Bonchi French Dressing Fried Rice Crackers (Tsuna Age Arare)

 
Yeah, try to figure out what this is
if you don't read Japanese

The Attraction

This package had little to no English on it. I just hope it doesn't taste like shrimp crackers.

The Review:
I'm usually not in the habit of buying random snacks with no understanding of what's inside, but somehow I just felt this might be worth a shot. Even though the "twists" look very much like shrimp crackers, there was no indication of shrimps or anything seafood-ish about it. So what flavor must this be?

A quick turn of the bag reveals an import label in English that reads, "Cracker (Tsuna Age Dressing)" If you are like me, then I know what you are thinking, "I love tsuna age dressing!". OK, maybe more like what the frig is Tsuna Age Dressing. After spending some time on "The Google" I discovered that Tsuna Age Dressing, at least in context to this snack, means French dressing. That helped, but I still couldn't quite put my finger on what french dressing chips would taste like. Easily solved.

Looks like a shrimp cracker

I open the bag and detect a smell. A smell that was hard to describe. French dressing? Not good, nor bad, just something I'm not able to determine the smell of. A slightly salty smell is about as much as I can offer. I pick up a "twist" and indulge. As if it wasn't hard enough to describe the smell, it was even harder to describe the flavor. It was savory, lightly salted, yet not as harsh or persistent as just plain salt. At first it seemed very underwhelming, but as I had more, I became intrigued as to the flavor that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Although labeled "French Dressing", I'm quite certain this was something I have never tasted the flavor of before.

Hmm..doesn't taste like a shrimp cracker

The Sweet:
A nice shrimp-cracker-like-crunch with a deceptively tasty flavor

The Bitter:
What exactly is french dressing flavor?

Conclusion:
Bonchi's French Dressing Fried Rice Crackers doesn't come at you with a bunch of flair or fanfare (at least not based on the packaging I couldn't read), but oddly enough, the relatively nondescript packaging mirrors the flavors that await for you inside. It's not super...anything, but somehow it stealthily delivers it's flavor and leaves you wanting for more.With a nice find like this, maybe I should try more mysterious snacks from now on.

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