Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Thai/American Rice Crackers

      I actually bought and ate these like a year ago, but for various reasons I didn't get around to discussing them until now.  Anyway, these were two types of rice crackers from the Ka-me brand--their original, and their wasabi kind.

     Well, we're once again returning to companies that seem oddly reluctant to provide information about who founded them, or even where.  I did get the start date, though, which was 1970.  Ka-me is currently owned by Panos Brands.  Of which I was able to find out a little.  In fact, I reported on another one of Panos's holdings, MI-del, years ago, in my November 21, 2020 post about gluten-free cookies.  Aside from Ka-me and MI-del, Panos also owns Amore, Andrew & Everett, Tessemae's, The Santa Barbara Smokehouse, Sesmark, Chatfield's, and Walden Farms (who I also tried a product from, and wrote about back on January 2nd, 2014).  Panos's current CEO is a lady named Darcy Zbinivec.  Although the company's beginning date is disputed.  One website claimed it was 2009, while LinkedIn has it at 1926.  I'm not even sure when Panos acquired Ka-me--it could have been recently, or it could have been decades ago.  So what did the Ka-me website and product label tell me?  Reportedly, the brand's name is from the Japanese word for "turtle."  The company chose this name because in Japanese folklore turtles are associated with longevity and a respect for tradition, qualities the business wanted to express.  The website also noted that Ka-me could stand for the "Key to Asian Made Easy."  Ka-me is dedicated to bringing many different kinds of Asian cuisine to the world, from places such as China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietname, and more.  Aside from rice crackers, the business also makes dry and fresh noodles, sauces and condiments, fried rice, cooking liquids such as oils, vinegars, and wines, coconut milk, other crackers, and canned vegetables.  Ka-me's crackers are free of gluten and GMOs, and I think most (or all?) of the others are, too.  They also make some kosher-appropriate and organic items.

Ka-me rice crackers, original flavor:  The crackers were round discs, about 1.75 inches (about 4.5 cm.) in diameter.  They were white in color, with a pebbled appearance.  They were salty and crunchy.  And pretty good.  Not bland like a lot of rice crackers.  I had some plain (which were decent), and some with cheese on them (which clearly improved the experience).  Overall, this was a quality, good cracker.

Ka-me rice crackers, wasabi flavor:  These were the same size, shape, color, and texture as the originals.  The wasabi gave them a nice spice bite.  Not too overpowering, but enough to give them some zest.  As with the previous, they were good plain, and better with cheese on them.  Therefore, I came away pretty impressed with both of these crackers.  More than solid on their own, or as a base for canapes.  Two definite recommends.

     Just to flesh this out a bit, I was amused to learn that in Japanese folklore, turtles are capable of living for 10,000 years.  Which is obviously as wild exaggeration, but they are long-lived.  I decided to look up the actual champ.  He's actually still with us, living on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena.  He's a Seychelles giant tortoise named Jonathan, and his estimated age is about 192.  There have been other contenders for this longevity crown, including one candidate who was supposedly 255.  But that case was not confirmed.  Jonathan has shown some effects of his great age--he's now blind, and unable to smell.  But his hearing is apparently excellent.  He spends most of his time with his mate Frederik.  So evidently, Jonathan is a member of the LBGT community.  Also, if the name Saint Helena is ringing a bell, it's the isolated island that was the second, and successful location of Napolean's exile.  He spent the final 6 years of his life there, dying in 1821.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--American/Turkish/Belgian Dessert Cones

      I wasn't really shopping specifically for blog post fodder when I found these--it was just a happy coincidence.  They were near some other cookies and snacks, and they looked unfamiliar.  And when I saw that they were made in Turkey, I bit, so to speak.  These were the waffle cones filled with white chocolate, from the Just the Fun Part brand.

