Forget ready-salted chips and vanilla cream biscuits. As huge foodies and reasonable connoisseurs of strange gastronomic experiences, we always pursue the locally-produced snacks that sometimes offer local flavours, or combinations that may not be common in the west.
Here we explore snacks we found throughout Malaysia. As many products are often imported from other Southeast Asian countries, some can be found in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia as well. (Note that prices may differ depending on location and store.)
SAVOURY
Lay’s Sweet Basil Flavour Potato Chips
It seems that Thailand produces a lot of the good Southeast Asian snacks, but fortunately for us they’re so popular you can find them in Malaysia too. Though its flavour is not very immediately reminiscent of Thai basil, it does have other seasonings which makes it taste more like the stir-fried dishes one might order at a Thai restaurant. The closest we came to describing it as we horked down the package on a long bus ride was as if they had tried to replicate the flavour of Indomie’s mi goreng instant noodle, stopping at the oil sachet and supplementing the remaining flavour with some herbs.
We regretted that it was dissimilar to the sweet basil that the product claimed.
Mr. Potato Crisps Chilli Crab Flavour
A pretty impressive flavour that is not 100% chilli crab, but definitely has components of chilli and crab. The initial bites have a decent fragrance of crustacean, much like how a surimi stick is flavoured. Then, as it gradually becomes almost purely the taste of that familiar powdered hyperbolic paraboloid potato snack, the chilli continues to build until you pause to think to yourself, well. There’s the chilli.
RM 2.80
Mr. Potato Sweet Potato Crisps Sweetcorn Flavour
Jos likes her sweet potato a lot. She’s also fond of corn-flavoured things in a way that nobody should, so this was her choice of snack. It was expectedly sweet, tasting of an indescribable fake corn flavour. There was also enough MSG in there to provide a balanced savouriness. After more than a handful the flavour soon reduced to a mild sweetness and the familiar taste of dehydrated potato, the kind that is usually found in the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid.
Still, there were really no regrets there.
RM 4.80
Richeese Siip Corn-flavoured corn puffs
Yet another one of Jos’s great ideas. Heavy with the seasoning and generous with the fake sweet corn flavour, Richeese packs a punch with every bite that continues throughout the whole 50g bag. There were no regrets, other than not buying more.
RM 1.80
SWEET
Kit Kat Milk Tea Flavour
A sensation in the Asian community, this sought-after flavour of Kit Kat tasted exactly like the traditional Malaysian teh tarik. Perhaps a little pricey for 5 sticks of Kit Kat, but definitely recommended.
RM 6.50
Luva Lava Cake Mocha Cheese
The cheese flavour was chosen over the chocolate, pandan, and durian flavours for no reason other than by random decision. These are found in convenience stores and groceries all over Malaysia, and comes with a little folded spoon to scoop all that supposed oozy lava out from the little cup it came in. Certainly, there was a distinct goo that we supposed was the cheese lava. The taste is pretty unremarkable, but that texture was something. If anyone asks what toothpack means, it may be easier to hand them one of these. Maybe they aimed for something different, but it was clumpier than it was fudgy.
We regret that it really was not satisfying. Otherwise, certainly an interesting experience, and not enough to put me off trying maybe the durian flavour if I came across it, though not in the foreseeable future.
Magic Crunch Pandan-filled cookies
Pandan is a classic Southeast Asian flavour, and its addition to a chiffon is what has us obsessed. This was an obvious one to try, but boy did it tick all the wrong boxes. With a cardboard-like cracker reminiscent of those dry wholegrain breakfast cereals and a cloying, pasty frosting, even the delicate pandan flavour was not enough to redeem this frightful snack.
The only thing we did not regret was that, at the very least, we tried it.
RM 1.5
Richeese Ahh Cheese-flavoured corn puff
Asia’s fascination with cheese almost transcends the other continents, more so if we remember that a good number of the population can’t digest milk. In addition to this, Asia’s low-quality cheese tends to lack the flavour characteristics of a pungent European cheese, so much so that its presence is used almost solely for that engineered stretchiness. Because of this, cheese is actually found commonly in desserts as a complement to sweetness, much like how salted butter can be used for a caramel.
Richeese’s Ahh is nothing less than a showcase of a dozen different food technologies in one portable little snack. With a tubular puffed-corn base both filled with and dipped in a bright orange, alleged cheese concoction, this little bad boy was strangely moreish. Sweet with a slight savoury saltiness, its fake cheese flavour filled the mouth as the puffed corn slowly dissolves as you chew, along with the shame we had as we paid for this in a convenience store in front of queueing customers.
Let’s be honest. This product is pretty terrible. But if you handed us a pack of twelve, it may or may not be gone by the end of the day, without regrets.
