Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
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My daughter's pen pal in America sent her a box of American snacks. My girl likes M&Ms and it's the one snack that my mom would spoil her with before she died. It's one of the few memories my daughter has of her grandmother. Anyhow, I'm reminded of how very few snacks from America are even palatable anymore. We had sent a box of Japanese snacks to the girl in America as J-snacks are quite the rage these days it seems. I feel badly that the girl sent those American snacks and my girl doesn't care for any of them really. Skittles... meh. Sour Patch Kids... meh. The Milky Way bar was pretty nominal. I'd forgotten how unremarkable those are. Rice Krispy Treats are nice when made from scratch, but the store-bought ones are so-so. She didn't care for that either.
The last time I was in America, the new, "exciting" flavor of potato chip was... ketchup. I mean, how many phony execs sitting around a table did it take to think up that genius flavor? How long did it take? "Hey, I know... How about... ketchup?" "Dear God, you're a genius!" Yeah. Meanwhile in Japan, they have new flavors of potato chips every month. Wasabi, Steak and garlic, truffle, Thai tomyumkun, you name it. Plus they're non-GMO potatoes.
The last thing left to open up from this care package from America is Cheez-Its. I never really cared for those to begin with. I won't expect my daughter to care for those. I have to say that my friend in England has sent some rather nice, high-quality snacks. As for America... I hate to say it, but I don't really miss snacks from America. I do have fond memories of Sun Chips, but I have no idea if I would enjoy those as I once did.
Salt water taffy. Caramel turtles. Pecan nougat rolls. Spiral fruit candy sticks. Maybe the only big brands I'd go with are Tic Tac, Nerds or Runts. Beef jerky. Kettle corn.
Japan has some of the best snacks I can attest to that. They’re sweet but not overly sweet. They’re just sweet enough. I love Melty kiss, and pocky sticks. But you can get the pocky sticks here at some stores, and at Asian stores, but the Melty kiss I can only get when my brother sends them to me. They have the best little cookie packages and they’re always individually wrapped and package so precisely. I agree with you 100%. I’d much rather have a sweet from Japan then America.
my canadian friend loves the ketchup chips, but then again, he puts ketchup on everything, it's really ghetto. Snacks have changed, they do not taste the same, but I was a kid decades ago. The Hostess snacks like Twinkies and Sno-Balls and Cupcakes all taste like sugared wax, which is probably what they are made of. Snickers are still good, in a pinch. I like Lays Classic Chips, no flavored anything. It's all I eat now for an unhealthy snack, the snack cakes gluten and chocolate are all off limits due to MCAS. My big treat at bedtime are my magnesium gummies, welcome to senior living. I love Turkey Hill Ice Cream, Butter Pecan. Canadian Mars bars are superior to USA candy bars, I am told. If you lay off anything with high fructose in it, and then have it again after a long pause, you can taste and feel the difference in your gut, like feeling the gut microbiome die on the spot, seriously, it happens.
I had a customer who used to put ketsup on his pancakes and brown gravy on his fries.
hmmmm, that sounds so dyslexic. Uggghhhh.
That's what I'm afraid of. I have a nostalgic liking for Sun Chips, but I have a feeling that if I were to try them again, I wouldn't like them. When I lived in America, I'd eat the roasted pumpkin seeds (the Japanese pumpkin seeds are not good and do not compare) and roasted almonds. I'd buy these at Sprouts farmers' market.
Oh crap. Really? That's sick. We used to shop at Sunflower Market on 3rd Ave and Bell Road. It was nearly identical to Sprouts.
Sadly most junk food in America isn't what I grew up loving. Maybe it's not sad because I don't eat the junk. Most chocolate is mediocre compared to twenty years ago. I don't know for sure but heard years ago companies like Hersey aren't made here anymore. One major downfall is the ingredients like soy, it's just not as good. Mounds bar is still good. M&Ms & skittles have a very bad ingredient. It might be the dye. Name brand marshmallows have blue dye, they are white, why!? Off brand no dye. I believe they have been slowly poisoning processed food for decades. Maybe not intentionally IDK. I'm sure it's cheaper to use subpar or fake ingredients. I never liked sun chips but I was raised on ruffles, lays and the original Doritos. Used to love Doritos until the changed them. The best option is to make your favorites at home. There's a copy cat recipe online for everything.
Smarties from Canada are really good, though they’re Nestle. But far better than M&Ms. They’re slightly bigger.
I grew up eating Smarties and sweet tarts. Now they give me and my husband mouth ulcers. We can't eat any candy like. Especially nerd's they mess us up. Bit O'honey is still as good as it was forty years ago.
The American Smarties are sour but the Canadian ones are totally different. They’re like larger M&Ms- chocolate inside, candy coating. https://files.catbox.moe/txgwyr.jpeg
The Canadian version of sour Smarties are called “Rockets” btw. Kinda confusing.
