It took nearly three years, but at last I’m back with another chip comparison, although in this case the chips were not purchased simultaneously and one could only in the most generous definition be considered a chip. Thankfully I make the rules here. Despite their exotic moniker, these Salad Rings are actually just plain old corn puffs, although they do strive mightily to recreate the sensation of scarfing down a salad, for what reason I cannot say. In terms of taste, the closest analogue might be boxed Croutons mixed in with and then pulled out of a salad, with a little onion and dressing residue still clinging to them. Based in Japan, manufacturer Riska routinely does great work in producing surprising gonzo snackage, with items ranging from “corn potage” flavored puffs to a hefty single-serve log that resembles a mutated Cheez Doodle (this one also comes in “salad” flavor). The full list of varieties is certainly worth browsing, containing such oddities as Natto, Shrimp and Mayo, and “Marine Beef,” which appears to be some kind of reconstituted fish jerky. They’re also responsible for this recent controversy involving Nicolas Cage. As for the design of the bag, I love the absolute chaos on display. Appearing to depict the process of an Umaibō stick being sliced in order to form the salad rings, it results in a forty-car pileup of said rings, an actual bowl of salad floating over to assess the damage. The rings have an odd oversea partner in Mr. Chips Pinoy Spaghetti, another dish I never expected to see transmuted into snack form. For something intended to ape the taste of sauced pasta, these are low on tomato and high on sweet, which seems unusual until you realize the specific nature of Filipino spaghetti, a dish I’ve admittedly never tried. It’s sold at Jollibee, and pops up on the menu at a few other NYC Filipino spots, but considering the range and variety of this magical cuisine, a sweetened-up take on Italian has never struck me as a major priority. The dish itself exists as a legacy of American occupation, as further evidenced by the sliced hot dogs which function as a frequent ingredient. Catering to the Filipino taste for sweetness enmeshed within mid-meal fare, it generally involves copious amounts of sweet banana ketchup, maybe some condensed milk, and possibly even more sugar; recipes seem to be highly variable based on individual family taste. A staple at kids' birthday parties, from which it has since emerged to function as everyday fast food fare, Pinoy spaghetti has a possible origin point in Japanese Naporitan, with which it shares a few major qualities, if not an exact flavor profile. And now, completing the modern phase of its life cycle, it has become a tortilla-esque corn chip, one that’s still fairly snackable despite a cloying undertone, the same strange quality that seems to inflict all items attempting to approximate the subtle flavor of tomato.
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