Any kid growing up in Hawaii will tell you about the trick of tossing Japanese rice crackers (mochi crackers with a soy sauce coating) with popcorn, getting your own special Hawaiian trail mix.
It’s the mix of savory crunch of the mochi crackers (which we called “kaki mochi” as a kid but I forget why; some kids call it “arare” because of the major brand that produced them) with the buttery popcorn that kids love. Meh, I thought it was all right. (Again, proof that I wasn’t a normal Hawaiian kid.)
Anywho, recently my friend David went to Hawaii for a vacation, and he brought me back this box of treat called “Mochi Pop,” and it turns out it’s the childhood trick of mixing the rice crackers with popcorn, except they took it up a notch by mixing it with caramel popcorn instead of just plain popcorn.
Eating this brought back memories of going to the movies and snacking on this mix, but it was different with the sweet caramel. If you try the mochi crackers, though, I’m giving you fair warning that your breath will give Dracula’s garlic breath a run for the money. You Hawaii people know what I mean. ;-)
Friday, October 30, 2009
Trick or Hawaiian Treat
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5 comments:
I'm a bit of a Hawaii-file so I would definitely try this...I wonder if you can find it on the mainland?
So it's garlic and caramel-like? Hmmm, that COULD be good in a strange, twisted way. Pass me the bowl and I'll let you know for sure. ;)
Hungry Dog, the company that makes it is Island Princess, which sells a lot of Hawaiian treats. You might find it at Tokyo Fish Market or some place in Japantown in San Francisco.
Carolyn, it's not garlic flavored. It actually is more like seaweed and when you eat a lot of it, you get that seaweed breath, that can be stronger than garlic breath.
I love the Island Princess Popcorns! My sister just sent me a tub of the buttery macadamia nut popcorn and the mochi crunch popcorn. I must admit that my favorite Hawaii creation is Hurricane Popcorn, which mixes popcorn with butter, kakimochi and furikake (seaweed seasonings). You can buy the mix, but it comes with this scary looking bag of yellowish "butter flavored" oil. So whenever I do have the mix, I toss the oil and melt some real butter instead. Otherwise, I just make my own with popcorn, butter and furikake from my pantry.
BTW, I never noticed the smell of kakimochi/arare breath until I left Hawaii. *LOL*
Single Guy, I totally know about arare breath, it's like corn-nut breath... I've had the hurricane popcorn but couldn't continue after reading the nutritional info on the bag! I love the sweet savory combination and the buttery sweet crunch of the caramel corn sounds fantastic! Happy belated halloween!
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