make it quickly once that was resolved.  I didn't write up that experience though.

I returned a few weeks later, and again placed my order via mobile (Caviar, although they are on Doordash and others as well, plus you can call in to order directly).  This time it was ready right as I arrived, I saw it brought out from kitchen.

Food

The menu is upscale Thai, classic cuisine, some with a slight twist.  Appetizers include chicken satay, simple things like steamed edamame, and always popular corn crab cakes, the salad lineup of course includes papaya salad and larb, soups include tom yum, and yup, there are a few classic main dishes (pad thai and pad see ew, green and yellow curry, a few rice dishes).  They also have ... ramen, which seems a bit out of place, but popular with the lunch crowd.

My first visit was just to get some sticky rice (to use with my own Thai food I had made), and I didn't take a photo, nor review it, but it was pretty standard sticky rice, warm, glutinous, and exactly what I was looking for.  The next visit was to try an appetizer, the most creative thing on the menu ...

Salmon Rolls. $16.

"Seaweed wrapped marinated salmon (medium-done) in fried spring rolls topped with ikura. Side of mild spicy cilantro sauce."

I loved the sound of these.  I saw sooo many photos of them online, and they looked fabulous, right up my alley.

High end salmon, cooked medium, in a fascinating wrapper of regular spring roll and seaweed layers?  It sounded great.  I love crispy spring rolls, I adore nori, and although I like my salmon mid-rare, I was pleased to see that they intentionally cook it medium, not more than that.  I had been going through a tempura nori snacks fad too, and this appealed to that side of me too.

And then, um, the crispy sweet potato strings I knew it was served over (yes!), another snack addiction of mine I picked up in Sydney where I'd get bags of this freshly made from the Thai hawker stand, and munch on them by the handful, throw onto salads, and top all sorts of curry bowls with them.

Add in ikura (why not?), and, well, I was quite excited.  I asked for the ikura on the side though, as I didn't want it to get hot inside the container with the hot salmon rolls.

My only slight hesitation was the dipping sauce cilantro sauce?  eh ...

As I mentioned, it was ready right as I arrived, and I wasted no time in diving in right on the sidewalk - I wanted piping hot, fresh, crispy spring rolls!  I was slightly disappointed to see the ikura inside the takeout container - it was on the side, but not quite as I intended to heat separate it ... but this wasn't really a problem as the rolls weren't hot.  Lukewarm ... maybe, but really not.  Sadness.

I also was sad to see the portion.  I knew it was an appetizer size, and would be 4 pieces, but in other photos I saw, they were substantially larger.  Or at least looked it.  At $16, this turned out to be very pricy - $4 a bite!  But if the bites were that good, I wouldn't care.  Sadly, they weren't.

The sweet potato strings turned out to be kinda the best part, and they weren't great - since inside the container with what was warm-ish rolls initially, they were soft, not as crispy as I wanted.  But they were still tasty, sweet, and such a fun component.  A unique plating, which looks much better when served on their dishes of course, far more fun than standard lettuce as the base!

The ikura portion was small, but it was intended to just be a garnish, and I enjoyed it - fresh (not fishy or off tasting), and fun little pops of flavor.  Another fun creative touch to the dish.

The dipping sauce, as I mentioned, wasn't a big draw for me, given that I'm not cilantro averse but I'm not a cilantro lover either, so I brought my own other sauces just in case - I brought a soy sauce with lemon juice added that I thought would go nicely (soy sauce to bring out the asian style, lemon to enhance the salmon), I brought an aioli in case I was craving creamy and rich - but of course I tried their sauce first.  It was light and very herb forward, as you'd expect.  It was spicy, but not too spicy, "mild spicy" really was accurate.  I wasn't into it with the spring rolls, but, I later used it on a salad, and thought it went well there.

So enough about the garnish.  Let's talk about those rolls.  Besides not being hot, and small, how were they?

Salmon Roll: Close Up.

Disappointing, on so many levels.  Yes, the lack of heat and small size were initial strikes against them, but there were many more things that just didn't go well.

