Thanks, Pocky.

November 16, 2007 5:20 PM

Okay. I just finished this box of Pocky and there was this little prize in the box. I ate it. What the hell was it?

It looked like a little firecracker, and it had some writing on it. As far as I could tell, it was Chinese-- there was no kana on it at all. When we got the little plastic thing open, there was something that looked like a Tootsie Roll (kana on the wrapper ended in "suru"), so we ate it. It was disgusting-- grainy, salty, and flowery-- and we all had to brush our teeth. Was it incense? Candy? A bouillon cube?

posted by simonemarie to food & drink (21 comments total)

silica gel? (Could the writing have said "do not eat" in Chinese?)
posted by mccxxiii at 5:52 PM on November 16, 2007

Oh No! Deadly Poison Treat!

or possibly dessicant.
posted by Aquaman at 5:56 PM on November 16, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I thought this page might explain it, but it just baffled me with its upbeat music and strange, cheerful graphics. Oh well. Maybe these people can help.
posted by TochterAusElysium at 5:58 PM on November 16, 2007

Do you have access to a place that sells the stuff? It'd be easy enough to buy another one, pull the "prize" out, and examine it more closely.

And then eat it.
posted by DMan at 6:19 PM on November 16, 2007

You know, I've no idea what you're talking about. And I've eaten many many many boxes of Pockys in my lifetime as I'm Japanese and I grew up on that stuff. There are no silica gel packets in Japanese Pocky. Don't know about the export kind. It might help if you could upload a pic of the wrapper.
posted by misozaki at 6:20 PM on November 16, 2007

My understanding is that most of the prizes now are either stickers or temporary tattoos, so I am mystified.
posted by misha at 6:26 PM on November 16, 2007

Why would you be eating something that you don't know is food?

What
posted by blacklite at 6:39 PM on November 16, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

Was it Pocky or a Pocky-like candy?
posted by TwelveTwo at 7:06 PM on November 16, 2007

Are you sure it was Pocky brand and not something similar like Pepero? I'm eating Pocky right now and nothing weird was in our box.
posted by cmgonzalez at 7:11 PM on November 16, 2007

I think you ate a caramel. If you read here, you'll come across this comment, about Glico, the company that makes Pocky:

"Glico is the company name. They make Pocky, as well as other kinds of candy and food products. I enjoyed those caramels, especially the edible wrappers. "

I learned over here "The original Glico caramels were first marketed in 1922. They quickly gained fame as a "nutritious" snack thanks to the catchphrase "the 300-meter candy," which referred to the claim that each piece of candy contained the calories needed to run 300 meters."

Caramel is basically burnt sugar and salt. Japanese caramels are incredibly popular all over the place, and the variety of flavors is astounding, from straight caramel to coffee to even some that have floral notes. They also tend to be more grainy and less sticky sweet like what we eat here.
posted by SassHat at 7:42 PM on November 16, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

more information: i dug out the wrapper that was on the inside of the plastic firecracker. it says MOTIAN on it, and a thorough googling gets me nowhere.
do i have some sort of sick pica?
posted by simonemarie at 7:57 PM on November 16, 2007

oh and sasshat, impressive answer. thanks.
posted by simonemarie at 8:16 PM on November 16, 2007

MOTIAN + food in google returns this: Guangdong Ferris Food Company. I have no idea whether your firecracker item is here, but it does sound like a food company, so my vote is against pica.
posted by exlotuseater at 9:29 PM on November 16, 2007

what color was it? the tootsie roll thing reminds me of a rabbit sweet / milk candy, but i don't think you'd find a rabbit sweet in a Pocky box...
posted by aielen at 9:36 PM on November 16, 2007

Now I'm obsessed. Is this what you ate? Looks like they give a piece of Glico caramel as a promotion in boxes of Caramel Pocky.
posted by SassHat at 9:56 PM on November 16, 2007

This is what the original box of Glico caramels looked like.
posted by SassHat at 9:58 PM on November 16, 2007

They sell them this way now.
posted by SassHat at 9:59 PM on November 16, 2007

Oh my god, talk about reawakening a totally forgotten childhood memory! We'd buy Glico caramels from the manapua man (Hawaii's version of the Ice Cream Man) every day after school as he drove his van through our neighborhood (in addition to Haw Flakes, Fusen Gum and strawberry Nehi). I remember them tasting so incredibly awesome. But being that this is literally the first time I've thought about them in 26 years, they may in fact be as disgusting as you claim they are.
posted by melorama at 11:56 PM on November 16, 2007

sorry, sasshat. that's not the caramel i'm looking for. if i had a scanner, i'd upload the original wrapper...
looks like it wasn't poison, though. day later and i'm still walking!
posted by simonemarie at 10:41 AM on November 17, 2007

dear exlotuseater: you found it-- it's the tootsie roll things that are in the pitcher at the top right of this page. that's what i ate.
stay away from them. they're gross.
posted by simonemarie at 10:49 AM on November 17, 2007

Then what you ate wasn't made by Glico, because that's a Chinese company in that link. But that's so weird, because you said there was kana on the wrapper. Oh, well, you seem to be alive and well, so I guess it doesn't matter now.
posted by misozaki at 3:17 PM on November 17, 2007