Burger King Garlic Meat Beast and Garlic Double Cheese (product information)

"Garlic Meat Beast" sounds like a good name for a lot of things. It would be a great name for a rock band. It certainly would make a nice euphemism for a part of the male anatomy, especially if its owner is an aficionado of garlic. Incidentally, the Japanese does not say "beast", but says "garlic meat monster". That would be an even better name for a rock band.

These burgers became available on July 26, these became available, though for some reason they are not being sold at the Burger King near where I used to live (Shin-Koenji). I guess that meat monsters simply are not welcome there.

The word "stamina" in Japan is a code word for "high in calories and fat" and it is applied to the meat monster pictured at the top. As you can see, it has three kinds of meat as well as garlic chips, though one is a grilled piece of chicken so that shouldn't lend too much of a load to the calorie total. Unfortunately, I could not get stats on this as it was't included in the nutrition information on Burger King's site. I'd wager, however, that it'd be best to skip dinner if you have the beast for lunch.

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.

Glico Ta Pasta Pepperoncino

 Ta Pasta is one of those things that has been on my mind for quite some time. This is because the concept sounds interesting, but it's also because it has such a shiny silver package. Those of us with short attention spans are lured to such trivial details.

Rather more seriously, the flavors of the Ta Pasta line have always intrigued me, but not quite enough to get me to buy it until I found it on sale for about 130 yen. Usually, I see these for closer to 160 yen.The bag is 40 grams and has 176 calories.

My feeling every time I see these is that they are pretzels with an odd name. IN fact, if you look at them, they have the same marks on them as pretzel sticks. This is a land of things which are named in foreign languages which don't necessarily contain what the name might indicate. I once bought saw a box of condoms named "Passion Mint Jelly". There was no jelly in the box.This was before I realized that Japanese condoms are not exactly suitable for foreign males.

So, thinking these were probably pretzels, I purchased them only to discover that there is truth in advertising. This is pasta which is hard and crispy and seasoned strongly with garlic and less so with chicken and Italian pepper. They're fairly strong in terms of flavor and rather tasty and savory when it comes to their seasoning. However, the basic flavor of pasta as a background to the salty, powdery goodness on the outside isn't one that really lights my fire. If you've ever gnawed on an uncooked bit of pasta, it has a bit of that going for it. It's a carby, starchy flavor without the yeasty, light overtones of a bread-based snack (like a pretzel) or the potato crispiness of a chip based one (or the absolute awesomeness of corn).

These are fine. Really. There's nothing wrong with them but they're just not for me. I'm just not a big fan of that raw pasta flavor which whispers in the background. If you dig that sort of thing, and like garlic, I'd recommend giving this a go.

Cratz Anchovy and Garlic

As regular readers may recall, I'm not a big fan of fish. In fact, faced with a heaping stack of dried fish snacks, I nearly lost my nerve awhile back. It's not necessarily that I hate the taste of fish, but just that I don't love it enough to pursue it for snacking. Snacking, unlike meals, is often (if not always) a form of eating for entertainment purposes rather than for sustenance. I'm sure that's how King Henvy VIII went from a fine figure of a man to the bloated mass of wife-beheading monarch that most of us know him as. Henry VIII knew how to have a good time, and I'm not talking about the fact that he had six wives.

It's only the awesomeness of Cratz that convinced me to try these despite the fact that this includes fish flavors. Well, there's that and the fact that the inclusion of garlic is bound to have a mitigating effect on even the most unsavory of flavors. I also must confess to having more than a little curiosity about anchovy, as it's something I've never eaten before. While I hardly expect this to give me the full effect, I figure it's a toe in the water before I jump in and swim with the whole anchovy experience. Part of the reason I want to try anchovy-based things is that bagna cauda seems to be on the rise as a food fad in Japan (I'm starting to see jars of it for sale in markets) and I am curious about it. It's pretty expensive though so I want to be sure that mild anchovy flavor doesn't turn me into a retching mess before I spend my yen on a jar of bagna cauda.

My apologies, incidentally, for not having a picture of the little bits of pretzels and almond themselves. I simply couldn't work up the energy in the life-sapping summer heat to take a picture of something which looks exactly like all the other Cratz flavors with a slightly different colored powder on the outside. Rest assured, if you click on the link to other reviews in the previous paragraph, that's what I was eating.

The first thing that hits you when you pop them in your mouth is an overall savory flavor focusing on, unsurprisingly, garlic. There are also other "meaty" flavors in there including chicken. The fishy flavor of the anchovies hits you a bit later, and increases as you eat more of them. It's not overwhelming, but is quite present. The balance of flavors is pretty much right where it should be for a salted snack with depth and interest without any element being overbearing.

I enjoyed these, and I could actually see buying them again. They're not my favorite Cratz, but for variety, I'd definitely go for them again in the future. The only thing is that I'm pretty sure this taught me nothing about anchovies, so I'm just going to have to break down one of these days and actually buy a jar/tin of them. Oh well.

