Gouyaer – Twisted Snack Grilled Steak Flavour

This is a Chinese brand which I truthfully have no prior experience with. But the shape of the snack itself looked promising, so I had to try it. I mean, how often do you see a weird shape like this? I will admit that I have a tendency to associate these types of Chinese snacks with very specific flavours, largely a strong cumin base. I like cumin, but clearly not as much as the folk over in China, since it’s prevalent in everything. I enjoy it but in moderation, which is to say, not nearly as much as they do.

Speaking of really interesting shapes – it’s like they twist around like a pasta shape, but also fold in on themselves. I’m curious to see the die they use to make these because the shape definitely changes the way you experience the snack.

All the crevices and surface area of this shape means you get a lot of flavouring all at once. The flavour is a savoury spice mix that is very familar for those who are well acquainted with the Northern Chinese profile – there’s a generous helping of cumin and what I can only describe as beef flavour. It’s a little spicy, but nothing too strong and has more of a black pepper sensation than a chili pepper burn. The snack itself has an underlying sweetness and flavour to it that reminds me of the pig ear crackers that I had as a kid. it has a sort of almost licorice flavour to it while also being sweet and slightly wheaty. Suffice to say this flavour is both nostalgic for me, and also just generally enjoyable.

The texture is different from what you would expect if you are used to wheat based fried snacks, since these are rice based. They are similar to rice crusts or millet cracker, where it’s got a nice satisfying crunch to it, but it also finishes pretty clean and has only very slight grit to it which dissolves away pretty quickly as well. One of the things with wheat based snacks is no matter how the texture ends up, there always feels like there’s a bit of grit left over. This one is less gritty of a finish but it is something that people who are not used to wheat based snacks will find a bit jarring.

All this brings us to the ultimate question, would I do it again? Why yes, yes I would. The one thing stopping me from putting more of these back in one sitting is the seasoning is very strong and I am more used to a milder profile. So in lieu of that I would have to consume these in moderation. But the texture keeps me coming back so I will likely be getting these again soon.