Everything in moderation

It's Fat Friday today! This often involves a trip to a eaterie nearby to the office. Today, was a trip to Wasabi, the sushi bar in The Printworks. Sushi is probably not considered junk food but they do serve "fried things" such as gyozas and fried pork cutlets which are extremely tasty. Experts often suggest that everything in moderation is perfectly fine. However, this rule often doesn't apply to me and the 11 plates I consumed is moderately more than is recommended, especially for a lunch.

How can one refuse tasty gyoza dumplings and fried pork cutlet? There is a very reasonable set meal available at Wasabi that consists a choice of one main dish and three plates of sushi. However, the lunchtime offer of £1 a plate is too good to ignore and I often find myself opting for this over the set meal.

It was a very respectable effort from me today but my eleven plates still falls a little short of my thirteen plates consumed one lunchtime. On that note it's time to go to a meeting and possibly spend the rest of the afternoon struggling to remain awake! Fat Fridays....embrace them!

Buffet Slayer

There's nothing more challenging to a junk food connoisseur than an all you can eat buffet. So when the opportunity presents itself everything and all ties are abandoned. This even resulted in me ditching a colleague on a pre-arranged lunch for a more appealing offer. It was also a simple case of "bros over hoes" but I do admit that I am very much a lunch whore too.

Today a group of us went along to the Red Hot World Buffet in the centre of Manchester. This is a buffet chain that recently added a new branch on Deansgate and more importantly within walking distance from my office. The website claims to have more than 300 dishes and that it's a food lover's fantasy, the latter I certainly don't disagree with.

They serve all types of food including Oriental, Italian and Indian hence the World in it's title. Unfortunately, I didn't encounter anything that was red hot but I do have a rather high threshold for spicy food compared to the Average Joe. More about the food though, after all that's why what I was there for. The starters seemed to be fresh unlike other buffet places where they quite clearly use frozen produce. The mains are quite hit and miss with curry dishes being very watery. The desserts option though, is quite immense with a selection of around 30 different options.

Overall, it is precisely what I expected from a buffet place offering foods from around the world. Kids and dessert lovers will certainly enjoy the place but for those that aren't you'll still be slaying away. Just don't visit on a lunch hour when you need to return to work in the afternoon, especially when you have an uphill walk. Alternatively don't have four plates of food but it would be rude not to!

You Scream, I Scream!

Great news, the Oreo McFlurry is back. I don't particularly like McDonalds but you have to (well I do) make an exception for the McFlurry. Ice cream is up there as one my favourite foods and I'm often reminiscing the gelato I had in Italy several years ago.

There is some significance in the title of this post. I was watching a pirate copy of Insidious earlier this week with my brother and cousins. My brother kindly picked up a delightful Oreo McFlurry on his way over to mine for me. Insidious is a surprisingly good horror film and certainly one of the better ones that have been released lately. There are considerably more frights than say Paranormal Activity and it's certainly not as static when it comes to the flow of the film. I'd certainly recommend it if you enjoy your horror films but unfortunately my experience was ruined by my chicken of a brother constantly screaming his head off in fear.

Unfortunately the timing of the Oreo McFlurry return coincides with my holiday as I'm heading to Asia on Monday. Keep an eye out for posts of fascinating snacks and food I may encounter on my travels.

Yum Yums

Lunch is one of the things I often think about as soon as I get into work on a morning. It's the one thing I look forward to if I know I'm going to venture out at lunchtime that day. Working in the centre of town I'm quite spoilt for choice but even then there are times I struggle to find something appealing.

The title of this post isn't referring to the dough based product, as much as I do enjoy them. It actually refers to a restaurant in Manchester city centre. Yesterday lunch time I took the plunge and went along to Yum Yums which is a Chinese buffet. For £3.80 you are given a takeaway box to fill with whatever is available. The rules are of course, that you can shut the lid at the end. Cramming as much as you can into the box is a bit of an art form and requires some tactical awareness. For example, a spare rib consists of very little meat for the amount of space it consumes. Ideally, you'd scrape the meat off and leave the bone although there are those enjoy sucking them dry like a dog. My box was packed with spring rolls, rice, noodles, chicken curry and beef with green pepper in black bean sauce. Considering I'm such a greedy connoisseur, I had no trouble closing the lid, something I later regretted as I demolished the contents within a few minutes whilst my colleague was only half way through his.

The food itself was what you would expect from a buffet. The food was quite high in salt content and tasted exactly as it does from any other Chinese buffet. As it was lunchtime a lot of the items appeared quite freshly cooked though. My verdict is that it's far from spectacular but is an extra option for lunchtimes at work despite the salt content.

Monday Muffin Munching

It's Sunday evening and no one likes the thought of going to work the next day. Thankfully the pain will be eased a little knowing that there will be free muffins to go around at work tomorrow. With flavours from Sicilian Lemon to Triple Chocolate I'll have a tough time deciding what to go for. The truth is I'd be delighted if I could have one of each. In true junk food fashion it does makes perfect sense to go for a triple chocolate though.

We've already had a "Fruity Friday" at work but fellow junk food connoisseurs will probably agree that the mention of the word "fruit" alone in this blog is pure blasphemy. However, it's not so bad if combined with the word tart or cake so always bear that in mind. Other suggestions that have been going around the office have been Meaty Monday, Chewy (Chiuy) Tuesday and my favourite, Fry-Up Friday. Alright, I'll be honest, these have been the ideas going around my head.

For my colleagues that are reading this, don't forget to grab your muffin before Snack Hitler gets there first!

Sweaty Juice!

Continuing with the oriental theme from my previous post I thought I'd mention one particular drink I'm fond of from the Far East. It doesn't have the most appealing name given to it. After all it is a Japanese based drink and they're renowned for their grasp of the Engrish language. The beverage in question is called Pocari Sweat and contrary to the name it does not contain human sweat or sweat of any living organism, not that this would be any more acceptable. I'm pretty certain that Lucozade or Powerade wouldn't be so popular had they been appended with the word sweat to their products.

Pocari Sweat itself is actually a sports drink and the name is derived from the notion of supplying the drinker with the nutrients and electrolytes lost from sweating. Despite it's unappealing name it's quite a pleasant drink with a distinct taste. On visits to Hong Kong, I often purchase this is powder form that I can add water to which I drink before and after exercise.

Pocari Sweat has been around for three decades now and they don't appear to have branched out into other flavours or products. I'm sure a Pocari Urine and Pocari Faeces would add some dimension to the range.

Tastes of the Orient

As a person of Chinese origin it's only right that I mention a snack from my country of origin. Last weekend I was in the Chinatown area and popped into one of the many Chinese supermarkets. With time to kill whilst waiting for a friend I browsed the aisles and reminisced with sweets and snacks I happily indulged in as a child. We're quite fortunate that in Manchester the Chinatown isn't just a handful of shops on one street and there are multiple restaurants and bakeries offering some delightful delicacies.

One of the items that I purchased this weekend is a sweet snack called Sachima from the supermarket. The Wikipedia definition states that Sachima is "a common Chinese pastry found in many Chinese-speaking regions". It wasn't until they were handed out to my colleagues that I realised I wasn't aware of the English name given to a snack that I've eaten from young age. It maybe of interest to some of you to know that using Google Translate, one of the many the Chinese names given to them (馬仔) actually translates to "Cowboys".

If you're interested in sampling some Sachima, just head down to your local Chinese supermarket where they are available in egg and sesame seed flavour. So put down that Mars bar and try something different.