The Japanese seem to be as fond of snack foods as Americans, but tastes differ. Americans like to put cheese where nature never intended, in crunchy snacks like Cheetos ™ and Goldfish ™. Real cheese does not crunch, but snack foods are exempt from the laws of nature.

A visit to a Japanese market (in San Jose, CA) brought forth crunchy Japanese snack.

The snack is formed in the shape of a soy bean pod, which is like a fat pea pod. Boiled soy beans, edamame, are popular snack foods in their own right, and have a pleasant mild flavor. However, snack food that have to be peeled and are not crunchy have two strikes against them. Hence what we have here is an edamame-flavored Cheeto cast in the shape of a soy bean pod. To add interest, the snack is flavored with wasabe, Japanese horseradish, and enough salt to aid beer consumption.

I liked it. I happened not to have a beer handy at the time, which no doubt handicapped the tasting.