Isoyama Corp 18+ Curry Chips

OK, I admit it. I haven’t tried these very hot crisps and even if I had the opportunity, I don’t think I would. No, make that I definitely would not. But they have been all over the news recently. So if you haven’t heard about them already here is an article from the BBC website.

Call me old fashioned, but I don’t see the point in food that you know might make you ill. Nobody wants to be rushed to hospital in a wheelchair do they? It’s a cautionary tale for crisp fans more adventurous than I am.

Think about it. Would you try?

Yushoi Snapea Rice Sticks Smoked Salt & Szechuan Pepper

Noble Friend produced this tiny 10g, 45 calorie packet which she was given as a free gift. She wasn't about to try it on her own, so donated it to me and the reluctant taste testers.

This is another of these strange modern allegedly healthier crispy snacks made of peas.

Now, the reluctant taste testers and I have tried several M&S versions of pea snaps including Smoked Salt & Mixed Pepper flavour. And you may have read that none of us was over-impressed. However, the M&S version is made with marrowfat peas. And according to the packet, these peasnaps are made with green peas. And rice. Which I confess I don't remember from the M&S ingredients.

I put out the contents of this tiny packet in the kitchen and I wasn't very surprised to see that the reluctant taste testers were distinctly reluctant to try. But History Graduate has a bold sense of adventure. Despite being (as he put it) scarred by the M&S pea snap experience, he ventured in where others feared to. And pronounced that this was a far superior and tastier snack than the M&S version.

Sorry M&S: we really didn't like your product very much at all. But this Yushoi snack made by Japanese snack giant Calbee is a different kettle of piranhas altogether. And Calbee appear to have a UK branch now, based in Leeds.

The crunch is still a bit soft but these pea shaped snacks don't gum themselves to your teeth. And the taste, I find, is less nasty.

Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't like these very much either but it is my own personal taste and it is likely that others will be pleased to try and come back for more.

Yamayoshi Potato Chips Chili (Chilibee)

Tall Elegant taste taster bought this packet of crisps from the local Japanese shop too. Boy was she out of control! Buying two packets of crisps at once.... Mind you, it's been a very stressful time at work just lately. I felt so stressed I bought cake and you know that's not a good sign.

These chilli crisps are a beautiful rich golden colour tinged with chilli red, nice crunch and you get about two seconds to enjoy a very pleasant flavour before a wacking great thump of chilli heat kicks in. You know I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to chilli. I thought they were really hot. Dutch taste taster told me she liked these crisps a lot. And she ate quite a few to prove it.

Not for the faint hearted but a good choice for chilli fans I think.

Yamayoshi Potato Chips Wasabi (Wasabee)

Tall Elegant taste tester fancied sushi so she too made her way to the local Japanese shop. Actually, I think she was seduced by the idea of wasabi Kit Kats which apparently are big in Japan. Imagine, she had no idea that while in the UK we have about... two (if you're lucky) Kit Kat flavours, in Japan they have loads of fascinating options.

Anyway, no luck on the Kit Kat front, so she bought lunch (mostly salmon I believe) and some crisps. Wasabi crisps. Extremely wasabi crisps.

Now I don't like wasabi. Before I ever tried it I had a feeling it would not be for me. Someone said not to worry because it's like a combination of horseradish and mustard. Is it though? Well unfortunately for me I don't like horseradish and I'm not very keen on mustard either. So I'm not a wasabi fan.

But everyone else in the office seems mad for wasabi. And these crisps were very popular with the reluctant taste testers. Even though we only started this packet after lunch it was all eaten up in no time.

I gather that these crisps have a very fresh, very genuine wasabi taste and are to be recommended. 

Tohato Spicy Potato Rings

Giraffe Fan taste tester decided to have sushi for lunch. And while she was in the local Japanese shop she came across this crispy snack. She said the crazy chilli face on the packet called to her and she felt compelled to buy it.

Well, the packet of this crispy snack is entirely in Japanese as is the website so I find I am totally reliant on Google Translate to tell me what's what. And we have to take what Google gives us because we don't know any Japanese speakers to ask. Plus I am grateful to the Japan Centre website for telling me what to call this crispy snack.

Tyrant came back habanero says the Tahato website, and It was reproduced horse spiciness of sale at that time "tyrant habanero". Blended with habanero at the time and the same amount of vegetables and taste, a combination of several kinds of spices, it is a horse spicy snack to become a habit and the pungent taste is in harmony in a well-balanced says Google.

And then Habanero is, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula is the origin, is the most famous spicy pepper in the world. The spicy degree of, will be used units of Scoville, but the pungency of the habanero is about 300,000 Scoville. This is about 80 times the jalapeno, hits to about 10 times the hotness of Tabasco. "Red Savina Habanero" is, "The world's hottest spice" as a certified to Guinness, the record was 577,000 Scoville.

The difference in the taste of the pepper is due to breed, the only value of the Scoville also simply can not be compared element, pungent taste of habanero has also been a different unique thing as a typical red pepper and jalapeno of Japan.

But just in also features with a fruity aroma, not painful, is a charming spice fragrant scent remains after the aggressive pungency.

