Shimi Choco Corn and Anpanman Pero Pero Choco

I'm headed close to the finish line in my race to review all of my ZenPop box treats before I loose my free time to jury duty (which is coming up on May 2nd). I have to say that it's been quite refreshing to get back in the groove of steady reviewing, though I know that I'll run out of things to review pretty soon.

If aliens came to earth and looked at our food, would they be confused by the fact that we shape our food like humans and then eat them? There are chocolate Santas at Christmas in the U.S. Why would we want to cannibalize a jolly guy who wants nothing more than to give us free toys?

These are the thoughts that occur to me when I look at snacks like the Anpanman chocolate lollipop. He looks so happy, and I just snapped his head in half, took my picture, and then took a bite out of him. If it is any consolation, he didn't taste especially good.

Incidentally, "pero pero" means "lick, lick" which I guess refers to the fact that this is on a stick. However, this isn't really designed for licking. It's barely designed for eating at all because the texture is too soft and the chocolate flavor is fairly muted, especially toward the center where there is more pink chocolate. It's balanced in sweetness. It's vaguely milky, but mostly seems to be too adulterated with vegetable oil to have any sort of pure flavor elements. It looks cute, and it doesn't taste terrible, but this is largely for novelty rather than for flavor. I had my husband sample it and he said, "It tastes like inferior chocolate." That about sums it up.

The other item in this double review is best known for it's tasty animal crackers. The "shimi corn" like is made up of various flavors of a cereal like corn base. It sounds very unimpressive, but it actually was very satisfying. The flavor of the chocolate was excellent and the texture of the star-shaped corn tube was perfect. It was neither too dense nor too crispy. If you like eating sugar cereal dry out of the box (and I do), this is going to be the bee's knees. This was unexpectedly tasty and I wish I had a case of them around for future noshing. It just really played into my tastes.

So, the moral of the story? Cannabalism is wrong in every way. Don't go around eating the heads of fictional characters. It will not be nearly as much fun as you anticipate. The other moral? Corn is always king!

Anpanman Pero Pero Choco:

Shim Choco Corn:

Porinki Asari Corn

My friends and I have an inside joke about corn. I'm not exactly certain how this happened, but it is a lot like being a Monty Python fan. The more you say something, the funnier it becomes, but only to you and everyone else thinks you're a dip. So, it's hard for me not to extoll the virtues of anything which is corn flavored in a humorous way that will not be funny to anyone outside of me and the few friends that are in on the gag.

I say all of that to preface that this gets bonus points to begin with for being corn flavored in any way or including corn in the ingredients. I'm sorry if you don't understand, but that's just the way it has to be. It would be against my nature not to believe in the greatness of corn. All hail the all-mighty corn!

With that out of the way, I'll mention the fact that this is made with a flavoring which is very common in Japan, but that I've rarely experienced here. It is what the Japanese often refer to as "corn potage" flavor and would be seen in the U.S. as a corn chowder.

This is made by a company, Koikeya, that I know very well from my time in Japan as they produce some of the most well-distributed salted snack foods. It has several highly recognizable products including "scon", which has nothing to do with what you'd think it might (scones) and is a salted snack food and this product, Polinki. They also sell a brand of chips which is quite uninventively called "Potato Chips." Yes, that's the brand right there.

The name, "asari" or "assari" (not sure how to romanize these things anymore), indicates that it is going to be a plain or clean flavor. This is meant to convey the flavor of sweet corn, pure and simple without a whole lot of complexity. It could also me "light" or "delicate" flavor, but that seems unlikely given that the corn flavoring on this is very present and deliciously sweet and authentic to the flavor of corn (the king of all grains). Also, the ingredients do include various seasonings including citric acid and tomato powder so it does have some depth. This is very savory and tasty in a way that is hard to convey in words.

The snack itself is reminiscent of a triangular Chex cereal piece, but it is pure crispy badness in terms of its contents. As far as I can tell, this isn't even something which contains actual grains and is a totally processed food. The ingredients list is a little confusing in this regard because you'd think the rigid lattice of the snack would contain corn (because it's the king and that's the flavoring of this), but it mainly seems to be composed of modified starches, cornstarch, and vegetable oil. This is not just junk food, it's super junky junkfood.

