Sriracha chili sauce

One of the foodstuffs more readily available in the United States, was sriracha chili sauce. Pretty much any supermarket I went to had the standard rooster brand. To get it in New Zealand, I need to visit an asian supermarket.

The asian supermarket down the road and round the corner from my flat sells two brands, Mr Number One and Shark Brand.

Mr Number One

Interestingly, this has "Tương Ớt Sriracha" on the bottle. The wikipedia page I linked to above says that this is the rooster brand. Not sure why they would use a different label in New Zealand, as the rooster one has such a good reputation.

Shark Brand

20% sugar?! WTF? I might have to stop putting sriracha on my food. Mr Number One has 1g of sugar in a 5g serving, which is the same amount. Still, it could be worse - it could contain high fructose corn syrup.

I'd prefer to photograph the bottles standing up on the kitchen bench, but I'm afraid I'd catch a herd of cockroaches swarming across the wall in the background. If not them, then unsightly stains of unknown foods from the past.

Seasoned Anchovy with Sesame Seed

I caved and tried the Thai seasoned anchovy snacks today. It's strange that such a large amount of anchovy can be so cheap, given how expensive anchovies are in the tin.

At first they taste like harðfiskur, the traditional Icelandic dried fish. Except rather than a large hard lump which you have to tear mouthfuls from, each is a nice bite size. The next flavour that comes through is the sweet sesame coating. In fact, after the first mouthful that is the only flavour that comes through and tends to become overpowering. It makes me wish they sold an unseasoned variety.

I used to love potato chips, but these days they don't taste like food anymore. Instead they just feel like processed gunk in my mouth. Despite the cloying flavour, seasoned anchovies are a nice alternative. I'll definitely have to try the other flavour, which I think was chilli seasoning.

Using Steam in New Zealand

When I buy a game online, I expect to be able to download it as fast as my connection will allow. In New Zealand, living close to some sort of cabinet where proximity is supposed to mean faster connections, this means a standard download speed of ~500k/s.

Steam unfortunately has a standard download speed of ~50k/s.


However, it is a much cheaper way to buy games. I saved $23NZ buying it through Steam instead of through a local store.