Month #10 - South Korea Snacks

 Well this month is the snacks of South Korea and I've kind of already done this one. In the last Korean snack review post I declared that I'd be "done with this forever." Sproing! Well at least, most of these are new and so there is not much overlap, hopefully it won't be too boring.

Starting with some facts about South Korea..

Everyone in South Korea shares the same birthday. Everyone celebrates their "birthday" on New Year's Day, incrementing their age by one. Not only that, ages also start at 1 - when someone is born, they are already 1 year old and after 1 year of life, on New Year's Day, become 2! And so forth, and so on.

Imsil-gun is home to a cheese-themed amusement park.

South Korea boasts the highest average internet speeds in the world. Their internet speed is 4 times the world average and double the average of the U.S.

In South Korea, dreaming of pigs is considered good luck.

Green Onion Chex is a real cereal flavor in South Korea - though I will not be reviewing them. Come on...

1. Shrimp Chips

Review:

When I hear the phrase "shrimp chips" by taste buds don't exactly tingle with anticipation. I like shrimp as much as, or more than, the next guy but anything that's only the real thing. Anything that's "shrimp flavored" is suspect.

First off, these are not the usual "chips". They're airy and inflated, like Munchos - no hint of potato. Then there is the shrimp flavor. I'll give it credit, it isn't the disgusting "pet store" flavor I was expecting. Rather than tasting vaguely like a pet store, they taste vaguely like a Red Lobster. I give these a "pass" but it surely could've been worse.

2. Spicy Chicken Flavor Corn Puffs

Review:

When foods that are "Cool Ranch" flavor are exported to other countries, they are often labelled as "Cool American" flavor - the term "Ranch" doesn't have an equivalent in other languages. Given the red-orange packaging of this item I wondered if "Spicy Chicken" would have anything to do with Buffalo chicken. It doesn't.

But here's the good news. There is a flavor that you'll see around sometimes and they sell it at Whole Foods called "Honey Sriracha." The "spicy chicken" tastes like that. Or I might be thinking of "Mikes Hot Honey" or maybe it tastes like both. 

As for the "corn puff" part, unlike the "chips," these are excellent. The corn puffs just taste like popcorn, perhaps they are popcorn.

So the end result is popcorn covered with Mike's Hot Honey and that's a great snack, as far as I'm concerned. You got your hot, but then you got your sweet. Highly recommend, if that kind of thing is up your alley. 

3. Couque D'Asse - White

Review:

Don't read that out loud!

This is the first repeat review. You can read my original review here. 

A few updates. The packaging, this time, has the additional texts "Mascarpone & Cream" and "Italian style Cream Cheese & Ultra rich Cream." The surprises never end. It's a Korean snack with a seemingly French name of an Italian food.

One other thing: it still tastes the same, it's still good, but this time I may have gotten an old batch or maybe something happened because there's a slight aftertaste that I would label "spray paint fumes." Eating these, I was instantly transported back in time to 6th Grade Industrial Arts class. Ah, the memories.

4. Sweet & Sour Chewy  - Grape

Review:

If you imagined that Sweet & Sour Chewy candy would taste like chewy, waxy grape blocks, you'd be absolutely correct. They remind me of an American candy (or perhaps several American candies) but I don't recall which ones. Maybe Now & Laters.

The grape taste is pretty extreme and the upper-right of the packaging says that they contain Vitamin C. Healthy. They taste very good, even if there's nothing exceptional about them. They make me continue to wish Bonkers were still around. Remember Bonkers? Various articles say they're "coming back" in 2018, there's a website that says "coming soon." I can't get my hopes up, the hurt is too deep.

5. Choco Pie - Black Sugar Milk Tea

Review:

And this is the second snack that was already reviewed. I noted that it tasted like a Moon Pie or a Tastykake. Nothing has changed. Still good, but nothing exotic.

6. Peach Gummies

Review:

These remind me of the Japanese Kasugai gummies; perhaps we might generalize about the Asian gummy genre in general... They offer a more natural, more realistic fruit flavor but with a less gummy, less chewy consistency. Consistent with that standard, these have a great peachy peach flavor but the gumminess is not as gummy as the American gummy consistency I prefer.

