Riffing off the Snack <fails> thread, what are some Snack wins you like?
There are zillions of snacks, so let’s confine this to ‘unusual’ snacks or snacks that are not common in your culture.
I ate seaweed as a child in Japan, but it’s not your typical American go-to munchie. (In elementary school, a teacher threatened to put seaweed in the mouth of anyone who fell asleep in class. I feigned sleep.) So for me, a ‘snack win’ is Roasted Seaweed Snack. Also available in wasabi flavoured.
Another tasty win is Squid shreds. Mmm… Sweet and salty squid jerky!
I found a line of snack sticks in the Tokyo airport called Pretz. I choose the green package, which google translated as being “salad” flavor.
They were magically delicious.
Celery with Peanut Butter is a go-to snack for me before bed. Cheap, serving of veggies, nutritious, and tastes amazing!
Devils on Horseback aka Bacon Wrapped Dates: these things are called the Devil on Horseback because they will lead a nonstop campaign to the depths of your stomach. When my sister intro’d them to me I ate at least 2 dozen that night. Hardly anyone else got a chance to have them but I didn’t give a damn, I felt no shame - they were too good.
Sesame sticks,sesame candy [especially if made with honey], honey mints, eucalyptus chips. [can’t find the ones mrAru likes, they are tiny, the size of a tictac and wrapped in bright colored twist wrappers. I can ry to ask him what brand they are, but they are just like these probably.]
I like to make pocky out of pretzel sticks and enrobing cover [white chocolate, it takes flavor oil nicely and you can use dry or paste food coloring with it. strawberry flavored white chocolate with chopped up freeze dried strawberries and a bare sprinkle of sea salt was very popular last year as a Christmas present.] Way cheaper than the imported ones, and you can duplicate almost every one with care and a sampler of the original import ones to work with. Just remember to write down the experiments so you can recreate them later =)
We also make our own beef jerkey, and like playing with the marinades to tweak flavors. I don’t like doing the ground beef jerkey, it is tricky to get the exact right humidity level, to wet and it goes moldy, too dry and it explodes into dust when you chew it. Tweaking with olive oil was an interesting experiment but wasn’t good - we were going for a beef kipper texture but the flavor suffered. Regular sliced beef still ends up cheaper than buying commercial jerkey and doesn’t have the too dry dust explosion problem.
Blue cheese melted on a Triscuit, topped with an olive-oil-packed anchovy, rolled around a caper, with a drop of Sriracha sauce…and a dollop of Beluga caviar if it’s in your budget.
A date stuffed with gorgonzola cheese, wrapped with prosciutto, and seared in a pan in a balsamic reduction is a great snack food, better than jalapeno poppers!
Well, if we’re going to make our own snacks instead of buying them like civilized people…:
Canned chick peas, rinsed, dried. Add olive oil, garlic and onion powder, dried italian herbs, lemon pepper, kosher salt, red pepper flakes. Toss to cover and roast until outside is crispy.
Once in a while, when I’m at the Asian market, I’ll pick up a package of these Shrimp Chips or "Crisps" - Asian Chips Recipe to take home and fry. My great niece and nephew were fascinated by the way they puffed up while cooking when they were little.
