Wednesday, May 28, 2008

My singlefier


If you took note of my pathetic kitchen cabinet you would have noticed packages upon packages of Wakabato Aji Zukushi. They are my favorite chip/rice cracker. Hands down. Addicted. Might be the reason why I am single. Might be the reason why I am alone. But I don't care, this to me is a guilty sin - and is more dependable, more enjoyable and tastier than any man could ever be. Some people drink, some people smoke, I Aji Zukushi.


Aji Zukushi is the UN of snacks - where you can get the cross-mingling of normally unique items- a mix bag of flavors, textures, shapes and colors. Salty meets sweet. Plain meets neon. Fish meet flowers.

First the negatives - the whole bag is greasy. Be forewarned. It's also not healthy, one bag has more sodium and fat than is needed to kill an ox. Good thing I only eat about 8 each weekend…mmmm...grease....

Similar to the Hadson Co.'s Aji Yose, this combination comes in a large purple bag marked 300 yen and is sold at either $2.99 at either $2.69 depending on which shop you go to. Fair warning, cut off my supply and I will not be a happy person.

The chips vary from package to package but there are a few staples.

The green, white and pink very thin almost puffed chips. These are quite salty and fragile. They are most often the "dust" left at the bottom of the bag. I tend to eat these first. They don't have much flavor aside from salt and it's fun to try and pick them out.

The white discs - Hard circular discs with traces of nori in each. Absolutely no flavor. I tend to pick out.

The curly screw chip - Very hard, very salty. No flavor other than salt but in a good way. These are eaten third.

Wasabi curls - green smaller curly screw chips. Only in certain packages. Extreme Wasabi flavor. Eat at your own risk.

Small speckled hexagon shaped brown discs. Taste like ketchup, well ketchup that has sat out in the sun for three weeks. Not the most pleasant flavor, but there are only occassionally a few in the package and by that point, the gluttony has set in and they end up scoffed anyway.

Brown large discs - Now the element of sweet is introduced. Not overly sweet with a light hint of soy sauce flavor. Crunchy and very good. My favorite of the lot. I put these right in the middle of the eating process because they are a nice transition.

Orange fishees - Fish shaped chips that glisten with greese. Unlike the smaller goldfish style crackers, these are very sweet. Often times in the packages the cracker breaks and you are left with a head searching for a tail and vice versa. Fun to try and reassemble.

Flowers - White, Pink, Green and Yellow. Sweet. Probably the sweetest of the lot. A nice way to shock your body into sugar mode from all the salt.

J speckled pieces - very sweet and crispy. A nice piece to save for last as they are slightly less sweet than the flowers yet still pack that sugar punch.

I know this probably doesn't sound appealing in the slightest, artificial flavors with overly salted and overly sweet crackers. But it works. I don't know what it is but the ratio of salty to sweet is just perfectly balanced in each bag. Perhaps it's the draw of the grease or the magic colors, but it is magic bag. 10/10 Potential to get you a date 0/10

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you. This helped me in my decision.