Crab flavoured Pringles

I used to like potato chips. There used to be flavours which were satisfying to eat. These days when I buy potato chips, I wonder if whomever makes them actually tastes the crap they are making. Whatever happened to salt and vinegar as a flavour?

Feeling like potato chips one day, I decided to try something that looked like it was aimed at the local palate.. but not a batshit crazy flavour like cucumber.

So, crab flavoured Pringles.

They look just the same as any other pressed recycled potato-esque flavoured wafers in a can.

The barest hint of flavour, with the barest resemblance to crab. Seriously, there's probably so much commercial technique, chemicals and undesirable additives gone into making these travesties.. why can't they add different kinds of chemicals to pack them full of flavour approximations to actually make them worthwhile to eat? I'm choosing to give up a year of my life eating these unnatural wafers, it's not like I don't know I am paying a price for it already and aren't willing to consume more chemicals, heavy metals or whatever else goes into them.

Do not eat again.

Lemon olive

The supermarket is still sold out of prunes, and the rest of the brands taste like they've been soaked in some fermentation-like pickling flavour. So I looked the next column over in the rack, and found these lemon olive things.

I'm not sure what the "fresh squeezed liquid" on the packet has to do with anything.

Where do all the christmas tree shaped, pine scented, car fresheners go when they've been hanging from the rear view mirror so long that they've dried out and cracked? If someone told me they were ground into a pulp, rolled out and wrapped around olive stones, and this was the result I wouldn't be surprised. They have a slight hint of lemon, but it's the flavour of artificial lemon, not real lemon.

Do not buy again.

Peeled roast chestnuts

Another "corner store" find, chestnuts are supposed to be relatively healthy, unless that's just me not remembering anything detrimental about them healthwise. And because these do not contain any additional ingredients they shouldn't be too bad.

Looking like the corpses of chestnuts that were once alive and enjoying the sunshine, I had second thoughts about eating them.

They didn't have the best texture, but the flavour wasn't unpleasant. And since I haven't any reason to think they're not healthy, I'd should definitely keep these on the "worth buying" list. They cost around 5 RMB.

Sweet potato snack

I went into the "corner store" across the road and looked for a snack that wasn't too junky and came across this interesting treat.

Sculpted out of larger sweet potatoes to look like baby ones, and then rolled in a combination of sugar and bean paste to make them look real. They're of course inferior in flavour and texture to real sweet potatoes, but the only way to get those is to buy and cook them yourself, or to buy the overcooked ones on the street.

Definitely consider buying again. I think they cost around 8 RMB.

Jew's ear with pickled vegetable

I've been eyeing up the weird foods in the refrigerator of the supermarket, and the pickled vegetables are one of the lesser oddities to me as a westerner. Even the processed cheeses are not like the ones at home! :-)

Packet front:

Packet back:

Contents on plate:

These must be something which people come to like out through childhood exposure, because to my western taste buds they often taste much like a combination of weeds, cigarette ash and that flavour you get at the back of your throat when you throw up. This one however is.. erm.. tolerable :-) (and unlike some of the others, it doesn't have MSG as an ingredient).

I should definitely consider buying this one again.

Rice cake

Trying to stop buying bad junk food, I was eyeing up the rather unappealing looking rice cake.

I broke it out and chipped a few crumbly chunks from the rubbery mass.

Steaming and whatever other the options were, were out of the question so I went with microwaving.

It turned into a thick bubbling mass that was extremely tough like unhardened toffee. It also tasted like a combination of rubber and plastic, with undertones of cold refrigerated rice.

I don't think I need to remind myself not to buy this again.

Sweet potato vendor

I've passed these street vendors who sell both corn cobs and sweet potatoes many times, but never really bothered to try them. So the other night, on the way home with nothing quick to eat ahead of me, I decided to give them a shot. I point at the ones I want, and the vendor weighs them on their scales and then loads them into a plastic bag.

These two cost me 5 RMB (~1 NZD). They were scorching hot and I couldn't hold them in my hand to take a photo.

The idea is good, but unfortunately I think that the standard is to cook them until the starches have broken down and they have a very soft texture. Cooking vegetables too long cooks the goodness out of them, so they're more like a dessert than a healthy snack even if sweet potatoes have a lot of goodness in them. They're definitely worth buying again though. They're everything I like about Chinese street food, natural and made in a way which seems like they would have always been made.