Hungry's Maple Caramel Chewing Candy

Sometimes I run across something which makes me very curious about exactly what it is. This item appealed to me on two fronts. First of all, what the heck is "chewing candy"? Second, it has a weird name. Why would anyone name this "Hungry's"? One of these questions could be answered by making the purchase and sampling the product. The other will remain a relative mystery.

This is made by mega-food maker Meiji, but it appears to be a separate division which handles gum, hard candies, caramels, and small children's toys that are sold in the candy section of Japanese markets (among other things). The fact that Meiji is so huge that they separate out their candy and gum section from the chocolates and other products is a good indication of how huge they are.


I found this candy at a discount snack shop. This was the first time I had ever encountered it. It's smallish, about 10 cm long (about 4 in.) and 2 cm wide (.8 in.) and only cost 28 yen (about a quarter). I noticed that the package doesn't really give you a good idea of what the candy is going to look like. You can see an illustration of a portion of it hidden behind the logo on the right. When you see the candy, you can see why they are trying to draw more attention to the maple syrup aspect on the left. It's not a pretty sight.

I didn't take a picture of a cross section of this because it looks the same inside as the end you can see in the picture above. You can see that little bits of something are studded in the "log" of stuff this is made of. The ingredients include almonds, hazelnuts, pineapple, and mango. I'm guessing that these little specs are a mixture of those things.

This smells vaguely sweet with a whisper of maple. It's quite tacky to the touch so it's best to eat it from the wrapper. When I took my picture, I put it on a tissue and it stuck to it (but I was able to pry it off). The texture, smell and general sense of this is like a softer Bit-O-Honey bar. If you've never had that, the texture of this is like a nougat crossed with taffy. It's easy to bite into and chew. It neither goes down like a caramel because it doesn't tend to have that slick, melting away feel nor like a Hi-Chew because it lacks that latex-like chewing gum feel. The flavor doesn't really carry much of the fruit bits or nuts. It has a nice maple flavor. It's sweet, but not throat burning or overbearing. Since maple sugar is the first ingredient, this is not surprising.

As for the name, I believe it is supposed to imply that you can eat this when you're hungry. The fruit and nuts bits are supposed to make this a more fortifying experience. I don't know if that is actually true, I only know that I liked it and would definitely buy it again. For 28 yen, it's a steal.

A Brief Off-Topic Post

Some of the readers from my former personal blog mentioned that they would miss my recipes, so I thought I would mention that I will be posting new recipes on a blog I share with my friend called "Carl's Kitchen". I won't be posting regularly because I don't come up with new recipes that often, but if you want to see what's cooking in the Flower's house, you can subscribe to Carl's Kitchen.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Thanks for reading!

Mexican Salsa and Chicken Cratz

My earliest exposure to "Mexican" style snack food in Japan was a bag of "ethnican" flavor chips. I never worked out what nationality the mighty ethnicans came from, but the chips did have a slightly hot, tomato flavor which was reminiscent of salsa. Mexican food isn't big in Japan so you don't find much in the way of food in the salsa-flavored range. I'm guessing this is because the Japanese favor mild flavors rather than complex, heavily spiced foods.


Glico seems to have retired the Alpen Salt and Chicken version of their Cratz pretzel snacks in favor of something new and more ethnican. The light blue bag has been replaced by a deep pink one emblazoned with a simple cactus. Like all of the Cratz line, these cost between 100 and 140 yen (about $1 to $1.40) for 44 grams (1.5 oz.) depending on where you buy them. Because of the roasted almonds, there are more calories in these than an equivalent amount of something like potato chips. The whole bag is 223 calories.

When you open the bag, it smells like salsa and ketchup with a melange of savory spices mixed in. The pretzels are dense, super crunchy and a little hard. The flavor is very intense, as is the case with the other types of Cratz. They're clearly made to be eaten with a beverage so that your palate is cleansed between bites. There's a little heat in these that hits at the back of the tongue and throat. They're quite spicy with tomato, onion, garlic, and chicken flavors. The ingredients include salsa seasoning, chicken extract powder, tomato paste, and bacon extract.

