Baby Star Mini "Umashi"

Oyatsu Company

Once again a Japanese snack company completely confused me with its package. When I looked at this bag of crunchy ramen snacks, I saw a sailor’s suit, so I instantly assumed that I was in for a fishy treat. While I'm not really sure what "Umashi" is, I can tell you that it tastes kind of like onion. More specifically it tastes like a nice fresh green onion. The flavour was so subtle, that even though I'm not a huge fan of onion on its own, I really enjoyed these. Most often when I enjoy the flavour of onion in my salty snacks, I like it cut with something creamy like sour cream or yogurt, but these worked fine without it. In fact, I think a creamy addition would have ruined the subtle taste and would have left it feeling too heavy.

Best of all the texture of these little noodles is perfect for crunching. I'm a huge fan of deep-fried noodles when I go out for just about any Asian meal, and these gave me that satisfying crunch that I always look for. I'm not sure if they were broken into little bits on purpose, or through shipping, but the size worked really well for snacking. I could take a pinch of these and get a perfect mouthful of crunchy goodness.

I'm not a big fan of onions, I like them as a spice or cooked into some foods, but these little crunchy treats gave me that onion freshness without the super strong taste. The package is a little misleading, but the flavour and texture certainly aren't.