Want Want Follow Me Senbei Milk Tea

Want want? Follow me? Sounds like this cracker really wants me to like it. And I really want to like it, as the idea of a milk tea flavored cracker sounds tail-waggingly good. But it's going to be hard to convert the refreshing, satisfying taste of milk tea into solid form... or maybe not. The British imagery on here is also a little confusing, maybe it's British milk tea? Do they even have that over there? That would be my kind of tea time.

The cracker is pretty similar to its appearance on the package, and it's definitely intriguing me. It's a nice light brown color with white icing splotches, which could be the milk. I'm certainly intrigued, though the scent is quite mild. I get the tea and the rice flavor, but no milk, hopefully all that goodness is hiding within. The crackers are also quite light and hollow meaning I'll probably be chowing down on a lot of these soon if I like them.

The cracker has more of a savory component to it than I thought, which I guess should be expected - it is a rice cracker first and foremost. The flavors within it are quite nice reminding me of some of the best rice crackers I've had, it's very rich in its grainy flavor and there's a lot of nice depth here, almost like a rice-wheat mixture, but likely just rice. The milky bits add some much-needed sweet touches to this, and although milk tea isn't the first thing that comes to mind here, it's still quite good. It's got some nice light sweetness just like the drink, just in a different form factor. These might in fact be the perfect companion to some milk tea!

Rating; 7 - Aroof!

Sriracha Rice Chips

 

Hmm, another box, another spicy snack. I do like sriracha, but in very small doses, as it packs nice flavor but also a ton of spiciness. Hopefully this one can do the same! The other ingredients listed on the package all sound like the components of a very nice rice bowl, although I had to look up what okara is (it's a type of flour). Sesame and soy beans and the pictured garlic and brown rice should also add a number of nice complementary flavors to this.

All looks good so far when I open the package. The crackers have both a nice appearance and smell. They're quite solid and have a varied texture, lots of little air bubbles, but can definitely see that they're baked perfectly and have lots of little sesame seeds in them, and a nice sriracha dusting. The smell brings to mind a lot of crispy rice snacks, with the nice accents of both sesame and spicy tomato-ey sriracha. Now I just have to hope it isn't too spicy!

The spiciness is definitely there but manageable, I'm certainly not rushing to lap up water. The first thing I notice though is the nice crunch as I break through the crispy rice layer. It's neither burdensome nor unsatisfying, and then my mouth is introduced to a wave of flavors straight out of a rice bowl. It almost feels like I'm eating just that, it's incredible just how realistic this is, and the nice aftertaste of that bowl lingers for a while. Even though I'm spice adverse, the spice here doesn't feel cheap either, it's a long lasting heat that adds to the flavor and doesn't cover it up. It also seems to taste a little nutty, and maybe that comes from the soybean flavor. All in all a really nice treat that's really representative of Asian cuisine!

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!

Kracie Popin Cookin Bento

Alas, this is the final Kracie product that I ordered from a box on the internet... for now. I'm sure there will be more, but for now it's been a fun journey, wading through all the powders, generic fruit flavored chewy candy, triangle cups, weird utensils, bags, molds... they've really made something special with all of these, where anyone can play with their food and eat it too. And speaking of playing with your food, I've always had an appreciation for bento. It shares a lot of the same concepts, so in a way this is a meta-DIY kit of sorta, and even has some of the cuteness that bento is known for with that panda face!

This one, as expected from the large number of items on the picture, is quite heavy in components: a whopping 7 packets, a bag, fork, lots of molds, and some guides. Unfortunately the bowl shown on the box is looking a little flat and that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.

Anpanman Festival Rice Puffs

I guess these characters are a recurring thing in Japanese cuisine, so I might as well get used to them. I suppose Anpanman is the one on the left since he looks most like anpan (red bean bun). Not too much a fan of his appearance though, but at least he seems to have an eye for good food. These though? I hope they'll be good, I know nothing about them besides being multicolored and having both salt and honey flavors. Not the most enticing sounding, but looks and descriptions can certainily deceive.

So far they seem to have the distinct appearance of Froot Loops, with a more limited selection of colors. I do quite like this color combination though. I think it reminds me of some Tic Tacs before, and seems pretty festive, like another take on Christmas colors. The smell... is something else though. I know why, the honey and salt smells do NOT mix! It smells like some gross seawater type concoction. Usually the smell is an accurate depiction of the taste but I'll give it a pass here given my prior information.

I taste the white one first, and I think it's the honey one, but at first it has a slightly salty taste to it anyways. The pink one seems to be the same, but the green one is definitely salty. The salty one is easy to decipher, it's definitely a popcorn kind of taste, except with more rice and less butter. It's okay, but quite standard, and I don't really get much from eating it.

The honey one though is much more interesting. Contrasting with the salty flavor its sweetness is much more pronounced, so maybe that's the logic behind the dual flavors. This one is a treat to eat, the honey is quite subtle but in this case, I like it, seems like it's hiding amongst the rice. And of course because it's an option too, I tried the two flavors together. This is also a satisfying flavor surprisingly enough, the honey and salt do actually blend, unlike their smell. Which is really odd. Maybe the sniffer does lie? Are all my wolf foundations going to be broken? Oh nooooooooooo!

Rating: 7 - Aroof!

Kracie Popin Cookin Taiyaki

These look like quite the varied batch of snacks to make! The star of it of course is the taiyaki, a fish shaped pastry kinda like a waffle, with the filling of your choice (in this case chocolate). From there other Japanese desserts seem to be included: strawberry daifuku, a cup of ramune, and mitarashi dango, which appears to be soy sauced glazed mochi. And it uses the microwave, which is different. Not sure if that's because the products are meant to be eaten hot or because the microwave cooks the various powder/water mixtures.

Nissin Choco Flakes

I got this from a grab bag at my Japanese market that was intended for Christmas, and it included some things that I gave away because I already tried them - a Black Thunder bar, caramel corn, and potato rings among others - but of course I couldn't give up the new things without trying them! Greedy pup I am. So these seem to be Japan's answer to Choco Pebbles, maybe? Or maybe it'll be something entirely different. One thing I am pleased by already is how heavy the bag feels. In a world poisoned by air-filled bags, this snack already stands out.

From the sniff test, I get a scent similar to some of the other Japanese chocolate snacks, mainly the Ginbis shimichoco corn. It's a chocolate iced smell, but the texture of the snack doesn't seem to be quite that. It's chocolate all the way through, with some crispy bits in the middle - I'll assume that's rice? And they seem very prone to sticking together, I pulled out more than a few clusters. But those could be even better than individual flakes.

Tasting the flakes, I get a little bit more rice than chocolate initially, then the chocolate manages to seep through. I'd like a little more chocolate here, but it's nice to have this be a little lighter of a snack, works well for an afternoon pick-me-up (which I'm using it as now). The crunch though is very pleasant, quite satisfying for such a little treat. It's even better with the clusters. I'm glad they melted together so I ended up seeing the best way to eat them. It's not exceptionally sweet either compared to similar snacks. These actually seem more like crispy rice cereal flavored with a bit of chocolate. Overall a pleasant eat but a bit different from what one may be expecting. Especially with the chocolate flowing onto the flakes on the package.

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

Onigiri Senbei

I got all excited at first reading this snack name because I thought it would actually be similar to an onigiri, but turns out it's an onigiri shaped rice cracker (senbei). Still could be very good, actually when I was a wee little pup I was allergic to wheat, so any time I wanted something starchy I would go for rice cakes instead. So I very well know the magic of rice snacks, but let's see how this one measures up.