Top Valu Soft Ebi Senbei えび味せんべい

I picked up this pack of soft Ebi (prawn) senbei in Japan. They're a pack of 10 individually wrapped packs of 2 senbei each, and cost 98 yen, around $1.

The brand, Top Valu belongs to the Aeon chain. But unlike home brands in Australia, I have found that Top Valu is much better quality across the board.

I'm not much of a fan of seafood myself, especially prawns or crayfish, but I do love the taste of Ebi crackers!

This pack is really good value for a dollar, because they basically have 10 packs, equalling 10 cents per individual pack or 5 cents per cracker. They make great snacks for lunch boxes and I carry them around in my handbag as a snack on the go.

So what are they like? Well the wrapping keeps them very fresh. They are easy to bite into and deliver a loud crunch when you do. They seem to have a fine powdery substance on the outside that delivers a big punch of ebi flavour. They are very much like eating a thicker version of a prawn cracker.

I can't get enough of these. I love the loud crunch noise they make, and the flavouring on the outside. Unlike other senbei I find them to be less oily too, it could be because of the powder on the outside though.

Good value, and good taste, what more could you ask for for $1? :)

Kit Kat Kinako Ohagi きなこおはぎ味

Yes, another Kit Kat review, I couldn't help myself. I'm still intrigued by the unique flavours that Kit Kat always bring out. I was drawn to the box because of the traditional design, the green and yellow, and Japanese reeds. Being a lover of Traditional Japan, taste or not, this was a Kit Kat I had to buy.

Just in case you don't know:

Kinako is Japanese soybean flour and is commonly used in Japanese cuisine. Soybeans are toasted, and ground down into the flour.

Ohagi is a sweet that is made in Autumn, and is named after the bush clover that flowers in Autumn. It is made with sweet rice on the outside and an azuki (red bean) paste in the middle.

In the case of Kinako Ohagi, a dusting of Kinako powder is added to the outside of the sweet rice, giving it the appearance of a small brown ball.

Right, now we've got that out of the way, I have to say I wasn't expecting to like this. Some people say that Kinako tastes like peanut paste, and I was hoping it was true. I'd never tasted it before today and I have to say I was abit apprehensive.

But....wow! Yes, it does taste like peanut paste, in fact more of a peanut cream because it's sweet more than salty. The milk chocolate on the outside, really smells like roasted peanuts. I'm really glad they made it wilk milk chocolate instead of white too, because it has a very earthy smell.

The milk chocolate is sweet and tastes like peanuts where the cream in the wafers taste very sweet like peanut cream. Towards the end there is a bitter, long-roasted taste, that really sets the scene for the toasted sesame flavour that emerges near the end. MMMmm this is delicious!!

I can imagine this going down very well with a nice cup of real green tea. Although there is no azuki in this chocolate, it doesn't really matter, as you do get the feeling you've been transported back to ancient Japan. I was surprised to look down and see I was still wearing jeans and not a yukata after eating this!

Crunky Roasted Chestnut クランキー和栗

As it's now coming into Autum in Japan the Japanese confectionary makers have been releasing snacks to cater to Autumn tastes. A snack that is popular in cool seasons is Waguri or roasted chestnuts, so it's no surprise that Crunky have rolled it out as their latest flavour.

The thing I find disconcerting about Crunky from the start is that the bar itself is so thin. There's literally only rice crispies with a chocolate coating, not the other way around.


The chocolate, when unwrapped, has a strong smell of sweet coffee. It's a coffee-coloured white chocolate that smells so sweet I was afraid to eat it.

See on the back of the bar, it has all the rice crispies, and then some darker dots? Those darker dots are bits of roasted chestnut.


Despite the coffee scent, it doesn't taste like coffee. It does taste like roasted chestnut, it has that roasted flavour, like it has been roasted over the pan for many hours. The rice crispies are quite good in this with the mix of chestnut as they also bring a kind of popcorn taste to the flavour, which ends up being like roasted chestnut, hot popcorn and peanuts.


I really love this! It's got such an interesting mix of flavours, and it really is quite unique. I can image myself eating this while nestled in front of a warm fire with a good book. It's very Autumn-y. But then, I'm eating it in an Australian Spring and it's still really good!

This one is a definitely a keeper.

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Koala March Mountain Hut Milk Pudding 山小屋のミルクプリン

This is called Mountain Hut Milk Pudding, the kanji 山小屋 (yamagoya), meaning "mountain hut". The picture on the box is of the alps, a green field, and a mountain hut in the background. This is a kind of milk pudding you can get when you're staying in the alps in a mountain hut, and Yasu immediately broke into the theme song of Heidi, when I mentioned it. I guess Japanese people have a fondness for it.

