08.12.07
Komugihaigari Rice Cracker
Komug…uhhhh…Komo…ummmm…OK I have no idea how or even if I have to break that word up much less how to say it so I’m dubbing these “Hippo Cookies”. I can spell Hippo. Plus…you know…they have at least one Hippo on the box if not two. We’re still trying to decide if the second character is a horse or a hippo. Not only that but these cookies are, I’m thinking, toddler cookies. Y’all know that toddler stuff amuses me quite a bit and if it amuses me, chances are I’ll pick it up and review it. Hopefully it amuses you as well.
On the package there are a couple stalks of wheat and the ingredients list “wheat flour” first and foremost although the Englished label says “rice cracker”. I’m pretty sure this is a wheat cracker because of the wheat pic, the wheat taste and the fact that there is no rice listed in the ingredients. Corn starch yes, soy lecithin yes, even wheat germ to go along with the wheat flour but no rice. Sometimes their translators are a bit off me thinks.
Speaking of wheat, that’s very much what we have here. The top and bottom “cookie” bits are more reminiscent of Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers than they are cookies. They could almost be a Carr’s Whole Wheat cracker but for the fact that the Hippo Cookies have a dusty texture to them that the Carr’s do not. Have you ever had a whole wheat whatever that was so robust with the whole wheatiness that it tasted sort of dusty wheaty? That’s what’s going on here. The slightly sweet and wheaty savory cracker bit would be great if there wasn’t a gritty texture that lurked around in the background. It’s one of those textures that made me sit there trying to smack the dry off my tongue long after the cracker was gone. Meh. I’d have much preferred wheat without the dusty robust.
The filling is an odd duck too. It’s a bit stiffer than that white cream they use in long john donuts (those oblong chocolate frosted filled critters) but it’s pretty similar in taste. Cut about half of the sweet out and make the donut filling a little bit grainier and you would have exactly what’s gluing the wheat plank crackers together. This is a good thing. If the middle were more of an Oreo type filling it would be entirely too sweet for the savory wheat crackers. I’m not going to find fault in the minimal sweet at all, especially since the slight sweet is probably a wonderful toddler treat without being too sugary.
I’d also like to point out some packaging notes. First, Hippo! And Hippo friend! Who may also be a hippo. Also, the cookies came in four foil wrapped packages, which was quite a bit of a surprise to me. I was expecting one package with loosely jumbled cookies rolling around but no. Hippo cookies are all neatly tucked into orderly packs of four to a box. Bonus! They are also small and cute and probably just the right size for toddler fists to latch onto. If I were doing this review for toddlers or parents of toddlers, I’d give Hippo cookies a higher pea rating than I did. However, my intent when I started the JSFR was to review Japanese (Asian) snacks for adults so that adults could read the reviews and know what was lying in wait within the packaging. As adults, all my Guinea Pigs were pretty under whelmed by the Hippo Cookies. The sweet is not enough to fully lodge Hippo Cookies into a delightfully sweet snack but it manages to sweet up the savory just enough to take the cookies out of reach of a good savory snack. Plus, there is that dusty linger which isn’t very endearing. If you are a toddler or toddler parent you might want to add a pea point to my official Komugihaigar Rice Cracker
rating of 2.5 wasabi peas of out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.
Bubbles said,
August 16, 2007 at 5:40 am
I find that child on the cover absolutely frightening.
Boo said,
August 17, 2007 at 5:40 pm
But…look at him/her/it, he/she/it is so happy to be eating hippo cookies! Happy! HAPPY!!!! Heh. I hadn’t noticed the creepy factor until you mentioned it. I was too caught up trying to decide if that other thing is a hippo or a pony or maybe a girl hippo with hair?
Johnson said,
August 17, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Actually, those aren’t hippos, they’re Moomins. They’re trolls, apparently. I went to Japan last month, and the Circle K convenience store chain there had some promotion involving the Moomins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin
Boo said,
August 17, 2007 at 11:34 pm
That’s a riot! Moomin cookies then. I’m not sure which amuses me more, the fact that they are Finnish characters on a Japanese cookie or that Moomin is so much fun to say. Mooooooooomin. Thanks for the info.
Amy said,
August 20, 2007 at 8:53 pm
To further entertain and edify you, Moomins are apparently Scandanavian in origin. One of my British correspondents says they were a child’s books and marketing staple when she was growing up.
So they’re Norwegian hippos.
Kate said,
June 2, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Hi–
The Japanese lettering on the package says “Bisko” so the cookies are probably meant to be called “Bisco” (or it could be a mix of “biscuit” and “ko”, the Japanese word for “child”).
Those look kinda yummy, as if they taste like Vienna Fingers. Are they similar?
Boo said,
June 2, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Ho Kate! These cookies should have been more like Vienna Fingers but alas. They were very much a sort of grainy cream sandwiched between two quasi sweetish wheat crackers. Wheat Vienna Fingers would have been so much tastier.