Kettle Foods Corporation Cheese Kornados

Some natural disasters are sadder than others. I don't mean to belittle the effects of any unfortunate instance when nature unleashes her fury on man, but I can't think of anything more devastating than a kornado. Kernels are whirling at high speed, pelting each other and innocent objects like the ammo from millions of BB guns. On hot days, they can get up enough friction to fling popcorn everywhere. The next day, you'll be overwhelmed by enough hungry birds to remake one of the scarier Hitchcock movies.

OK, some products beckon to me by name alone and this is one of them. I have a "special" relationship with corn, or at least the idea of corn. I think it is the king of grains, or at least the evil overlord of them depending on your perspective. I like the flavor of corn in various foods, but I'm not a fan of corn itself unless it is pureed in a nice potage. It's something about the texture. It just grosses me out.

Fortunately, the "kornado" has not only removed those pesky fibrous kernels, but rolled them into little semi-cones. This is called a 3-D snack because these are supposed to resemble tornados, but they look pretty flat. Fortunately, they taste better than they look. The "risk" with salty snacks like these is that they won't have enough cheese flavor, but the flavor powder is very reminiscent of "Cheetos". It's salty and cheesy in that fake way we all know and love and has a very nice, light crunch.

No one is more surprised than me that such a cheesy concept (truly, no pun intended) works. Perhaps they can try other natural disaster-themed snacks? Rye-phoons... Corn-canos... Wheat-storms... OK, none of those works as well as a kornado, but that comes as no surprise.

Chocoworld Choco*O*Star

After reviewing snacks regularly since 2009, you'd think I'd approach purchases with an informed eye. There is one thing which I don't do, and I really should, and that is look at the ingredients list before I buy. When I saw this at an Asian market, I looked at the name only and expected this was full of, well, chocolate. It was only after I got home and opened up the package that I looked to the ingredients list to understand what I had before me.

What I had was a bunch of little individually wrapped packages of very crumbly brown stuff. It smelled like chocolate, but the appearance was quite peculiar. The ingredients list reads: sugar, peanuts, milk powder, cocoa powder, vanilla flavoring. You'll notice that there isn't anything in there that suggests much in the way of fat. This was very cheap for the side - a little over half a pound/240 grams for $1.49. I think it reflects well the notion that sugar is cheap, but cocoa butter is not.

This is quite sweet, as would be expected from something which lists sugar first. The peanuts and cocoa do a bit to offset the sugary nature of it, so it is not cloying. However, the purity of the sugar on my teeth made them ache a bit. The picture above shows the candy after opening. I didn't break it. It fell apart in this fashion. The texture made me think about astronaut food like dehydrated ice cream and how you have to provide the moisture to allow the components to dissolve on your tongue and then you can experience the flavors. This has a fairly serviceable peanut and chocolate combination. It's mellow and sweet and pleasant, but not decadent and overwhelmingly flavorful.

This was not a bad experience in the least. It was, for lack of a better word, "weird". When you see the words "milk chocolate" on a package, you expect something with a very different texture and a lot more richness. You don't expect something which is like a cake of dried and powdery things, but that is pretty close to what this is.

The truth is that I'm glad that I bought this for the experience of something I'm not familiar with. It didn't cost me much, and there is a certain unique enjoyment in allowing the flavor to unfold by letting it rest on my tongue. It forced me to find a new way to enjoy it. On the other hand, I do tend to enjoy the way I have chocolate just fine already and the way in which the sugar in it made my teeth ache means that I won't be having it again. If this has piqued your interest despite my less than glowing review, you can buy it online for a marginally higher price than I paid.

Boy Bawang Garlic Cornick

I confess that I bought this product only because of the name and the angry-looking bulb of garlic that appears to have violent tendencies. I did not know what "bawang" meant when I bought this, but the graphic seemed to indicate that it might just be a noise that is made when one punches a foe, like the words that used to pop up on the screen during the campy Batman series. I'm guessing that a garlic bulb would like to do combat with an onion for the affections of a shapely pineapple or tuber. If it's mortal combat, well, then its got to be his arch-nemesis the garlic press. It strikes me that, if a cartoon series had been adapted by Julia Child, this might be the character list.

This 3.5 oz. (100 g.) packet was available at Walmart for 69 cents (54 yen) and caught my eye during my very first visit to said shopping establishment in my life. I must say, it lived up to my expectations and was a reflection of economic and sociological differences. The people of Walmart are a specialized tribe, and they have plenty of access to the cheapest junk food in America. My husband and I marveled at how low the prices were if you wanted to buy chips, Mexican snack cakes, and, in this case, Philippine corn nuts.

The exterior packaging does not reveal that these are corn nuts and I didn't use logic to determine that "cornick" may be corn nuts, but the first ingredient is "fried corn" (mmmm, nutritious!). I looked up "bawang" and it means "garlic" in tagalog. Essentially, this is named "garlic boy". They had me at "boy".

When you open the packet, you are  hit with intensely strong garlic aromas. It smells good, actually, at least if you love garlic. They are immensely savory with strong garlic flavor, MSG, salt, and chili pepper. There is just the tiniest hint of heat, but I think it comes as much from the strong garlic as the chili pepper.

I liked these, but I confess that I'm not a huge fan of corn nuts since deep fried things aren't first on my list. That being said, these are very tasty and satisfying as a savory snack. If I was having a salty food craving, I'd absolutely be happy to pop a few of these in my mouth to satisfy it. The main problem is that I'm guessing that the rate at which I personally eat such things will mean they'll go stale before the bag can be finished. If you're a fan of corn nuts and garlic though, these are the bee's knees.