(weird) Japanese snacks

Snacks from Hokkaido

My female boss went on an 'all-ladies trip' to Hokkaido with her 3 friends recently. These are some of the souvenirs she brought back.

The non-food item is a small pouch filled with lavender petals, the scent of which help to relax our mind when placed inside the pillow we sleep with. It's bought from this flower farm called 'Farm Tomita'. She went right when the lavender & sunflowers are blooming nicely. Gorgeous!

Here are a list of the weird snacks (some) she brought back.

Unique Kit Kat flavours

The one on top is: WASABI flavoured Kit Kat. I, of course can't resist trying. Well, the wasabi flavour was disappointingly mild. A tad too sweet for my tastebuds, too.

The lower one is : Green tea/matcha flavoured Kit Kat. Yet to have a taste of that. Will update when I finally do.

**update: The matcha (green tea) flavour, like its wasabi counterpart also lacks its namesake flavour. To creamy, too sweet. Even the green tea-flavoured ice-cream from Haato packs more punch!

Milk candy

My colleague had a taste of this. "Very milky," he said. I asked if it's similar to the 'white rabbit candy' that we have here. "This one nicer."

Well, no surprise there, seeing that Hokkaido milk is known to have a 'strong milk taste & is smooth'. It's also much favoured by the Japanese themselves.

Seasoned dried scallop

We've heard of dried squid snacks. But it's my first time seeing a dried scallop snack. And they are really small, so cute!

This one, I believe, will go nicely with piping hot rice. Reminds me of the seasoned scallop sushi one can easily get here. But I guess, this one here is chewier.

Potato snacks

Hokkaido (or Sapporo) potatoes are known to be really tasty so it's no surprise that these snacks were soo delish!

The small packet on the right, called Jyagapokkuru, is apparently a pretty famous product that sold out pretty fast almost everywhere there. Looks and taste a little like Calbee's Jagabee. A box of 10 small packs cost a little more than SGD13. Limited to only 1 box per customer. Can you believe that?!

Check out more details HERE.

The box on the left is Hanabatake Bokujo Angel's potato caramel. In case you are wondering, yes, they are CARAMEL-COATED potato chips.

As a non-caramel fan, I wasn't too enthusiastic about it. But my boss made us have a taste and boy! The caramel flavour is pretty mild, almost creamy; so it isn't cloyingly sweet. And when paired with the tasty Hokkaido potato chips...? YUM! Pretty addictive.

Chocolate potato chip

And this one here... is from Hokkaido. But it was purchased in Singapore. At Suntec City, in fact.

Eversince I read about these chocolated-coated potato chips, I had been most curious about the odd-pairing. However, I can never find the time to actually head down to any of Royce's outlets (Suntec City, Taka & ION). Yes, Royce, the Japanese chocolate boutique where the products are flown in directly from their factory in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

When my colleague had to go here for a site visit, I can't help but asked a favour from him.

The verdict? Well, I don't know if I should compare with the Angel's caramel potato but I just can't help it.

One difference is how Royce's potato chips is a lil' salty (Angel's chips are just plain). The taste was pretty jarring, at first. But with more bites, I find how interesting it was to have 2 contrasting tastes (salty potato + sweet chocolate) finally complementing each other. Another thing is how Royce's chips are much thicker.

As quoted from their website:
"... The wave shape of the potato chips is to enable a well-balanced taste when the sweet taste of the chocolate and the salty taste of the potato chips melt together in the mouth. The nice crispy sensation generates from the thickness of the potato chips and the chocolate. The combination is unexpected and once you start eating them you cannot stop ..."

Ahhh.. sohhh....

That box also didn't come cheap. $15 for 190g. I'm also curious to try their 'Potechi Crunch'. (Pls pardon the weird use of English on their website...)