This is the latest flavour of Koala March, a limited edition. I can't say I'm very excited about the flavour, because Milk Pudding is a very simple flavour, and kind of boring to me.

However, when I opened the package I got an immediate scent of somewhat sour yoghurt crossed with lemon. This is intriguing, will it be milk pudding gone bad?

The biscuits have their usual images printed on them, and approximately half of that is filled with cream. Though the flavour is somewhat puzzling. The first taste is like the scent, sour yoghurt, it has some sweetness after that, and an almost how can I say this nicely, taste like vomit? It really is off-putting and I don't like it one bit! I have to wonder, what kind of pudding are they making up there in those alps?? There's no hint of yoghurt on the ingredients list, only the usual vegetable oil, flour, whey powder, coco powder, milk, eggs, cream powder, and salt. Hmm. Strange.

In any case, I don't like this. I don't want to eat sour milk pudding, no thank you. I'll be handing these over to Yasu who I'm sure, will probably say it's good, but not for me.

Tirol Tri-colour Dango チロル三色だんご

I love Japanese dango, it's one of my favourite foods. So, you can imagine my delight when I came across this lovely bag of Tirol Tri-colour dango chocolates. What is Dango you ask? It's a kind of rice dumpling made from sweetened rice flour. Depending on the flavour it will have sauce, or flavour kneaded into the rice. They are typically served on skewers and the tri-colour dango consist of 3 flavours, Sakura (cherry blossom), Mitarashi (sweet soy sauce) and Uguisu (the name of a bird - Japanese Bush Warbler - named for the colour of the bird, which is usually green).

There are 3x3 flavours in this pack, it's small, but the imges on the outside, and the colours, make the packaging a prize in itself. I adore it, it's so very cute!



Sakura
Very light pink in colour and smells like cherry blossom flower. There is a chewy gummi in the middle, of the same flavour but stronger. It's kind of hard to bite into as the gummi is quite strong. I quite liked this because while tasting the flavour, I also got an aroma in my nose that reminded me of lots of little sakura petals floating on the wind.


Mitarashi
Off-white in colour, the chocolate tastes like Maple syrup. The inside is really tough to bite through, again gummi, and orange-brown in colour, exactly the colour of the sauce laid over mitarashi dango. This was very sweet from the white chocolate/maple combination on the outside, which didn't leave much room for the mitarashi to shine. Despite that, I liked the flavour.


Uguisu

Green in colour, looks more like green tea flavour from the outside. The chocolate on the outside smells like almond, the almost lime green gummi in the centre is easy to chew and overwhelmingly almond flavour. It reminds me of those German finger biscuits with the almond on top. This is really different from what I thought it would be, but in a good way.

In all, I can't pick a favourite. They all have their good points, and I didn't really find any bad points beside the really chewy gummi in the middle, that for me, was a little bit too hard to bite through. The idea is very unique, and makes it fun to eat them in the order you would on a stick. Fun for kids and adults alike I say! :)

Chocoball Milk Pudding チョコボール牛乳プリン味

Kyoro-chan stowed away in my hand luggage and took a trip down under, or that's what Yasu would like me to think. More likely he stuffed it in my suitcase when I wasn't looking, in order to chomp on it later.

This box is back to the original style, unlike the recent flavours that have a tuna-can like opening. I wish Morinaga would make up it's mind about packaging.

Milk Pudding is not something I have ever heard of in Australia. In Japan, the land of pudding or "purin", it is one of the many popular flavours, in good company with mango pudding, almond pudding, and caramel pudding.

It's another white chocolate Chocoball, how different could it be from Yoghurt or Cream Cheese?

The balls themselves are rather small, in fact smaller than usual, round, white, and glossy. They smell faintly of vanilla and musk. It's a pleasant scent, but more suitable for perfume than chocolate.
The chocolate on the outside is creamy, only slightly sweet, has some taste of white chocolate, but the creaminess is the overall flavour, like a powdered milk flavour mixed with real milk. The let-down with this chocoball though is that because the ball itself is smaller than usual, and the biscuit is about 80% of the ball, the chocolate coating is too small to really get a big flavour hit.

You have to eat a handfull of these all at once to even get a vague sense of the milk pudding flavour. Obviously it wasn't intended for me, Yasu bought it for himself, and he gives it a big thumbs up, but then, he would eat anything Chocoball...he's a dedicated fan.

Big on flavour, these are not. Good for children and husbands, yes.

Hokkaido Condensed Milk Caramel 北海道練乳キャラメル

It's fair to say I'm on a bit of a 練乳 (condensed milk) kick at the moment. Since coming back from the land of condensed milk flavoured everything (Hokkaido), I've re-ignited my passion for the creamy white substance.