Would you stop saying "gummy" so much? 

The packaging suggests that the gummies have a jelly filling. I bit a few in half and was not able to confirm any inner pocket.

If you want to try a peach gummy candy, this is a good one.

---

So that's it for for this installment but before I conclude, I think this would be a good place to advertise the best South Korean snack I've discovered so far (and it wasn't covered in this post, nor the 6 other South Korean Snack posts).

The best South Korean snack I know of, so far, is Haitai Honey Butter Chips.

These are the classic American potato chip with a slight sweet honey taste. You've got your salty, you've got your savory, you've got got your buttery, you've got your sweet. It's everything. And I'm not even a potato chip guy, normally.

Be aware: when you buy potato chips that have been shipped from South Korea, you're going to pay a markup for a fairly cheap product. But I'm enamored enough with these that I've done it 3 or 4 times. And they are available on Amazon so it really is just a matter of the money and shipping.

So that's South Korea.

Korean Snack Reviews #6

We're nearing the end. There are 8 Korean Snacks to go and then the Korean section is entirely complete. I'm going to keep things brief to get all 8 in and be done with it forever.

1)

Name: Choco-Pie

Additional Text: With Marshmallow Filling

Review:

You may be thinking, "How is this a Korean snack if the label is written in English?" According to wikipedia:

In 1973, a member of the R&D team of the Korean firm Tongyang Confectionery visited a hotel in Georgia, US, and was inspired by the chocolate-coated sweets available in the hotel's restaurant. He returned to South Korea and began experimenting with a chocolate biscuit cake, creating the “choco pie” as it is known to Koreans. 

So if you've ever had a Moon Pie, you know what this is. I don't know if they have Tastykakes where you are but to me this tastes exactly... ALMOST EXACTLY... like a marshmallow Tastykake. The only difference is the cream doesn't hit as hard. Pretty good. 

2) 

Name: Couque D'Asse

Additional Text: White Torte

Review:

Whatever you do, don't try to pronounce that name. You may be thinking, "How is this a Korean snack if the label is written in French?" Well, wikipedia left me hanging on this one.

This is too small but tastes great. It's a simple vanilla cookie bar with a chocolate strip. It's all a little too light except there is a creamy vanilla flavor in there that I really enjoy. High marks.

3)

Name: Couque D'Asse

Additional Text: Vienna coffee

Review:

You may be thinking, "How is this a Korean..."...ok, I'll stop now. I can't go anywhere near anything with "coffee" labeling so here are some people from the internet to do my job for me:

4)

Name: K-BBQ

Additional Text: Crispy Sea Snack Korean BBQ Flavor

Review:

I'm of two minds. The Korean BBQ flavor part sounds great, I'm excited. The "crispy sea snack" part fills me with dread. Which will win out? I think we get a major clue when we look upon them:

And, as you might expect, the "sea snack" tastes like fish food. It's the classic "walking into the fish section of the pet store" taste. It's horrendous. No offense to anyone but it's one of the worst tastes there could be. No. No. No. No.

5)

Name: Buldak Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen

Additional Text: Cheese

Review:

This feels like the climax to the Korean food eating. This ramen package is one of the largest items in the collection and its yellow packaging means that I've been noticing it for a long time. This is also the only snack that's a meal - and a meal that needs to be cooked.

The directions are so easy, how could I possibly screw this up? 1) Boil the ramen, 2) Remove from water, add "liquid sauce" and stir-fry. 3) Add "cheese powder" and serve.

Well, being me, I had to google "how to stir-fry." If you're saying, "the directions are in the name," remember, this is a blog and I can't hear you. Besides, as it turns out, I still can't do it, even with the directions. Stir-fry requires high heat and I don't have a pan that goes above medium. I improvised and I think it was fine.

On the first bite of the first bowl I realized I was basically done. The packaging that advertises "HOT Chicken Flavor" is no joke. This is so spicy that it's like a food you eat on a dare. My mouth was on fire with spicy pain. I hate that.

