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Korean Hardtack : Black-Bean Flavor

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

I’ve always translated gon-bbang 건빵 as hardtack and I’ve always thought of it only in terms of being made from plain barley, but this product set me straight.
Korean Hardtack: Black-Bean Flavor
The product name is Gomun Kong GonBbang, which the English sticker label translates as Black Bean Cookie. No matter that it was the squarish shape of regular hardtack. I guess by now I should know that when a Korean manufacturer says “Cookie” it means, hmmm, any Western-style baked product? Gwaja in general?

Ingredients: wheat flour, sugar, palm oil, corn starch, black-bean powder, salt, black sesame. The actual black-bean content is 0.5%.

Nutrition Facts: Serving size 33 grams. 3 servings per 3.5-ounce bag. Each serving contains 136 calories, 18 from fat. Total Fat 2 grams. Saturated Fat 1 gram. No Trans Fat. No cholesterol. Sodium 74 milligrams. Total Carbohydrates 25 grams. No fiber. Sugars 5 grams. Protein 4 grams.

Suggested retail price is 1200 won in South Korea. I don’t remember what I paid for it but it must have been under a dollar.

UPC bar code number 8 804782 005497. The manufacturer is Cheju Nongyeon, and the importer is Purunchon of 3435 Wilshire Blvd., #122, Los Angeles, CA 90010.

Tasted like plain hardtack… You eat it to satiate the munchies.

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Crown Bakey Premium Cheese Cake

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Enjoyed snacking on this “premium cheese cake” from South Korea’s Crown company. Those two layers that sandwich the white filling are not crunchy! Didn’t remind me of a cheesecake to be honest, but it was a sweet, yummy treat to eat.

Crown Bakey Premium Cheese Cake

There are six individually packed fingerling sandwiches in the box. Has a lot of Korean copy on it, but the requisite English sticker label identifies the product as BAKEY. The first syllable is a long a, as in 베이키 (beh-yi-ke). Original New York Style ~

Ingredients: wheat flour, egg, vegetable oil, sugar, corn, syrup, cheese powder. I think they meant “corn syrup” without a comma after the corn. According to the box, the white cheese filling in the middle is cheddar.  Sure, whatever…

A recommended serving size is 2 packs (40 grams). Label says there are two servings in the box (three, based on my math).

Nutrition Facts: 100 calories per serving, 50 are fat calories. Total Fat 6 grams, 2 grams are saturated, and 2.48 GRAMS TRANS FAT. No cholesterol. Sodium 37 milligrams. Total Carbohydrates 9 grams. No fiber. Sugar 3 grams. Protein 1 gram. No vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium or iron.

Hah! Now that I’ve typed out the nutrition facts, there is no way I’m buying this again, even if it’s delicious and on sale. Trans fat is so not good.

Distributer [sic]: Nishimoto Trading Company, Ltd. Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 USA. Product of Korea. Net Weight 4.02 ounces (114 grams).  UPC bar code number 8 801111 182911.

Have to admit that the packaging is pretty cool. The stated retail price on the box is 2,000 Korean won. I was able to buy it on sale for just 99 cents at Gaju Market because the expiration date is October 26, 2009.  Sold out immediately.

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Lotte Choco Pie – Premium Quality

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Finally! Got around to this. I had previously posted about Lotte’s “Premium Ghana” choco pie, but have neglected this, their standard choco pie, which by the way is sub-labeled Premium Quality.

Lotte Choco Pie - Box and Wrapper

“Fill your mouth with a pleasure of rich chocolate flavor everyday.”

It seems Lotte is second only to Orion in terms of the leading brand of choco-pie. I can barely tell the difference. I think Orion’s original invention is squishier. Non-Koreans will say that the less squish the better, but there’s so much nostalgia that Koreans associate with the squishiness.

There are six individually packed moon pies in one box, each pie weighing 28 grams (5.92 ounces). Ingredients: wheat flour, sugar, corn syrup, vegetable fat, shortening, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, cocoa powder, lactose, sodium bicarbonate (E500), lecithin, vanillin, vanilla flavor, vegetable oil (palm), sorbitol (E420).

Nutrition Facts: Serving Size: one 28-gram package. Calories 125, 50 from fat. Total fat: 6 grams, 4g saturated. No trans fat. No cholesterol. Sodium 62 milligrams. Total Carbohydrate 18 g — dietary fiber 0.3g, sugars 10g. Protein 1 g. No Vitamin A or C. Calcium 1%. Iron 1%.

Allergy Information: contains milk, wheat, soybean

Manufactured by Lotte Confectionery Co., Ltd. 23, 4KA, Yangpyung-dong, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul, Korea. UPC Bar Code Number 8 801062 161881

Keep cool under 22 degrees centigrade and dry moisture 55% in storage and transportation.

The box is chock-full of information in different languages — Vietnamese, Russian Cyrillic, Traditional Chinese for the Taiwanese market, Arabic…

Pictures of other products in the Lotte Family: Chocolate Funzels, Kancho, Custard, Dream Cakes (none of which I have tried…)

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Lotte Harvest Crackers (black sesame)

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Actually the English label on a sticker on the back of the box says Black Sesami (misspelling). No matter. I enjoyed eating these crackers a lot.

