Pocky

This isn't about baking, but it is about things that someone, somewhere baked at one point.
It has gained a cult following, especially among japanophiles, a term I just made up for those people who love all things Japanese, at least in the modern sense: anime/manga, reading things right-to-left, etc. This doesn't really include classical japanese things like kimonos, samurai, etc, although they're a part of the background culture. I don't mean to demean them; I enjoy some webcomics that read right-to-left, took karate for two years, and am the proud owner of a kimono. I'm also a fan of Miyazaki films (like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, for instance), which I know doesn't make me a true believer.
Anyway, Pocky is the candy-coated biscuit stick of choice for many.

Pocky!

This is how eating pocky makes me feel:

Picture by Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half

 I would have taken my own picture of me eating pocky and looking blissfully happy, but I don't have a fancy enough setup here to get a good background and I also can't make hearts appear in my eyes. Yet.

Pocky was an escape for me sophomore year, and I carried that into junior year (the first half, at least, which was spent in England with a homesick roommate; I didn't really need it the second half). I kept a box in my desk drawer, or a drawer near wherever I did homework most often, and would take study breaks that consisted simply of slowly crunching away at a stick of pocky and pointedly not thinking about anything except the stick of pocky. You might say it was like meditation.
Oddly, with my much harder and more stressful class load this past semester, I didn't need to take hardly any pocky moments. I blame the roommates, since I don't have one anymore.

After a casual google search for pocky, I found a site that has a quiz for what kind of pocky you are.
I'm green tea pocky. I've never even heard of it, but now I want some.The strangest pocky I'd heard of until now is panda pocky, a box of which is in my room. It's like cookies and cream.

The box is so cute!

Panda pocky has a dark stick and is slightly shorter than the original pocky.

Anyway, here's the quiz, if you're interested: blogthings.com
Very Asia has an interesting pocky info page, and someone appears to have made a list of all the pocky flavors they could find on amazon.
I'm slightly pissed off by the "men's pocky," which is just dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate, the darker the better, and resent the implication that women don't like dark chocolate. My mom and I are the dark chocolate eaters in my family; my dad hates it because it's so bitter and my brother won't touch the stuff. 
In spite of kind of being angry at Glico, the company that makes Pocky, I'm intrigued by green tea, coconut, hazelnut, and any of the dessert/mousse types. I'm not much for fruit-flavored chocolate things. The only exception I make to this is chocolate oranges, sold around Christmas.

I recommend that you, yes, you, go to your local grocery store (closest or cheapest, whichever), find the "asian food" aisle, and get a small box of chocolate pocky. The box will be red. Don't get the strawberry kind unless you know you like strawberry-flavored chocolate-ish stuff.
Take this box home and slowly eat one stick, from the chocolate covered end up, in small nibbles. Focus on the crunching. Take your time. Breathe in and out slowly. Ponder the texture, and the flavor.
Mmm.

Nirvana