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!

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!

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!

Teriyaki Burger Umaibo

After some weird umaibo flavors, this one seems a little bit normal, but still scrumptious. I love me some burgers and with teriyaki added it gets even better! There also seems to be a knockoff McDonald's logo on the drink off to the side of the burger. I wish McDonald's served teriyaki burgers, I would be all over that... And there's a monkey trying to grab the burger off to the side which would totally be me but I'm not as sneaky with my four stubby legs. As always though a wonderful design on the package.

This is the first umaibo in TokyoTreat that managed to stay in one piece so hooray for that! This umaibo though in terms of color looks a bit like an underdone burger, either rare or no toasting on the bun. Or maybe that's the supposed to be the teriyaki sauce. The smell worries me as it's VERY heavy on the teriyaki, almost to the point of being cloying, but I do get some of that nice burger smell in there.

The good thing about umaibos though is despite the strong smell there's a nice puffed corn taste inside to even things out, and that remains here. So the strong teriyaki smell becomes much more tolerable, so now I can really appreciate it, as it's sweet and tangy but not too much so. As always it's crispy as ever in a delightful way, and I get the nice crunchiness that makes it satisfying going down my mouth the entire time.

The main criticism I have of this is that the burger flavor is barely there. When I want meat I mean it! And here it tastes more like teriyaki fries or a teriyaki bun more than anything. So without that taste it becomes a little one note, but still a worthy eat.

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

Veggie Salad Umaibo

These umaibos never cease to surprise me. Every time I get a flavor where I think "it's going to taste like THAT!?" and it turns out being really good. At this point they could probably make a peanut butter squid (shoutouts to Shokugeki no Soma) umaibo and it would be the most heavenly thing ever. This flavor is not so much out there as maybe a bit on the unappealing side. Especially for me. I'm used to meat, what kind of canine feasts on vegetables?

What lies inside is... surprising to say the least given the description. It looks and smells more like a cheese umaibo funny enough, with the bright orange color and even a bit of a cheesy smell. The info booklet for the box though does say that Japanese salads come with a variety of tastes. Is this one of them?

The taste is also more cheesy than anything but I can definitely see where the veggie salad component of this comes from. I definitely do get a hodgepodge of other flavors in there. As usual I'm enjoying the crunch but also fluffy texture of the umaibo, it pairs well with the cheesy veggie flavors. Although I was expecting a bit of a weirder flavor so I am slightly down in that regard, this is still tasty in its own right. In general though this could use some stronger flavors--besides the already faint cheese flavor I don't really get too much of any flavor here. The texture and flavor that's there is nice as always, but definitely needs a bit more of a punch.

Rating: 5 - Ruff!

Shrimp Mayonnaise Umaibo

I... have no idea what to expect with the flavor of this umaibo. Shrimp, alright. Mayonnaise, alright. Together? We're in for a wild ride. Though I suppose it could be akin to a lobster roll-type flavor. And the corn umaibo was fine despite sounding like an odd flavor so maybe we're in for a treat here! Regardless, I love the packaging on these. The mascot (which looks kinda like a bunny) is always so happy, and this time he's accompanied by one shrimp in the air flying around with the mayonnaise bottle and one down below cutting the fishing net. Team effort or does one know what's going on and the other not?

Christmas Chocolate Umaibo

While umaibo seem to be part of the "cheap candy" in Japan, the first umaibo brought me a really interesting flavor and texture that I quite enjoyed. I also haven't tried anything chocolate in a while and I'm salivating at the chance to have some chocolate candy right now (my name is Brownie after all)! Hopefully the crispy texture translates over to chocolate as well as it did the corn.

Christmas Corn Potage Umaibo

Puppy's first umaibo? Puppy's first umaibo. I had heard of these when I was looking up what dagashi was. Dagashi is essentially the Japanese version of penny candy, probably not a penny because inflation but the low cost snacks of the Japanese world. So I'm about to discover how well-off those Japanese kids are when they have a low amount of money but need a bite to savor. Umaibo is essentially a crispy, crunchy bar of some sort. And considering there's also a chocolate one in this pack as well, there seems to be no flavor limitation. Savory snacks like these have not always tasted the best to me, but let's see what we've got.