07.23.11
Want Want Shelly Senbei (spicy)
Over at The Japanese Snack Review, Orchid64 has a millionty different Senbei she’s reviewed (or 59, but still more than the 1 or 2 I have here) and she seems to like them more than less. The only other thing I can think of that I’ve reviewed which is similar is Ame no shu which we didn’t like so much. However, whilst snack shopping I found this and another this which was very similar but with a slightly different color and missing the words “Spicy”. Of course I got both because I love me a series of eats to review.
Senbei (or alternately sembei according to Wikipedia) is a Japanese rice cracker. By that definition I guess I’ve reviewed a lot more Senbei than I thought but only the Ame no shu look similar to these spicy fellas. That’s about all the similarity too. Perhaps Taiwanese based Hot Kid is a better Senbei maker because this time around, these fellas are delicious. They are nice and crispity even though they are about half again as thick as a Ritz. They also have a light drizzle of sweet hard frosting on one side and somewhere there is a delicious salty counterpart. Oh yeah, and the spicy.
I wouldn’t call these super spicy but then again I am used to a more Cajun spicy. For the average person, these have a spice that will build. It lingers nicely with a quiet burn but I don’t think that the spicy is enough to stop anyone but the most bland of food lovers from having two, three or even four of these right in a row.
I also wanted to mention that the cracker is a hearty rice cracker. Of the rice crackers I’ve tried, this one has an unusual almost wheatiness to it except there is no wheat listed in the ingredients. I don’t know how they did that, but it makes for a nice ricey cracker with a hint of wheaty depth. I rather quite like it.
Rating of 4 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.
Orchid64 said,
December 27, 2011 at 6:37 pm
It’s interesting because it’s relatively rare for me to have seen the types of foods you are reviewing even though they are also Japanese or Asian. This one has an awesome name (both the product and the name), but I’ll probably never see them since all of the sembei here appears to be domestically produced and I doubt I’d see Taiwanese brands. The market in Japan is likely protected (because of the rice) and such things aren’t imported here. I wish they were as I’d love to try these.