Calbee French Salad Potato Chips カルビー ポテトチップス フレンチサラダ

Sorry for the lack of posts! I have a backlog of Japanese snacks to get through so expect to hear from me more in future. 

Amongst my backlog are packs of Japanese potato chips. Starting with the first pack - French Salad by Calbee. 

Opening the packet there was quite a strong tang that wafted out, similar to that of a French salad dressing which is described by Google as 
"a term originally used for an oil-and-vinegar-based salad dressing. In the United States during the 1950s, manufactured "French dressing" was developed. The term has come to mean the manufactured version, which is sweet in taste and colored red from the use of paprika and tomatoes."

The chips themselves had specks of green and red on them and were a light yellow colour.

They were very crunchy and salty with a mild tang of vinegar, so if you like salt and vinegar chips then you would like these. Japanese husband did NOT like these, his complaint was that they were too tangy (but again he doesn't like salt and vinegar, so there you go)

Overall, not a bad flavour. I'm not sure I would buy it again, but it was good to try once. 

Calbee Kappa Ebisen Lotteria Ebi Burger かっぱえびせん ロッテリア エビバーガー

The males in my household are big fans of ebi senbei and kappa ebisen in particular so I was excited to buy these from napaJapan to try!

This is a collaboration of Calbee with Lotteria and the flavour is based on their Ebi Burger (shrimp pattie burger).

I've never tried it but I assume it would be nice? (Please let me know if you have tried it in the comments!)

Upon opening the bag there is a strong smell of ebi and something that smells like tartare sauce. It makes sense as the picture on the front of the bag shows the burger with cabbage and a white sauce flecked with green.

Each senbei is flecked with red and green bits too, and they smell strongly of shrimp. They are very crunchy and moreish. 

The taste is quite different to the regular ebisen, in that the tartare sauce is strong in flavour as well as scent. It's amazing to me how much it tastes like what I imagine the burger to be like in real life!

Mr 5 who is a diehard ebi senbei freak didn't like these, but my husband and I are currently fighting over the bag. As is so often the case, I bought one to try and end up regretting not buying more of them. 

I definitely recommend these. If you've tried the burger, drop me a line and let me know how these rate against it! :)

Calbee Potato Chips x Kentucky Fried Chicken ポテトチップス ✖️ケンタッキ ーフライドチキン

I bought this bag of potato chips from NapaJapan. I saw these released last year but didn't buy a pack and kicked myself for missing out. So this year as soon as they were released I bought a pack.

It's a rather large bag but the contents are not that big and it actually only weighs 83g. 

On opening the bag there is a smell like chicken flavoured potato chips. The appearance is the same as a normal potato chip but there are black specs which seem to be spices.

I have two big KFC fans in my house so as soon as I opened this bag they were fighting over it (husband and son). My son was trying to stop his dad from having too many as he thought he might eat them all! 

The taste is at first like chicken but the aftertaste is spicy like a KFC Wicked Wing. I can taste the similarity of KFC chicken to this potato chip although the potato chip is a different texture. The more chips you eat the hotter the spice gets. 

My son who is 4, loved these and had a bowl to himself despite the hot spice.

I thought these chips were a good gimmick but in no way replace the real thing.

 

These also come with a voucher for 30 yen (30 cents) off at a KFC store in Japan.

If you like KFC it's worth trying these just for the experience and wacky factor :)

Calbee Potato Chips x Kentucky Fried Chicken ポテトチップス ✖️ケンタッキ ーフライドチキン

I bought this bag of potato chips from NapaJapan. I saw these released last year but didn't buy a pack and kicked myself for missing out. So this year as soon as they were released I bought a pack.

It's a rather large bag but the contents are not that big and it actually only weighs 83g. 

On opening the bag there is a smell like chicken flavoured potato chips. The appearance is the same as a normal potato chip but there are black specs which seem to be spices.

I have two big KFC fans in my house so as soon as I opened this bag they were fighting over it (husband and son). My son was trying to stop his dad from having too many as he thought he might eat them all! 

The taste is at first like chicken but the aftertaste is spicy like a KFC Wicked Wing. I can taste the similarity of KFC chicken to this potato chip although the potato chip is a different texture. The more chips you eat the hotter the spice gets. 

My son who is 4, loved these and had a bowl to himself despite the hot spice.

