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!

Dragon Ball Z Cheese Puffs

Another box, another cheesy snack. Though I always worry about these Japan seems to do them better justice than America, and maybe this one will continue the trend and go Super Saiyan, or bring up the snack power level to over 9000... yep, that's all I know about DBZ. It also comes with a card, which is a nice touch. I feel like all anime snacks should come with some sort of collectible, especially the ones that feel really underrated otherwise.

Already it seems like I'm in good hands getting a Goku card. These puffs smell very similar to the Umaiwa Cheese snack from last month's box, very much like cheese fondue, which is a very nice smell to have compared to many of the other cheese snacks out there. They may even be the same composition as Umaiwa Cheese, considering the description for this one mentions corn puffs as well.

One again, I get that nice cheesy fondue flavor tasting the puffs, and it mixes quite well with the puffed corn center. The cheese taste is very solid but not overwhelmingly strong, the corn puff does well to help dull it down. It actually seems to continue to be dull the more I eat, but then when I eat another one after a while all the cheesy flavor comes bacl. Very strange phenomenon... This cheese puff seems to do everything right, but it still doesn't seem like a snack I'd be itching to eat. The flavor is good but not outstanding, same with the texture. It doesn't go super saiyan for me, but it's at least a solidly good pick.

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

Mentaiko Umaibo

Japan's umaibos all come in strange flavors but bring with them some very delicious unique snack food tastes, all in a convenient stick shape with some nice puffed corn flavor on the inside. While most of them are recognizable flavors though, I have no idea what this one is. Seems to involve salted pollock roe, which I've never had. So I assume it might taste a little fishy? The picture on this one freaks me out for sure, but only one way to find out if the taste will make me as crazy as that dude.

It's definitely very orange. And very fishy. The color inclines me to think some sort of cheese is involved, but that's definitely not the case here. One whiff of this brings you right to a seafood pier, and it's a little worrying. Fishiness doesn't tend to transfer over to snacks, but maybe this one will be better?

Thankfully the corn flavor that never shows up in the smell helps to mellow that down a little bit. The taste reminds me a lot of the veggie salad umaibo actually... somewhat cheesy, except it's definitely supposed to be something else. The fishiness that I got from the smell surprisingly isn't there at all, instead just some salty, sweet corn with some sort of tangy flavor that I can't name but it totally tastes like cheese. Like that other umaibo, it's just okay, nothing unique or special about it, just a confusing and slightly pleasant mix of flavors.

Rating: 5 - Ruff!

Tohato Shin-Chan Chocobi Almond Tofu Corn Puff

Haven't seen any Tohato products in a while! This one going along with the anime theme is from Shin Chan, which I've seen a lot of snacks from but never quite figured out what it was. But this snarling dino on the front might make me want to watch it??? I can't figure out if he's supposed to be cute or angry. Flavor wise I am confused at these being tofu flavored, but I guess almond tofu is quite a popular dessert in Japan, hopefully it's rich, crunchy, and nutty.

As a nice bonus, this comes with a sticker! Rather odd outfit, but nevertheless fun. The puffs are a white color which is a bit surprising, but they have a nice smell. I definitely get the almonds, and then the tofu seems to give it a light and creamy smell, like almond milk.

Tasting it, the puffed corn flavor which doesn't usually appear in the smell goes along quite well with the other flavors, giving substance to an otherwise exceptionally light combination. Everything blends together quite perfectly, and not one thing is overdone. I get plenty of almond, plenty of rich creamy tofu, and it's all great. Sweet but not too sweet. Definitely reminds me of a soft silky dessert, an incredibly comforting finish after lots of hard chomping work. So much so that I can't stop eating it, and then it becomes the main attraction! Too bad there's only so much of it.

Rating: 9 - Arooooo!

PeiTien Pumpkin Energy 99 Sticks

I'm really not sure what to expect from this one. In some places it's advertised as a pumpkin rice roll, in some as an "energy 99 stick". What could be hiding within? From what I can read, there's pumpkin, brown rice, corn, oatmeal, buckwheat, and mung beans, so this is truly a compilation of a ton of snack materials all into one healthy and energy-giving bar. All with the wonderful taste of pumpkin! Hopefully it'll give me enough energy to run around in the forests all day long and smile doing it with the great aftertaste of pumpkin.

I was initially expecting this to take on a granola bar-like appearance with all the grains featured on the package, but it seems instead everything is ground and blended together. Could be interesting, reminds me of an umaibo right of the bat but the smell is quite different. It has quite a granola bar-type smell, along with the expected pumpkin accent, and what reminds me of coffee? I expect no artificial flavors here with everything smelling very authentic. There's also a filling in the middle, which could be the pumpkin, especially with this advertised as a roll.