Take into account that I'm not a spicy food guy. If you have a "tolerance" or whatever, this might be your thing. But it's not mine. Did I say I hate it, yet? I hate it. Aside from the hotness, how does it taste? I'd guess it's pretty good. 

And I now realize the mistake I made and a warning for all of you out there making this yourselves. In Step 2, I added all the "liquid sauce" and I bet if you wanted it less spicy you could just add a fraction to taste. The directions don't tell you that. Live and learn.

6)

Name: Oh yes!

Review:

Oh yes? How about Oh no!

There's some redundancy in this chocolate section of the Korean snacks. Like the Choco-Pie, this is a chocolate coating around two cakes sandwiching chocolate cream. Apparently the Moon Pie formula really hit it big in Korea.

It's hard to not like cake and chocolate but on the level of a chocolate snack, this is not great. Not terrible but wouldn't recommend.

7)

Name: VicPie (Victory Pie)

Review:

The redundancy continues: like the others, chocolate coating around two biscuits sandwiching cream. The differences are only that the biscuits are more crunchy this time and the cream has a slight strawberry taste to it. The strawberry is very slight. Okay, but pass.

8)

Name: Choco Heim - Choco Hazelnut

Review:

Fans of Korean Snack Reviews #3 will remember White Heim. Well this is that but with chocolate.

It's a sugar-wafery thing that's filled with light chocolate. It's another of those "light" and "subtle" flavor that is nice but unremarkable.

---

And that's the end of the Korean Food Reviews. It ends not on a bang, but on a whimper but it's all the luck of the draw, I suppose. Thank you for enduring this year-long journey. There is still one more Japanese episode left.

Korean Snack Reviews #5

In the previous segment it was October and I joked that the next time I finished one of these it would be coming out in 2022. Well, the jokes are real. Let's get started...

1.

Translated Name: "Ace"

Additional Text: Ace

Review:

These are crackers, you can see what they look like by the picture on the wrapper. They're crackers that are slightly sweet and fairly buttery. If you want to know what they taste like, they're very similar to Ritz Crackers - they're like Ritz Crackers with 10% less flavor. Very good but Ritz are better.

2.

Translated Name: "Yuja Cheesecake" (spelled phonetically)

Additional Text: Yuja Cheesecake

Review:

The main thing is: they're very good but I want to make it clear that the word "cheesecake" is being abused here. It's a soft, cakey bread cookie with orange-colored fruit filling. "Cheesecake" has nothing to do with anything. 

These have a very close American analogue - they taste almost exactly like Fig Newtons. I kid you not. The filling is orange but I'm telling you that's what they taste like. Pretty good.

3.

Translated Name: "Crown Sando Sweet Milk"

Additional Text: Sweet Milk

Review:

These are vanilla biscuits sandwiching vanilla cream. They're very light, very airy. The biscuits are almost crackers. It's all pleasant but everything is so light and airy that it's hard to have any reaction. Not bad.

4.

Translated Name: "Post" (In French)

Additional Text: Adorable Cracker Sand - Cheese Tarte

Review:

Looks like this:

Where do you get off calling this "adorable?" I see no adorableness anywhere.

In our culture, seeing two crackers like these in a sandwich, you're expecting a Ritz cracker with either peanut butter or cheese in the middle. The wrapper even says "cheese tarte." But the crackers don't taste like Ritz and the cheese doesn't taste like anything. This food review thing is hard. How do you react to things that don't taste like anything? I should review bottled water.

5.

Translated Name: "Butter Waffles"

Additional Text: Have a good time with the Butter Waffles of Crown.

Review:

These are "waffles" and it occurs to me now that "waffle" likely has the same root as "wafer." 

The general theme of all these Korean snacks seems to be "light and airy." And so I went into these "Butter Waffles" with little hope. Fortunately my expectations were subverted - it's a Rian Johnson snack. These are dense and crunchy and have a more obvious sweet flavor. They look like this:

The strong sweet flavor and the texture are a win here. One of the best snacks in this bunch.

