Nongshim Banana Kick Snack

I've often thought that it would be cool to work for the art department of a snack company. You can come up with all sorts of kooky mascots for equally kookily (not actually a word, I know) named products. I'm sure someone sat around frowning in concentration to come up with a banana that is kicking into the air at an invisible soccer ball when pondering this bag's design.

The "genuis" of this design isn't the anthropomorphic 'nana. No, that was easy. The hard part was deciding his attire, and, I'm sure, if he might have been a scandalously nekkid banana. I'm sure there was much more frowning and thinking as the designer came up with a little word association to think of what to do besides put on a flirtatious and energetic-looking banana. You could imagine him saying, "hmmm... hmmm... (though likely he said "hmmm..." in Korean since this is a Korean product)... bananas... banana split... banana boat... banana peel... bananas shake... bananas and... bananas and monkeys! Yes, who doesn't associate monkeys and bananas? So, we've got a monkey. Why would a banana hang out with a monkey? Well, he must be on safari. Yay! Ideao acquired!

Now that I've gone through the sophisticated creative process, I'm far less certain of the cool factor of working in the art department of a snack company. Perhaps it would be better to design the flavors or food varieties, but that's a post for another time. I've procrastinated long enough and it's time to talk about the actual food contained within the bag.

I bought these because, frankly, they sounded awful. I picked them up at a Korean market for about a dollar and I did it because it was too strange not to. It's not strange because it's banana, but rather because it's a banana salted snack puff. We don't tend to put fruit flavors on our puffs here, so this seemed like a chance to try something quite different.

I assumed this would be sweet, and I'm not exactly a stranger to sweet corn puffs after living in Japan for awhile. It is sweet and has a strong, but not particularly fake, banana flavor. The puffs themselves are super light and crispy. I've had this bag sitting around for more than 2 months, but it stayed fresh (shockingly). That being said, the date was July 11, 2014, so I beat the expiration. Of course, it was sealed.

The banana aspect of these reminds me a great deal of the type of banana chips that are shellacked with sugar on the outside and that people eat because they are supposed to be healthy. There is also an undercurrent of basic corn puff flavor. This could be a cereal, except that it is sweeter than even something like Cap'n Crunch.

The first ingredient in this is corn flour followed by sugar, rice bran oil, banana powder, palm oil, skim milk powder, artificial flavor, salt, lactose, egg white powder, and turmeric (no doubt for color). It's no shock that these are so sweet given that sugar is second on the list. They are surprisingly not so fattening. The entire bag (45 grams or about 1.5 oz.) is only 190 calories. For a salty treat, that's not bad.

These are not bad really, but it is too sweet for my tastes. I was never a fan of banana chips in general, but I could see this really appealing to someone who loves them. Not only does it tastes like them, but these are more fun to eat due to the light texture. They're very close to being something I like, but ultimately, just too sweet to merit a "happy" rating.

Wagaya Yamitsuki Corn Snack (Hot and Spicy)

"Yamitsuki" means "addictive". That means that this $1 (82 yen) bag of corn snacks has a lot to live up to. I'm not expecting it to take its place next to cocaine or even alcohol, but it should at least edge up to the position held in the aching stomachs of former Twinkie junkies and Lay's potato chip consumers who eat themselves into carb comas. 

Frankly, I was mainly drawn to this because of the promise of "hot and spicy" contents. I found it for a reduced price (but not in the bargain shelves) at the Daiso. I don't know if it being a little cheaper than the standard $1.50 per item price at the Daiso meant anything other than the fact that not every food item has to be the same price, but I could have seen it as an ill omen. The reason I didn't is that food isn't normally something I see in any way as ominous... unless it's something with an expiration date that has passed and may have living creatures reproducing in it.

Getting back to this "corn snack", I always love how Japanese snack foods are so generically called "rice snack", "corn snack", etc. Someone could have called these "hot waffles" or "spicy weaves" (though that sounds like a hair augmentation that is supposed to make the ladies want to dance the tango with you or something), but, no, they are just "corn snack". Actually, even in America, sometimes you find this type of naming convention. Safeway's rip-off of Triscuits is rather pragmatically named "Woven Wheats". I guess that the Japanese market can't be blamed for not trying any harder than the America one, especially when they're writing the name in English.

When I opened the bag, I smelled a vaguely spicy scent which seemed a bit like paprika or tomato. The pieces themselves are actually pretty large. They're about the same length as a standard potato chip, but narrower. If these look suspiciously like an elongated piece of Chex cereal, you're on the right trail. That is very much what these taste like, though they seem slightly different in texture. They even have a fairly high level of sweetness for a salty snack. The fourth ingredient, after corn flour, hydrogenated palm oil, and tapioca starch, is sugar. Clearly, these are nutritionally rather bad news just from that information alone, but it is worse that Sucralose rounds out the list because you need both sweetness and artificial sweetness. 

I am not really daunted by the ingredients as I don't expect junk food to be nutritious. As long as you don't eat too much of it, your body should be able to process the toxins. Of course, I don't drink alcohol, so my liver isn't being taxed outside of the processed snacks I eat and your mileage may vary if you find yourself at frat parties getting drunk into a stupor and waking up full of a sense that you should regret something but are unsure exactly what that might be.

The main problem with these is that they have almost zero flavor depth. Despite listing miso powder, there is a distinct lack of savory flavors. I gave this a good chance to reveal more taste, but all I got was the slightly sweet corn cereal flavor and heat. The "hot" part works at about the level at which you feel it, but there isn't actual pain, but the "spicy" fell down on the job completely.

These are, for lack of a better word, "serviceable" in that they are salty, crunchy, and hot. They're also light. The whole bag (1.94 oz./55 grams) is 240 calories, which doesn't make them much lower on the calorie totem than chips, but they feel nice and light. You can eat more of them compared to chips because they're puffier and have holes in them. This does not a great snack make though, and it is miles and miles away from addicting anyone.