Oh, I've always been a fan of condensed milk. I remember eating it out of the can by spoonful when I was a kid, and before even going to Japan, Yasu and I enjoyed the odd squeeze from a tube of condensed milk we kept in the cupboard, which mysteriously disappeared while I was away in Japan - the mouse, err Yasu consumed it all by himself the 練乳 guts!

I saturated myself with condensed milk icecream bars, chocolate bars, drinks, and lollies, but I picked up one last thing before I left. That is, Condensed Milk Caramel, from the Wine factory actually, it was only 105 yen and I figured, it was a worthwhile buy because I knew that we were both condensed milk junkies by then.

The box has 18 pieces and comes in the same format as other caramels by the manufacturer - Dounan, which by the way, a look on their website shows this as ranking #1 in the top 3! See! Just goes to show Japanese people are junkies like me :)

Anyway, so what do they actually taste like? Condensed milk, silly! They really do taste like Japanese condensed milk, they even have that really creamy taste, and slight coconut flavour.

The caramel is quite soft and easy to chew, and quickly goes into a soft pliable texture with chewing. It has the same flavour throughout, it's really yummy!! It's not too sweet either, kind of in the middle of the scale of sweetness. The box says they used 100% Hokkaido condensed milk too, so you kind of get that feeling of being transported to green leafy fields while you're chewing on this caramel. The feel of the wind in your hair. The smell of cows...ahh.

Whoops, got carried away abit there. Anyways, this is one extremely good chew!! I suggest you buy some! :)

Umai Vegetable Salad

This is my first foray into the world of savoury Japanese snacks. I have been wanting to branch out more but for some reason I always end up buying sweet snacks, I guess it comes down to my very sweet tooth.

My sister-in-law bought a few of these as part of a bag of goodies she gave us, so I am forcing myself to somewhat gingerly try this flavour - Vegetable Salad.

Now, in Japanese, "umai" means something is very good, so when a food manufacturer uses it of course they are big-noting their products to mean very tasty.

The manufacturer Yaokin, has a very simple website, and they have a product catalogue you can download.

The snack in question is a long puffy savoury tube, abit like a cheezel but longer. Like one mega cheezel, I guess. The name of the flavour - vegetable salad - is a bit confusing to me really. It's either a vegetable, or a salad, unless it's a salad of vegetables...I guess?

Anyway, taking the tube out of the wrapper, it appears to be a long, orange tube of puffiness with green specks all over it. It's quite oily (the oil leaked onto the paper below), and it smells like my husband's dirty socks. No, really. It's quite gross.

Biting down into the tube, it has the same texture as a cheezel, puffy, but easy to bite through. There is some spice in there. It's not too hot, just enough to give flavour. There is alot of flavour sprinkled on the outside, it comes off on my hands.

I can taste some garlic, corn, and tomato. A look at the wrapper reveals potatoes, corn, garlic, cabbage, paprika, parsley. Paprika would have been used to give it the colour, and parsley the green specks.

In all, it's not bad, but it's not umai either. I can't say that I'm really a fan. Though these seem to be geared more towards the younger set, and at 10 or 15 yen each you can't really expect much more than that.

You can check out other reviews of Umai at Japanese Snack Reviews.

Alfort Chocolate Biscuit

These were given to my husband and I as part of a gift pack. I had seen them before but they are the kind of thing I would usually pass over in the supermarket, in favour of a chocolate bar or actual biscuit. I'm not sure when you are supposed to eat these. I would say it is as a small snack in between meals because of the biscuit content, or with a hot drink.

I'm not so much of a chocolate-and-biscuit-together fan, besides the odd Wagon Wheel. These strike me as odd in that the biscuit is on the other side of the chocolate, but it not covered by the chocolate. This is a whole new idea to me, I've certainly never encountered that kind of idea in Australia.

Inside the box is a gold foil package, which opens up to reveal a tray of 2 x 3 cm rectangular milk chocolates with an image of a ship imprinted on it. The website doesn't give any clue about what the ship means so I am guessing it's only an image.

It does say however, that the biscuit is made from whole wheat flour, basically a digestive, and fragrant milk chocolate, and is a perfect combination of the two.

The milk chocolate smells sweet, but tastes alot darker than it appears. It has those bitter notes that dark chocolate has, and if I hadn't read the package I would say this was dark chocolate. The biscuit is slightly sweet and very much the same as an average wheat biscuit. Both singularly not very exciting.

When eaten together, the flavour seems to take on an almost malty quality. Underneath the bitter chocolate is the humble sweetness and grainy goodness of the biscuit, a good match as far as I'm concerned. I really like the texture of the two combined, the bitterness of the chocolate is matched by the sweetness of the biscuit.

I didn't think these would be a winner, but I was wrong. These are a surprisingly great little mini snack for on the go. Abit more filling than the average Japanese chocolate bar too.

Alfort is something I could definitely see myself eating again in the future, if I come across them.