We tried eight snacks from Korea to see which passed our taste test.
Image: 123rf.com
No Korean snack feast is complete without a seaweed snack in the mix. I love the snack’s unique cube shape – it feels like you’re eating space food. I chose the anchovy and almond flavour because I wanted something savoury. I didn’t get the taste of the almonds, although the anchovies were there. The addition of rice crisps made it very crunchy. A textured, flavourful snack.
$3.10 from Shine Korea
Looking for a healthier snack? This is it. The texture of this titbit is similar to dried fruit snacks we have locally, but minus the artificial sweetness. There is a light natural sweetness in this that comes from the sweet potatoes rather than any added sugar. It does get a bit starchy after a while, but otherwise, it’s great if you want something light to nibble on pre-workout.
$3.20 from Shine Korea
I had really high expectations for this since I loved Korean fried chicken, but this was nothing compared to the real thing. These snacks are shaped into little chicken drums and coated with a barbeque seasoning that is spicy rather than the sweet BBQ flavour we are more familiar with. Bite into the drumsticks and you get a hollowed shell that was disappointing to say the least. The only thing it had was that it was really crispy and it had a cute packaging.
$1.90 from Shine Korea
Possibly my favourite snack out of this list. The honey butter goes exceptionally well with the cashew nuts, since the nuts are not known to have a strong flavour. The nuts are slightly caramelised, and are lightly dusted with honey butter powder. It is a sweet treat, but not overly so, so you can gobble the whole packet in one sitting. There is an almond version for this, which is really good as well, but I am all for the cashew nuts.
$10.90 from Shine Korea
Fans of topokki (Korean rice cakes), you would love this snack version of it. There was a honeyed sweetness in it that I really liked, although you can’t have too much of it at one go. I also liked that it was crispy. While real topokki tends to be spicy, there wasn’t a hint of it in this snack, which is a pity. The fiery kick would have elevated this treat more.
$1.50 from Shine Korea
There were two packets with three waffles in each in the box. This snack failed to impress. Waffle biscuit was flat and stale, while the chocolate coating tasted artificial and cheap. It also left an unsavoury aftertaste.
$2.10 from Shine Korea
This snack had a good balance of sweet and savoury. I love the crunchiness and it was really easy to eat thanks to its shape and size. There was a really fragrant corn flavour that was addictive, although I couldn’t quite taste the “chicken” in this. The only drawback was that we would have preferred it to be a bit spicier.
$2.50 from Fairprice
A light and easy snack that we had no trouble eating more than a couple of. There was a good amount of white chocolate filling in each wafer, but it was neither too sweet nor too milky that it becomes jelak.
$2.20 from Fairprice