Cheetos – Japanese Steak Flavor
While nothing can quite rival the story of how Kit Kats made it’s journey from West to East and then back, when I think of brands that made it big in Asia after establishing themselves as US brands, there are a few others that come to mind. Cheetos, while not as infamous in their success of transition to an entirely different region and market, have done pretty well for themselves, all things considered. Cheetos like Kit Kat had to make a lot of changes to its product before introducing it to the market in Asia. While most of people think of Kit Kat is being more of a phenomenon in Japan, Cheetos tends to be associated with multiple countries in Asia. I guess it makes sense given that Cheetos is a savoury snack, and lends itself well to simulate all the fascinating foods and cuisines that you can find all around Asia. There’s some real wild stuff out there, some not so great but some really fascinating.
Today’s flavour is a unique to the Chinese market. It might seem strange, given that the flavour is called Japanese steak. It’s some inception type thing going on here – an American brand creating a product for a Chinese market that is supposed to be based on Japanese meat. I couldn’t make this stuff up. There’s a good chance if you’ve only ever had American Cheetos, or the OG, you would have trouble identifying the Asian varieties of Cheetos if you didn’t get a good look at the packaging.
These chips give off a very savoury, meaty smell. The best way I can think of describing it is steak that has been marinated in sweet, soy based sauce. As I mentioned before, unless you knew that these were from a bag branded as Cheetos, you would probably have difficulty identifying it as Cheetos. Sure they have that distinct shape of Cheetos, but without the angry orange colour, you might just think it’s a different corn snack altogether. And honestly, you might not be far off. Based on appearance alone, I am reminded of a Calbee’s Grill-A-Corn snacks, which basically look identical, down to the colour of the corn snack itself, which is a light, tan coloured stick.
These taste much like they smell, it’s got a mild beef flavour to it, while most of the flavour is coming from the marinade or sauce, which is as far as I can tell soy based. It’s mostly a sweet and savoury flavour, and kind of reminds me of a sweet teriyaki type of sauce. Overall, the flavour isn’t very strong, and makes for a nice light snack. No cheese anywhere to be found on this Cheeto.
In terms of texture, these are very different from the American Cheetos that I am used to. While the American Cheetos are typically far crunchier and have more texture going on, these are much softer. Despite what the appearance might lead you to believe, they are quite airy and puffy and don’t give much resistance when biting into them. For some people this could be disappointing, as crunchy Cheetos are a wonderful experience on their own. For others though, this means they are closer to a corn puff which might work better. It’s kind of starting to remind of the Corn Puffs cereal, now that I think about it, and maybe the puffier corn works better with the sweet flavour.
The more I eat these the more I realize these are basically the Cheetos version of Grill-A-Corn. Except that if you were to do a blind taste test of the two side by side, I’m not sure I could tell the difference. What I’m saying is, I personally enjoy this because I grew up with Grill-A-Corn snacks and loved them, but it may not be for everyone.
If you enjoy the super crunchy, cheesy flavour of American Cheetos, be warned that these are nothing like that. Not only are they softer, but they are sweeter more than they are savoury, so keep that in mind if you decide to give these a try. If you have ever had other Asian style corn snacks like Grill-A-Corn or Sweet Corn, than you will probably like this. Either way, it never hurts to give these a try if you see them.