However, I don't blog about snack foods based on their nutrition profiles. If I wanted to do that, I'd have to wear yoga pants, shop at Whole Foods, and fret about how to prepare my kale this evening. Trust me, nobody wants to see any of those things happen, especially the first one. So, I will evaluate this completely based on how satisfying it is. The corn taste is amazing. The crunch is right on point. This is a great salted snack food and I wish the bag had been a lot bigger.

While I got this as part of the Oyatsucafe Dagashi box, you can find other sellers online. Tokyo Otaku Mode shop sells them, but lists them as currently out of stock. Similarly, a place called Cosme Store also has them listed, but presently out of stock. Amazon has a version of these for sale, but also says they are out of stock. I don't know what is up with that, but these are a popular inclusion in many Japanese subscription boxes. Maybe everyone is buying them up to put in boxes or something. If you'd like to try them, I'd recommend contacting one of the entities who sell them and see when they'll be available again.

Source: Oyatsucafe "Dagashi box" (part of a $15/month subscription box)

Fujiya Milky Big Ball Corn Potage Candy

Friends, Romans, countrymen, and anyone from any country other than Italy or America who reads my blog, I am here today to talk about corn. Yes, I have spoken many times about how corn is the king of all grains and I will speak of it again as long as you don't start posting comments about how you're sick of me talking about corn and will quit reading if I keep up this nonsense.

One of the many things I learned from life in Japan (and I've learned so much, including the fact that mayonnaise is considered its own food group with a minimum daily allowance in said country) was that we view corn in far too limited a fashion in the U.S. Sure, we have cornmeal, muffins, cakes, etc., but we have no yet released a candy that is corn flavored. The furthest that we are willing to go is to cram cornflakes in our sweets... and, for some reason, the sushi at Safeway supermarket also has cornflakes but that's a life mystery for another time to explore. Today, we're talking about the under-utilization of corn.

When I saw this corn candy at Nijiya market for a mere $2.19 (I'm sure it sells for about half that in Japan, but, imports, go figure), I knew that I would have to buy it because this was the sort of "only in Japan" thing that people need to be aware of. Sure, they think "only in Japan" applies to men cuddling pillows shaped like women's laps and muttering "moe" under their breath in contentment or that people are eating burgers made from the ground flesh of beef that drank nothing but beer and had their torsos massaged daily by cherubic children in school uniforms.

The real "only in Japan" is far more mundane than that, at least in my opinion. It's the funk that isn't funky enough for the blogs to cover, and it includes (but is certainly not limited to) how they more fully embrace corn. Sure, we know they put it on their pizza and sell it with their pizza (so that you can put mayo on it and eat it as your "vegetable" side dish), but they also drink it in soup for breakfast and, they put it in their candy. They put it in 22-calorie morsels of taffy-like candy that are marketed as "big balls".

I opened a wrapper and gave the candy a sniff. It doesn't smell like anything. When you put it in your mouth, it is a little on the hard side and you have to warm it up and chew it to release the flavor. As it softens into a chewing gum-like taffy, it starts to melt in your mouth and release strong sweet-corn flavor which is amplified by the corn syrup (which is the first ingredient). It is also infused with richness and even more sweetness from sweetened condensed milk. In the end, it is potently sweet and has strong corn flavor. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but this is a pretty intense flavor experience both on the sweetness and corn front.

I liked this quite a lot, to be honest. I love corn flavored things and corn potage soup in particular. Lately, I've also taken to making polenta and eating it with pancake syrup and butter (as well as in savory preparations). When I make corn tea, I even sweeten it to bring out an essence which is similar to this (and corn tea is naturally sweet). Corn and sugar are in a good relationship as far as I'm concerned.

That being said, I would not say this is for everyone. For some people, corn is associated with more savory options and they think of it as something slathered with butter and sprinkled with salt - either at a movie theater or a backyard barbecue. Depending on your tastes, this could be manna from heaven or a horrendous blob of sugary awfulness. All I can say is that, this is what "candy corn" should be rather than the horrible stuff we see every Halloween. If candy corn tasted like this corn candy, (at least some) people might actually be happy to eat it.

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.

Calbee Yakimorokoshi Corn Snack

Sorry for the mangy picture. I had a shot of the unopened bag and lost track of it.

