08.02.10

Ritz Crackers (custard sandwich)

Posted in 4.0 Wasabi Pea Rating, Cracker, Sweet at 12:21 am by Boo

Here is my second Japanese origin treat: Ritz custard sandwich crackers. You didn’t think I would short Japan just because August started mid weekend did you? Surprise Monday JSFRing!

Anyway, I love when this sort of thing happens no matter who is doing it. Pepero hopping in on the Pocky phenomenon? Wrocks! Italy trying to make pizza? Awesome (except from what I’ve heard it’s not really but I do like the cross national effort put into the project). America taking a stab at mochi? Well that didn’t work out very well either but the point is that it tickles me pink when X nation takes a crack at Y nation’s typical ‘thing’. Today I bring you just such an instance; Nabisco Japan and sandwich crackers.

Incidentally, they also had cheese and peanut butter cracker sandwiches (I think…well two more main stream sandwich crackers at any rate). I picked up custard because peanut butter and cheese cracker sandwiches are a dime a dozen but custard? Who does custard? Nabisco Japan, that’s who.

In the course of reviewing cookies and crackers and pretzels (oh my!) I often times compare texture or flavor to either a graham cracker or a Ritz cracker. Well what do you know, I actually have a Ritz cracker on hand to review and…I’m still going to use the comparison. These Ritzes are a tad different from your Stateside Ritz in that they are crisper and have a more ‘deep fried’ texture to them than the normal Nabisco U.S.A. crackers. We couldn’t decide if that was to help the cracker maintain some crispness after the custard was added to the sandwich dynamic or if Japanese Ritz just tend toward the deep fried whereas the Stateside Ritz have a definite bakedness about them. However it is that the Ritz of the Rising Sun came to be more deep friedesque, it really does wonders for the cracker sandwich crispity.

As for the custard filling, it’s sweet but not overpoweringly so (think Oreo filling but half the sweety sweet and a little more plyable). It’s also nicely eggy custard tasting and the custard blob isn’t ridiculously thick. In Oreo terms, it would be half stuff and that is just perfect (although one Guinea Pig mentioned that they would have liked more). The salty crunchy of the cracker plays nicely with the just quite sweet of the custard. Then there is the Ritz crackery taste and the eggy custard taste that wander by all harmoniously. I didn’t think I’d like custard Ritz crackers much at all; I’ve been schooled.

I also have a second sleeve of unopened crackers for later munching. Score awesome packaging!

Rating of 4 Wasabi Peas out of a possible 5.

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