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.