When Japanese folks eat rice, they generally eat it plain. Occasionally, they'll garnish it with a bit of sesame seek or place a pickled plum (umeboshi) on the top. I'm not sure if these things are added to enhance the rice or just for the aesthetic appeal of the contrast between the snowy white rice, black seeds, and red plum. The idea that one would put soy sauce in the rice is abhorrent to most Japanese people and the notion that you'd butter it is downright insane, yet many Americans have been known to butter their rice. It's little different than adding it to potatoes or spreading it on bread. Adding fat to starches is what we do.

The way in which we conceptualize cuisine is far more limited than we imagine because we get into habits. Those patterns are governed by what is placed in front of us from childhood. When we had roasted corn, it was delivered with salt and/or butter. Oh sure, occasionally somebody's grandma may have rubbed it with beet juice or rhubarb pulp or some such esoteric combination, but it isn't common.

For most Americans, it doesn't occur to us that we could brush it with soy sauce and that would add a rich, savory, salty dimension that could be incredibly delicious. In Japan, it is not uncommon to see roasted corn brushed with soy sauce, but I have never seen it here. This being a Japanese corn snack, it's going to go with what they enjoy on their corn, so that's soy sauce.

This corn snack is infused with the flavor of roasted corn brushed with soy sauce. Actually, it's a little low on the "roasted corn" angle and higher on the salt, soy sauce, and, yes, even a little sweetness aspect. It's a flavor combination with depth that plays well with the crispy corn base.

One thing I love about Japanese savory snacks is that, most of the time, they have a fairly rich flavor blend. Many American snacks of a similar bent are one-trick ponies - fake cheese flavor, fake "barbeque" flavor (usually heavy on the smoked paprika), etc. In Japan, I find there's generally a richer mix of things like meat-flavored powders, onion, garlic, soy sauce, and yes, even fish powders. This mix includes bonito (essentially fish flakes) broth and kelp powder as well as soy sauce, sugar, and shiitake mushroom powder. You don't have to love any one of them because they come together in a rich melange of savoriness which is unique.

I really liked these, though the hit of sweetness at the end came about as close to undoing the happy rating as it could come. It just wasn't quite powerful enough to step over the line, fortunately. I found this at Nijiya Japanese market for a mere 99 cents (it's a small bag at 26 grams or just a shade under an ounce) and it was well worth the investment. I don't know where others can locate it, but the package size and design screams typical "konbini" (convenience store) fare in Japan.

KFC Corn Potage Fritter (product announcement)

Images courtesy of KFC Japan.

KFC Japan is starting to sell a "corn potage" fritter today. It is the closest I've seen in Japan to someone deep-frying a liquid a la deep fried beer or Coke as are often sold at fairs and festivals in the U.S. The outside is supposed to be crispy. The inside is likely going to be some sort of flavored mashed potato with corn kernels. It'll be a carb-o-rama, but I bet it'll be good in a bad way.

As an addendum to this KFC-related announcement, I noticed recently that the biscuits in Japan are different than they are here. They come with a hole in the center like a donut. They also are sold with honey-maple syrup, which I'm not sure you get packets of here in the U.S. I think this is a little reflection of a cultural difference because the biscuits here are seen as a bland accompaniment to the meal whereas they're almost considered a dessert in Japan. Certainly they are tender and flaky enough in Japan to qualify. One of my former Australian colleagues refused to call it a "biscuit" and insisted that it was a scone. Arguments that it was called a "biscuit" in the food's country of origin as well as in katakana Japanese fell on deaf ears. 

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.

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.

CV Corn Bo Cheese Flavor

One of the blogs I read is called "Cheap Eats", and occasionally it will review dollar store finds with all of the expected results. Back home, they are the sort of things that one would fear to eat like knock-off Spaghetti-Os (all of the horror, none of the brand name comfort). I'm sure all countries have their own versions of highly suspicious dollar store finds.

I am "fortunate" in that there is a shop which specializes in such things next to a discount green grocer that I frequent. This is the sort of place that is selling Halloween candy around Christmas and that often stocks special Pepsi releases long after they have vacated all the other store shelves. Clearly, they are the repository for soon to expire goods, but their prices are pretty impressive. It was at this particular shop that I was enticed by these "corn bo (stick)" snacks. A six-pack, each with 3 sticks in it, was a mere 69 yen (84 cents). Even by kid's snacks standards, this was a bargain. Most of these things are about 20 yen in convenience stores so I'm getting them at close to half price.

