Snack Review: Dodekai Babystar Chicken Flavor Crispy Noodle Snack

I know, when I’m not complaining about the passing of the Good Old Snacking Days, I’m complaining that we don’t have such cool flavors as competing snack-making countries – not only exotic locales and their green tea mochi, but even our sedate neighbors to the north and their maple flavored cookies.

Internet, I am here to admit: this is a thing you can take too far.

I saw these chip-like things in the Japanese market and I thought, hey, why don’t we have chicken flavored snacks? Well, at least now I have my answer.

Here’s what these taste like: did you ever peel the coating off batter-dipped deep-fried chicken and eat it on its own? You know that chicken-y, floury, cooked-to-brownness taste? These have almost exactly that flavor, except with a disorienting lack of the accompanying greasiness – they’re just crunchy-chippy textured instead.

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Snack Review: Beer Chips

Beer and food. A tag-team combination enjoyed throughout the world, and the stuff of comedic genius captured on film in such modern day classics as Beerfest. Sure, we have Beer Nuts, beer cheese soup, beer-can chicken, and beer-battered-anything-you-can-fry. But chips?

Finally, an idea whose time has come. Beer + Chips = Beer Chips. So simple. So Zen. Right there in front of us all along and we couldn’t see it.

Available in three flavors, these thick-cut kettle style chips are bold, hearty, obnoxious and fun, just like your hard-drinking college buddy. These chips are your wingman and might even take a bullet for you. (Okay, that was really over the top - it’s just the beer chips talking.)

BEER CHIPS

The company’s signature chip, these resembled standard chips in size and color. The first bite revealed the unique flavor in a high note for the olfactories: a sharp essence of strong pilsner. The flavor receded quickly, replaced with a rather sweet and malty potato taste (ingredients include barley, hops, and yeast, of course).

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Top 10 Places to Find Free Snacks

Snacks: we eat them all the time… sometimes until no room remains for actual meals. But the term “snack” means different things to different people. While most of us agree that a snack is smaller and less filling than a meal, some would consider a Starbucks Frappuccino a snack, while others might opt for a pack of edamame or a half-order of buffalo wings. No matter what brings us individual snacking pleasure, there’s one other thing most people tend to agree on: snacks are even tastier when they’re free.

As a former poor college student, and a cheapskate in general, I’ve become somewhat of an expert in finding free food. Some of what I’ve found over the years has been atrocious, but I’ve found a fair amount of four-and-five star snacking destinations also. Below, I’ve compiled a list of my top ten places to find free snacks. My rankings are based on several factors including free snack variety, quality, and ubiquity of locations. May your taste buds be satisfied, and your stomach - and wallet - never empty!

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Top 10 Cinematic Snack Moments

Snacks and movies go hand-in-hand. If I’m watching a movie and my lap isn’t covered in popcorn grease, then something is seriously amiss.

And this got me thinking. Since snacks are such an integral part of the cinematic experience, there must be movies that actually feature them, right? Right!

So, Snackerrific readers, after a few hours of haphazard research, I give to you: The Top 10 Cinematic Snack Moments!

Check them out after the jump.

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Top 10 Gas Station Snacks

Gas. Oil. Water.

Forty years ago, gas stations were called service stations, and that’s what you got. You’d sit in your car and the attendant would fill ‘er up with gas, check the oil and water, chat about the weather, you’d fork over a few bucks and then ease on down the road.

Today you can still get gas, oil and water for your car, but so much more for yourself! The possibilities are endless! Space and time are limited here, so enjoy the TOP TEN SNACKS you can find in a gas station. This list is certainly not definitive, but it’s based on my years of careful observation as a trained, professional snack critic.

In college I worked behind the counter at a gas station for half a summer, and the only person I ever saw eat pickled eggs was a homeless guy named Wig who washed them down with 40 oz. bottles of malt liquor. Maybe there’s a “Wig” in every neighborhood, ’cause someone’s eating these things. I’ve heard they’re popular in midwestern taverns, so maybe you have to be pickled yourself to properly enjoy them.

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