Sunday, September 13, 2009

Shrooms and Weed

Mushroom Fresco Veggie Chips

Tao Kae Noi Japanese Crispy Seaweed

I love snacks. This is probably because I'm hungry all the time and am known to have a voracious appetite. It's therefore necessary for me to have a cache of little edibles with me at all times. I am always on the hunt for a new snack, one preferably that is packed with flavour and devoid of ingredients I can't pronounce. Fruits and veggies are always an option but sometimes you just need a little something else; something that comes out of a pre-sealed package.

A good place to discover new snacks is T & T Supermarket. A while back, a friend introduced me to Tao Kae Noi Japanese Crispy Seaweed. I've always loved nibbling on nori, but nori is quite delicate in flavour and these are anything but. The first flavour I tried was Wasabi, and these still remain my favourites with their slightly spicy, savoury taste. They are fried and a little on the salty side, but this is forgivable considering how delectable these seaweed sheets are.

MSG is not listed as an ingredient (which I'm skeptical of), but am choosing to believe because although I do try to avoid MSG, I just like these snacks too much to give them up. Besides the wasabi, you can buy them in classic, hot & spicy, ketchup and tom yum goong and they cost $2.89 for a substantial bag's worth. They also come in tempura form, but these in my humble opinion are, as Liz Lemon would say, "Bleurgh!" All the others save for ketchup are awesome.

This mushroom snack and "fresh food material from Taiwan" (as the package reads) is really quite original in taste. These whole mushrooms that resemble shiitakes are hard to the touch but easy to crunch, and surprisingly nutty in flavour. What I find most interesting is that they taste very little of mushroom. They are not what I would call delicious, but there is something about them that makes you want them. I found myself nibbling up the whole bag in a few minutes, and I wasn't even that hungry at the time. That there are about 10 in a bag however, made it pretty easy :o) They also come in green bean, apple and pumpkin and cost $1.79 a bag. I have yet to try the apple and pumpkin, but the beans, tasting even less of their original selves, are a bad kind of curiosity. In other words, these ones are probably worth skipping.

For your own homemade snack crisps, check out the next post!

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