Normally, I might not go out and buy an unsampled food in abundance in a multi-pack, but I've had these types of bo snacks before, and it's rare that they are not palatable. It's even rarer that I have a bad experience with something which couples the awesomeness of corn and the seductive allure of cheese. Saying that makes me think that I should be writing ad copy for the makers of this product.

When you open one of the foil packets, you can smell both the corn base and the fake powdery cheese which is modestly coating them. Each is about 2/3 of the length of a #2 pencil and relatively fat and puffy. The tubes of corn snack are crispy and light, though I also thought that they seemed just a tiny bit stale. That is, they were marginally soft, but that could be simply the way they were made rather than a reflection of their age. Note that the expiration date on the bag was for June of 2011.

The taste was very much in line with what I'd expected. They are lightly flavored with cheese and carry a good basic corn flavor. They are easy to bite into and have a satisfying crunch and decent level of saltiness. They aren't as intense as some types of snacks in this genre, but they are for kids so that's not surprising.

Though these are absolutely not the best thing since Planter's Cheez Balls (which we all worship posthumously), they're a solid bit of salty treat at only 93 calories a bag and for a price that can't be beat. They're a great thing to have on hand or toss in your lunch bag for cravings or to accompany a sandwich. Sure, I wish they were a just a little crispier, a little cheesier and a tiny bit saltier, but for this price range, I'd definitely buy them again.

Korean Corn Tea (Oksusu-cha)

This blog is called "Japanese Snack Reviews", but it's my blog and I'll cover non-Japanese products on a very infrequent basis if I want to. Also, I'm guessing this is the sort of thing that anyone can pick up in a Korean or Asian grocery store and may be of interest to at least a few of my readers. To make a tenuous connection to Japan though, I will say that, if it weren't for one of my students, I would never have sampled this tea so living here is responsible for this review both in terms of my discovering the existence of corn tea and my having ready access to it (as there is a tiny little Korean goods shop not a minute from my apartment).

The student who told me about this said that she bought it because corn tea is supposed to be good for your skin and overall beauty. I did some research and corn tea is loaded with Vitamin E. It's also supposed to be good for digestion, high blood pressure, and to help those with diabetes for reasons I am unaware of. Only at the end of one article about corn tea and my second big cup of this tea did I learn that strongly brewed corn tea is supposed to be a potent and expedient laxative. I'll get back to you on that particular effect by the end of this review should it prove to be valid.

The import shop I bought this at sold this box of 15 bags for 230 yen ($2.76). At first, I thought this was a tad on the expensive side, but the truth is that I pay similar prices for about 10 bags of flavored teas made by Lipton such as maple, caramel, or mint tea. Lipton, incidentally, is considered more of a "premium brand" (especially the "yellow label" variety) in Japan than it is back home, where I consider it the dusty sweepings off of the tea leaf processing floor.

I only realized after getting the box home and turning it over that this isn't a box with 15 tea bags for 15 cups of tea, but that each bag prepared 2 liters of tea. This makes this much better value, but presents a bit of a pickle for the likes of me. I live with a devout non-tea drinker and putting away two liters by myself is going to take at least 3 days, if not longer. Also, I have no room in my small Japanese refrigerator for lots of drinks of any sort. Finally, I don't even have a 2 liter-size vessel to make the tea in!

Since necessity is the mother of invention, I improvised and made the tea in a pot and then poured it into two 1 liter decanters (which I couldn't fit in my fridge, but never mind). The leaves smell of roasted grain and the prepared tea smells a lot like popcorn. In its default state, it has a hint of Japanese barley tea (mugi-cha) as well as roasted corn flavoring. I think the roasting is what brings on the resemblance to mugi-cha since both oksusu-cha and Japanese barley tea use roasted grains. I didn't take a picture of the brewed tea, but it is a pale gold or deep gold color depending on how long you brew it. It can be drunk either hot or cold (though I marginally preferred it cold).

Plain, this is good, but with a little sweetener or sugar added, I would upgrade it to "great". It is tea, however, and one mustn't expect it to blow ones socks off, but the flavor is really very pleasant and carries a good deal of the essence of roasted corn. I'd definitely buy it again if I could get individual teabags rather than these monster 2-liter-making bags which force me to drink a lot and store a lot. If my refrigerator were less puny (and if I had a 2-liter container), I wouldn't even hesitate to buy these monster size teabags again. And that fast-acting laxative thing? It doesn't seem to be the least bit true, fortunately.

