6 Weird Asian snacks that taste good!

Wasabi Peanuts

We all like peanuts right, unless you have a peanut allergy that is, but for most of us peanuts are part of our beer and snacks diet.

Say hello to wasabi peanuts.

You have probably tried or at least heard of wasabi, it’s a Japanese horseradish often served with sushi. It is hot like mustard and should only be eaten in small doses.

Surprisingly the combination of peanuts coated in wasabi is very tasty, and not as strange as you would think. Kind of like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich only the jelly is made of horseradish.

Deep Fried Crickets
We all know that Asia has a thing for eating fried insects, but few westerners have built up the courage to actually try any of them, well we here at NTS have spent the last few weeks sampling these delicacies so you don’t have to.

If you ever have or you will one day travel around Asia, then you will inevitably come across a stall that sells fried bugs. Your first reaction will be to get out your camera and take bad pictures of the scene, but wait a moment some of these insects are pretty tasty.

Deep fried crickets for one are really nice. They taste very much like pork, well more like fried pork rind. In the United Kingdom you can buy bags of “Pork Scratching” (fried pork rind) in most bars, they are very popular as are the fried crickets in Asia but the crickets are much, much cheaper. But just like large prawns, remove the head before eating.

Though we do not recommend the big white maggot type things they sell as they are not very nice, they don’t really have any flavor but when you first bite onto one it feels like squeezing a zit in your mouth.

Prawn Cookies
Yes you read it right, cookies made with small dried prawns/shrimp. Not the taste sensation you were looking for, well these Thai and Indonesian cookies are very nice.
They are sweet like a cookie should be but they do have a slight seafood tang to them.

We know they sound disgusting but there are some brands that are OK. There used to be a biscuit maker in Thailand who made chicken flavored cookies but sadly we can not find them on any supermarket shelves.

Stinky Tofu

You can find street stalls selling deep-fried fermented tofu in almost every night market in China. It is also available in Thailand, Indonesia and, well pretty much most of Asia. Now imagine the wonderful smell of rancid cheese mixed in with the seductive odor of your sneakers after a ten kilometer run.
You can smell the stall selling this tofu from quite a distance, but once you have gotten over the fragrance it actually tastes nice. It has more of a flavor than any tofu we have tried in the west.

Winter's Potato Chips: Creamy Stew Flavor
Every day Japan and its snack inventors release a multitude of new snacks. Fast food and quick snacks from vending machines are big in Japan. There are vending machines everywhere, offering normal western things like Pepsi and Iced-Tea to sushi boxes and Creamy Stew Flavored Potato Chips.

We decided to try said potato chips and they are OK, they, like most potato chips do not taste like they say on the packet. Have you ever had BBQ chicken chips that actually taste like BBQ chicken, no neither have we. Although they do taste a little creamy, a bit like sour cream does they are not stew flavored, but they are quite addictive, and are a lot better than some potato chips we have tried.

Takoyaki
Takoyaki is one of the most popular snack foods in Asia, it has different names in each country, but it is basically the same snack. We used the Japanese version because of the translation.

Takoyaki means something like "burnt octopus" or more loosely translated, “octopus balls”. Takoyaki are a kind of small fried ball, filled with bits of octopus tentacles, ginger, fried, and covered with a delicious sauce. They are sprinkled with dried fish shavings and dried seaweed flakes. They are delicious.

As are pork balls, fish balls and crab balls. These snacks are available all over Asia. And we highly recommend you try them if you get a chance.

One of the things we feel the west misses out on is meat on sticks, In Asia, all kind of meat products are sold on sticks in markets. Satay is one of the most popular snacks in Asia, either beef, pork or chicken it is truly delicious. Although our personal favorite is grilled liver on a stick, it is fantastic.

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