FritoLay – Pizza-La Ebimayo Chips
I’ve noticed that FritoLay has a bigger presence in Japan than I had originally thought. Being a major player in North America, I half assumed they would lean into that rather than have much presence in Asia. If Lays is anything to go by, that’s not the case at all. Or anymore. I really don’t know. What I do know is that this particular chip doesn’t fall under any specific tortilla chip brand like Doritos, so that sort of pique my interest.
Ebimayo is the Japanese term for shrimp mayonnaise, ebi being shrimp, and mayo being, well, mayo. The combination is quite common in Japan, and it only makes sense for it to be adopted into a pizza topping. I personally love ebi burgers, which are essentially deep fried shrimp shaped into a patty similar to a burger, before being deep fried. Tasty stuff. This particular flavour is just the combo of shrimp and mayo. I’ve had shrimp on a pizza before, but mayo is oddly enough, a bit of a rarity when it comes to pizzas that I’ve eaten.
These chips smell very similar to shrimp chips or shrimp crackers. I can also get a whiff of the mayo. Japanese mayo has a slightly different flavour profile from the mayo we are used to here in the west. It tends to be tangier and sweeter, and the colour is a bit more yellow than it is here, mostly because they tend to only use the yolk whereas we use the whole egg.
The chip texture is quite solid, and reminds me of a tortilla that was sliced and put on a grill. The chips themselves are thick, and don’t break apart easily, which I like. These are some hearty chips, which I prefer over the thinner, easily breakable ones. These taste premium, like something you’d get at a high end supermarket instead of a discount grocery store. I’m really into these.
The flavour is a little hard to pin down, honestly. The chip itself has a surprisingly strong tortilla and corn flavour, which is surprising, but a welcome one. The seasoning is actually not that strong in flavour, but there is an ample amount of it because I did get thirsty after a few chips. I could best describe the seasoning as taking Japanese mayo and adding in shrimp paste into it. It has the elements of a shrimp chip that I like, with the tangy sweetness of the mayo. The shrimp flavour isn’t jarring or in your face, so even if you don’t like shrimp snacks or the flavour of shrimp, it’s not overpowering at all. It mixes well with the mayo to kind of even out that eggy flavour that I don’t tend to enjoy too much of North American style mayo.
While I am not crazy about mayo flavoured things in general, the combination of mayo and shrimp is quite tasty and they capture the essence of it in the seasoning. If that sounds pleasing to you, get yourself a bag of these if you can find it. I would certainly get this again.