Lotte Harvest Snacks
Jean-François Millet (밀레) is given credit for the painting — The Angelus (만종), 1857–59, currently in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. I guess the art is in the public domain? Anyway, the packaging design is very good.

Lotte Harvest Crackers - Individual Wrapper There are two individual packs / servings in a box. The crackers are sweet and crisp, and dotted with a few black sesame seeds.

Serving Size: 18 crackers (46 grams). Honestly, I didn’t count but they didn’t seem to be that many.

Nutrition Facts: Per Serving: 225 calories, 112 from fat. Total Fat 10 grams — saturated fat 5g, no trans fat. No cholesterol. Sodium 168 milligrams. Total Carbohydrates 30 grams — dietary fiber 1 gram, sugars 10 g. Protein 4 g. No Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium or iron.

Ingredients: Whear [sic] flour, sugar, vegetable oil, HYDROGENATED vegetable oil (soy), coconut flour, sweetened condensed milk, roatsed [sic] black sesami [sic], ammonium bicarbonate, condensed milk cream, pregelatined cereal powder, roasted sesami [sic], salt, butter, egg whole, roasted black soybean powder, sodium bicarbonate, almond powder, black sesami [sic] paste, soy lecithin, milk flavor, enzyme, cinnamon powder, coconut flavor, sodium bisulfite.

That has to be the most poorly written English label I’ve seen on a South Korean product. But that’s not as important as taste, and these crackers tasted good.

Allergy Information: contains wheat, milk, egg, soybean, almond, coconut.

Manufactured by LOTTE Confectionery Co., Ltd. Seoul, Korea. UPC Bar Code 8 801062 248230.

The hangul says that the box is recyclable paper and that the retail price is 1,000 Korean won. I think I was able to get this on sale for just 99 cents at Gaju Market.

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Haitai Oh Yes Choco Cake from Korea

Friday, September 18th, 2009

I love Oh Yes! Fond memories from Korea. The box says “Brand New” and there does seem to be an updating of the design but the taste and texture are as I remember them.

Haitai Oh Yes Choco Cake Box

One box contains a dozen individually wrapped square cakes. Each square cake is a sandwich of chocolatey filling between two slices of sponge cake, and the whole thing is enrobed in chocolate and then decorated with a drizzle of even darker chocolate. I’ll take this over chocopie any day!

“Presents for your delicious taste. Enjoy your happy times. World Best Quality.” Not very healthful, needless to say.

Ingredients: white sugar, wheat flour, egg, HYRDOGENATED VEGETABLE OIL, cocoa preparation, shortening, glucose, corn syrup, fructose, margarine. cocoa powder.

Allergy information: contains soybeans, wheat, milk.

Nutrition Facts: 1 piece (28 grams) is 140 calories, 72 from fat. Total Fat 8 grams, 4.6 g saturated, 0.16 g trans fat. Total Carbohydrate 15 grams, 2.8 g dietary fiber, 9 g sugars. Protein 2 grams. Cholesterol 12 milligrams. Sodium 80 milligrams. No vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium or iron.

Lethal. Imagine what it would do to your heart’s blood vessels if you ate a whole box of 12 in one sitting. No one would do such a thing!

UPC Code 0 20914 80621 5. Product of Korea. Batch Number 0481. Imported and Distributed by USA Haitai Inc. 7227 Telegraph Road, Montebello, California 90640.

Label also has a lot of information in other languages — Russian Cyrillic, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese… Box also says it’s imported into the Philippines and Canada. The only Hangul I spotted was 오예스 (Oh Yes).

Aside from the desire to taste once again the yumminess of these snacks, what convinced me to buy it despite my knowing that it’s the least nutritious thing you could possibly eat was the fact that it was on sale at Gaju Market for just $1.99 — that’s quite a steal.

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Gwaja from South Korea: Lotte Leaf Pie

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

자연을 닮은 립파이. The Korean says it’s filled with nature. Get it? Not only is it shaped like a leaf…

Lotte Leaf Pie from South Korea

I enjoyed eating this… Leaf Pie from the Lotte company of South Korea. The label also calls it a premium pastry pie. But mass-produced of course.

There are about 6 or 8 individually foil-wrapped leaf-shaped pastries in the box, which says it sells for 2,000 Korean won in South Korea. I was able to buy it at Gaju Market on sale for 99 American cents. Probably because the expiration date is October 2009.

Ingredients: wheat flour, margarine, sugar, wheat-gluten powder, butter, skimmed milk powder, maple sugar syrup, refined salt, mixed seasoning food, artificial flavor (butter), acidity controller, vitamin E, shortening, cinnamon powder, beata-carotene

Allergy information: contains wheat, soy bean, milk powder

Nutrition Facts: Serving Size: 3 pieces (29 grams). 2.5 servings per container. Each serving contains 145 calories, 80 from fat. Total fat 7 grams, 4g fromsaturated. No trans fat. Less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol. Sodium 65mg. Total Carbohydrate 19 grams, 1g dietary fiber, 6g sugars. Protein 2 grams. Percent Daily Values: No vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium or iron.

Manufactured by Lotte Confectionery Co., Ltd. Seoul, Korea. Tel: USA 213-688-8806. Korea 2-2635-8722. UPC 8 801062 248896.

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