Pokka Iroiro Soup

I pay a lot more attention to new products now than I have ever done since coming to Japan. In fact, it is interesting how doing this blog has altered my focus on a daily basis. It used to be that every time I went to a store, I was drawn to the imports to see if any old favorites had somehow made their way to these shores. Now, I'm drawn to the domestic new products for review fodder. This is one of the many ways in which this blog has helped me develop a renewed appreciation for living here. 

I noticed recently as the rainy season and summer heat has poured on that instant soup designed to be prepared and consumed cold is on many shelves. I chose this Pokka Iroiro (various) soup because the three flavors were all appealing to me - potato, corn, and pea. A lot of the other cold soups were in one flavor only, or contained mushroom or other flavors that were less appealing. I found this particular variety pack at Peacock supermarket for 298 yen ($3.37).

Pokka, incidentally, is a very well-known manufacturer of prepared foods and canned beverages in Japan.  They have their own drink vending machines and sell "Black" and "Demitasse" brand coffee among other drinks. They also sell lemon juice, several types of instant soup, and are the only domestic maker of croutons that I ever see on the market shelves. As someone who can't abide a salad without croutons, this is something that I notice. The company was established in 1957 and started their business selling artificial lemon products.

From left: potato, pea, corn.

One thing I didn't notice, though it says so right on the box, was that there are 8 packets, but 4 of them are potato and there are only 2 each of corn and pea. I never understand why they feel it necessary to be as disproportionate as possible and to always offer fewer of the more appealing flavors. I like potato just fine, but it's a relatively bland offering. I'd prefer more corn (of course, who wouldn't!).

To prepare this soup, you measure 130 ml. (about 2/3 of a cup) of milk into a cup and add in the powder. Wait 2 minutes then stir it up. I was very careful to add in the exact amount of milk because I didn't want to risk messing up the concentration of the flavor. Note that I used low-fat (.5%) milk.

Potato (42 calories for the powder):

This smelled and looked a lot like usual instant potato potage soup. Potage, incidentally, is a thick, creamy soup usually made with onion, garlic, butter, and potatoes. The texture was a bit funky though. It was rather lumpy, like soft bits of instant mashed potato flakes suspended in milk. In fact, the milk flavor really showed through this and Japanese milk is not one of my favorite things. On the plus side, I could taste some of the savory elements toward the end of a taste of the soup. The flavor hit me in three waves pretty much - potato, milk, chives and onion-garlic seasoning. This was decidedly so-so. I think it would have been better with tastier milk, but the texture was still pretty sub-par regardless of the dairy flavor.

Corn (39 calories for the powder):

The corn dissolved more smoothly than the potato, though I did have to smash some globby bits up with my spoon. It was also dominated by the milk's flavor, but did carry some of the classic flavor of sweet corn as you experience it in Japanese instant corn soup. My main problem with it was that it tasted quite sweet, almost to the level of feeling like a dessert. There's a smooth, rich sense to the hot version of this soup which was completely absent from this cold version. It tasted more like corn-flavored milk than actual corn soup. It wasn't bad at all, but definitely not worth the expense or even the handful of calories.

Pea (28 calories for the powder):

This one smelled the strongest, and was the least dominated by the milk flavor. Mostly, I could taste a bit of the pea flavor at the end of a sip. This is rather on the sweet side, and the most palatable of the flavors, but still not incredibly impressive. Like the corn soup, there is a rich sense of savoriness that is usually present in pea soup which was missing from this. Like the potato soup, the texture was rather lumpy as if the powder couldn't fully dissolve in the cold liquid.

The question about this soup for me initially wasn't really going to be mainly about the flavor, though obviously that is a part of it and this failed every time because the milk flavor dominated. I know what powdered instant soups tend to taste like and I actually like a lot of the hot ones in Japan (though, frankly, they are expensive for the amount you get, so I rarely have them). The question was more about the texture and whether or not potage-style soups were going to be appealing when cold. The answer for me was a big fat "meh". Given the choice, even in summer, I'd take a hot version of instant soup over one of these cold ones for the texture and a flavor profile undiluted by Japanese milk's weirdnesses.

