Note that these aren't the tako chips you're probably used to: for one thing they're spelled differently and for another, they're Octopus Flavored. You heard me, I said Octopus Flavored. I have to assume their slogan is "More tentacles means more flavor!" I'm also assuming that "Nong Shim" translates to, "Oh dear lord, why?"
Seeing the "Octopus Flavored" on the bag sealed the deal for me; how could I not buy them after that? How often do you see something like that printed on a bag of chips?
The chips themselves are fish shaped, which was a bit of a let down. Would it have killed them to invent and construct an extruding machine capable of producing a chip with eight separate and distinct tentacles? Shoddy.
But I know you, you want to know how they taste, amiright? I tentatively tried a couple of chips and... surprisingly they're not bad. I was expecting them to taste like a mouth full of old fish heads that'd been setting in the sun all day, but they were reasonably tasty. In fact they tasted a lot like Bugles. Well, sort of. Imagine if you'd been fishing in your row boat all day since 6 a.m. and without washing your fish scale-covered hands, you reached into a bag of Bugles, grabbed a fist full and crammed them into your mouth. That's pretty much what they tasted like.
There was just a slight hint of fishy flavor. Nothing overpowering, thank goodness. Just a subtle impression; nothing that screamed "savory cephalapod."
For the record I've eaten real octopus before. I tried it when I visited China. It was OK, if you like eating pencil erasers.
So will I buy Octopus Flavored Tako Chips again? Probably not. They were far from the worst thing I've ever eaten; that honor goes to canned hominy (remind me to tell you about that some day). I'm just not a big fan of seafood, especially when if comes to salty snacks. I'm more of a BBQ flavor kind of guy. Sour cream, if I'm feeling adventurous.
I'm not sure if the question to ask is "Why would the octopus need a mask and snorkel" or "Why does the octopus look like Q*bert?"
ReplyDeleteHaw! I noticed his mask and snorkel and forgot to comment on it. And he DOES look like Q*bert! I think a lawsuit is in order.
ReplyDeleteFor the record I've eaten real octopus before. I tried it when I visited China. It was OK, if you like eating pencil erasers.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! My neighbor has a son that lives in Japan and occasionally he sends home snacks and fun stuff. This reminds me of the bag of chips he sent home, only it was squid flavored and when we opened the bag there were cartoon stink lines emanating from the bag. IT didn't appeal to my neighbor or myself so we talked her 10 year old daughter(Let's get Mikey, he won't eat it,he hates everything.....He likes it! Hey Mikey!) into trying them. She loved them! Good times :)
It's interesting to me as to what constitutes "normal" flavors in different countries. Here in America we have BBQ or sour cream flavored chips, but most of us recoil at the idea of octopus or shrimp flavors. But that's just business as usual in Asian countries. I guess it just depends on what you grew up with.
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