Reader Provided: Snacks from the Philippines & A Monday Question: Ever Stolen From a Hotel?
Junk Food Nation, it’s Presidents Day. Which, to me, means sleep all day day (h/t iJustine). Which means that I’ve been awake since 10:00 am, because I have a day off from work. Yep, I work for the government. Cough.
My next vacation is a trip to Vegas for my buddy’s bachelor party. I spend me days dreaming about the blackjack tables; it’s a problem. As I was researching our accommodations, I got to thinking: have you ever stolen from a hotel? I’ve run the gamut of stealing in my day: a pen here, a note pad there…all the way to fleecing the place down, snagging a nicely monogrammed robe before. I remember one occasion when I was particularly broke while living in New York City, I took all the toilet paper and tissues from a hotel I stayed at. Not proud of it, but let me tell ya – that was seven to eight dollars I saved right there.
I’ve had friends that have taken room service plates, towels, and more. So I wanna hear from YOU, Junk Food Nation – have YOU ever stolen from a hotel? And what’s your extent of pilfering? Shampoo? Lotion? The hair dryers and coffee machines in the room? Tell me in the comments below.
Today’s junk food comes from my former trial partner Brittany, who recently took a trip to Hong Kong and the Philippines. Presenting: snacks from the Philippines! There’s lots of pictures, so I’m gonna go quick:
The Money Shot
Brit gave me three little treats from the Philippines that I am super excited to try. Voice, Cloud 9, and Sky Flakes. Now that is a menagerie of weird junk food names.
VOICE!
Naming a cracker sandwich VOICE makes little sense to me, but I’m not what’s more off-putting – the name or the extremely pink package. Incidentally the first two snacks were made by Monde, website here – making snacks in the Philippines since 1935.
Super layers
VOICE is a cracker AND wafer sandwich cookie thingy? So cracker-creme-wafer-cream-wafer-cream-cracker? Making my head spin here, Monde.
MMMM artificial strawberry flavor
I can appreciate a snack that has vegetable fat as ingredient #2. Wait, no…
Brick o' crackers
This looks like club crackers with strawberry filling – yikes.
Well, there are the layers.
How very pink
I crunched on VOICE and it basically tasted as expected. The strawberry taste was the most artificial strawberry taste you can imagine – no tart sting of actual strawberry flavor. Reminded me of the frosting in the Yan Yan. And there was no noticeable texture difference between the outer cracker and and the inside wafers – taste a lot like American wafer crackers.
I feel like a captain! Of...something.
These Sky Flakes look a LITTLE more promising. Sort of. Having a name like SKY FLAKES and a logo that looks that that makes me feel like WWII bomber pilots ate these before taking to the sky and shooting Snoopy riding around on his doghouse.
TSOKOLATE!
TSOKOLATE, huh? Lol. Apparently these were named by Simpsons character Üter Zörker.
At least there's cocoa powder
Again with the vegetable shortening as ingredient #2! Gross.
A little crushed
These looked….eerily familiar. Where have I seen something like this before…hmmmm…..
Cracker-chocolate-cracker-chocolate-cracker
Crumbly
No wafer layers this time, just cocoa and cracker. Here, however, the crackers REALLY DID taste like typical American club crackers. Add cocoa frosting in between the crackers, and it’s not hard to imagine what these tasted like. Not very imaginative, but conceptually more pleasant than the VOICE. Still, it was all a bit dry.
Cloud 9 CLASSIC, folks.
The only candy bar of the group, I had high hopes. And this was Cloud 9 CLASSIC, everyone. This candy is a classic. By the way, this Jack n Jill isn’t the ice cream company we all are familiar with – it’s an Indonesian candy company.
What??
Not sure what this cross section is supposed to show…
Oh, ok
Oh THIS is what’s inside. So all that white stuff was the soft nougat? Got it.
Lots of artificial shit in here...
For a chocolate bar, this sure has a lot of weird ingredients inside. And what’s with the “And/or fish oil”??? Fish oil should not even be a consideration here, wouldn’t you agree?
Standard crushed chocolate look
Chewy
The taste? Not horrible actually, and definitely the best snack of the three. Honestly with chocolate, nougat, caramel and peanuts, it tasted like a low rent Snickers bar. Maybe a LITTLE chewier, like a Charleston Chew, since the peanut and caramel ratio were less than in a Snickers. Still decent cocoa taste, decent caramel taste, peanut crunch, and nougat flavor. I’d give these a six out of ten.
What have we learned? That snacks from the Philippines have a long way to go.
Remarks on these Filipino snacks or stories about ganking stuff from hotels? Hit me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.
Sincerely, Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 11 Comments
I take the little things. Some of my booty in the past has included: towels, shampoos, lotions, coffee/tea products, pens/pencils, paper, laundry bags and that’s about it. Basically, if I can fit it in my bag and not be a total criminal by taking it, I’m going to do it. Guess that says a lot about me. LOL.
@IE: I think I took a towel from the gym once. And laundry bags are a must – how else do I get my dirty clothes home? Riddle me that, hotels!
I have a full dinner set from a nice 5-star Resort (dinner plate, salad plate, butter plate, butter knife, several forks, knives, spoons, teacup, saucer). I believe I also have two bathrobes. Nowadays, I take the complementary bottles of shampoo and maybe a pad of paper.
I used to grab hangers until hotels wised up and started using the really skinny hanger rod and correspondingly dinky hanger hooks that can’t be used in regular homes.
A quick google search unleashed a torrent of hotel theft stories, including one company that has developed flexible and washable RFID tags that set off theft alarms in the lobby. My favorite story – packing a ratty blanket in your suitcase and then swapping it out for what’s inside the hotel’s duvet cover during the night.
@Shorneys: It’s not a hobby; you’re just a thief. LOL
Mmm, now I’m thinking about Charleston Chews…
As for hotel room stealing, I always take the box of tissues and in fact get upset when I forget to take it. 🙂
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my best friend in high school was filipino – how come we never ate these foods (just pigs blood stew?!?)
@Lynn – lol… hey what’s wrong with pigs blood stew!? Answer: nothing.
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Love your blog, I’m learning something for life. Such as the name of that Simpsons exchange student. Wanna know a few little fun facts?
1) I’m from Germany, and in *our* Simpsons shows, he’s from Austria, Schwarzenegger accent and all. I feel so betrayed now! :p
2) Üter Zörker is totally a random sequence of letters, not even close to any names around here.
3) I’ll definitely appreciate Üter Zörker in future episodes even more now.
Cloud 9 is delicious and sorta similar to snickers. u should try other junk foods in the Philippines…… the ones u just had is nothing. what is wrong with vegetable shortening? i mostly get my filipino junk foods when i get to visit my parents un virginia and bring a bunch for ne to enjoy. they have a filipino store there where they have all the junk food list that i like. Sky flakes is a very popular crackers in the philippines and expensive in some oriental stores. The ones with the flavor cracker that I recommend is the name brand Sunflower because they have varities like mango, orange, lemon, strawberry and so much more. Sky flakes is only popular with their original flavor cracker. Jack n Jill is a very popular junk foodbrand in the Philippines with a lot of variety junk food selection to choose from like chips and chocolates. I hope youll try some other Philippine junk foods and maybe u might find something u like. 🙂