Thursday, September 30, 2010

Day 3: Fish In Chips

Today's post has nothing to do with running and everything to do with fun snack food from Southeast Asia.

My brother-in-law just got back from a trip to Malaysia where he won an international student competition in materials science.  If seeing pictures of Malaysia sounds way more interesting than continuing on with my blog post, check them out here.

For those of you who are left, J sent us some Malaysian junk food.

Dried cuttlefish (with hot sauce).  We haven't tried this one yet.  Stay tuned.


But we did crack open these guys: soft shell crab, grilled shrimp, and seaweed Pringles.

I had high hopes for the soft-shell crab, thinking those would taste the most Pringle-like.  (J confirmed that the sign in the grocery store said they were the best selling flavor)  Daniel thought seaweed would be the best.

Here's a look at the actual shrimp and seaweed chips.  Yes, they were pink and green as advertised.


What was the verdict?  Fortunately all of them tasted 90% like regular Pringles.  Seaweed was the clear winner.  It was mostly Pringle-y with just a little sweetness.  Despite the color being a little weird, both of us agreed that we would eat a big handful of these with a sandwich.  If you changed name of the flavor to salsa or sour cream and chives you could sell them in the US for sure.

My second favorite flavor was crab.  Again it mostly tasted like Pringles with just a little bit of a sweet/seafood taste at the end.  I didn't dislike these, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat them.  Daniel liked shrimp more than crab.  The taste was similar, but I think the seafood overtone was stronger.  I really really really don't like dried shrimp so I was prejudiced against these chips from the beginning.  I didn't hate the shrimp chip, but I didn't like it either.

Final prediction for the chips: they will all get eaten by us.  I will help with seaweed and Daniel will make it through the rest with the help of some salsa.