And that's it. Next up is Japanese Snacks #5.

Korean Snack Reviews #4

 The last time I did one of these it was July. In fact, we're coming up on the 1 Year Anniversary of the start of this. This is not how it was supposed to go.

Well, anyways...

1.

Translated Name: Whale Food

Review:

These are light crackers, about the size of Goldfish crackers. They look like this:

They have a taste that's hard to describe but I would best reckon it as "seaweed." They're not for me, wouldn't recommend.

2.

Translated Name: Roasted Grain <Something>

Review:

I have a sneaking suspicion that the photo above is upside down but there's nothing I can do about it. This is a very light, airy crust surrounding a very light cream. It looks like this:

It's hard to describe because I have nothing to compare it to. And it's so light, it's almost like eating nothing at all. There's some salt, some sweet, some cereal taste, some crunch. Ultimately I wouldn't recommend it but it's so light, I can't have a strong opinion.

3.

Translated Text: Juice Made from Ground Up Pears

Review:

This is one of the snacks I've been looking forward to the most. Within the large box of various snacks, the one can of soda stood out like a sore thumb. It's an exotic soda and I'm all about exotic sodas. 

Now, although it was made of pears, I really felt a strong Macintosh apple taste. Very sweet and good. And they really sell the "real pear" thing because when you get to the bottom, there's grit and pulp particles.

And although it's maybe a little strange that it's pear and I think it tastes like apples, here's where it gets stranger still. I tasted in this drink a lot of Fanta Grape. I would never have connected pear or apple to Grape Fanta before this but I'm telling you the overlap is there. Very strange. Good stuff, I say.

4.

Translated Name: Sand Ace

Additional Text: Yogurt Cream. More Soft.

Review:

Vanilla crackers sandwiching vanilla cream. They're a bit like Vienna Fingers except crackers rather than cookies/biscuits. In fact, the crackers have a bit of a salty taste. Quite good.

5.

Translated Name: Green Tea

Review:

Fun fact: I can't try Green Tea because I have a weird allergic (or something) reaction to it. The only symptom it causes that I really wish to talk about is it makes me dizzy, causing the world to spin slowly and makes it hard to walk a straight line. It's like being drunk, in short. I still remember walking down the hall at work and stumbling back and forth, trying to get my balance. Very strange.

Needless to say I didn't try this one but I'm going to go ahead and assume that the Green Tea tastes like Green Tea.

And that's it. Next Time: Japan Snacks #4.

Korean Snack Reviews #3

 Well it's been about 3 months but now there's another one of these. How are you doing? How's the family?

1.

Translated Name: King Sura

Review:

I didn't take a picture of the snack because what you see on the package is pretty accurate. The only thing I would say is that they look orange on the package but they're more brown in person. These are like thick Frosted Flakes with a thin crispy crust - not just what they look like but what they taste like - but then at the end there's a subtle flavor of something like sesame seed. I immediately was wondering how popular these are. I can see myself being at work and being in the mood for cereal so I'd get these out of the vending machine.

2.

Translated Name: White Heim - White Hazelnut

Review:

So with a name like "White Heim" you'd guess that it's probably the product of another country but perhaps popular in Korea but AskJeeves tells me it really is from Korea. Perhaps they give it a European-sounding name for flair. They look like this:

When you were a kid, did your grandparents give you Sugar Wafers? These are like a fancier version of that. This was excellent, although it's not so exotic, it's one of the best things in the whole collection. If I'm being really critical, there is a strange aftertaste that isn't pleasant. Perhaps strange, more complex flavors come with attempting fanciness. I don't know. Really good.

3.

Translated Name: Sweet Red Bean Jelly

Review:

Well with the name "Sweet Red Bean Jelly" I think the review writes itself. In some sense it tastes like nothing but yet it somehow tastes really gross. How is that possible? Buy some for yourself. 

I actually took a photo of the actual food but this post has been in development for 4 months. So I recently looked at the photos on my phone, saw the photo of this, didn't remember what it meant and said "What the heck was that?" - Delete. Just imagine a rectangle of dark jelly substance.

