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To start with, something that I'm sure has been done to death:
"I keep seeing on my TV listings they're playing the XXX Summer Olympics! But then I turn to it, and all they've got is boring old sports!" (Well and the logo, which looks like... well, you've probably heard that one too...)
But yeah, I hate the Olympics. I used to just not be interested in them, but over the years I've started to loathe them. Part of this is because I've come to believe that the Olympic organization is pretty much just a shameless corporate tool to make loads of money and trampling over civil rights. Part of it is simple selfishness - I've never cared much for sports, and it dominates television while it's on. Every Olympics I do my best to watch as little coverage as possible, but I always forget and turn to one of my usual channels only to find out that what I usually watch is now replaced with sports.
I can't wait till it's over and am annoyed that I had to talk about it this much.
So let's talk about something else international... snacks!
There was a sale recently at the grocery store of some Indian snack foods, and I figured, why not give them a try? And share the experience with you! These are, for the record, at least according to their package, actually produced in India, rather than just being Indian-style foods produced here... not that it matters or anything but it surprised me a little. The company is Bikano, and I got three varieties: Bikaneri Bhujia, "Tasty" (which is not all that encouraging a title with respect to your other varieties at least), and Aloo Bhujia.
The two Bhujias are somewhat similar, but we'll start with Tasty. It's peanuts with some kind of spicy coating. And it actually is a pretty tasty coating (if you like spice, at least). I could see myself eating it again... but not very often. My problem is the peanuts. Not specifically THESE peanuts, but peanuts in general. They're okay, but I can't eat them very often or very much. Very occasionally I'll get a craving and get some, but not often. When I do though, I might try these again, I do like the spice.
Aloo Bhujia is... well, if you've ever eaten Ramen noodles... you know those little broken off hard noodle bits that (to me) seem inevitably to be at the end of any package. It looks very much like a snack food based completely on those bits. In terms of shape and size. Luckily, it's a lot easier to crunchinate, and more flavorful (and yes, I have tried eating the bits of leftover ramen noodle, it's not very good an idea). This variety had a very nice spice to it, and it's probably my favorite of the three. My only complaint, and it's a kind of big one... it's very complicated and messy to eat. They're just so small and whenever I grab a handful I lose some. Maybe I'm supposed to use a spoon or just dip the bag into my mouth or something. But that's probably my biggest barrier to wanting to try these again. Something with that flavor and crunch but in a larger format would be rather nice.
Bikaneri Bhujia is, so far, the most bizarre 'easy snacking food' I've encountered, solely because of the radical disparity of what's inside the bag. There's more than one type of it, but not like trail mix or other things where everything is roughly the same size, opening the bag was a bit eyebrow raising. The majority of it is the same sort of ramen-straggler stuff as in the Aloo Bhujia, although a somewhat blander flavor, and not as tasty. And it contains a huge breadstick. Well, it's not really a breadstick, but that's what it looks like, a breadstick sticking out of the little crunchy bits (and a handful of smaller bread clump chunks). It's texture is more like a soft-but-very-dense cookie (or like a very soft biscotti?), and it's spicy and savory rather than sweet (and actually tasted better than the crunchy bits). But it's just bizarre to me (though, I'd assume, perfectly natural to others). It didn't taste bad, just not as good as the others and with the same complicated eating method (complicated by me being unclear of whether you're supposed to eat the breadstick first, last, mix bites in between, or what... I tried to alternate between types a little), but yeah, in the future I think I'd skip this variety in favor of the non-breadstick one.
"I keep seeing on my TV listings they're playing the XXX Summer Olympics! But then I turn to it, and all they've got is boring old sports!" (Well and the logo, which looks like... well, you've probably heard that one too...)
But yeah, I hate the Olympics. I used to just not be interested in them, but over the years I've started to loathe them. Part of this is because I've come to believe that the Olympic organization is pretty much just a shameless corporate tool to make loads of money and trampling over civil rights. Part of it is simple selfishness - I've never cared much for sports, and it dominates television while it's on. Every Olympics I do my best to watch as little coverage as possible, but I always forget and turn to one of my usual channels only to find out that what I usually watch is now replaced with sports.
I can't wait till it's over and am annoyed that I had to talk about it this much.
So let's talk about something else international... snacks!
There was a sale recently at the grocery store of some Indian snack foods, and I figured, why not give them a try? And share the experience with you! These are, for the record, at least according to their package, actually produced in India, rather than just being Indian-style foods produced here... not that it matters or anything but it surprised me a little. The company is Bikano, and I got three varieties: Bikaneri Bhujia, "Tasty" (which is not all that encouraging a title with respect to your other varieties at least), and Aloo Bhujia.
The two Bhujias are somewhat similar, but we'll start with Tasty. It's peanuts with some kind of spicy coating. And it actually is a pretty tasty coating (if you like spice, at least). I could see myself eating it again... but not very often. My problem is the peanuts. Not specifically THESE peanuts, but peanuts in general. They're okay, but I can't eat them very often or very much. Very occasionally I'll get a craving and get some, but not often. When I do though, I might try these again, I do like the spice.
Aloo Bhujia is... well, if you've ever eaten Ramen noodles... you know those little broken off hard noodle bits that (to me) seem inevitably to be at the end of any package. It looks very much like a snack food based completely on those bits. In terms of shape and size. Luckily, it's a lot easier to crunchinate, and more flavorful (and yes, I have tried eating the bits of leftover ramen noodle, it's not very good an idea). This variety had a very nice spice to it, and it's probably my favorite of the three. My only complaint, and it's a kind of big one... it's very complicated and messy to eat. They're just so small and whenever I grab a handful I lose some. Maybe I'm supposed to use a spoon or just dip the bag into my mouth or something. But that's probably my biggest barrier to wanting to try these again. Something with that flavor and crunch but in a larger format would be rather nice.
Bikaneri Bhujia is, so far, the most bizarre 'easy snacking food' I've encountered, solely because of the radical disparity of what's inside the bag. There's more than one type of it, but not like trail mix or other things where everything is roughly the same size, opening the bag was a bit eyebrow raising. The majority of it is the same sort of ramen-straggler stuff as in the Aloo Bhujia, although a somewhat blander flavor, and not as tasty. And it contains a huge breadstick. Well, it's not really a breadstick, but that's what it looks like, a breadstick sticking out of the little crunchy bits (and a handful of smaller bread clump chunks). It's texture is more like a soft-but-very-dense cookie (or like a very soft biscotti?), and it's spicy and savory rather than sweet (and actually tasted better than the crunchy bits). But it's just bizarre to me (though, I'd assume, perfectly natural to others). It didn't taste bad, just not as good as the others and with the same complicated eating method (complicated by me being unclear of whether you're supposed to eat the breadstick first, last, mix bites in between, or what... I tried to alternate between types a little), but yeah, in the future I think I'd skip this variety in favor of the non-breadstick one.
