Rice Cakes

In Japan, there are many salty snacks. The word for salty or savory in Japanese is called すっぱい (suppai). My favorite (and a very popular Japanese snack) is a rice cake called osenbei (おせんべい）. This is the word in Japanese for rice cake. There are many types of flavors in Japan. My favorite is slightly salty and sweet at the same time. Along with the crunchy texture of most osenbei, it's a delicious snack. Another interesting type of osenbei that I tried is a soy sauce flavor. I hosted a student from Japan for 10 days, and she brought me and my family a great number of treats! A lot of them were sweet and were green tea flavored. She brought green tea flavored kit kats, green tea cookies with chocolate at the bottom, and a creamy green tea flavored candy. She also brought the soy sauce osenbei. What was interesting about these osenbei is that they were soft and bendable. Most osenbei I've tried are rigid and crispy.

Osenbei are pretty much as popular as potato chips in America. Nearly everyone in Japan likes them, and if not there's usually a flavor someone likes. I tried many different flavors, but I didn't catch the names of them. One had a type of nut in them and tasted very savory. Another tasted like chicken and was delicious. A different one tasted like slightly sweet seaweed and soy sauce. That one was my favorite. The outside of that osenbei looked like it had caramelized sugar on it. It was shiny, but the initial flavor was very salty instead of sweet. The sweet aftertaste came later.