4.

Translated Name: Banana Kick - Banana Puff

Review:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to combine the form of cheese puffs with the taste of banana? No? Well here it is:

What you think of these hinges on how you feel about that artificial "banana" flavor. I love banana flavor so I'm onboard.  Did you ever wonder why artificial banana flavor doesn't actually taste like banana? It's because the "banana" flavor was originally based on a type of banana that no longer exists. The banana that is most common today has a flavor that's more chemically complex and harder to replicate so candy producers keep using the old one.

Puff snacks with the taste of banana - that's pretty much it. Every once in a while you may hit a vein of salt but not much.

Generally going through all the snacks, there's an apparent tradeoff between exotic and good - the things I'm tending to like are things that have American analogs - but this is one of the few things in the entire collection that is both really weird and pretty good.

5.

Translated Name: Syrup Coated Rice Senbei

Review:

So, first off, "senbai" is a Japanese word meaning rice crackers. So this is a Korean product with an English transliteration of a Japanese word. And not only that, it also has Chinese writing on it. It's tri-lingual.

Just picking it up, you know something's different. There's a certain heft that comes with a cookie whereas this is very, very light. Aaaand, true to form it tastes like the other rice cracker I ate (See: Korean Snack 2.2). Rice crackers be not my thing, yo.

So that's everything. Was it worth the wait? Perhaps we'll have another installment in another 4 months. We can have up to 3 of these per year and this can go on indefinitely.

Korean Snack Reviews #2

... And we're back!!!

This is part of the continuing mission to try and review, to the extent that I can, random Korean and Japanese snacks. If you've missed the earlier installments, don't bother, they're not good.

1.

Translated Name: "Sa bu lay" (a phonetic translation of the French "Sable")

Review:

So it's another Korean snack that isn't really Korean. The last one was Italian, this one is French. Should I even be reviewing it? Answers on a postcard to the usual address...

So this is a pretty normal, French cookie. It looks like this:

So nothing crazy. Tastewise, this is a good, quality cookie. It's in the same ballpark as a Nilla Wafer. Not the same, mind you, but in that general ballpark. Would be great with milk, I think.

2.

Translated Name: Rice Cracker/Cookie

Review:

Man, the name of the snack really takes the thunder out of my review. It tastes pretty much like a rice cake - it’s a long slab of airy, crispy rice cake. That's in general, but then there are differences: it’s also covered in salt and has an MSG taste. It's almost like a crisp, airy Funyon. There’s also a hint of something burnt. As you can tell, it's an interesting experience but it's more "interesting mystery" than actually delicious. I don't trust a rice cake. Never trust a rice cake.

3.

Translated Name: Yakwa (Sweet and oily traditional Korean cookie)

Review:

OK strap in, Jub Jubs because this is going places. It's money time, Chacos.

Spoiler alert: this is the most interesting snack in this episode, possibly of the entire series.

So technically you'd expect a cookie or a cracker but it's kind of like that but altogether different. The consistency is waxy and slightly gummy like it's a distant Korean cousin of Candy Corn or something. So that's strange but then there's the taste.

At first it starts out tasting like play dough. It's not full play dough but it's like 10% play dough. But then it morphs. As it goes on, the taste transitions into tasting like a nice plain donut. I kid you not - it's candy corn that starts out as play dough and becomes a candy donut. And, as I am a donut lover, I declare this to be amazing. Not that it's the best tasting snack ever, necessarily, but the weirdness and eventual destination make this real Willy Wonka stuff here.

4.

Translated Name: Ko-so-mi (Unknown, maybe "sesame"? The side text mentions cracker)

Review:

They look like this:

As you can see, this is pretty much in the cracker family. This is a very cookie and cracker heavy installment. But the white powder on top isn't salt, it's sugar. So at first it's sweet like a cookie, really like a graham cracker and then it turns savory. More specifically, it has some sort of a grainy taste at the end that I can't identify. It's similar to a Wheat Thin.

It's good, it's a mixture of sweet and savory but there's nothing amazing here. It's just a nice cracker kind-of-thing.

