Potato chip delight

A surprising favorite snack of Japanese people is the almighty potato chip.  I can deduct this based on the vast number of potato chips one sees at the grocery store and convenience store.  The aisle dedicated to potato chips is quite delightful, because there is a whole new world of interesting flavors.  It is important to note the popularity is with potato chips, not corn or any other fancy ingredient.  The preferred texture seems to be thin and crispy, as I rarely see thick chips.  I would compare the texture to Lay's regular chips.

The true excitement is in the unique flavors.  I stopped by the convenience store (combini) tonight to pay some bills (have I mentioned how convenient combini are over here?) and snapped a few photos of the latest flavors to hit the shelves.

This blog post was inspired by the bag of "American Potato Chips" featuring 2 flavors: sour cream & onion and barbeque chips!  I would have bought them based on marketing alone, except I hate barbeque flavor chips!

Then there was the intriguing pizza flavor chips with a "powerful smell."  The package really does say "powerful smell" on it and exclaims it has twice the flavor of regular pizza flavored chips.

Up next there was green onion, grated daikon, and ponzu (citrus flavored soy sauce) flavored chips.  We tried these and thought they were a bit disappointing.  The smell of green onions was pretty overwhelming, but the flavor didn't really come through.  If it wasn't for the smell, we would have never known what flavor these were!  I love ponzu and this definitely didn't have enough ponzu flavor.

Monja (or monjayaki) was the most surprising flavor.  Monja is a regional food that consists of chopped cabbage and other veggies, then tossed into a batter and cooked into a pancake type shape.  It is savory and cooked on a griddle in the middle of the table.  I'm guessing a lot of work went into developing this flavor!

After a bit of research, I learned that Calbee has produced 47 special flavors.  There is one special flavor for each prefecture in Japan.  You must travel to that prefecture in order to buy them, as they aren't available online.  Similar to Kit Kats, they have created a big demand with their exclusive flavors.  Could you imagine if each state had it's own flavor?  Would Washington's chips be apple flavored?  Idaho would definitely have the classic potato flavor.

For a country that doesn't like salty and sweet together (imagine a place where there is no peanut butter and chocolate!!!), I was surprised to find salted chips with chocolate!  Of course I had to grab a bag.  And, although a bit strange, they didn't disappoint.  A hint of saltiness with thin stripes of dark chocolate.

To wrap up the potato chip adventure, I spotted the smoked cheese flavor chips.  These are extra special because they are thick chips!  My husband described them as thick and hard as a rock (also known as crunchy)! 

I love a good potato chip.  While I don't actually enjoy most of the flavors here, I sometimes buy them just for the experience.