japanese snacks on CHIMPAN zine halftones of orange and blue
japanese snacks on CHIMPAN zine halftones of orange and blue

Snack reviews #02:
The Weirdest

 

Kameda Seika: seaweed-wrapped crackers. CHIMPAN zine’s #02 weirdest snack.

Strange snack? We can see golden crackers wrapped in what my little knowledge of seaweed will guess is the famous nori. Looks fairly simple, right? Then again, so did the it’s counterpart on the first issue, see here.

 

At first glance, nothing quite like having a nice-looking pack of unidentified snacks. It looks good! Plasticky but good, slightly sophisticated, even. Presenting the black and gold combination, together with some red and white shapes, the packaging invites a gourmet looking feel on the shelf. I reckon I’m prone to falling prey to some good graphic design. Regardless, this pack does have a translated label on the back, showing me in English all its 28 ingredients!

japanese snacks on CHIMPAN zine
 

As I’ve tried it at my friend’s place, I didn’t get to open the outer big bag. However, I can see that there is excessive plastic involved. All the ten crackers are individually wrapped and even supported by a plastic platform that groups and sits them pretty in the general bag. Besides, I have to admit that it does improve presentation, but still feels unnecessary.

japanese snacks on CHIMPAN zine
The individiual Kameda Seika packets
 

Weirdest snack: Taste test.

Just like last time, I dug in! The golden rice cracker feels sweet from the first bite. In addiction, the crunchiness seems slightly off to my uneducated palate in oriental snacks. Moreover, it seems as if the sugar and soy sauce glaze hardened the cracker a tad.

The wrapping nori is the most surprising part.

Firstly, it tastes like seaweed, no revelation there, but it’s as if it softens and activates when touching the tongue. Secondly, you immediately taste the connection between the two, suddenly realising that the cracker does have a faint fish/crustaceans taste there.

The golden sweetness is still too much of an overpowering factor. However, it’s perhaps the one to blame for the sensation that comes when you finish this strange snack. I can only describe it as “I do not know what just happened, let me try it again”.

 

A little extra fun

Firstly, I’m sure you can find everything all properly translated at their website. Now, obviously I ended up not doing that and decided to have fun instead. Reasonable, right? I made several attempts of translating this package. I can safely say Google Translate is now one of my favourite apps.