I thought these chips were a good gimmick but in no way replace the real thing.

If you like KFC it's worth trying these just for the experience and wacky factor :)

[200th Post!] Calbee Choco Kappa Ebisen かっぱえびせんチョコ

Hi and welcome to my 200th post! I have made it. If you are a regular reader, thank you for reading my blog!

Well for my 200th post I have a snack to review made up of two things you normally don't think would go together. That is prawn crackers, and chocolate. You don't tend to see fishy flavours mixed with chocolate do you?

I was surprised this snack exists, and thank you to the friend who sent it over for me to try! I'm always willing to try new things, as weird as they may be.

So... Kappa Ebisen, aka a prawn flavoured snack, which I love, and chocolate, which I also love, melded together to become one. The packaging really stands out. It's bright red with a red prawn on a white circle on the front. It looks interesting.

This pack is small and holds 23 grams. It held about 22 crackers. I expected the inside of the bag to smell like prawn but I couldn't smell anything but chocolate.

 

Each cracker has a light coating of milk chocolate over it, just enough to cover it but without totally covering the shape, so that the grooves of the cracker still show through. The chocolate is glossy, and makes the cracker look somewhat plastic.

The cracker is crunchy and airy, and immediately after biting it I could taste the prawn flavour followed by a creamy chocolate taste. The prawn flavour is fleeting, there is a hit and then the chocolate takes over. If you eat more than one though, the prawn flavour tends to build up.

I actually don't mind the taste of these, even though it's a little odd at first. I'm a fan of salty and sweet together, and the prawn crackers have just enough salt to get this combination going.

My husband who is a big fan of Kappa Ebisen said he hates these... I guess for some, chocolate and seafood just don't go together, end of story.

If you like snacks out of the ordinary then you should definitely give these a go! They're a talking point if anything! :)

Calbee Korean Seaweed かっぱえびせん カルビー 韓国のり風味

As I posted previously, my son loves ebi senbei. Today he has been sick with a virus he caught from one of his friends and has been having high temperatures, which means he has been refusing all food.

I was at my wit's end when I realised that I had this bag of Calbee squirreled away in a parcel from a friend...I pulled them out and opened them and my son instantly perked up and began munching away! Saved! :)

The bag is quite pretty and the top and bottom of the bag is decorated in traditional Korean colours. I'm not really sure what difference there is between Korean nori (seaweed) and Japanese Nori, and when I asked my husband he said they just call it Korean nori in Japan...so he doesn't know either. Looking online I couldn't find mention of a particular type that comes from Korea, so I guess this is just seaweed originating from Korea flavour!

Inside, the pack really smelled strongly of seaweed, and each cracker had a rich taste of seaweed plus a small kick of what must be chili powder. These tasted quite salty too which made for a very moorish snack that I couldn't stop eating! I love how these snacks are so crunchy when you bite into them, it's the perfect savoury snack.

The other great thing about this pack is that unlike other savoury snacks where you get a small portion of snacks and the rest is air, the bag was full to the top of crackers. When my husband came home from work he had some too and gave them two thumbs up, so we three are all really happy with this snack from Calbee.

Calbee Kappa Ebisen Kishu Plum かっぱえびせん 紀州の梅

On a rainy day during last week I pulled out this bag of Kappa Ebisen Kishu Plum! I'm not a big fan of plum and my husband hates it all together, so I didn't know if we would like this one at all. Kishu is a place in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan and is famous for its plums, which are also made into Kishu Plum Wine.

The bag had a very tangy aroma when I opened it, and each long senbei stick had sprinkles of red all over. On the back of the bag it stated that it was red shiso. I'm not a shiso fan, in fact I try to stay away from it.

This snack however, was really yummy. The red shiso seems to have a different flavour entirely from the normal green shiso, and there was notes of tangy plum present when I crunched down into the senbei. The prawn flavour was still evident underneath and combined, all three flavours made a melody in my mouth.

After the first handful of these we were both pretty much addicted and ate the whole bag in no time! I think these would be great as a beer snack too.

The design on the bag was really pretty - a shame to throw it out really. Unfortunately I did throw the bag out and also forgot to write down the nutritional information so for my readers that usually want to know those details - I will resume in my next post.

Get yourself some of these! :)