Cracker Jack Chocolate Peanut Butter

This is almost too good to be true!

The Attraction:
Cracker Jacks are an iconic American snack. Mostly known for being devoured during sporting events, these treats are also popular in some homes. When I saw these Chocolate Peanut Butter versions of the classic popcorn snack, I thought this could be the perfect marriage of some of my favorite things; popcorn, chocolate and peanut butter. Oh, it's on, sucker!

The Review
I got to admit, I do enjoy the original Caramel Coated and Peanut Cracker Jack, but rarely enough to indulge in picking up a package to be stocked in my snack locker, but when I saw this new offering, I was excited. I love peanut butter and chocolate offerings and have been a sucker for that combination as witnessed here and here. I had high hopes for this product, but would I be burned again like some other items that fell short?

I quickly tore into the bag of Cracker Jacks and was ready to dig in. I popped a piece of popcorn into my mouth and was greeted with the identical crunch as the original Cracker Jack. I was impressed that even with a potentially heavier ingredient like chocolate covering the popcorn, it may lose it's crispness, but not in this case. They do a great job of keeping the texture consistent between flavor offerings. Let me have some more...

As I continue to nosh on several pieces of  Cracker Jacks, I begin to feel a slight twinge towards the back of my throat. "Why is that?", I think to myself. The popcorn is just too sweet and literally starts to hurt my throat! I had to stop and have a drink of water. It was just too much on the sugar scale..

Looks tasty!

The Sweet:

Has it's classic crispy crunch that you would expect from a Cracker Jack. The flavor is good if you have only a few pieces, but...

The Bitter:
... if you are like me and have a few more than 12 pieces, it may make your throat hurt due to the sweetness.

Proceed with caution

Conclusion:
This item starts off with so much promise; crispy crunch, nice chocolate and peanut butter flavor, but somehow, the sweetness begins to accumulate until my throat started to hurt. Now, to be fair, I was enjoying eating these treats up to that point, but at the end of the day, anything that makes your body react like that, can't be a good thing. As much as I wanted this to work, it seems that Cracker Jack Chocolate Peanut Butter was just too much of a good thing.

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Karamucho Hot Chili Potato Chips

The Attraction:
Potato chips are an iconic American snack. Why not find out how the Japanese do with their version of a classic American treat? If VCRs and cars are any indication of their ability to translate foreign inventions and make them their own, we are in for some good snackin'!

The Review
It wasn't too long ago that I tried another spicy Japanese potato chip called Calbee Hot and Spicy. Although I enjoyed that snack, I was curious if I just happened across a good potato chip or is there just a high-level of snack-dom within the Japanese food market. If their chocolate items are any indication, this one could be "in the bag".

As I picked up my first chip, it was clear that these babies are a hefty chip. They are the equivalent of the Ridges potato chips. Just like their American counterparts, these chips have some serious ridges and about twice the thickness of a standard potato chip. I also notice that like the Calbee chips, they aren't as oily or greasy as most chips here in the States. Wow...all this before I even take a bite.

So finally I dig in and as advertised, it's spicy, but not overly so. In addition to the spicy nature of these chips, there's a another flavor that's present. Surprisingly, there's a seaweed component that shines through as well. Hmm,,..interesting twist.

This is a serious chip!

The Sweet:

Crispy, yet not oily. These chips also add another layer of complexity by tossing in some seaweed essence to keep your taste buds entertained.

The Bitter:
Some might not like the thickness of these chips. If french fries were regular potato chips, these would be the equivalent of steak fries.

Can't just have one

Conclusion:
If it weren't for that dash of seaweed flavor in there, one could almost say there these Karamucho Hot Chili Potato Chips are just a thicker cut version of the Calbee Hot and Spicy chips. That little difference is enough to set these two snacks apart, but where the similarities come back up again is that both items would have a return engagement in my shopping cart.

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Ego Japan Pancake

Boy, this looks promising!