They weren't crispy, you can kinda see here, there was a very thin slightly golden outer layer that was flaking off, and the rest of the wrapper was ... soft.  Pale.  These were not the crispy creations I was hoping for.  The nori wasn't really fried either, so that was additional softness.  The result was *chewy* rolls, not crispy rolls, which, uh, is just not very enjoyable.

But the salmon!  High end quality beautiful medium salmon!  Well, it wasn't medium, definitely fully cooked.  And how did it taste?  Honestly, this is hard to evaluate.  I barely tasted it.  Each roll had ... one bite.  One tiny bite.  Really.  The tails of the rolls were empty, just a tiny chunk of salmon right in the middle.

So, lukewarm, soft, chewy, not golden brown, not crispy, and lacking any real substantial salmon.  $16 for 4 little pieces like this, $4 each, plus some soft sweet potato strings and a couple pops of ikura.

I was extremely disappointed.

Mini Ikura Hand Roll & Asian Salad?

So ... I repurposed the last roll.

I made a mini hand roll with some nori and the ikura.  Sushi time!

I unrolled the spring roll, and toasted up the wrapper to make it crispy.  I extracted the single bite of salmon.  I made an Asian style salad, and used the crispy spring roll wrapper as a topping.  I enjoyed it all much more this way and was glad to not waste.

Original Royaltea, Sydney

Update Review, March 2020 Visit

No Sydney trip is complete without several yogurt rice drinks these days.

This recent trip was cut short due to international travel concerns from coronavirus, so I was only able to make it to get two yogurt rice drinks.  Stop #1 was my beloved Koomi - where I changed my plans last minute and tried the mango yogurt again, rather than the taro drink I set out to get.  It was fantastic, and it turned out, after that, mango became a constant craving for me.

So a few days later, I was ready for another mango inspired item, and although I wasn't impressed with the taro quality (or, lack of taro really) at Original Royaltea before (start with my earlier review), the rice, black sesame pearls, and cheese foam were good enough to inspire me to return.  Plus, I hadn't yet tried a yogurt drink there yet ...

My favorite thing about the menu at the Original Royaltea is that the yogurt drinks all have rice by default in addition to the flavor you pick, and all come with or without foam explicitly.  Everywhere else looks at me like I'm very complicated when I try to add foam on yogurt drinks.  That seems to not be the norm.  But at Original Royaltea, the menu has 2 prices for each item, one with foam and one without.  So getting a creation that had rice AND something else mixed in, and cheese foam on top, was all just *standard* there.  So, of course I had to add more.

Mango Sticky Rice Yogurt w/ Cheese Foam + Coconut Jellies. No Sweet.

When I originally planned to return to Original Royaltea to try a yogurt creation, I assumed it would be for taro, but, my mango cravings took over.  I was skeptical about mango there though, as they didn't really seem like a place known for high quality ingredients.  I asked if the mango was fresh (rather than frozen or pureed), and I was assured that it was.  That was enough to get me to go for the mango rice yogurt.  Yes with cheese, and yes, I added coconut jellies inside too.

The staff member went out back to fetch my portion of mango, and she did indeed come back with fresh, ripe mango.  It went into a blender with yogurt (and I think some ice?), and was blended up into a smoothie base.  While that was going,, she set about putting in a *very* generous serving of purple sticky rice and a *very* generous serving of coconut jellies into the base of the cup.  Yes, ~1/3 of the cup was just those things.  The mango yogurt was poured on top, and then the top 1/3 was finished with frothy cheese foam.

I will admit I expected to have some fresh mango chunks, not all blended, particularly given the photo on the menu with big chunks of mango on top, and I was craving serious mango, so, that was a bit not what I wanted, but otherwise, this looked pretty epic.

And it was good.  The purple rice had a nice chew to it, and went well with the yogurt.  There was really more than I wanted in a drink, and more than I wanted for a reasonable portion dessert, but, uh, if you made this a meal, it would be just right to get all your carbs :)

The coconut jellies weren't anything special, I'm sure they just purchase them, but they were sweet and added a nice texture.  Sure, fresh young coconut or palm seeds or something like that would be better, no question, but, I liked what these added.  Still, given the quantity (literally, a cup of rice, a cup of these), I think it was overkill.  I'd probably leave out in the future, or ask for a half portion of both these and the rice?

