Purin! Purin! Custard Pudding: Sugar, egg, milk, and cream are the basic ingredients of Purin, Japanese creme caramel / flan. It’s the flavor of “pudding” add ins for your bubble tea, with a firmer texture than American pudding yet softer and creamier than Jello. This particular product is made in California and was purchased in Berkeley at Tokyo Fish Market. It represents a simple deliciousness - classic, but not average, with a layer of sweet dark caramel at its base. Small plastic spoons included. 3.5/5.0
recommended japanese tokyofishmarket purinpurin custard pudding 3.5 sweets dessert
Riska Mentai Corn Snack: I love that Japanese culture is seemingly contradictory. There is the upmost respect for serenity and simplicity, along with an obsession with quality and workmanship (e.g., tea gardens, sashimi and sushi rice, Yurbai melons) - yet, at the same time, it can be loud, brash, and colorful (e.g., manga, Pachinko). This purple bag of Mentai (cod roe) puffed corn snacks is sensory overload all on its own, with multiple exclamation points, bold lettering, and metallic silver foil highlighting. I... (read more) 4.5/5.0
exceptional japanese mentai cod roe fish seafood junkfood riska corn snack 4.5 tokyofishmarket
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
exceptional japanese riska corn potage snack 5.0 tokyofishmarket
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
umaibo japanese riska cheese corn snack 3.0 tokyofishmarket berkeley
Shirafuji Seika Ika mirin age: To mark the occasion of reaching 1,000 tasty snacks, I went to Tokyo Fish Market to purchase Japanese snacks. I purposely picked two bags without any English on the packaging. The first was a squid-flavored rice cracker which, according to the ingredients, contains shrimp, cuttlefish, and octopus. Combining these seafood flavors with a generous amount of MSG leads to a umami-rich snack. The irregularly shaped crackers have a deep orange color and a shiny coating. Very satisfying and tasty. 3.5/5.0
japanese shrimp squid seafood ricecrackers tokyofishmarket shirafujiseika ika mirin age 3.5 recommended
T-Pops Tarako Salted cod roe popcorn: Purchased from Tokyo Fish Market, this small bag of popcorn from T-Pops contains dense miniature kernels with a seasoned but not easily identifiable flavoring. It doesn’t taste like seafood, which I expected because of the salted cod flavoring and it’s dressed with a noticeable amount of oil. Not particularly good popcorn, or unique flavor. 2.5/5.0
tokyofishmarket japanese tpops salted cod roe popcorn 2.5