Tohato Tyrant Habanero Garlic Sticks

I studied psychology with a fairly strong emphasis on biology and behavior. One of the things I learned about was how and what stimulates the brain in a particular manner. In particular, the brain responds to pain by releasing counterbalancing pleasure chemicals. This is one of the reasons people like to eat foods that are hot and spicy despite the sometimes painful burn associated with them. It is a way of tricking your brain into juicing you up a bit.

Whatever the reason may be, I love hot and spicy things and the "Tyrant Habanero" product line always catches my eye. You can identify them in Japan by the evil jack-o-lantern red pepper mascot that graces every bag. There are only two things that keep me from having a constant supply of these snacks on hand, the calories and the fact that they taste great going in but are far less pleasant on the way out.


I came across these stick-style garlic habanero snacks at AM/PM convenience store. Those who want them have to get them at "conbini" as they are not sold in other types of shops. I'm afraid that I don't remember exactly what I paid for this 35 gram (1.2 oz.) bag, but I think it was around 130 yen ($1.44). The entire bag is 175.5 calories, and that's not bad for the quantity of salted snack sticks.

When I poured a few of these out to take the picture, I was reminded of some sort of spicy or barbecue snack stick that I had on rare occasions as a child and really loved. I have a strong sense that the brand name was "Popeye" (and a company named "Allens" makes Popeye potato sticks, but their web site is mum about snack foods), but I couldn't find anything on the web that resembled what I recall. Part of the problem is that Popeye's fried chicken is talked about so much that anything with "Popeye" and "spicy" brings up a chicken-related result. If anyone remembers what I'm talking about, I'd love to hear about it.

These sticks are not very long, about 4 inches or 10 cm each. They have a really perfect potato-based snack texture which is airy enough to be light and crispy but not so much as to feel like nothing. The spice at first carries a heavy garlic flavor, unsurprisingly, but the cumulative effect of the heat soon squashes that out of existence if you keep eating. And, oh, I kept eating. I ate the whole bag and my mouth was on blissful fire by the end. These have a great mix of garlic, onion, paprika, and various meaty flavors so the taste has depth until your tongue is too inflamed to detect them.

I adored these. I'd buy them again in a heartbeat, but I'd try harder not to eat the whole bag at once next time. I've heard that some people find the Tyrant Habanero series too meek for their hot food needs, but I found it just about right.

Garlic Pepper Beer Beano

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That's the message I need to keep in mind when I buy snacks made with healthy vegetables. Just because these salted snack tube things are made with peas, it doesn't mean that they carry any of the nutritional value or low calorie aspects of peas. I should know better by now. I'm not fooling anyone, least of all my thighs and ass.

I found these snacks (made by Tohato) at the local 100 yen shop (for 100 yen, about a buck) and was drawn to the promise of two great tastes that taste great together - garlic and pepper. I also though, hmmm, peas, much better than potato-based snacks. Stupid brain should have looked more carefully at the calorie content which is 63 grams (2.2 oz.) at 393 calories. That's worse than some deep-fried chips. This is pretty impressive considering the first ingredient is peas. I think they just make them with a lot of fat to help people who are drinking get a bit less drunk.


These smell fabulous. There's a heavy garlic scent when you open the bag. You can't really detect the pepper by scent. The flavor of garlic is first and foremost, followed by a slight vegetable flavor, and a pepper finishing flavor. They taste great if you love garlic.

The sticking point is the texture, which is hard to categorize. I'm not sure how these are made, and though they look like a Chee-to, they are more like a Styrofoam packing peanut in terms of texture. They're soft and spongy even though they're not stale. The texture is pretty much the point that spoiled these for me. If they had been crispy, I'd have loved them, but biting into them is singularly unsatisfying. You get the feeling they were air-popped or something, but there's too much fat in them for that to be the case.

These would have been a definite repeat purchase, despite the high caloric content, if it weren't for the texture. As it is, I can only recommend them if you aren't hung up on texture and adore garlic.

Garlic Butter Sembei

Thanks to the experimentation that this blog has encouraged me to do, I've changed from being indifferent to sembei to being quite the fan of it. In fact, I can safely say that it's something I'm going to miss when I eventually return to the U.S.

While this change of heart on the minor topic of sembei has been great for me, it's not been so good for my husband. He hates the smell of sembei and my occasional indulgence in a cracker or two puts him out. The solution, of course, is to not eat any sembei in front of him. That being said, I believe I have found a sembei that even a sembei hater might like.


I found this small (30 gram/1 oz.) bag for about 150 yen ($1.45) at FamilyMart. I've struck gold several times at FamilyMart while searching for sembei-based snacks in atypical flavors. A few of my favorites from there include the corn potage and wasabi sembei.

These rice crackers smell just like garlic bread and taste almost as good as the real deal. They don't even carry the telltale scent of baked rice cracker that you usually get with sembei. The flavor is a well-balanced blend of garlic with butter, salt and parsley. The crackers are about half the size of your average sembei, but they're light and the whole bag only has 145 calories.

