Lemon Tea/Blueberry/Cucumber Potato Crisps

Here's something that people who blog about food probably haven't encountered before, and something one can only obtain via connections. No, not some review from a 5-star restaurant (with over 9000 reservations and counting). Not truffle-and-caviar-and-saffron-and-OhMyGoshDon'tForgetTheGoldLeaf-pasta. I'm talking about interestingly-flavoured potato crisps/chips! My uncle bought these for me and they got transported to the U.S by my dad when he went to China. I kind of want to go to China (haven't been in 5 years), or at least, Hong Kong, mainly for the food. Actually, I'm not really sure that I'd feel that comfortable going to China, and I suppose going to London would be cooler since I've never been. Anyway, here are 5 different flavours, spelled with American English, made by the Lay's company, and sold only in China (as far as I know).

1. Little Tomato Flavor

2. Tomato Flavor

3. Lemon Tea Flavor

4. Breezy Blueberry Flavor

5. Green Cucumber Flavor

 The "Cool & Refreshing" flavours (all of them, except for "Tomato Flavor") definitely have some menthol in it, even though the ingredients don't say that.

 Little Tomato Flavor... was slightly tomato-y and sweet. A lot of menthol, so it's slightly overwhelming.

Tomato Flavor tasted more like tomato, was slightly savory (a bit sweet), and had a toasted taste. Much more preferable than the Little Tomato Flavor because it's less sweet and lacks menthol.

 The Lemon Tea canister didn't smell like tea (or anything, really), and had a faint tea/bittery taste. It was sweet, and while chewing, tasted a bit like a light lemon candy that I've had at some point in the past, but I can't figure out what it is. There's a tiny hint of menthol, which is alright.

 The Breezy Blueberry canister smelled slightly sweet, but after licking off the flavouring, the chip was definitely plain potato -- so in theory, I could make vanilla potato crisps if I sprinkled vanilla sugar onto plain potato crisps. This flavouring was salty and sweet (you could see the grains), and tasted like VERY artificial blueberry flavour (the kind in low-quality/unhealthy/electric-blue-coloured blueberry yoghurt, cereal, and granola bars). The menthol is way too overpowering. I don't particularly like this combination.

My favourite flavour was Green Cucumber! The canister SMELLED JUST LIKE CUCUMBER. My first reaction to licking the seasoning was, "Wow, nori." (did you know that I LOVE nori?) The cucumber taste is a little less pronounced, as is the menthol. It's savoury, delicious, and after chewing many crisps, this whole product started tasting a little bit like butter cookies (Not sure why, or whether it's just this flavour).

Also, note that the canisters are much smaller than American stack chip containers...each crisp was about 5 x 7 cm (well, most of them were crushed due to travelling).

Other seasonings on corn or potato chips that I'd want to try (that may/may not exist) include:

1. Pudding

2. Peanut Butter

3. Avocado

4. Marshmallow

5. Noodle

6. Spaghetti Sauce

7. Whole-Wheat Bread

Snackums

In lieu of Halloween candy updating... (will do that at some point):
Snacks from China, brought to me by my dad when he went to China in the summer. Consumed before Halloween so that I can make space for chocolate and such (actually, my room has a lot of space. Plenty of room to store food...and no mice [yet]).

Square cracker thingys: really spicy and tasted a bit like stale wasabi.
Green plastic packaging: delicious spicy tofu. Vacuum packed. It's like jerky...but it's tofu!!!
Yellow plastic packaging: more spicy tofu jerky in oil.
Bamboo shoots: pickled and spicy.
Mushrooms: pickled and spicy (and really oily)
Dried kiwi: did not taste like kiwi. Way too green to be naturally preserved kiwi...bland and not that delicious :( :( The seeds were real though.
Lotus seeds: Moist and nutty.

Hot Dry Noodles (Wuhan Specialty)

In exchange for providing my cousin with ongoing hours of ACT and TOEFL prep, my uncle bought me food which my dad brought back food from his trip to China. There is nothing I'd rather have, especially as the food they got is just unobtainable here in the U.S., or it's really expensive, or the shipping fee costs more than the actual food product. Wuhan is a city in Hubei province, and my uncle and his family live there, as does a local culture of pretty delicious food. My mum always reminds me that Wuhan cuisine is quite spicy and numbing - 麻辣 (ma2 la4).

Today at lunch, my mum made some of the Hot Dry Noodles, 热干面 (re4 gan1 mian4 - it's literally called "Hot Dry Noodles" in Chinese), from a package of them that we got from my uncle. Of course, normal Hot Dry Noodles are eaten in dingy little restaurants or at street food stands in Wuhan. I remember this one time we went to my mum's friend's restaurant when I was really young, and the Hot Dry Noodles were too spicy for me, so I didn't really appreciate them.

Despite the fact that we didn't eat the straight-from-the-pot-in-a-cheap-Wuhan-eatery Hot Dry Noodles, the packaged version still reminded me of those sultry summers when I was in China, forced to eat Chinese food all the time, and being fussed over because we were "foreign". It's actually pretty funny because once, at one of those banquet dinners, my relatives ordered some fries for me and my brother because we refused to eat the Chinese dishes. The fries ended up being extremely spicy, due to the fact that the oil that the restaurant used was spicy. It's pretty funny, now that I think of it.

The Hot Dry Noodles came with packets of sauce that usually is homemade at those roadside eateries. One is a sort of chili oil with carrots and ginger, another is sesame sauce (sesame paste and sesame oil), and the other is soy sauce. The Hot Dry Noodles today were so spicy that I only used half the package of chili oil, and I had to eat a lot of bread on the side. They weren't as numbing as I remember them to be, which is a good thing. I don't really like the numbing sensation, even though it's always present in Ma Po DouFu - ma2 po2 dou4 fu3 (麻婆豆腐). I think that my brother was more zealous about these noodles than I was; he sighed that these reminded him of Wuhan. I don't feel too much nostalgia from eating these, which is a little bizarre. Even though it doesn't look sanitary (food inspections?! Psh, yeah right), if you ever go to Wuhan, you should try these! They're probably not going to be plated neatly, and the cook may tell you to hurry up and pay the few yuan already, but Hot Dry Noodles are one of the most famous dishes in Wuhan (this statement is backed up by my cousin's response to a TOEFL Speaking question).