And er... Habanero manufacturing process
  The spicy pepper to snack. For us that depresses the unexplored area it was a way of habanero, not become thorny road. The development staff, goggles and mask and gloves are necessities. This is because direct, or touch the hand, if those about to enter the much less eye, because beyond description hell is waiting.
Let's put in a look at the development landscape that lesson has been kept alive learned from the fury of habanero. This is the blurb that encourages you to look at a little snippet of video showing a food scientist making this crispy snack while wearing gloves, goggles and a face mask (all but a hazmat suit).

There is a lot more to this website so why not take a look for yourselves?

These crispy little rings have a deceptively gentle taste for about 10 seconds, followed by a huge great rush of hot chilli spiciness. I mean, check out the 5 chillis on the packaging. This surely has to be an indication that this crispy snack is pretty hot.

Really tasty. We liked them a lot. But you can't eat too many at a time. And they do look weirdly like a bowl of little elastic bands. Plus the crazy chilli on the packet is really quite scary.

And finally, I know you will want to know. Yes, you can fit these little rings on your finger.

Riska Umai Wa Yasai Salad

I hope I have the name of this Japanese crispy snack correct. Luckily, because I only have 3 or 4 words of Japanese and cannot read it at all, I found a handy blog (Eating WDW) the writer of which seems to know more about it than I do.

On the front of the packet the flavour is called Yasai Salad. But a little sticky label on the back of the packet give the name of the importer, a list of ingredients and gives Umai Wa Salad as the flavour. So I'm going to follow the blog writer and amalgamate the two names.

This packet was bought from a local Japanese shop by tech expert taste tester in search of Japanese ingredients. And he kindly allowed me to try a few.

Despite the slightly scary packet design (I usually prefer a more minimalist style) these puffed corn hoops are really rather good. I don't know how you make a salad flavour for a crispy snack and indeed I couldn't pick any salad going on here. What I did get was a very tasty hit of garlic.

Well, according to the sticky label the ingredients include garlic, spice, salt, parsley, seaosning (sic), and "calcium comes from the egg shel". So there we are.

Not bad at all. Nice taste, nice texture too, good crunch. We were rather impressed.

I gather that the strange creature on the back of the packet is called Umaemon and he seems to feature on a number of different snacks. You can see here he is riding a unicycle on a tightrope. And is wearing a sort of clown outfit. Why? Oh well, I don't really need to know do I?

I wish I knew what was going UP! on the front of the packet.

Calbee Pizza Chips

So the Ski Instructor very kindly agreed to bring me home a packet of crisps from Canada. Which he left on the kitchen table so bought two new packets on his way home. The first I've opened is this offering from Calbee who seem to be a Japanese company but mysteriously manufacture their crisps in Hong Kong. And sell them at Vancouver airport.

You can see from the packet that these are pizza flavour. Or meant to be. Quite apart from the big white word "Pizza", there's a photograph of a slice of pizza. Pretty horrid looking pizza absolutely smothered in melted cheese with an odd selection of mushrooms, ham, beef (maybe?), mince (again, maybe?) and green things. Not a pizza I would order myself.

There are great big closeups of crinkle crisps, quite fine crinkles like the Simba crisps from South Africa rather than European wide crinkles. And another crisp in a red oval showing the crinkliness; "v chips" it says with an arrow, and another arrow showing how each crisp has little bits of cheese on it. Really? I can see a few bits of herb but am not convinced by the bits of cheese. I have found two reviews online which praise the cheesey bits but honestly I can't find any evidence. I even held them up to the light to try and spot the cheese.

I'm not sure exactly what the Japanese writing (I think it's Kanji) above the red oval means but I'm pretty certain that part of it says cheese chips. Well done Google translate! The more complicated writing by the word "pizza" I have no idea about, but I expect the red writing in the white oval probably says Calbee.

Oh yes. And check out the crazy use of the Italian flag here to emphasise how genuine the pizza flavour must be. Not to mention the crazy use of a cartoon potato wearing a hat and gloves and, wow!, a sash saying potato.

I never tried a Japanese crisp before but I have flown Japanese airlines, and stayed the night in a hotel at Narita airport. Which was interesting. Tinned spaghetti bolognaise and chips for breakfast? Why not. What about a handful of miniature fried fish or a bowl of stewed lotuses? Not for me thanks. I can't remember what I ate in the end but I'm not a fan of Japanese food. I won't eat fish and I hate the smell of rice cakes. Many of my friends seem to delight in Japanese food but when they describe what they've eaten it all sounds horrible to me. So I didn't really know what to expect.

And I wasn't expecting to find that when I opened the packet there was a strong smell of stables.

Stables? You know; with horses in. Or maybe lion cages. I don't know what to think. Have I got a really weird sense of smell do you suppose? It was a very big, very busy smell with too much going on.

However, the taste isn't all bad. Not at all pizza-y and still very busy but quite tasty in a sort of a way. And I suppose the plum powder in the ingredients lists contributes to the unusual sweetness. I was not aware that plum powder featured in pizza recipes.

It's quite an anxious looking potato isn't it?

The list of ingredients is very long. In fact, there are several lists. And a great big long list printed on a sticky label, possibly added for the Canadian market, which has a seemingly endless list of chemicals. And having read it you begin to wonder why anyone would want to eat any of this stuff. And if that were not enough there are even more E numbers than in the Simba crisps - but no label warning of possible health risks!

However, they are quite tasty and if there happened to be a bowl of them lying around I might find myself tucking in. Just not too many at a time.