As an experiment, I decided to alter this a bit to see if it could be better. For one thing, I made the potato version hot with 50% milk and 50% water. I wanted to see if the flavor of the soup asserted itself more prominently if there was less milk to dominate. The result was strange. It still didn't have much flavor, but at least the Japanese milk wasn't overbearing when I made the soup. The result of the heat was the most interesting thing. The potato soup got super, duper thick. I didn't want to water it down though because it was so weak anyway. I think the formulation must be different than usual instant soup to make it dissolve in cold liquids and putting it in hot liquid causing it to go a bit nuts. I also tried the pea flavor cold with 50% milk and 50% water. That was actually a better, but not exactly impressive result. I could taste the pea flavor better, and the weird milk flavor wasn't as strong, but it still wasn't great soup.

The bottom line is that these really aren't soups so much as milk flavoring powders. The overall taste experience is akin to making cold chocolate using Nestlé's Quik (Nesquik) or malted cold milk beverages using Milo. If you ever thought you'd enjoy a glass of milk more if it was corn, pea, or potato flavored, these are for you. Otherwise, I'd give them a miss.

Bakauke Super Grilled Sweet Corn Sembei

Bakauke is rapidly becoming my favorite band for sembei. They have the most immensely bold and flavorful flavors on a consistent basis and that's pretty much what I want in a salted snack food. I have long been told that Japanese people prefer weak or subtle flavors, but I wonder if the emergence of these types of flavors on a more regular basis means that tastes are changing, or if the alcohol that people tend to drink with very spicy snacks is getting weaker and they want to offset the loss of quality of experience.

I found these alongside the previously reviewed sea salt wasabi sembei at Okashi no Machioka. They were also for about 180 yen ($1.97) for a bag of 9 2-packs of crackers. Each serving of two sembei is 40.5 calories. I'm always impressed by the way they offer calorie information out to a decimal place.

As soon as I tore open a packet, I could smell the sweet corn seasoning. The cracker is generously coated with what must be tiny granules of miniature sweet corn cobs. These have all of the flavor of the best corn without any of the part where you have to actually eat the corn and get its fibery bits caught in your teeth. The flavor profile has added depth because of the addition of various flavor powders including soy sauce.

I'm pretty sure that this sembei is yet another step in the master plan for world domination by corn. It's irresistibly good, and I recommend it to any lovers of corn, and don't we all love corn?

Dounan Corn Caramels

There's a super funky shop in a neighboring area which sells all sorts of novelty items for the hip crowd that hangs around the live houses in the area. They sell a ton of imported junk like big plastic M & M's full of, well, M & M's and the kind of stuff your pervy uncle might take to a party to amuse himself. They also carry a huge variety of extreme and atypical sweets. One of the caramels they had, for instance, was "Ghengis caramels" with a picture of Ghengis Khan on the cover. I almost went for it, but chickened out and bought these corn caramels instead.


As is the case with many of the weird caramels I review, this is from Hokkaido. They are the Nestlé of the caramel trade, it would seem, in that they are intent on coming up with as many freaky caramel flavors as Nestlé Japan is with KitKats. I can't recall exactly what I paid for this, but I think it was in the ballpark of 100-150 yen (about a dollar to a dollar-fifty) for 18 small caramels.

Each caramel is around 16 calories and wrapped somewhat loosely in wax paper. I didn't open the plastic wrapper on this box for well over a month and they kept in pristine shape even in the summer heat and humidity. I'm guessing now that the seal is broken though, that they will get a bit gummy through time.

The caramels just smell sweet. I couldn't really detect any corn scent though these are made with real Hokkaido sweet corn. The flavor at first is pretty mild but the corn flavor ramps up as you chew. It really is like eating an ear of very sweet corn from a flavor point of view and is a pretty nice taste experience. You might expect it to be a tad strange, but I enjoyed it. However, I don't know if getting your corn in caramel form (as opposed to caramel corn) is everyone's cup of tea. I'd definitely consider getting these again if the mood struck me.

Super Sweet Corn Baked Snack

I'm not sure if the name of this snack, which is literally "super sweet corn" in katakana (スーパースイートコーン)" and not a Japanese translation of the English words, is meant to imply that the corn is super sweet tasting or if the corn is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. I'm guessing it's because the corn they use is the lollipop of the corn world.

At any rate, I can't resist something which is actually corn-flavored, as opposed to corn-based. Corn flavored snacks in Japan tend to be buttery, nicely salty, and feature the best flavor that corn as a food has to offer.

