a gift from taiwan

korean kimchi lay's

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taiwan is apparently mecca for snackers, a melting pot for all foods asian -- very like hong kong, but over there you couldn't find "korean kimchi" flavored lay's potato crisps! and since they also have these in flavors like "seaweed," "thai leaf chicken," "black pepper steak" and "onion crispy crab," you could probably snack for years without resorting to anything as mundane as "sour cream and onion."

these are more like pringles than the lay's you'll find in the states, made from shaping dried potatoes into uniform saddle-shaped rounds. they're positively miniature compared to real pringles, though, with a stack of crisps fitting inside a box roughly the size of a package of carr's table water crackers. but small is good, since i can nibble on a few more per day than i usually allow myself.

taste-wise, they do a pretty good job of getting the essence of a "young" kimchi, with strong tones of garlic and hot chile flakes. there's a touch of tang, too, presumably to suggest pickling, though here it comes across more as sweetness. there's none of the pungent, fermented flavor one finds in a really ripe kimchi, which probably means even people who dislike that may enjoy this. overall, a good flavor match for a potato crisp. besides, i just love the novelty of it.

handily beats the one unusual flavor i tried in hong kong, which was an imported japanese "steak" variety. ugh! completely misguided.

someday i simply must find thai leaf chicken lay's. don't they just sound so good?