If you like potatoes and peanuts – and I
suspect you do – then you’re probably going to enjoy these exotic-seeming satay
flavored potato chips, bought at the local Thai supermarket, complete with Thai
script and all.
They tasted fine, but only vaguely of
peanuts, and the list of ingredients simply specifies “artificial flavors” so
you can make what you like of that. And
then despite the apparent exoticism, you’ll see they’re made by Lays, a company
owned by PepsiCo, which of course doesn’t seem exotic in the least.
*
These, bought at a supermarket in Little
Tokyo, seemed rather more outré,:
I wonder
if that’s meant to say ridge cut rather than rich cut, but I’m not sure, and
certainly I liked the salt and seaweed, whether “the Japanese” or not. And they tasted great. The was plenty of “mouth feel” and after I’d
eaten them my lips felt both tingly and a little bit numb. I suspect this was not because of the salt or
seaweed but rather the MSG and chili powder.
Tree nuts were in there too, according to the label.
*
And then there are these little suckers: “Kasugai Peanut & You.” Me?
Well sure - I was mostly attracted by that image of the shrimp on the pack.
I will say this for Japanese snack-makers
– they’ve really got that whole CRUNCH thing down. Here there’s a
brittle, more or less spherical shell that’s sweet, salty, with the taste of shrimp
a long way back in the mix, the flavor comes from “shrimp powder,” and there’s
a peanut loose at the center of the shell. Is it just me or do they look like very, very small potatoes?
I suppose exoticism is always a movable
feast. No doubt the Kasugai company doesn’t
seem all that exotic if you’re in Japan, in fact they seem to specialize in
gummy candy. Well, I suppose somebody
has to.
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