17 hours Ago By [email protected] (Dennis Lee)
Trader Joe's is currently offering a limited-time snack called Sugared Rice Cracker Stars, which caught our staff's attention at the store recently. The package describes them as "crunchy with a balance of sweetness and saltiness," and since I'm a general fan of that combo, I figured I'd take my coworker's recommendation to pick up a bag in order to give them a taste test. They're made in Thailand, and their ingredients list is simple, consisting of only rice, sugar, soy sauce, honey, maltodextrin, and tapioca starch.
Immediately judging from the package, I knew I'd had something similar previously, so I also went to the Korean grocery store to try and pick up what I believe to be the inspiration for the snack. Since Trader Joe's is notorious for taking various packaged good recipes you'd find from different ethnic cuisines to repurpose them for its highly dedicated customer base, I wanted to see if this was just a straight dupe of a classic type of , or whether or not Trader Joe's had created its own unique snack that's worth going out of your way to get. Trader Joe's Sugared Rice Cracker Stars are more sweet than they are salty Trader Joe's Sugared Rice Crackers are airy and light and visibly coated on the outside with granulated sugar.
They're much more sweet than they are salty, and that soy flavor lives mostly in the background, only creeping out a bit in the aftertaste. I'd consider these standalone snacking crackers, meaning you can pretty much crush these things straight from the bag with no accompaniments, and they nearly fit the texture of both a chip and a cracker, with the crackle of a candied shell. There's a slight caramel flavor to them as well, thanks to the soy sauce.
They're good in a simple and light way, and for $1.99, I'll grudgingly admit it: They're a steal for that price. I have a feeling my bag'll go pretty quickly, because I've already reached for more multiple times while sitting here writing this.
That bold sugary crunch with the light interior is one that keeps me coming back. I wouldn't necessarily run out just to get them, but if you're already headed over to Trader Joe's for groceries, tossing a bag of these (and some other ) in your cart isn't the worst idea. Trader Joe's Sugared Rice Crackers are very similar to Japanese senbei After looking around the snack aisle of the Korean grocery store for a while, I finally found a package of crackers that had roughly the same ingredient list as the Trader Joe's version.
These are , which are a type of rice cracker that can run the spectrum of salty to sweet. If you've ever had a Japanese rice cracker mix, you've had senbei before, even if you didn't know what they were called. The package I picked up was from a brand called Want Want, and the labeling indicates it was manufactured in China.
Sometimes they'll come dressed with seaweed flakes or sesame seeds, but Trader Joe's Sugared Rice Cracker Stars don't have any adornments, and neither did the senbei I picked up. They're made with rice, palm oil, sugar, glucose, soy sauce powder, salt, and a key differentiator, monosodium glutamate (MSG). The MSG is there to really punch up the savoriness of the cracker in the Japanese product, and that's an ingredient you'll never see at Trader Joe's — something that was once discussed on Trader Joe's own podcast.
Whether or not that decision was done to pander to Western fears over the seasoning, we may never really know ( ). Whether you prefer Trader Joe's or senbei depends on personal taste Both types of rice crackers share nearly the same texture, but the Japanese-style senbei are salty up front and slightly sweet in back. Personally, I like this version a lot better, but I'll chalk that up to my personal preferences of chips over cookies.
I'm just a savory food person in general. That being said, you can tell what you're getting into with each brand of rice cracker, because the sugar crystals are so prominently displayed on the Trader Joe's version. Otherwise, yes, it's fairly safe to say that Trader Joe's just took senbei, added more sugar, gave it a cute shape, and then called it something weirdly literal.
It's not like the name "Sugared Rice Cracker Stars" really sticks out at you, but that might be the whole point. By simply describing what they're like, Trader Joe's can skirt over the fact that they're senbei, without having to admit that their inspiration originated in another country. That way the company can stamp its own name on it, like it does with everything else.
Recommended.
