If this wasn’t being sold in several snack and candy sections of several grocery and convenience stores in Vietnam, I would have told you that this is some kind of survival supplement. A few years back I was given several ration packs to sample, including one that contained some water and a very hard bar that apparently had enough nutrition to keep you alive for a few days. I will say that the bar in this ration pack was not the tastiest thing in the world, but the real feature was how hard it was. I basically had to chisel my way through it like I was trying to eat a brick.

This Luong Kho Hat Dunh Duong “nutrition bar” was very similar. When I took it out of the package it wasn’t very pretty, and it felt very hard. My first bite confirmed that this bar was pretty hard, but not as hard as the ration bar I had before. This bar is probably the most dense cookie I’ve ever eaten before in my life. It has a bit of give, but you also have to give it some effort.

The real surprise for this bar was how tasty it is. For a bar that looks really ugly, it has a wonderful buttery and nutty flavour. If this was presented in a more appealing way, and was maybe a little less dense, I would say it’s actually a pretty good cookie. I’m not sure what kind of nutritional value this bar has, but if it is as it claims, this might be a nice, more nutritious alternative to cookies or even some candy bars.

This could be one of the most unappealing cookie themed bars I’ve ever seen, but once I managed to get through the first bite and give it a few chews, it actually tasted pretty good.