I’ll admit I’ve spent a good share of my time binge-watching Buzzfeed Taste Test Videos. I thought it would be fun to try out some of these exotic foods that many Americans have never even heard of before. I decided to try Asian snack foods because there seems to be a wide variety of snacks and innovative flavors. 

I went to Pan-Asia and filled my hands with oodles of fun snacks that I was eager to try. I ranked the snack with the possibility of five stars in each of the five categories; appearance, texture, originality and how likely I would be to eat this again. 

7. Papaya Milk

Country of Origin: Taiwan

To be honest, I am not a huge milk drinker. I mainly drink almond milk, so this was a bad sign for me already. Before drinking it, I read the ingredients: water and milk powder. I don’t know if this is meant to be a milk alternative or flavored milk, but it did not work for me. To begin with, it is sold in a can, and I’m not used to drinking milk from a can. Once I popped the tab and looked inside, I saw that the milk had an unappetizing yellow tint to it. However, the milk’s scent was very sweet so that’s a plus. When I drank it, it was very watered down at first, but then it had a sweet creamy taste that was a bit sour towards the end. It’s best described as creamy, papaya-flavored water. I will give this a few points for originality though. If you were that one kid who got strawberry milk in elementary school, you might like this, but the milk was definitely not for me.  

Appearance: ⭐

Texture: ⭐⭐

Originality: ⭐⭐⭐

Eat this Again: 

6/20 Stars

6. Rice Cookies 

Country of Origin: Japan 

The first thing I noticed about these cookies is that they are crunchy, and they may leave a few crumbs. While initially, the cookies did not have much of a taste, a really uncanny flavor developed. I had no idea what this flavor was, but it had this bizarre salty flavor that coated the rice. It was not until later when I read the ingredients list to find these cookies are made with fish. So, eww. On the plus side, they look pretty.

Appearance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Texture: ⭐⭐⭐

Originality: ⭐

Eat Again: ⭐

9/20 Stars

5. Lobster Crackers

Country of Origin: Japan 

Okay, now we are getting into the food I would probably eat again. When I first tried these, I was a bit nervous. At first, they tasted like normal potato chips, but then, in the end, they had that slight lobster-ish taste, but it was not that strong. People said that the crackers reminded them of chicken noodle soup or lobster bisque, but I could not really find that taste. Personally, I was not a huge fan of them, but other people seemed to enjoy them. To me, the crackers tasted like a weirdly seasoned potato chip. 

Appearance: ⭐⭐

Texture: ⭐⭐⭐

Originality: ⭐⭐⭐

Eat Again: ⭐⭐

10/20 Stars

4. Matcha Kit Kats

Country of Origin: Japan 

When we think of Kit Kats in America, we think of a chocolate wafer duo. But in Japan, there are over a hundred flavors of Kit Kats, with only a small handful being chocolate, so naturally, I thought I had to try at least one flavor. I tried out matcha green tea because it seemed like something unique. The Kit Kats were smaller than American Kit Kats. The color of the Kit Kats was similar to the color of pond scum. Once I bit into it, the wafer seemed to overpower the green tea flavor. Later the coating tasted like a candy melt, followed by a splash of green tea. The Kit Kats were good but really sweet. If you like to drink green tea with extra sugar, you will love this.  

Appearance: ⭐⭐⭐

Texture: ⭐⭐⭐

Originality: ⭐⭐⭐

Eat Again: ⭐⭐⭐

12/20 Stars

3. Korean Rice Crackers

Country of Origin: South Korea 

Unlike the fishy Japanese rice crackers, these were a rice snack I enjoyed. If you like to eat SkinnyPop or Quaker Rice Cakes then you will love these. The rice crackers were a bit crunchy and plain, but the glaze around them made up for it. Also unlike SkinnyPop and Rice Cakes, these rice crackers are sweeter than salty. I wanted to keep eating them. However, these rice snacks made me very thirsty, so a glass of water was needed. I think next time I would put some sunflower butter on them to make it a healthy snack that is also very tasty! 

Appearance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Texture: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Originality: ⭐

Eat Again: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

14/20 Stars

2. Sunflower Crackers

Country of Origin: Philippines 

Warning: very flaky and delicious. These are a sweetened version of sandwich crackers, but so much better. These crackers consist of two sunflower based crackers with a nice fruity frosting lodged between them. The first thing I noted about the crackers was that they had a very strong and delightful lemon scent. The flakey sunflower cracker overpowered the taste of the sandwich itself. The lemon frosting came back and gave a fun sour kick. I definitely would recommend it if you want a sweet but tart snack and have a plate to catch all the crumbs. 

Appearance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Texture: ⭐⭐⭐

Originality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Eat Again: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

17/20 Stars

1. Corn Snacks 

Country of Origin: Taiwan

Okay, sometimes you just need some good old comfort food and that’s what this was. At first, I thought these would just be giant Kix Cereal puffs but what surprised me was that they were caramelized! These corn puffs literally melted in my mouth.  The caramel corn had the texture of Cheeto Puffs that does not stick in your teeth. I loved how sweet these were, and the texture was very light and airy, which is something you rarely get with caramel. These were so good I did not want to share with anybody and ate the bag almost in one sitting!

Appearance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Texture: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Originality: ⭐⭐⭐

Eat Again: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

18/20 Stars