This Is Framingham

For me, anyway.  I was at the Asinayo Market downtown getting some soy sauce and sauce and shiritaki noodles when I came across these tiramisu snack cakes. 

I though it was odd to find them in an Asian grocery store, even more odd that next to English, most of the words on the package were in Russian, on the back there is a drawing of people sitting outside an Italian cafe but all the signs are in Russian.

Also intriguing was the “It’s NOW” statement/label, along with a nice diagram to show you what part is the cake and what part is the “cheese cream”. 

The company name is Orion, I don’t know what “It’s NOW” means (maybe It’s NOW that I will I give in to an impulse purchase).  The curiosity took over and I just had to try one!
I got home and opened the box to find it full of 12 little packages of individual cakes. 

 I split one in half to see if it resembled the drawing on the box and sure enough it did.

Now for the taste test.  I love tiramisu but wasn’t expecting much from this packaged, Russian/Asian(?) mock Italian snack cake that didn’t resemble the dessert at all, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The cake was moist and flavorful and the “cheese cream” was a lot lighter than I thought it would be.  It actually wasn’t half bad.  Obviously this is not a substitute for the real thing but for only 100 calories it was a nice little treat.  
 Ethan even tried one and said he liked it, and he doesn’t like too many experimental foods I’ve brought home over the years, so it must be good :)

Another grocery adventure at Asiyano!