Tirol Chocolate – Menbei Rice Cracker
You may be familiar with senbei, which is the Japanese term for rice crackers. Menbei is the brainchild of Fukutaro, a well established Japanese snack company most known for their interesting take on the rice cracker. It’s called Menbei because they use mentaiko to flavour their crackers. Mentaiko is a spiced cod roe, and is basically turned into a powder before being used as the main ingredient in their senbei crackers, making it the unique Menbei cracker that they are known for. Senbei is also typically made using rice, but this particular variety uses potato flour. Not sure what the difference between the two is to be frank, but thought I’d point that out.
Rice crackers and chocolate are not a particularly new thing, at least not for me. It’s been around for some time, and I’ve dipped my toes with it. I find that it works surprisingly well, with the sweetness of the chocolate working well with the salty savouriness of the rice cracker. The contrast in textures also reminds me of how chocolate covered potato chips are now a thing.
The colouring on the piece is a bit confusing to me – the bottom is a light brownish colour while the top is a more mocha, tan colour. I almost think it wasn’t intended to be that way, and the bottom layer is the layer that has the crackers mixed in with it. Regardless, the piece smells like chocolate. At no point would I have guessed there was anything odd about it smell wise. Visually though, the bottom looks like a hot mess of stuff going on.
I think it’s important for me to point out that I don’t have any recollection of having Menbei crackers, specifically. So when I tell you that I can guess how the actual cracker tastes like based on this chocolate alone, you can take that for a good or bad thing depending on your preference. What I mean by that is, the flavour is so strong and powerful that the chocolate really only serves as the vessel for these crunchy little Menbei cracker bits. There’s quite a bit going on with the crackers – I taste the distinct seafood flavour first and foremost, with the soy and rice cracker flavour trailing it. It’s hard to emphasize just how strong the seafood taste is. If you like snacks like shrimp chips or dried squid, you’ll love this. If not, you’ll absolutely hate this because of how strong it is. As with dried squid, there’s a bit of spice that follows, but it’s very mild so don’t worry if you’re sensitive to that. The flavour is strong and it stays with you for a bit.
As with the flavour, the texture is definitely there. The chocolate is again really just there to keep the bits altogether and from making a mess everywhere. As with normal senbei, the crackers are very crunchy, but there’s the addition of small dried seafood pieces, which I’m assuming is mostly squid or octopus. The small bits are less crunchy or more chewy, so if you’ve had dried squid you’ll know what I’m referring to.
As much as I love this, it’s not something I can recommend to everyone because I know seafood snacks like this aren’t for everyone. If however you do enjoy them, you’ll love these as I do. Makes me want to find a place that ships the real thing out at a price that won’t cost and arm and/or a leg.
