Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncakes

At last...

My Sanrio mooncakes have arrived from Singapore!  >.<

As you know, I have been on the hunt for many kawaii art food creations and I have succeeded in the mooncake department. This purchase officially marks my first ever Sanrio mooncakes to show off and be devoured by this Collector (and family - hey, there's just way too many mooncakes in the gift box sets!!).

These character gift boxes comes with four identical mooncakes, but each would have a different flavor inside. 

Not only does the gift box set come with a matching gift bag, the box has a unique kawaii festival themed design that is surprisingly quite detailed for it's kind. 

On parts of the box, the design is intricately embedded in tune with the themed artwork. On closer inspection, the box's artwork isn't overall flat. These boxes are made of a heavyweight cardboard material with metal handles and two compartments inside.

It has a feeling of a well thought out special gift to a Sanrio fan.  

Flavor: 1 Yolk White Lotus

When I decided to get mooncakes for this year, I had 4 Sanrio character selections to choose from: Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, My Melody, and Gudetama. Of course, I went with Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars. Sorry, My Melody! Until next time.

As of now, I have eaten and shared two of the Hello Kitty mooncakes. Two down and two more to go. They taste really good and I haven't come across one flavor that I disliked. Thankfully, there were no durian flavors as I do not like them at all. 

Flavors: 1 Yolk White Lotus, 2 Yolk White Lotus, Pandan Lotus, and White Lotus

 Flavor: Pandan Lotus 

OFFICIAL: This is my FIRST ever Little Twin Stars art food to be able to purchase and eat!

Next on my list are Pochacco, Keroppi, Tuxedo Sam, and Pippo. One day, I hope to cross them off my bucket list of Sanrio goals.

It is a rare feat for me to be able to accomplish because you rarely see any Little Twin Stars art food creations out there in the market place. Sure, they're all over on Instagram by personal bakers that isn't really open to the public. Or if any, it's unattainable for this Collector to get my grubby hands on them.

Flavors: 1 Yolk White Lotus, 2 Yolk White Lotus, Pandan Lotus, and White Lotus

As I look to the future, I hope to be able to score many more Sanrio character art food creations to add to my journey of experiences. I hope you will continue to follow and share my delight in everything Sanrio.

May all Sanrio Collectors rejoice for this Sanrio era. Arigato!

Gimmicks: Theme Restaurants

The Good, the Bad...

When I go to restaurants or even into cafes, I expect to get my money's worth. I expect to fill my stomach with good food. With my favorite restaurants, I always end up leaving satisfied. Mostly because of the talented chefs behind the counter, who actually care about their craft and the reputation that comes with it.

It's what you'd normally expect for the many average restaurants out there in the world. I never try a new restaurant or cafe without looking up their customer feedbacks. A good restaurant rating usually gives people the confidence to try something new. I look up the feedbacks because I don't want to waste my time eating at a bad restaurant who doesn't really care about you, but only your money. With bad food, there's a more likely chance that the service might be bad as well.

When a restaurant or cafe has no diners, the place usually ends up closing down. The exception to this rule is if the place is a theme restaurant, but it seems that theme cafes are getting away with it because they have one thing that the average cafe restaurant doesn't have... a gimmick.

 Pic Provided by IG

Paying a Gawker Fee

Before I got into collecting Sanrio, I have never heard of theme cafe restaurants because there was none from where I live in Los Angeles. The idea of a cafe restaurant based around a character like Hello Kitty or Barbie was very different from the norm. By using a pop culture icon, these cafe restaurants are able to draw in tourists to their place of business. Many curious diners are more interested in the themed decor than if the food is good or not. These theme cafe restaurants hope to use the popular character obsession to feed their pockets rather than caring about their craft and reputation in the food industry. 

 Pic Provided by IG

By going to these theme cafe restaurants, you're basically paying an entrance fee to see the decor and use their very cute themed dinnerware. When one steps into a theme restaurant, one would think that the food art creations would be as impressive as the matching decor. If you've never been to a theme cafe, think again. If theme restaurant owners are in the food business for genuine reasons, then they would have invested in creating food art to impress the fans. 

Seeing that the food isn't their top priority, when will die hard fans ever get a theme restaurant where the gourmet pastry chefs truly cared about your taste buds and the art of creating masterpieces?

For now, you can only rely on individual bakers for great looking food character creations.