H & H Trading Milk Stick Wafers

I saw these "milk stick wafers" on offer many times at local 100 yen shops like Lawson 100 as well as the hybrid market/100 yen shop "My Basket". I generally had bigger fish to fry and turned up my nose like some snack food snob at this pedestrian offering. Actually, the truth wasn't that I was too good for cheap wafers, but rather that I'd been burned far too often when it came to wafers in Japan. Sure, they could deliver a nice crunch, and often they were calcium fortified, but generally there wasn't much going on in the flavor department.

Image from Amazon Japan.

While I hate to be one of "those" Americans who whines about Japanese sweets in comparison to what I could get back home, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to turn to that sort of loathsome behavior in the case of what we commonly call "sugar wafers" here. In Japan, they rarely put enough cream or sugar between them, or the wafers were too thick and tough. There was one type which was bland, but I liked it anyway and that is the vanilla whole grain ones pictured above. Before I realized that Japanese sweets that were "healthy" and not especially sweet were still packing enough carbohydrate calories to increase my pants size, I used to buy these all of the time and polish off a package in no more than four sittings (sometimes in as few as two). These had a nice earthy whole grain taste that I enjoyed, but they were not what one would call a "sugar wafer", despite appearances to the contrary.

The cookies that I picked up an Hankook Korean market may not look like a traditional sugar wafer, but that is what they taste like. They are just a little unusual in their construction. The outside is standard crispy wafer material and the inside is sweet filling. There are two differences, however, between this and other types of wafers. One is that the thicker construction of this tube style wafer makes it less crispy and ever so marginally tougher. I'm guessing this is intentional to stop them from being brittle enough to shatter at the drop of a case of them being loaded onto a truck. They are surprisingly resilient to clumsy treatment.

OK, there are actually 3 differences... they also have a goofy slogan written on them in English. The Japanese above it just says "milk stick wafers" so this is not a translation.

The other difference is that they have "milk" flavor filling. As I've said before, "milk" is actually a flavor in Japan. It either tastes like powdered milk that has been sweetened (that's when it's really bad) or like condensed milk (that's when it's not so bad). These resemble the latter. Every time I buy one of these, I yearn for some flavor depth of some sort. Would it kill them to add some vanilla? Seriously.

All that being said, these are perfectly serviceable sugar wafers. The main good point is the excellent portion control. When I have a proper bag of sugar wafers, I want to eat a lot of them, but two fingers (53 calories) are in one foil packet so you are discouraged from eating more than one serving. They are sweet enough without being too sweet, and the wafer design makes them far less crumbly than the plank-style ones (which tend to flake off everywhere).

All of that being said, and even given that they only cost $1.29 (119 yen), I wouldn't buy these again. For 99 cents, I can pick up a package of European sugar wafers at a discount store that will have more volume, less wasteful packaging and a better flavor (like hazelnut). It's not that these are bad. It's more that they aren't especially good.

Taiko Milk Caramel Sticks

I've had the empty bag from this package of milk caramel sticks ("bo") in my desk drawer for about a month. The reason for that is that I consumed them happily and quickly and did not quite get around to reviewing them. I wasn't exactly waiting for any particular reason, but since this appears to be a (hopefully) permanent fixture at Daiso Japan, I favored reviewing things with limited availability over this uniquely Japanese cookie.

The reason I'm getting around to it today is not that I don't have other things to review. The truth is that I do, but I caught a cold and my sense of taste and smell have been obliterated. I can't give anything new a fair shake right now so I'm reliving the tasty memory of these cookies. After you've eaten a whole bag (not all at once, mind you), it's rather easier to recall their flavor.

I've mentioned in previous reviews that I'm not the biggest fan of caramel, so this was my last choice among the Taiko tube-shaped cookies at Daiso Japan. Previously, I reviewed their sweet potato and brown sugar varieties and enjoyed them both. There's something about their texture and balance of sweetness that really appeals to me. They're simple in terms of flavor, but not in a bad way. The sense I get from them is one of nostalgia, but not for Japan or Japanese things. It's nostalgia that relates to times when food was made in a much simpler way rather than formulated for maximum appeal from teams of focus groups and test markets. I just get the feeling someone made these and sold them without tweaking them to death to optimize sales. 

Though sometimes "simple" can mean poorly formulated, but I really do think these are made well with their pockets of airy crispness and sugary outside. The caramel flavor is very subtle, and while quite sweet, they are not cloying. The package says they are "gentle" milk caramel flavor and I say they are all the better for that. In fact, I'd rate them as second the sweet potato version (which were sweeter, but had a flavor I enjoyed more). If you add in the fact that each cookie is about 6 inches long and only 52 calories, you're looking at a sweet treat that gives a lot of satisfaction for a low calorie price.

This is one of those unassuming treats that looks rather dicey to those who can't read Japanese and are unfamiliar with this style of snacks, but these are delicious and I would invite anyone with access to them to pick up a pack and try them in one of the three available flavors. I can't guarantee you'll like them, but there's a very low chance you'll hate them. For only $1.50 (124 yen) a package, it's not much of a risk. 

Yaokin Vegetable Salad Umaibo

Some time ago, I bought a variety pack of Yaokin salted snacks which included 5 varieties of "umaibo". "Umai" is "delicious" and "bo" means stick. I figured that this would cover pretty much all of the umaibo I'd ever want or need to sample. These are very cheap kid's snacks, and tend to be a bit greasy, nicely crispy, and fairly flavorful. Their main appeal is in the texture, which is a large airy corn puff, and their relatively strong natural corn flavor. Though they come in different flavors, but are generally a similar experience with a backbone of savory flavors like garlic, onion, chicken, beef and pork with another flavor layer added into the mix as the dominant one. Their main appeal, frankly, is that they are incredibly cheap and come with sometimes amusing package designs.

The reason I find myself reviewing another umaibo is not that the package is claiming that they have added more deliciousness (umai uppu!), but rather that my husband was handed a magazine in a plastic bag that also included this umaibo. Free snacks! All you have to do is be on the right street corner when someone is handing out a magazine which is almost all advertising and almost no actual content. If you want to buy one for yourself, they'll set you back about 10 yen (13 cents) at most supermarkets or snack shops.

Though this claims to be "vegetable" flavor, it smells rather fishy. I'm not sure why that should be because it doesn't taste fishy. In fact, it's hard to pin down what it tastes like at all because there is a general melange of spices. The ingredients list includes cabbage, onion, bell pepper, potato, and garlic seasonings. It tastes pretty good in the way that things that are very, very bad for you can taste. There is so much oil on the exterior that placing it on a tissue to take a picture left an oily spot on it.

Since I didn't buy this, I can't really speak to "buying it again", but if someone gave me another one for free, I'd certainly eat one again. All of these Yaokin snacks are economical salted snack niceness. There's no nutrition data on these, but I imagine they're made with damaged fats and have little of redeeming value. Still, the portion size is smallish and the texture is good and they are flavorful. Next time someone gives you one for free, I recommend taking it.

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.