I loved these and would recommend them over something like a potato chip any day. They're a limited edition from Kameida Seika which will be in shops for only about 4 months so you need to get out and sample them now while you have a chance. Even my husband, who dislikes sembei, liked these.

Riska Super Heart Chiple

The top of the bag says something like 'heart poundingly delicious.'

One of the local convenience stores near my home is a 99 yen (about $1) store. While many of the items are 99 yen, some are actually cheaper. There is a selection of small bags of salted snacks which are 4 bags for 99 yen or about a quarter/25 yen apiece. I'm not sure if these small bags are there for portion control or if they are directed toward children, but they are stocked near a variety of sweets that are definitely directed toward kids.

In the past, I've purchased "Christmas Packs" directed toward kids which contain a variety of snack items including salted snacks and sweets. One point I noticed about them was that they tended to contain "junk food" which was a bit less junky than those items marketed toward adults. This bag of Super Heart Chiple seems to fit the same mold. The chips are not made with potatoes. They are made with non-glutinous rice and resemble extremely light sembei both in texture and flavor.


Each chip is super light, heart-shaped and has little bumps on it as if it were cooked on a patterned baking sheet. While fat is the second ingredient, I don't believe these were deep fried. They are not overly oily, but they are shiny and (very marginally) greasy-feeling on the outside. The red dust on the outside is paprika.

When you open the bag, you get a whiff of garlic. The front of the package shows a garlic bulb and says that they've improved the garlic flavor. The chips are savory and lightly salty. Despite the flames around the garlic bulb, they are not actually hot though you can experience a cumulative hot garlic effect. The spiciness level is really quite pleasant and well-balanced. They do leave a pretty garlicky aftertaste in your mouth though so you don't want to eat them if you're in a position to offend someone else with your breath.

The company that makes these, Riska, is not a well-known brand. They appear to specialize in these sorts of cheap snacks and I wasn't surprised to see that they produce a lot of the bags of snacks in the section which offers 4 for 99 yen at the local store. They also seem to be responsible for a variety of children's sweets. The company is relatively young by Japanese standards, having been started in 1971. Like many companies, they have a quaint "philosophy" meant to humanize public perception of them rather than view them as merely a business. The company's production concept is "heart mind". The idea is that the "mind" part is related to technological advances and the "heart" relates to keeping the quality and touch of hand-made products.

The entire bag of chips is 15 grams (1/2 ounce) which doesn't sound like much, but there is a lot of crispy enjoyment in it. It's light because the chips are puffy. I didn't count, but I think there may be 20-25 chips in the small bag and it's only 84 calories. The main thing about these which may not be attractive to some foreign palates is that they do taste like sembei (rice crackers). If you like sembei and garlic, you will very likely enjoy these and they will offer you something salty which isn't as bad for you as a bag of chips. I certainly will be revisiting these next time I want something salty and crispy.

Garlic Doritos

One thing you notice if you live in Japan long enough is that food manufacturers are big fans of short-term variations on their core products. In the U.S., you find markets stocking a huge variety all the time, though they also introduce limited edition flavors regularly. In Tokyo, with such limited shelf space in most stores, you get more of what I'd call "serial variety". That means that you should stock up on some obscure flavor if you like it because it probably won't come around again for another year once it's off the shelves.

I've also been told by Japanese people that they like sampling a wide variety of flavors and, in fact, I've been told that the U.S. has little variety compared to Japan. Given that my CH's trip home last year included pictures of shelves chock-a-block with 12 different flavors of coffee creamer, the observation that the U.S. has little variety comes as a surprise to me. I think that what the Japanese people mean is that the U.S. doesn't have the flavor "revolving door" that Japan appears to have. The thing about these variations, and I have to give the marketing folks credit for this, is that they encourage you to sample. It's not only the novelty, but also the limited availability.

I'm not a big chip eater, but I decided to pick up these garlic Doritos at the 99 yen shop when I saw about fifty bags of them on display. I love garlic and I do like tortilla chips. However, my taste in tortilla chips is definitely more toward the baked variety. We buy cases of "Guiltless Gourmet" mucho nacho flavor chips from the Foreign Buyer's Club to have when the desire for something salty hits. I also pack a small handful of them with my CH's lunch most days. In general, Doritos are too greasy for me.


The garlic Doritos smelled like beef consomme when I opened the bag. The smell of garlic isn't all that strong. The taste, however, was pretty intense. When my CH tried them, he thought there was a hint of pepper in them but there is no pepper listed in the ingredients. I think that the garlic is so intense that it tastes a bit hot. If you've ever been foolish enough to bite down on a raw garlic clove, you know that it can taste rather hot depending on the age and type of garlic.

The chips definitely had a strong overtone of consomme flavor (like chicken or beef bullion cubes) and what are called "barbecue" chips in Japan. In the U.S., "barbecue" usually means a sort of spicy, tomato or ketchup flavored chip. In Japan, it is supposed to be a chip which tastes similar to barbecued or grilled meat.

While these chips aren't bad, they also aren't great. If you want something salty and they're around, they're serviceable. However, they aren't the sort of thing I'd find myself craving or buying again.