Oishi - 4 Reviews

If you kill enough people while being a member of the Yakuza, you get your profile on a can of sparkling tea. The numbers are not advertised but I've heard rumors that number is somewhere between twenty and thirty heads. It's a perk of the job. If you don't get caught in the act, you can't get in trouble for stuff. That's how it works in the Yakuza. It's an organized syndicate that for as much bad stuff as they do, probably does some good stuff. They might save kittens from trees and they might save people from burning buildings. If you are on the right side of them, they can be pretty good dudes.

You don't get to pick which flavor can you are on. You just get it. The latest star was put on a can of sparkling black tea with lemon. He threatened the person who nominated him with his life because the tea is so awkward. It's a sparkling black tea and that's fine but the lemon is almost like a candy lemon and something in there is a little bit botanical. Honestly, the whole drink was just kind of strange. Not bad but strange.

Like I said, the Yakuza can be alright. Hold the door for them when you see them at the supermarket. Don't talk at movie theater when they are there. Don't make a scene at a restaurant when they are eating close to you. You'll be fine. You like them but you don't want to make them one step closer to getting on a can using your head as a number.

On our tour de food, we have gone all around the world without leaving Western New York. We have been trying to not go to the same place (country) trice, especially twice in a row but we did last week. That exotic location? A Vietnamese restaurant in a Puerto Rican part of town. Jay and I fell in love with their bahn mi and we decided to give it a go two weeks in a row. I got the pho this time around and had “order regret” instantly. I like pho and I am no connoisseur, but this was bland. I added quite a bit of hoisen and Sriracha to give it something. In between disappointing bites of a seemingly endless dish, I washed it down with this fantastic treat.

I love honey. My aunt has a beehive in the country and it brought in around one hundred gallons of fresh honey. I use it on sandwiches all the time. Ham, too. Yeah, I know I'm Jewish, but I don't care about it. Ham is wonderful. This drink was chocked full of honey and lemon. Jay hates lemon tea and liked this. That speaks volumes. I have been milking this bottle for three days because it's very good. Sure that place is a mile or two away and I can go whenever I want to and get another but I've got this one and am going to get some length out of it. It's so honey-filled that I'm surprised that it's not thicker, like if you somehow liquefied honey lemon candy and drank that.

I will go back to that Vietnamese restaurant again and again as I have to try their vermicelli and will repeatedly eat their bahn mi. That pho, well that might as well just leave the menu. It's not your strong suit, friends.

I would have to not be human to pass up this drink. When I was in a seafood/Vietnamese restaurant yesterday getting my bahn mi fix I saw this in a cooler and it was a no brainer. I didn't even know what type of beverage it was. All I knew is that it had a picture of an anime dude wielding a bat like a sword with a chain wallet on. It's absolutely ridiculous looking. It wasn't until I was waiting at the register that I discovered it was a sparkling green tea; an awesome can just became an awesome drink. The moment I fell in love didn't occur until I was back at my table and I took a sip to discover that it was actually a sparkling jasmine green tea. The stars aligned and new worlds were open to me. It's a drink I've never had before, had never even thought of existing before, but now that I've had it I feel stupid for not longing for it's existence.

I was told that it tastes like fancy soap smells. Not like fancy soap actually tastes, but how you imagine it would taste. I can't argue with that, but like my friend I also don't think it's a bad thing. Who among us hasn't bitten into a piece of soap hoping beyond hope that it will actually taste as good as it smells? Oh, just me? Well it's no secret that I am an idiot. If you dare to dream as I do, then this drink could be the secret to unlocking those self same dreams.

On a side note I wanted to know what Chakuka meant so I did a little internet search. The only thing I could find was that it is the name of an Austrian rapper. I hope that this drink is a result of him branding himself in other countries. That would be amazingly hysterical.

My friend RJ was talking up a sandwich. He lives in Brooklyn and what he says goes when it comes to food. He's never led me astray before, knows what I like, and is more worldly than I. Therefore, when told me about a Vietnamese sandwich called "bahn mi," I had to find it. I went to a place that was rumored to have one but they removed it from the menu. It would have been awful had the pho and chicken dish not been so good.

The next day, I did a little bit more digging around on the onlines and found another place. I went and they had one fried pork bahn mi left. I grabbed it, noticed that I was a dollar cash short and hate charging for little purchases so I, in true Thirsty Dudes fashion, bought drinks to make it worth my while using my card. One was a drink for a friend and the other was this little dude.

I ate this sandwich, loved it, took a picture which I did later post to Facebook but not with a sepia tone or worn edge or overexposed filter. You're welcome, internet users. The drink, though, the drink...great. It's a sweet, nicely bitter green tea with a maybe honey and maybe barley. Why do I say "maybe?" Well, due to this country not making people learn anything other than French or Spanish and don't start teaching until ninth grade, I don't know Taiwanese. It's cool, though. Trust me. You always have in the past.