Hi-Chew

Pudding, preserved plum, candied strawberry Hi-Chew

Black cola, cola, orange soda, grape soda, lemon soda, white soda (like ramune) Hi-chew

Lemon, green apple, strawberry, peach, grape Hi-chew

HI-CHEW is a chewy Japanese candy that usually comes in many fruity flavours that actually taste like the real fruit. It's so refreshing to eat a grape candy that actually tastes like grape. You know what I'm talking about ... fake cherry or banana Laffy Taffys, orange and lemon Starburst? Of course most candy is yummy but Hi Chew takes the cake (or should I say, candy?) on realistic tastes. For example, their Cola flavour tastes exactly like pop/soda/cola! The Pudding one even has chewy bits that simulate the caramelized sugar and Kiwi has little black "seeds." They come in little individually wrapped cubes and sometimes are white with a pastel colour center but the taste is especially impressive for such a modest looking candy. Though, as a warning the ones made in Asia do taste different and better than the ones in America. Thanks to my friend Francis who brought this goldmine all the way back from Taiwan over break. Most of this stash is long gone, absorbed into my food-loving tummy keke. Hurray for Tuesday Treats!

Readers - what's the most interesting flavour candy you've tried?

Year of the Dragon

Photography: me

EYE OF THE TIGER. Happy Lunar New Year Festival 2012! All of the Asian multicultural student groups had a big preview party last Sunday for the sold-out performances tonight and tomorrow. There were sneak peeks of acts, free snacks and games, bumping into old friends, and a re nao firework display outside at the end. I'm very pumped to see this year's show - JJ is choreographing Chinese yoyo and many of my friends are getting their dance on. Thank you event-goers for bearing with me as I shamelessly walked up to you and asked if I could snap pictures of your body parts (erm ... not quite as creepy as that sounded). If you hover over each photo, there's a strange and telling title for each.

Whew editing these photos took a lot longer than I thought they would. Early morning bloggin' sans coffee (7:30 AM what what), after dropping that horrid anatomy lab which single-handed threatened to turn my sociable and fun last semester into a raging nightmare. Imagine Caveman Angie, holed away somewhere mumbling things like "arbor vitae" "trochlear nerve" "posterior commisure" to herself while prodding at some plastic model labeled with miniscule smudged numbers. Given, I do enjoy learning anatomy a lot but this is all too much too soon. Isn't that what med school's for? My other 6 classes should keep me happily busy instead of stressed to the limit. Happy weekending! 

Readers - do you celebrate a cultural New Year?

I Met WongFu!

Photography and gif animation by me, thanks to Kristy Okada for above photo

I MET THREE NICE GUYS. Phil Wang, Ted Fu, Wesley Chan of WongFu Productions came to WashU Saturday night to chat about their journey to YouTube-dom (11/12/11). Last time we met was in Ann Arbor for MAASU three years ago, but our group didn't stand a chance getting into the workshop room. The talk was casual and down-to-earth, and after all this internet fame, none of this went to their heads. In fact, their success came from a long series of ups and downs, always having a backup plan in case things didn't pan out. As a blogger, I can relate to a lot of what they described, and I'm sure many of you can too. 

I knew they attended UCSD, but was surprised to discover these three were visual arts majors. However, their short films are always low-budget, creative ways of utilizing their resources and good "eye." Treat: they showed a few exclusive not-yet-released clips that I thought were clever and fantastic. In the end, they stayed to take photos with about 200 people and sign 200 autographs. With my SLR in tow (always), Phil took notice and asked if I take a lot of photography. I responded that I'm a fashion blogger on the side and a Neuroscience major by day, but I like living out my artsy dreams too. He told me to keep pursuing this and it made me happy to see true evidence of how a whole lot of hard work and luck can make any dream legit.

I am such a fangirl. My heart was pounding when they pointed at me to ask a question. How do they combat negativity from faceless internet users? Their reply? "Haters gonna hate." They said focus on the support from your fans and ignore those ignorant people who write things that don't make sense, are misspelled, and just look at the username. It should be enough to give you an idea of their maturity level and your supporters step up and downvote awful comments even when you don't ask. Other people (including me) thought that WongFu was Phil and Ted's last name, and they just cut Wes out hahaha. The real reason is that in 7th grade, Phil thought "Wong-Fu" was like Kung-Fu.

A certain letter from med school made my day when I got home that night ; ) WOOHOO!

Ted is trying really hard to get signal back to the UFO ship

Readers - who are your Youtube idols?

[CLOSED] JStyleShopper $100 Giveaway

Like Asian fashion but live too far away to shop for those pieces you keep seeing on the internet? Look no further! JStyleShopper sells Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong fashion and is based in the United States. JStyleShopper is sponsoring a $100 store credit to readers of Pandaphilia!

JStyleShopper carries clothes with a theme: ruffles, lace, bows, girly and pretty things. Their pieces are also great for petites, because Asian fashion tends to account for smaller frames. I purchased a couple tee set from them last fall and was happily surprised with the durable and quality material. Remember this photoshoot? Read more on my shopping experience there.

Here are my picks from JStyleShopper. The couple tee set is so funny and cute. The guy tee says in Chinese: I just wash the dishes, but don't eat. The girl tee says: I just eat food, but don't do dishes. I would want the set in white hehe. My boyfriend is the good cook, I'm pretty useless in the kitchen. But doing dishes is my wind-down time, or it used to be. Now living in an apartment involves actually eating food we cook and washing lots and lots of dishes x_x The legwarmers and scarf are things I didn't pick up in Taiwan during night markets but wanted to.

 

Now onto the giveaway! Please read everything carefully and good luck!

RULES:

MANDATORY:
1) Must follow Pandaphilia publicly through Google Friend Connect (click here) - you can use your Gmail, Twitter, AIM account

2) Must visit Jstyleshopper.com and choose your favourite item

3) Must comment on this post with your name, GFC username, and fave item (email is not necessary!)

Optional, for bonus entries: 
(post another comment with your Twitter username, FB name, and blog URL where applicable):

+1 Follow @pandaphilia and tweet this message: "Enter @pandaphilia + @JStyleShopper $100 giveaway! Cute asian fashion! http://bit.ly/nUawJ4" or click: Tweet

+1 Like Pandaphilia Facebook page

+1 Like Jstyleshopper Facebook page

+1 Vote for my contest entry here by clicking Like

+1 Post this picture with link on your blog's sidebar (blogs made only for giveaways will be disqualified) 

<a href="http://www.pandaphilia.com/2011/07/jstyleshopper-100-giveaway.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBgZ-QvyeLdUw3Cn6_6i9pRlWLCKhO5KdJFV3f2AC2UAApLJrrlVgmahzXPXhWmzceQGlP8rnaQKAvAilZs-QmmvIVzd4MwD6jiMdh-XHyqKykCDCYuD9FAREZR1ZcO22RnJFNWkRnzGa7/" style="border: 0pt none;" /></a>

This contest is open to US and international readers. Please ask parental permission if under 16. Giveaway ends on 7/26/2011 at 11:59 PM CST. Winner will be drawn using random.org on 7/28/2011. Winner(s) must email me with their mailing address within 72 hours or a new winner will be selected.

$100 store credit will be provided by JStyleShopper. I am not affiliated with the company. All photos belong to JStyleShopper.com