These corn snacks have the added bonus of being baked. If you're health conscious in Japan and looking for snacks, you can seek the characters for "non fry" (ノンフライ) written on the package. Of course, if you are really health conscious, you won't be buying this sort of stuff anyway. It's not that this is all that bad really. This bag has 50 grams (1.7 oz.) of corn goodness and only 230 calories. It's also got bits or real corn flattened out and pressed into the chips, so you may actually get some sort of infinitessimal benefit from the embedded corn. It's just that snacking and health rarely go hand in hand.



Because these chips are baked, they are lighter than your average chip. They are crispy, but have a softer snap than a deep-fried chip. Even though they look a bit puffy in spots, they're relatively thin. The spots with actual corn in them are a bit tough and chewy, but it in no way undermines the overall texture and eating experience.

These smell like fresh corn on the cob. They taste like corn cream soup with a bit of added chicken extract for added savoriness. You can really detect that they are made from fairly sweet corn. The salt on them is just right, though rather inconsistent at times.

If you enjoy corn potage soup in Japan, you will almost certain like these as much as I did, which is to say quite a lot. They're seasonal though, so you'd better grab some while you can. I know I wouldn't hesitate to have them again.

Corn Potage Sembei (Rice Crackers)

When you think of Japan, you don't think of them being "corn-fed", but it is the largest consumer of corn crops from the United States and their appetite for imported corn just keeps on growing. Most of the corn is used to produce processed foods rather than eaten as fresh corn.

One of the most popular corn-based products is corn potage soup. You find it for sale everywhere as a powdered "cup-a-soup" style drink, but also in refrigerated and frozen food sections as "heat and eat" soup. Corn potage soup is made with cream, butter, onion, and various spices. It's a mixture of slightly sweet corn with rich, creamy fatty flavors and savory elements.


These sembei are meant to offer the flavor of that soup on a salted snack. The front of the bag touts "super sweet corn powder" and "milk" as ingredients. Flavorings include a lot of different powders including corn, cheese, "super sweet corn", onion, butter, and whey. I picked this up at a Family Mart convenience store for 218 yen ($2.32) and there are 17 large (2.7 in./7 cm. diameter) crackers in it. Each cracker is 38 calories.

When you open the bag, you are immediately hit by the scent of the same type of flavors that come with instant corn potage soup: corn, cheese, and onion. The texture is very crispy and these were very fresh. When you put then on your tongue, you get a strong sense of their buttery flavor followed by sweet corn. These are both sweet and salty at the same time. Personally, I find them to be incredibly delicious and I had to will myself to stop after 3 crackers.

I recommend that you seek these out and buy them while they're available. These are a limited edition that are only being sold in convenience stores for about 4 months. I don't know when they were first released (the information is not on Kameida Seika's web site), so act fast.

Corn Potage Snack

Everyone associates Japan with sushi, seafood, and rice. Japanese people have a few guilty nutritional secrets that you don't really notice unless you live here for awhile. The first "secret" is that the Japanese love mayonnaise. In fact, there are fan clubs devoted to mayonnaise. I sometimes joked that mayonnaise is the fourth food group in Japan because they can consume it in great abundance.

The second "secret", however, is the one that applies here. That one is that the Japanese love corn. Many newcomers to Japan are appalled to learn that you can order it as a topping on pizza. Back when I first arrived, my husband and I used to occasionally stop by a Shakey's Pizza while we were out shopping. Shakey's offered lunch time buffets at which you could eat as much as you wanted provided you were willing to eat whatever types of pizza they happened to put out there. We were displeased to learn that tuna and corn was the only variety on offer.

If you peruse convenience store baked goods, you'll often find an unholy marriage of these two secret loves in a corn and mayo sandwich. Well, it's not really a sandwich. It's a white hot dog bun type of thing topped with mayonnaise and corn. I can promise you right now that I won't be reviewing that nutri-bomb of bad carbs and fat.

Getting back to corn though. One of the more popular varieties of soup in Japan is corn potage. You can buy it in cans, as an instant powdered cup of soup mix or you can get it in family-size bags so that the whole family can put away some tasty cream corn soup. This particular flavor is what the makers of this corn snack are trying to reproduce.