It's quite a mix of flavors. At first when I bite through the snack I get the crunch aand the puffed corn taste of an umaibo, but then in the middle comes the creamy texture of pumpkin. It reminds me a lot of the canned pumpkin, and absolutely not in a bad way. It's not overwhelming, but not lost either, it strikes a nice subtle balance. There is also more sweetness in the puffed corn part than I have come to expect which is nice. It's almost gone too quickly, I wanted more of it! It has a really nice light consistency with lots of nice flavors and a comforting feeling going for it. And tastes entirely natural so it's sure to be good for me too. I'm glad I jump on pumpkin things so quickly, as this proved to be quite rewarding!

Rating: 9 - Arooooo!

Umaiwa Cheese

The name of this snack sounds similar to Umaibo, and for good reason - it's made by the same company, and with the same corn puff filling, only this time, it's multiple smaller pieces and in a bag. And certainly not because they got broken up in shipping this time. I'm not usually the biggest fan of cheese snacks myself, but maybe this one will change my mind, as it seems to be based on cheese fondue, and I am a fan of that taste much more than something like Cheez-Its.

As advertised, the snacks are ring shaped. They are bright orange which worries me a bit, but the smell reassures me, as it does seem more authentically cheesy than a lot of other snacks out there. It's still in your face, but it reminds me of nacho cheese - maybe not the closest to real cheese, but still with a lot of depth and not entirely artificial like cheese dust.

The taste is a little less satisfying than that. For some reason while the smell brings to mind cheese fondue, the taste is a bit more on the cheese dust end, and maybe this is because of the texture, it's very "dusty" itself. However over time I still do get the nacho cheese flavor, and like other umaibo-type snacks there's also a corn flavor added to it that I didn't get in the initial smell. There's a little sweetness from that end but it's more appreciated than it is clashing, as there's a nice balance between the salty outside and the sweeter inside. If you like cheesy snacks but want a little more authenticity, this one may be right for you, if this was any other cheesy snack I would be appalled, but this one can stick around.

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

Calbee Salty Split Pea Sticks

Once again we have another crispy vegetable snack. There are sometimes good and sometimes overwhelming, all depends on the salt levels and amount of vegetable flavor involved. These are of course based on split peas which I am quite ambivalent about myself, but I hope this snack can bring out some flavor that I didn't notice in them before.

One nice touch about these is that the snack itself looks like the split pea that it's based off of! It has the pointed ends that they're known for (and I'm always uncertain about eating) and the classic light green color with some bubbles in there. The smell does resemble a pea flavor, although it was a bit tricky to recognize at first because usually they're served warm.

Right off the bat I like the texture of these snacks. There's a crunchy outer layer but it also goes all the way through with a softer crunch on the inside, meaning that my teeth never get confused or disappointed. The flavor seems to be a bit of an acquired taste on the other hand. It's ever so slightly bitter, or it could be that I've never noticed the pea flavor before in this form.

There is a large amount of flavor in the snack though, and as I munch on it I get more adjusted to that flavor and it is pleasant in a different way. So many of the potato flavors in these types of snacks makes this a very nice change of pace, every bite I get plenty of earthy green goodness, though it's strange that it took me this long to adjust. This flavor may not be for everyone but it is a nice surprise and worth a try if you're used to the same old salty snacks.

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

Ginbis Shimichoco Corn - Milky Red Bean

My stomach is growling more than I ever do right now, and of course because of that I grab the largest, most appetizing, filling snack I can find in the TokyoTreat box - this one! I know shimichoco corn has had a really nice texture and flavor, with a puffed corn base on the inside and icing on the outside, and I hope this red bean flavor will take it up another notch. I love red bean normally, and combined with the milky white chocolate flavor? It seems like it's set up for success with this type of combination, and the image on the bag of red beans drowned in milk looks tantalizing.

The corn itself takes on the white color of the milk more than the red bean, but you can see the red bean in there through red flecks mostly on the tips of the stars. The smell however seems to be an even distribution of milk and red bean, the red bean adding some earthiness and substance, and the milk adding creaminess and richness. They seem to go well together.

Biting into it, I once again experience the nice texture of the shimichoco corn, with the the inner corn part providing some real substance, and adding a new flavor to what I smelled before that works quite well, in this case the starchy base. This snack seems to have everything going for it: sweetness, earthiness, richness, a bit of fruitiness actually that I wouldn't expect from having the red bean in here. There's also some grittiness that the dust on the surface adds to it that I'm really enjoying.