     Since I just mentioned that these cones were made in Turkey, you might be wondering why the title of this post includes two other places.  Well, it's because the main headquarters of the company that owns the brand are in NJ in the U.S., and the chocolate is billed as being 100%, real Belgian chocolate, so evidently that part of the treat is from that European nation.  I'm sure there are reasons for making these in Turkey and importing them instead of making them here in the U.S.  Maybe the wheat is better in Turkey, and/or overhead costs are lower, or something.  I often complain that the official company website doesn't include much or any information about the business's history or founder(s).  Fortunately, this was one of the exceptions, so I can actually go into some detail about it.  First off, we're told that Yigit "loves snacks," and "is an idea machine."  Aytur, meanwhile, "is a businessman," and "loves Yigit's ideas."  Moving on, reportedly Yigit and Aytur were both into specialty foods even while young.  So it was natural that they both got into the food industry when they grew up.  Their company (or companies?  It's unclear.) sent them on an extended business trip to New York City in 2005.  Where the two guys met, and even shared an apartment in Secaucus, NJ.  They bonded, largely due to their shared love of specialty foods.  After this, they parted for a while.  Yigit went to California for a while, while Aytur began his own gourmet food company.  (Which I assume is the Evergreen U.S.A. company that currently handles Just the Fun Part products.)  Years later they met again at a New York City food show.  Yigit decided to join Aytur's business, but he wanted to make a contribution of his own.  After a long period of intense research, during which Yigit talked to other industry professionals, and investigated business trends, Yigit concluded that a snack had a better chance of success if it reminded people of fond childhood memories.  He (and others) recalled eating sundaes and ice cream cones during the hot weather months, and that they especially preferred the point when the ice cream was near the bottom of the cone.  So the new product would replicate this, only it substituted chocolate and other non-dairy ingredients for ice cream.  Just the Fun Part became this treat's name.  There are many alternate flavors, which consist of other types of chocolate, peanut butter, mint, peanut butter and jelly flavor, and so on.  The company also makes "Just the Fun Bites," which are mini butter biscuits, also coming in various flavors.  The company's products are appropriate for vegetarians, are free of GMOs, and are kosher.  Somewhat surprisingly, they're not gluten-free (although the company is currently trying to develop some), nor are they completely allergen-free. (Some of their products have nuts, and even the ones that don't are processed in facilities that handle nuts and dairy.)  Finally, despite the exhaustive story of the company's founding and general history, I couldn't locate Yigit's surname anywhere.  Aytur's is Aksu.

Just the Fun Part, waffle cones filled with white chocolate:  The cones were light brown, and looked like tiny ice cream cones, obviously, with a white chocolate filling.  They were about 2 inches by .75 inches (about 5 cm. by 2 cm.).  They tasted like....a tiny waffle cone filled with white chocolate inside.  Since I like both waffle cones and white chocolate, these were very good.  A tasty treat--sweet and crunchy.  Kind of a cool, different idea for a sweet snack, too.  I would recommend these, and I will definitely look for the alternate flavors.  Especially peanut butter, given my adoration of that food and flavor.

     As you just read, I enjoyed these waffle cones quite a bit.  Even if I disagree with the philosophy behind their creation.  As a kid I liked the ice cream part of the ice cream cone the best, not the bottom within the cone.  (Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike the bottom cone part, but it's not as great as ice cream.)  Also, I was amused to read on the official company website product list that each separate flavor of Just the Fun Part cones had the main flavor, and then a description of what mood it was for.  As in, milk chocolate ones were "for your classic mood," dark chocolate was "for your passionate mood," white chocolate was "for your playful mood," and so on.  None of these descriptions made much sense to me, and they seemed interchangeable.  I sort of hope that they switch the mood descriptions around every so often, to see if anyone notices.  Anyway, as I scrolled down the list, the company seemed to give up on describing intricate types of moods.  Milk chocolate and caramel was just "for your caramel mood," and mint dark chocolate was "for your minty mood."  As usual, I'm probably being unduly nit picky about something minor and innocent.  But, even after acknowledging this I probably won't go against my nature and stop.