Snack Review: Bissli Snacks Falafel Flavor
Most years, it’s just Christmas that’s almost a disaster because I leave my shopping till the last minute. But this year, I thought I’d managed to ruin Hanukkah too: Recently I saw that this season, Jones Soda’s holiday soda flavors include - be still my heart - jelly doughnut! But tragically, if you click on that link you will see the three saddest words on the Internet: OUT OF STOCK.
You might wonder what this has to do with this little bag of falafel flavored, cracker-stick sorts of things. It’s not because they are made in Israel, although that is indeed a country that celebrates Hanukkah.
No, it’s that these crackers made me feel better about not getting the soda. It’s because they reminded me: Certain tastes are supposed to go with certain textures.
I expected this snack to be, you know, kind of reminiscent of falafel, kind of suggestive of falafel, something like a relative, or a good friend, of the falafel family.
But instead, it tasted, uncannily, exactly like falafel. You’d think this would be a big success, right? But it was actually kind of disorienting. Falafel are supposed to be round, and fried on the outside, and soft and grainy-textured on the inside. Not little crunchy sticks. It’s weird to be eating a little cracker-stick and tasting basically a sandwich.
I’m really confused about how this is even possible, because falafel is made of chickpeas and there is not a single bean in the ingredients of this product: it is entirely made of wheat. I’d always assumed that the beans were a central part of the flavor of falafel, but, I guess not? Apparently it’s all in the spices?
The aftertaste of these is a little too aggressive and lingering. It might be the oil that is used, or it might be the quantity of spice required to make them scream FALAFEL in quite the way that they do.
In any case, the conclusion is that if you love falafel, you should try these because man, they sure taste like falafel. You should probably get some tahini sauce and try dipping them in it, to complete the experience. Making a sandwich out of them with bread would probably be redundant, since they are basically already a bread product, but I’m thinking that putting them on a salad dressed with tahini sauce might actually be worth trying.
But mostly, I am glad I tried these because now, I realize, I have not ruined my Hanukkah after all. I see that jelly doughnut flavored soda would not have soothed my craving for jelly doughnuts. If a cracker that tastes like falafel is kind of weird, imagine how wrong it would be to have soda-texture and jelly-doughnut-flavor in my mouth at the same time. And let’s not even think about the latke flavor.
So I’m going to go make my own potato latkes now, and thank you, Bissli, for a wonderful Hanukkah!
Buy Bissli Products Online:
- at Amazon.com
2 Comments
Shirel on May 31st, 2010
Wow I’m suprised you have these in the states! I’m from Israel so these are basicly the snacks I grew up on, and believe me, out of the many many different flavours you chose one of my favourites ^_^.
Now you got me wondering, can you find Bamba as well in the states? Kind of puffy snack that tastes of peanuts? Better yet, the chocolate filled Bamba? It’s really awesome!
And the salad dressing idea for these is something I must try next time I have salad 
doctordave on June 28th, 2009
“Making a sandwich out of them with bread would probably be redundant”
Don’t knock it til you try it. Warm pita bread with tahini sauce, sliced tomato, loads of fresh parsley and a big heaping of Osem Bissli is not only delicious but a satisfying meal. I heat up the Bissli in a tin foil in the oven alongside the pita bread.