The Attraction:
What's not to love!? Bright red packaging, the word "Japan" on it, waffles and chocolate. I think I don't even need to taste this to know it's a winner...

The Review
I was really excited about this. I've been seeing this on the shelves for awhile at the Asian grocer I go to, so it was only a matter of time I would succumb to temptation....so I finally did.

Each pancake is individually wrapped, which I've always appreciated, but what I did notice is that each pancake is harder than what I was expecting. I opened the package and sure enough, they are hard! I don't know why, but for some reason, I thought they would be softer. These guys have don't give at all. I take a bite and I could swear it crunched because it was so dang hard. After a few crunchy-filled bites, I also noticed that the chocolate cream flavor was like a mousse, but a very light mousse....like I can barely taste it mousse. This isn't panning out the way I was hoping it would...

Hmm...this is not what I had in mind...

This is rather shocking to me. Japanese treats tend to have a elegance to them. Even if you don't love the snack, there is almost always a degree of refinement with each product. If you just look at the photo above, that doesn't look very refined. Upon further inspection of the packaging, I discovered that these pancakes are made in Malaysia! Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! Now it makes sense. I'm not sure if I was relieved it wasn't made in Japan (and their standards have dropped substantially) or that the packaging on the outside took advantage of using the word "Japan" on it.

Err...next snack please

The Sweet:

If you like crunchy, borderline hard cookies, you might find these OK. (I didn't)

The Bitter:
It's hard. Imagine a waffle cone you might get with a few scoops of ice cream. Now make that cone about twice, maybe triple the density and you have the outside of this pancake. Perhaps even like a really hard rice cake. The cream isn't any better as it doesn't convey much of a chocolate flavor.

Conclusion:
There isn't much of anything for me to like in this product; the texture is too hard and the cream doesn't have much flavor. I've never been so wrong about a product before in my life. Fortunately, as the old saying goes, there are plenty of other snacks in the sea.

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Hangzhou Dingyuan Food 3+2 Lemon Flavor Biscuits

It's like the Big Mac of Cream Cookies

The Attraction:
How do you improve upon a successful formula? How about more! That's the theory here I think with the 3+2 Biscuits by Hangzhou Dingyuan Food. They've taken a popular item, crackers with a cream filling between them and added a third cracker and another layer of cream. Will this be too much of a good thing? I had to find out...

The Review
Lemon flavored crackers are popular in Asia. This might be the 4th or 5th version I've seen of a product like this. I've had several of them, but this one stood out cause of the 3 cracker "gimmick". OK, it may have suckered me it to try, but how are the actual results?

Will this be too dry?

Sure enough, as I opened the package, there was a lemon aroma wafting out. That's a good start. The crackers or biscuits are laid on a plastic tray. I quickly pull one out and take a look. As advertised, it's 3 crackers sandwiched with 2 layers of cream. (I know I said that early, but the package was all in Chinese and I assumed that's what 3+2 meant, but I wasn't really sure til I set eyes on the real thing.

I take a bite and several chews in, the lemon flavor of the cream comes through. I initially worried that with three layers of cracker to flavor, that the lemon cream would either not be strong enough or not enough would be applied to carry the snack. My concerns we unfounded in this case. These suckers are as tasty as any other lemon sandwich cookies!

Sweet lemon cream! Come to daddy!

The Sweet:

There's enough cream in these biscuits to balance out the crackers. The lemon flavor is as good as any other lemon cream filling.

The Bitter:
It's gimmicky, but it's hard to knock it since that was how they drew me in.

Conclusion:
I had some doubts on this one. I've had some conventional lemon flavored cookies in which they've skimped on the cream and the result was a mouth full of dry crackers with a momentary cream reprieve, then back to dry cracker-ville. In this case, even with the addition of a third cracker, 3+2 manages to pull it off with a flavorful and generous amount of cream to carry you through each bite. They also over a ton of assorted flavors such as Blueberry, Tomato(?) and Taro. In the case of their lemon flavored cream offering, 3+2 equals happy snacking.

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