I liked these quite a bit, but less so than the other flavors of Cratz. I think they reproduced a salsa-ish flavor pretty well, but it's a bit too intense even with a Diet Coke to wash them down between bites. I also noticed that there seemed to be far fewer almonds in this than the previous bags. It could simply be that I was unlucky though. I'd buy these again if I were in the right mood, but I'd be more likely to buy the bacon pepper or cheddar varieties.

Morinaga Banana Caramels

the box that contains 6 small boxes

The spawn of the banana fad in Japan continue to multiply like bunnies on aphrodisiacs. I wish they'd give it a rest because, frankly, I'm tired of thinking of things to say about banana-flavored stuff and my husband isn't going to stop buying these things. Of course, I don't have to review them because he buys them, but not doing so would seem like a wasted opportunity.

the small box that contains 12 caramels

These caramels are actually rather special because you can't buy them anywhere except New Days convenience store and you can only buy them as part of a big box containing 6 smaller boxes. Most of Morinaga's line of caramels, which includes milk, brown sugar, green tea and adzuki, are sold for about a dollar (100 yen) as single boxes. I don't know why you have to buy six boxes in one bigger box for these banana caramels, but it certainly meant my husband took on a far greater risk when he forked over about $6 (600 yen) for the whole lot.

the foil that protects the caramels from harsh exposure to germs

The caramels look similar to and have the same texture as Morinaga's other very good caramels. They're firm and a little sticky, but soften easily in the mouth and become very chewy. They're very small, about the size of the base of a Hershey's Kiss candy and about 20 calories apiece. They don't smell especially strong, which always encourages me with fruit-flavored items. The ingredients state that the banana flavor comes from "banana powder". Other than that, they're mainly sugar and whey.

The banana flavor in these is strong, but not in a nasty or overbearing way. They very much remind me of some banana-flavored candy I had as a kid back in the U.S. but that memory is so far back in the recesses of my mind that I can't attach a brand name or even a candy appearance to it. The main point is that it's not fake tasting and isn't one of those chemical bombs that reminds you of the esters you worked with in high school chemistry class.

I'm not a big fan of banana sweets (though I love bananas as a fruit), but I found these fairly tasty. I wouldn't seek them out necessarily because, well, I'm not big into banana-flavored sweets. The rating I'm offering is based on the fact that I wouldn't balk at eating one of these if offered and that my husband likes them a lot and said he wouldn't hesitate to buy them again. If you tend to like banana-flavored items, as he does, you'd likely enjoy them.

Iwatsuka Kinako Sembei

I've been perusing the sembei aisles with an increasing sense of boredom as of late. Given my hatred of shrimp, I find a lot of the rice crackers that I haven't yet sampled increasingly unappealing. Fortunately, Iwatsuka Seika, the same company that made the smoked potato cheese cracker pellets I reviewed before, put out some kinako sembei and I'm a sucker for all things kinako.


If the fact that these are kinako wasn't appealing enough, being 15 calories per cracker upped the appeal. Unfortunately, being low calorie only helps if you don't feel inclined to gobble down half the 24-piece bag in one sitting. I regained control after 4 pieces, but that was still more than I felt I should be eating at once.

For the umpteenth time, I will remind everyone that kinako is toasted soy flour with a nutty, almost peanut butter-like taste. It's not for everyone, but it's one of the more approachable flavors among various common Japanese seasonings. These smell like kinako, of course, and are generously dusted on the outside with a layer of seasoning that includes cinnamon. There's a hint of sweetness and a vague suggestion of salt.

One negative point about these is that they're rather messy because the seasoning is applied so thickly. The bits of seasoning tend to just fall off as soon as you open the packet. Also, they're wrapped in paper wrappers which I'm sure aren't going to protect them well from going stale. Fortunately, I expect to gobble up the whole bag soon enough so there's little danger that they'll have time to go stale.