The body of the drink, the middle portion was the mango smoothie.  I'm calling it a smoothie as that is what it was, all blended up, again, not what I was expecting.  It wasn't thick and rich and very yogurt-forward as a result.  I was expecting something more like Koomi et al, that really highlight the yogurt, and that you can even save some of to have with granola for breakfast (wait, am I the only one who does that? Or gets a second one for morning?).  This was just pleasant sweet mango flavored smoothie.  Definitely not tart.  It was good, and the mango flavor was strong, but if you wanted something healthy and very apparently yogurt-y, this was not it.  I got it not sweet (or at least, I tried to order it that way) but this was certainly sweet, hopefully just from the mango and base sweet yogurt?

And then of course the cheese foam.  They do nail this element.  So rich, so fluffy, so ... cheesy and sweet and savory all at once.  And so very much of it.  It was a nice combo with the mango smoothie.

So overall, definitely a success, and I liked each element alone and combined.  Sure, it was not the healthy thick yogurt creation I thought I was getting, and sure, I didn't get to enjoy any big cubes of mango, but it was sweet, well blended, mango-y, and the rice and coconut jellies added tons of interesting texture, and the foam, well, swoon.

I'm definitely interested in returning yet again, and trying more creations.  I'd be happy to get this again, perhaps with some modifications on the mix-ins.

Original Review, May 2019

Sydney has a lot of bubble tea shops.  Seriously, bubble tea has ... exploded, everywhere.  Some neighborhoods have a bubble tea shop literally ever other storefront.  The competition is real, and the shops just keep getting trendier and trendier, innovating in all different ways.

And then ... there is Original Royaltea.  It isn't one that is heavily Instagramed.   It doesn't seem to have any particular notable thing.  It doesn't have a stunning storefront.  And it certainly doesn't have lines.  It barely even has any reviews.

But it is one of the oldest shops, started in 2011.  And seems to have an entirely different following than the other shops.  I was curious, very curious, so I went far off the highly rated beaten path to try it out.

Setting

Original Royaltea is located deep in bubble tea central, Haymarket.

Street Entrance

Unlike most of the bubble tea shops in the neighborhood, Original Royaltea is not located on street level, rather, you must go up a flight of stairs.

I can't say it has any curb appeal, with tacky red "Final Sale" signs advertising the specials.

Ordering Counter.

Once you step inside, the appeal doesn't really grow, just an ordering counter, with some digital screens, and lots more signs.  There are few seats, and charging stations.

Every single customer inside was of Asian descent, and I felt the very real feeling of looking entirely out of place.  I also took this as a very good sign perhaps?

Sticky Notes.

I'm ... not sure what this wall is about, covered in multi-colored sticky notes?  People write messages and leave them?

Drinks / Food

Original Royaltea is obviously a bubble tea shop, although they offer a few small snacks as well (fishballs, cuttlefish balls, fried beancurd, and lotus).  

The rest of the menu is drinks, both hot and cold.

Menu.

The menu had both english and Chinese, and had lots of funny additions, added on with extensions off the edges, or on top with small pieces of paper taped on, and had things removed as well.

The categories had names but no explanation, and there were many: Super Fruit Tea (cold only, I think just regular fruity infusions), Fresh Fruit Juice (just juice?), Royal Fruit Drink (cold only, just tea-less fruity drinks?  These actually had some interesting flavors, like dragonfruit, but I'm not really sure what they were, or if they used real fruit), Royal Cheese Milk Tea (hot or cold, fairly standard milk tea lineup, with cheese as the default, although you can opt for "pure drink" instead),), Royal Dirty Cup (no idea, cold only), Royal Cheese Tea (hot or cold, standard list of teas, with cheese as the default, although you can opt for "pure drink" instead), Royal Cheese Foam Special Drinks (hot or cold, cheese default, more interesting flavors like Oreo, uji matcha, red bean), and Royal Cheese Tea I'm New (uh, just more types of Royal Cheese Tea?  More interesting flavors, like Tofu Black Sesame Milk, Passion Fruit Yogurt, and Purple Sky Soda).