This salted snack item is brought to you by Riska which makes a variety of small bags of cheap snacks for 27 yen each (about 25 cents USD). The bag contains 20 grams (.7 oz.) of puffy, light yellow corn puffs. They are airy and smell like sweet corn. Each puff is covered with a light yellow powder and a few flecks of parsley. The powder is hard to see because it is the same color as the puffs and sticks pretty well.

These are very crispy and really couldn't be better on the texture side. They taste both salty and sweet. This is no doubt to reproduce the sweet notes corn sometimes carries and is managed by adding Sucralose to the mix. The flavor is intensely savory, but very reminiscent of instant corn potage soup. Quite frankly, I love these and if I were looking for a crispy, salty snack, this would definitely be something I'd want to partake of.

I once sent a bag of these to a friend living in the U.S. and he told me they reminded him of Cap'n Crunch cereal. I can see where they might bring that to mind with their sweetness and crunch. Cap'n Crunch is, after all, made from corn (and oats). However, they are much airier and more like a cheese puff or ball so I think the comparison stops there. Also, there is no actual sugar in these and eating one of these 20 gram bags will set you back 118 calories. I'm guessing that's a better bet than 20 grams of Cap'n Crunch, and these won't cut up the roof of your mouth.

Scon Japanese Barbecue flavor

I'm not a fan of Japanese salted snack foods because many of them are bland (consommé) or come in flavors I don't care for (like seaweed). Barbecue salted snacks are not what you'd expect because "barbecue" in the U.S. usually means some sort of super spicy tomato or ketchup-flavored potato chip. In Japan, it tends to mean the snack is meant to resemble barbecued meat.

The ugly granny mascot for Karamucho chips. She may scare you off, but they do make pretty good chili snacks. Image pinched from the Karamucho web site.

If you learn one thing about "Japanese tastes", it's that there is a general tendency to prefer mild flavors over intense ones. Therefore, it's rare to find a new product which is exceptionally spicy when you see the words "barbecue" (or in this case "バーベーキュー"). This isn't universal, however, as there are some super spicy treats out there like habanero rings and Karamucho (カラムチーチョ) hot chili chips and potato sticks. Karamucho, by the way, has what I believe to be one of the ugliest cartoon mascots ever. "Chili" and "barbecue" are worlds apart usually in terms of overall punch in spiciness with the former saltily beating up your tongue and the latter passively lying down and surrendering.

The same company that makes the Karamucho-brand chips, Koikeya (コイケヤ), makes the Scon snacks I'm reviewing today so I had hopes that they'd be strong enough for my American palate. I've seen corn snacks named "Scon" (pronounced close to "scone" with a long "o" as many Americans pronounce it) for decades and never bought them because the I couldn't work out why they'd be called "Scon" instead of, well, "corn". What was that silly "s" for? Was this going to be related to British tea time fare? At any rate, a look at the ingredients list reveals the "s" stands for "sweet" as in "sweet corn", which is the first ingredient. That fact that sweet corn is the first ingredient is encouraging, the fact the the second one is animal fat is far less so. The seasonings are not all spelled out, but, unsurprisingly, meat flavoring is one of them as is soy sauce. Stevia (a natural low-calorie sweetener) is also on of them.


The corn twists in the bag are very similar to Cheetos in appearance, but they're a bit lighter and airier in texture. To me, this is a good thing as Cheetos are a bit too hard for my tastes. The first whiff doesn't betray much. These have the same light scent of a non-descript bouillon cube as many Japanese barbecue-flavored snacks. The first bite has a bit of a chemical edge to it which is hard to pin down. This disappears after the second bite which leaves you with an intense, savory flavor. These are very spicy without heat. The flavor is meaty, though it doesn't taste like meat. It's also quite salty, and after you eat them for awhile, the sense of how salty they seem starts to pile up on the tongue. I can see where a beer-drinking sort might find these a really good accompaniment to imbibing.

I really liked these and have actually bought and consumed three bags of them in the past month. This is quite a bad thing as an 80 gram bag (2.82 ounces) has 446 calories and it's easy to eat half a bag at one sitting. That's a lot of empty calories to put away. Also, honestly, even though I like these because they're strongly-flavored, by the third bag the novelty was wearing down a bit and I was thinking that I had burnt out on them and probably wouldn't be tempted anymore. The sense of salt and soy sauce felt stronger the longer I ate them. Nonetheless, I'd still heartily recommend giving them a try if you're in the mood for something salty and tired of the "blander" salted snacks on offer in Japanese stores.