While at my local Shop Rite grocery recently, I noticed that chips (crisps) have become much more varied in the past few years. For much of my life, the choices were almost always of chips made from potatoes, and maybe from sweet potatoes around 10-15 years ago. But clearly, Americans have become willing to try some new kinds. So I snapped up a selection of unusual ones. I got The Daily Crave's quinoa chips, From the Ground Up's cauliflower pretzels, and three versions of Harvest Snaps--crisps made from green peas, red lentils, and black beans.
The Daily Crave is a brand from Natural Intentions, Inc., out of Folsom, California. Their founder/CEO is Hassan Alireza. Around since 2002, this company specializes in healthy snacks, such as veggie chips and veggie sticks. Reflecting that belief, their products have no gluten, GMO's, artificial flavors, hydrogenated fats, and trans fats, and are also kosher and vegan. Currently they're exported to twenty countries, including Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Australia, and Singapore. The Daily Crave's theme is an old timey newspaper (actually, I guess these days all print publications are "old timey"!), with a 1940's style reporter guy as a logo, and featuring fake news stories on the bag. For a celebrity endorsement, reportedly Emily Deschanel is a fan. Although, while I get that it's kind of a joke (hopefully), the former archaeologist in me is put off by their "ancient aliens" pseudo news article.
In a similar fashion, From the Ground Up is also dedicated to having no GMO's or gluten, and being vegan-appropriate, alternative snacks. Aside from the pretzels I bought they also make crackers and chips out of butternut squash. From the Ground Up is a brand of the Halen Brands, Inc. company, started in 2015 in New Jersey by Jason Cohen and Leigh Feuerstein. Other brands made by this company include OWYN (a plant protein), Joyfuls (chocolate, seed, and fruit treats), Chef's Cut Jerky, and CORE Hydration. Their snacks are billed as being good sources of Vitamins A, C, D, E, B1, and B6.
Harvest Snaps is an American brand of Calbee International, based out of Japan. I talked about another Calbee product, their baked shrimp chips, in my post on February 18, 2017. I'll try to avoid repeating myself much here. Calbee started in 1949 as the Matsuo Food Processing Company, Inc., but changed their name to Calbee in 1955. Their current CEO/President is Shoji Ito. Helped by a partnerships with Frito-Lay, Calbee controls over 50% of the Japanese market for snacks, and over 40% of the cereal market. They also use a folk creature, the kappa, as one of their product's symbols. (This animal is awesome, so more on that later.) Alternative flavors of Harvest Snaps are barbecue, lightly salted, Caesar, parmesan garlic, habanero, white cheddar, and black pepper.
1) From the Ground Up original cauliflower pretzels: These were light brown rods, about 7 cm. (about 2.75 inches) long, thinner than a pencil, with visible bumps on them. Crunchy, and tasted pretty much like a regular hard pretzel. Which means I didn't like them, as I only enjoy the larger, Philadelphia-style, soft pretzels. So all in all they were a decent imitation of a typical hard pretzel, so fans of those might like these, too.
2) The Daily Crave quinoa chips with Himalayan pink salt: These were yellowish-orange in color, a roughly oval shape, with dimensions of about 5.5 cm. by 3.5 cm. (about 2 inches by 1.5 inches), and with ridges. They had kind of an odd taste. Alas, they were still bland. I was hoping Himalayan pink salt would be exotically spicy, but I didn't find this to be the case. So I found these chips to be crunchy, but rather dull and "blah." They were better with onion dip. (For more on quinoa, see my post about "superfoods" on May 1, 2014). Also, if you're curious, Himalayan pink salt is from Pakistan, and is purported to have special health qualities. Which haven't been scientifically proven.
3) Harvest Snaps red lentil snack crisps, tomato basil flavor: These were puffed rods, about 5.5 cm. by .75 cm (about 2.25 inches by .25 inch), with a yellowish-orange color, and some spice dust on them. Tomato/basil flavor wasn't that strong, and these were "meh" at best. Nice crunch, though.
4) Harvest Snaps, black bean crisps, mango chile lime flavor: Same size and shape, and texture as the red lentil kind, with a brownish yellow color and black spice dusting. I could detect the sweet and spicy flavors this time. Better than the red lentil, but still rather mediocre. They were kind of messy to eat, too, since the powder came off on my fingers, like Cheese Curls.
5) Harvest Snaps, green pea crisps, wasabi ranch flavor: Same shape, size, and texture as the other Harvest Snaps. But this time they were a yellowish green hue, with some powder. Significantly stronger taste, and I could really detect the ranch and wasabi flavors. Reminded me of edamame at Japanese restaurants. Pretty good--best of the bunch by far, including all five of these selections. Probably the only one I would buy again.
But on to the mythical creature that Calbee uses as a product symbol. The kappa is known by many other names, including kawappa, gawappa, and kawaso. It's basically an aquatic demon. Scaly and small, being about the size of a child, with a birdlike beak. Usually green, yellow or blue. Their temperament is all over the place, however. Some are just slightly naughty, doing things like making fart noises or trying to look up women's kimonos. Others, though, are much more extreme, and will kidnap and kill people, while sometimes drinking their blood or eating their livers. Kappas are also said to target people's shirikodama, a mythical ball-like organ which contains the person's soul. Which is, alas, located in the anus. Kappas are also known to commit sexual assaults. Fortunately, they do have several weaknesses. Ginger, iron, and sesame will repel them. Additionally, if they start to wrestle with a person, their arms can be pulled off fairly easily. Then, the human victim can offer this back to the kappa, in exchange for a promise to leave them alone, or do a specific favor. Also, while on land the kappas need to keep water in an indentation on their heads, and if this spills out they're paralyzed. So enterprising individuals sometimes trick the kappas by bowing low to them upon encountering them. Since the kappas are oddly polite and formal, they'll bow deeply in reply, which sometimes spills the water (called a sara). As with the arms, if someone replaces the water in their heads, the kappa will then be in the person's service. (Although, some kappas combat this strategy by keeping the water in via a metal lid or hat.) Kappas are highly intelligent, and very articulate. Legend says that a kappa taught people medical knowledge, such as how to properly set broken bones. Finally, they also like cucumbers, and will sometimes spare people who throw one into the lake or river before entering to bathe or swim. Some folklorists think the kappa might be based on a real animal, the giant Japanese salamander, which can be up to five feet long. But why Calbee doesn't use this monster as a logo for all their products I don't know!
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