The topping list is the part I was most excited for, a large range of offerings, including of course standard pearls, red bean, and pudding, but also new black sesame pearls, a bunch of types of jellies (including ones I haven't seen other places like grapefruit), random things like Oreo, interesting things like aloe, and as I was excited for, taro paste.

Original Royaltea is known for the cheese topping, and is why I sought it out, as I discovered the joy of cheese topping at Chatime a few visits to Sydney ago, and I've been loving it ever since.   As you can maybe tell given that nearly ever drink defaults to having cheese, they really are all in on the cheese, offering up 4 varieties: original, baked, mango, and durian, although, when I visited, they didnt have the durian one, and I really was going to try it!

Moar Signs.

Additional signs advertised new offerings, many with badges that say "Limited 50 cups per day", which ... I'm skeptical about.  Did they really count them? Do they run out? Are they trying to create scarcity and hype?

One of the new "Series" is the Yogurt Series, on special with half off the second one if you get two.  These all feature yogurt instead of milk as the base, and I was told it was a thick Greek yogurt.  There are two other well known shops around the corner that are offering, to much hype, yogurt and rice based drinks, so Original Royaltea clearly has jumped on board.  I am interested in trying these sometime, but yogurt is never the thing I think I crave ... but if I ever do decide to try it, the taro purple rice yogurt is what I'd try ... with cheese of course.

A sign here also shows how to customize your drink, with desired ice, sweetness (the menu offers 1/3 sugar, 2/3 sugar, no sugar, more sugar), toppings, and size options, although I realized later I was never asked about these.

Royal Sesame Taro Milk + Red Rice with Cheese. $8.50.

I selected one of the new, limited to 50 cups per day, special drinks, the "Royal Sesame Taro Milk", featuring their brand new black sesame pearls and taro milk, available plain or with cheese.  I certainly wanted the cheese foam, since that is kinda what I was craving.  I added red rice, because I wanted more substance and texture, and was worried I wouldn't really like the sesame pearls, because I haven't been into pearls lately, but I wasn't ready to go for the yogurt rice drink.

I liked this, and easily finished it, but it was actually a mixed success.  It also lacked a bit in the taro and sesame departments ...

Starting at the top, I did love the cheese topping, it was thick, rich, slightly salty.  I liked the texture and flavor, and appreciated that it was more savory than sweet.

At the bottom, the sesame pearls.  These were actually pretty good, soft, decent enough sesame flavor.  However, there weren't that many, and this was the only sesame element in the "Royal Sesame Taro Milk".  I'll admit that I expected more sesame, a paste, something.

I felt the same about the taro.  I thought this drink had taro paste in it (I was told it did!), but I never found any, and I was hoping for some fresh taro chunks or something too, but, alas, it was just taro powder used to make the taro milk.  I think it was non-dairy powder for the milk base as well.  So, the taro aspect was a kinda low-end, too sugary sweet, not very intense taro flavored milk.  A few days later though I had the highest quality taro milk ever, all fresh taro and high quality full cream milk, from Bubble Nini Tea (seriously, so good).

There was also no ice (good, it wasn't watered down like some places get), but, it was also not very cold, a kinda strange lukewarm temperature actually.  I really wanted it more chilled, considered not drinking much more until I got back to the hotel and could add ice, but, alas, I had it in my hand, opened, at that point, so ... I kept drinking.

The purple rice I loved though, it added tons of texture, and went well with the slight sesame and taro flavors.  Like the pearls though, I wanted more.  It made me interested in actually trying one of the rice drinks that have more recently become popular, e.g. the ones from The Moment.

I wasn't asked about my ice or sweetness levels, I realized later, and I normally would have gone for less sweet, and, since it wound up lukewarm, I certainly would have wanted some ice.

So yes, this was a mixed bag.  It didn't deliver in the taro and sesame flavors as much as I wanted, it was low end milk tea, but, I really did like the add-ins, and loved their cheese topping.  The biggest issue was the temperature of the drink.  Maybe I should try the taro yogurt rice next time?