House Smoked Salami Potato Snacks

House Foods is one of Japan's largest food manufacturers, but not a brand that travels widely outside of Japan.  Their most prominent export products are probably tofu and curry flavoring, both of which they do pretty well.  Sadly, these salami flavored potato-based chips are not done very well.

These are crunchy snacks made of potatoes.  I would love to say they taste like salami.  And that was my first thought on tasting them.  But without the package in front of me, would salami be the first flavor that comes to mind?  I think not.

The initial taste note is a smoky, savory flavor, with overtones of sweet paprika.  There are slight notes of barbecue, probably from the smoke flavor.  However, this moderately pleasing flavor is followed by a pronounced aftertaste of MSG.  This is a chip you want to keep on eating, but only to chase away the aftertaste.

In summary, avoid it.

Yebisu The Hop

If I had a "house beer" Yebisu The Hop would be it.

This is one of a line of Yebisu Beers, named after the Ebisu neighborhood near Shibuya in southwest Tokyo.  It's part of the Sapporo brewery group, but for some reason the can does not mention the manufacturer, Sapporo, in English.

The beer can explains itself thusly: "The exquisitely refined aroma of this beer is from select fine aroma hops and aroma hops, Yebisu yeast and slow maturation."

This beer is extremely light and crisp, with floral nose.  The bitterness of the hops lays low until the finish, and does not linger long, making this an extremely drinkable beer. Definitely a "get it" if you can.

Asahi Black Beer

This is not a blog about beer, but, you need to work with the materials you have at hand.

Japan exports several very nice dark beers, and Asahi Black is one of them.  It bills itself as a Munich-style dark, and since my only reference point is Erdinger Dunkel I'll say that this is a very different drink altogether, not as aromatic or sweet, but easy to drink with good character.

It's not bitter at all, with almost no hoppiness but a lot of malt, a hint of roasted grain, and a pleasant caramel finish.  This is the kind of beer you'd like to have with a nice plate of cheese, or perhaps some roasted poultry.

On the three-point get/accept/reject scale established in my second post, Asahi Black is a "get it."

Kirin Ichiban Lager

As far as I'm concerned, Kirin Ichiban is the benchmark for Japanese beers.  Not a perfect beer but quite drinkable.

Crisp, clean but with a slightly bitter hoppiness, it's the kind of beer you want to drink with roasted meats or pizza.  On the scale of Eurolagers, I'd say it has more character than Heineken and is less bitter than Carlsberg.

On the scale of "get it, accept it, reject it" (full props to Chicago Public Radio's Sound Opinions), Kirin Ichiban is a solid "accept it".

Statement of Purpose

When I find a product I like I want to tell the world.  My other blogs feature gum and candy, but there's a whole world of food that doesn't fit into those categories.

If I like it, and want to tell you about it, it goes here.  So here we go.