The best western cracker is Blue Diamond Nut Thins cheddar flavor. I will gladly eat those alongside senbi. IF YOU can get a box, best cheese cracker ever
The thing about the Nut Thins is the cheddar cheese powder on them actually tastes like mild cheddar cheese. Plus the cracker is crisp and acts like a foil. I also like you can eat 8 big crackers for 70 calories
Lemon coolers. I love those, but where can you find them?
U.S.A.
U.S.A.
U.S.A!
And Nestle is totally woke now, isn't it? The one thing my wife likes are the Trader Joe's version of Cheetos. Those are pretty good. They don't use all the artificial colors either. That's the thing with the Sour Patch and Skittles stuff. Those artificial colors are nothing but neurotoxins. They are used here in Japan too, but most products use flowers and such for colorings. More natural Yellow 5 is actually a drug called tartrazine, which is banned in some countries. It's sick.
One thing that I go crazy for are those Canadian maple cream sandwich cookies. Those are like heroin for me. I don't like Oreos much, but those are good. I generally do not care for pre-packaged cookies and only like freshly made cookies, but those maple cookies are great. Or those Danish butter cookies that come in the round tin.
I used to eat Twix when I was a kid, but as of my teen years I couldn't eat that because I just stopped liking it. Kit Kats are wildly popular here. They have so many different flavors too. It's a pun because Kit Kat sounds like kitto kattsu which means "you will surely do well/win" and so it's given to students before tests for good luck, etc. I don't really care for them myself. I only like dark chocolate, stuff imported from France or Paraguay or someplace, over 70% dark at least. Dark chocolate knocks me out. I don't care for milk chocolate. I'm told that Hershey's is so diluted that it's not even considered to be real chocolate in many countries. I don't care for any of that.
We have Costco here. We go about once a month. I can't recall if the muffins are any good. The pizza is nice, but I haven't had that in over two decades. We have Krispy Kreme donuts in Japan, but not near where I live. There are locations in Shizuoka where I used to live, but now I'd have to go down to Tokyo to find KK.
Japanese Kit Kats cats are the best! Many flavors and they are delicious. And they’re not overly sweet like they are here in America.
I agree with you at the kit, Kats here in America, but the kid cat in Japan are totally different, and I know that you would love them. Especially strawberry.
I got a care package while deployed with “Spotted Dick” in it. LOL that can made it’s rounds, man. It became a legend, the receiver shamed. Best snack I ever got but I don’t think it was ever opened.
Yes, I'm a Japanfag. There are a couple others on here too, but I forget their usernames. (One has "Nihon" in his username.) Not a weeb though. People don't seem to understand most weebs never make to Japan. Those who do just visit, and even fewer are the ones who can land a job here. Of those, they probably don't last more than a year. They become disillusioned that Japan is not as depicted through filters of anime, manga, and video games.
In the box of J-snacks I sent to my daughter's pen pal, I enclosed a note to the girl's mom in which I asked her not to feel compelled to reciprocate. Unfortunately, the girl's grandfather blabbed about the box we sent even though I told him I wanted it to be a surprise. So after work I tried some Cheez-Its. My wife had a few. My daughter had one. I had a few handfuls, but I ended up tossing the bag out. It's probably soaked in glyphosate anyway.
My friend gave me some dark chocolate strawberry Kit Kats in November. I still have some. It's alright. Maybe better than regular ones. Here in Japan there are so many flavors. Even wasabi flavor Kit Kat. I can't say it is as disgusting as it sounds. It's edible, but.. .WHY? Dumb idea. That's Japan for you.
I hated Twinkies even when I was a kid. I never cared for those. Any Hostess. It's all crap. I used to enjoy Chips Ahoy and other pre-packaged cookies and those frosted animal cookies, but I just can't tolerate them anymore. It's been like that for a long while.
I used to think that Japanese who vistied America were just being picky and snobby for hating American cakes. Now I completely agree with them. Just tons of sugar and fake coloring. You can buy that crap at Costco in Japan, but it's pretty niche. Can't find that anywhere else. Now I do think that the Betty Crocker cake mixes and canned frostings are pretty good. I haven't had that in 15 years though, so I might not think the same anymore. I dunno. Regardless, the longer I live in Japan, the more intolerant I become of American snacks. You just get used to the better ingredients, less sugar, etc.
We can find Doritos in Japan (no Cool Ranch though) as well as Pringles. There is a Japanese ripoff of Pringles called Chip Star that is better, I think.
The stuff I really miss from America are the non-snacks stuff. NY style pizza and Buffalo wings, chimichongas smothered in guacamole and sour cream, and all that sort of stuff. I'm from Phoenix and there's an awesome Mexican/Chinese/Jamaican fusion chain called Chino Bandito that is FAWESOME. I really miss that place. Their menu is great. Sweet & sour pork with jerk fried rice burrito. That place is legendary and was featured on Food Network. Oh, and sopapillas. Damn, I could plow through half a box of those. Good ribeye steak. New England style fish & chips with fried clams and tartar sauce. That's most all I can think of at the moment. There are Mexican restaurants in Tokyo, namely El Torido, but it's just not the same. I miss the Arizonan/New Mexican-style stuff.