In fact, it's hard to write this review because I can't stop eating this. There's so much depth of flavor and a ton of sensations that I'm getting here, and it's a really satisfying bite all the way through. I may have developed some self control from some of my canine brethren but I'm losing all of it here, because this is too good. Maybe I'll need to go out and hunt for more!

Rating: 10 - AWOOOOOOO!!!

Ginbis Big Bar Z Milk

A familiar face showed up in this month's Japan Crate, another Big Bar Z! And this one is milk flavored, which could be very interesting. According to the description, the milk flavor is emulated by white chocolate, which of course isn't milk, but seems like it could be a noble attempt. I guess I'll see how it stacks up to the normal Big Bar Z, which was a chocolate puffed corn bar covered in a layer of chocolate icing.

Surprisingly this one isn't star shaped, but instead like an umaibo, a cylinder with a hole in the middle of it. And it does very well capture a milk flavor, at least in the smell. I can definitely tell it's white chocolate, but in this case whatever they did made the white chocolate emulate milk quite well. I ain't no feline, but I'm still very much itching to try this and see how this smell stacks up with the texture.

All in all? It works very well. I was worried the puffed corn flavor would clash with the milk flavor but it doesn't, I guess in this case the taste is a bit reminiscent of Corn Pops with milk. All that in the form of a bar! It has a good amount of crunch too to make the flavor seem satisfying, but not so much that it becomes a drag to eat. Unlike it' chocolate sibling, it doesn't have as much icing, which actually works in its favor because it doesn't feel like a tasty outer filling vs a not so much tasty inside. Everything blends together more. The flavor gets ever so slightly stale as I eat more of it, but that's more of a minor nitpick because I can't be satisfied with just milk like those pesky meowers are. But overall, very good job Ginbis! I thought I had tasted all they had to offer, but I was wrong.

Rating: 8 - Rowf!

Cabbage Taro, Okonomiyaki Sauce Flavor

Now not many people know this since I only blog about snacks, but I love Japanese food of all kinds, and have many an occasion snuck my way into Japanese restaurants to try some of their cooking. In particular the one thing that always made my mouth water was okonomiyaki. Cabbage on its own doesn't sound exciting, but when baked into a pancake it suddenly becomes the most delicious thing ever. Throw some meat on that and you got yourself a meal. I even managed to cook some of my own once for an alpha wolf and he loved it. What does that have to do with this snack? This is a puffed snack that is apparently flavored like cabbage, but doesn't actually have any cabbage in it, instead the rich flavors of okonomiyaki. If it's anything like the real deal, you can bet my tail will be wagging as I chow down on these.

Ginbis Big Bar Z

I pretty much picked this up for no other reason besides it being a bargain bin item at 59 cents... yup. But hey, I've had some good luck with Japanese crispy chocolates before so maybe this will be good. And as it is the big bar, there is a lot of it, yum... I believe this is also made by Ginbis, the same company that made the shimichoco corn that I was impressed with. I'm hopeful my impulse bargain purchase turned out well.

Ginbis Christmas Shimichoco Corn

The December Japan Crate, included not one, but two puffed corn, and with this one we have chocolate corn! I've been told these ones are chocolate corn puffs that are then also covered in chocolate icing. Double chocolate? Yum! Sticking true to my name, I love me some chocolate, so I'm excited to try these. They also come in star shapes as evidenced by the smiling rainbow star on the bag.

Tohato Christmas Caramel Corn

Tohato is back once again, and seems to be the Japanese go-to for crispy corn-based snacks and biscuits. This time it's caramel corn, which from the looks of the package is likely not popcorn but instead puffed corn snacks. And they're in fun Christmas tree shapes! I don't have any business dealing with trees as a wolf, but this packaging and the shapes are surely making me feel a bit more festive.

Tohato Sweet Poteko: Honey Sweet Potato Flavor

Again a larger item to the delight of my always-empty belly, these sweet potato rings promised to be one of the more savory items in my November Japan Crate. Sweet potato is definitely one of my favorite flavors to munch on, so my eyes opened wide with delight at three sweet potato items being in this box, but they have to do it right. I've seen many a sweet potato fry ruined by way too savory seasonings. I know I've already seen the brand Tohato repeated in the December Japan Crate with their caramel corn, so they must be a popular brand of puffed delights in Japan. Let's see what they got.