5.

Translated Name: Grain Cookie

Additional Text: Nature

Review:
The picture is largely accurate but the cracker has tiny black spots that don't really come through in the photo. They're weird, they're obviously a seed or a grain but they look like mouse droppings. This is yet another cracker/cookie mashup that I don't have a lot to say about. It very much tastes like if you took a Social Tea Biscuit and muted it somewhat with some graininess added.

And that's it. We'll be back next time with Japanese Snacks #2. Thanks again to Nathan for the translations.

Korean Snack Reviews #1

As promised, this is Part #1 of my reviews of Japanese and Korean snacks. I don't know what to say here, so let's begin...

1.

Translated Name: The Best!

Review:

Given the fact that these are orange on the wrapper and that they're Korean, this one made me a little nervous. I kind of assumed they would be flavored like crab or shrimp or some other seafood. To my surprise and delight, they're actually light brown, not orange and they taste like cinnamon cereal. They're like Cinnamon Toast Crunch if you toned them waaay down and made them slightly bland. If I recall correctly, they taste almost exactly like Apple Cinnamon Cheerios (do they still make those? Yes!). In fact they taste so much like Apple Cinnamon Cheerios that I was going to theorize that they were made of oat. But that's when I realized that the ingredients are actually printed in English and they say Wheat. A lesson in hubris for me.

Still, pretty good, off to a good start. I wouldn't travel thousands of miles to eat them but not bad for sure.

2.

 

 

Translated Name: Nuneddine (nonsense word, or possibly Italian).

Review:

 

The first thing to note is that the wrapper says "Italian Snack". So it's an Italian snack but this review is for Korean snacks so I'm trapped. Checkmate from the Koreans on this one.

 

This is a very light, very airy, crispy croissant-like thing. It's like a Danish without the fruit. On top of the crunchy cookie is a very thin layer of sugary frosting-like material. It tastes like a croissant, but it almost tastes like nothing, it's so airy. Not bad but not good, just neutral.

3.

 

 

Translated Name: Cookie

Additional Text: Biscuit, Peanut Sand

Review:

 

This is two cookies sandwiching a layer of cream - looks like a vanilla Oreo, basically. I was very intrigued by the promise of "peanut sand". Have you ever had peanut sand? I think if you ground up peanuts really, really fine until the grains were like grains of sand, it might be a product people would buy. Americans are obsessed with peanut butter so this is an untapped market.

In this case, "peanut sand" actually means "peanut sandwich". These are pretty great, they taste like Nutter Butters if you took the flavor way down until it was subtle. People in other countries like to complain that American foods are always loaded with sugar. So far, I'm starting to see what they mean. Eating these Korean foods the word "subtle" keeps cropping up over and over. The standards of the countries are definitely different.

Definitely like these but a recommendation is pointless so long as Nutter Butters are available.

4.

Translated Name: Orion

Additional Text: Fresh Berry

Review:

 

It's two light, fluffy cakes sandwiching a layer of cream. As noted on the label, the cream tastes like a mixture of berries but it's very light and subtle (again). I'll tell you what they taste like, they taste like the Mixed Berry Nutri-Grain Breakfast Bars. Pretty good, not bad, nothing special. As always, the flavor that's there is good but it's not much flavor.

5.

 

Translated Name: Something... Choco Chip.

Review:

 

These appear to be soft chocolate cookies with chocolate chips in them. They look like this:

 

We now come to one of the great obstacles in my reviews. For dietary reasons, I am not able to eat chocolate so any snack that contains chocolate can't be reviewed by me. It looks like this is especially a problem for the Japanese snacks as a great percentage of those appear to be chocolate. In the case when obviously chocolate snacks are encountered, I'll put them aside until I can get someone else to try them but in this particular case, I didn't know what it was until after I opened it.

All I can say is they look and smell phenomenal. As someone who hasn't had chocolate in too long, I'm probably biased. But, I am blindly giving them my highest review because I can only assume they're amazing.

... And that's all for Korean Reviews #1. Thanks to my friend Nate for translating.