Tonkatsu Sauce Umaibo

With all the weird umaibos out there, this one actually seems like one of the more standard ones for me, or for anyone familiar with Japanese. Tonkatsu sauce normally goes on panko friend chicken or pork cutlets, and often steals the show with it's wonderful tangy sweetness. Instead this time the base of course is not meat but puffed corn instead, so we'll see if this sauce is a one trick pony or great with anything.

As tends to happen with umaibos, this one crushed in the bag! But while the appearance is compromised, the smell is not. The lovely smell of tonkatsu sauce wafts from the package, and I know then that this is going to be the real deal. The appearance is about the color I'd expect from tonkasu sauce, the dark brown that signals really good flavor is about to go down.

The flavor of the sauce, even dulled down by the corn, is rather strong. It's a lovely flavor, but here it comes on just a little too strong, like tonkatsu bullets straight into my yap. Those are some nice bullets to get hit by though, if I had to choose any kind of bullet it would definitely be tonkatsu sauce, yes sir. The corn seemed like it was a good medium to dull down the flavor, but maybe for the first time ever with umaibos it feels like there isn't enough of it in proportion to the flavor here. Or maybe corn isn't the right medium. With meat there's a little more time spent chewing that maybe this needs, to really let the flavor seep in, but corn is softer so the sauce hits you all at once. Regardless of my criticisms, it's still tonkatsu sauce one of my favorite Japanese flavors, and this umaibo nails it spot-on. If you're a fan of tonkatsu or curious, then this snack has it in droves.

Rating: 6 - Aruff!