Shrimp peanut snack: Despite my best effort at detective work with Google Translate and Reverse Image Search, I wasn’t able to track down the exact brand of this senbei snack. Too bad, because it’s one of the best ones I’ve had before. Purchased from Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley, the snack consists of baked hollow balls filled with peanuts. Unlike the traditional crunchy glazed rice crackers I’ve had before, this one had a crumbly, buttery exterior that melt-in-your-mouths. The shell is well seasoned with a rob... (read more) 4.0/5.0

Berkeley Bowl Sweet and Cheesy Bar Snack Mix: This is a snack mix from Berkeley Bowl I will likely never purchase again because it’s *too* good and addictive. Consisting of mostly crunchy things, including glazed sweet sesame sticks, corn nuts, and cheddar crackers, the mix is far too easy to mindless eat by the handful, and I finished the bag in an embarrassingly short amount of time. If you have better self control or are buying to share, I highly recommend. 4.0/5.0

Riska Cheese Corn Snack: This flavor of umbaibo has a cheese flavor familiar to Asian snacks. It tastes a bit like the cheese powder from boxed mac and cheese but with a creamy, milky flavor that's mild rather than tangy. Very different than the bolder cheese taste of American cheese snacks like Cheetos. Like other Umaibo, the texture is crispy and light. In this particular package, they're cut into mid-sized rings. 3.0/5.0

Riska Yasai Salad Snack: I’m on a quest to try all flavors of umaibo, the Japanese puffed corn snack. This one is salad flavored, resembling veggie crackers but with an Asian twist incorporating soy and sesame oil. They have a consistent ring-shaped form factor thicker than American Funyuns. It’s not one of my favorite umaibo flavors, but it’s still tasty. 3.5/5.0

Riska Corn Potage Corn Snack: There is nothing subtle about this Japanese fried snack. Shaped like onion petals, each bite combines the best of sour cream and onion with corn soup, a surprisingly sweet and savory combination that seems obvious in retrospect but refreshingly new at the same time. Intensely concentrated creamed-corn taste, like a powdered form of the liquid from canned corn. There's also small bits of dried parsley that cut through and round out the umami goodness. Airy, puffed consistency, with a text... (read more) 5.0/5.0

Peeled Snacks Southwest Spice Peas Please Snack: If you think about it, pea snacks are pretty weird, a compost mix of ground grains and vegetables reconstituted and shaped to resemble their original form. Imagine if corn chips looked like baby corn, or if potato puffs were shaped like fingerlings. Nonetheless, this organic take on pea snacks is pretty indistinguishable from others I've tried, with the same light texture, yet fried, oily aftertaste that leaves your fingers as greasy as if you just ate potato chips. The Southwest flavor has ... (read more) 2.5/5.0