Space Raiders Pickled Onion

Another crispy selection from the local newsagent run by the amazingly cheerful man.

After careful scrutiny of the back of the packet I find the Space Raiders trademark is registered to United Biscuits who make Jaffa Cakes and Twiglets. This information is in very tiny writing, and the Space Raiders brand doesn't seem to feature on the United Biscuits website. According to Wikipedia, Space Raiders are made by KP but that brand doesn't feature on the United Biscuits website either. Oh, wait, apparently KP was sold to German brand Intersnack in December 2012. It's all terrifically complicated.

Space Raiders have a very strong flavour. I love silverskin pickled onions, although not so keen on the larger pickled onions, so I was dubious about how these would taste. But it's a pretty good approximation of the genuine pickled onion taste and just as strong. Perhaps it's not such a bad thing you only get 22g in the bag: any more and all the skin would get burnt off the inside of your mouth.

So here we have a pickled onion flavour, reconstituted maize, alien-face-shaped crunchy snack. With a great big green alien face on the packet. Could this possibly be yet another savoury snack aimed at children? They do have their own Facebook page... and only 20p....

Not a snack to go with a gin and tonic or a glass of sherry. Maybe a Swiss wine would work? I always drink Fendant or Johannisberg with an Assiette Valaisanne; a plate of cold meats (jambon cru, viande séchée, saucisse sèche and lard), and local cheeses with pickled gherkins and onions. It seems a pretty good combination.

Anyway, despite the luminous green alien on the packet, these "cosmic" corn snacks are rather good. They have pretty much the same bubbly texture as most quaver-style corn snacks, perhaps a little thicker than some but with a good soft bite. There's plenty of flavour dust and the flavour goes all the way through. I'm impressed. Yes, snack fans, I rather liked these bonkers crispy things.

Don't forget the most important thing of all.... these crunchy oniony snacks come in the shape of an alien's face. Wow. I gather that in the bad old days when all of us in Europe were allowed as many E numbers as we liked, the pickled onion flavour snacks were bright green. What a shame I missed that! Ordinary "crunchy corn snack" colour just isn't the same.

Yes I know they are frightfully bad for me. But they are suitable for vegetarians, and baked not fried, and the packet does tell me I should keep active for a healthy lifestyle. Probably the embarrassment of being spotted buying a bag with a luminous green alien on will help with the healthy lifestyle because I likely won't be doing that again. Lying in bed on a Sunday morning taste-testing Space Raiders, however, will not.

Private thought: I wonder if my brother will read this? He doesn't seem to believe blogs exist. Let's find out.