The Mystery Snack

Some of my friends have already become acquainted with my love for whatever this is, when I first discovered it last month. Now I hope to share this love with the rest of the world.

My doctor's office offers little prepackaged snacks in her waiting room, usually with more Asian characters than English letters on them. Her office is a few blocks away from an Uwajamaya, a deservedly popular Asian supermarket, and this is likely where the snacks come from.

My doctor, for the record, is wonderful. She's compassionate, coaches patients in effective home remedies when appropriate, and offers inexpensive rates and payment plans for uninsured and low-income people. "Wonderful" might even be an understatement. For people living in the Eastside Seattle area, I highly recommend becoming her patient, particularly for those of us who are young, hurt by the recession or are otherwise living hand-to-mouth.

But I digress. I first ate the Mystery Snack in my doctor's waiting room and I was so impressed with it that I quickly pocketed the empty wrapper so that I could track down more.

I brought the wrapper to the local Uwajamaya and was told that it was "like a cracker" and from the brand ABC. Despite being unable to read or learn the name of the product, I was able to special-order a bag of them for myself. (They weren't in stock in the store at the time and seem to be a somewhat odd product in Uwajamaya.)

The Crunchy Goodness

The Mysterious, Pleasant Packaging

Mystery Snack: Unwrapped

The Flavor and Consistency:

The outer layer of the Mystery Snack is greasy, crispy and indulgent in a way that easily satisfies a craving for something deep-fried. It's superior to Cheetos, but is not entirely dissimilar. There's a pleasant carbohydrate quality to this layer, making it the sort of thing that I want to reach for first when hit with a particularly strong hunger pang.

The filling, whatever it is, melts in my mouth faster and creamier than a meringue cookie or freeze-dried ice cream, but these are the foods that it evokes. The filling is sweet, but it doesn't taste exactly like a dessert. It crumbles beautifully and quickly when bitten into, as though the outer crispy coating is needed to keep the center from turning into powder.

It's hard to put my finger on exactly what is so refreshing about this Mystery Snack. It shares many qualities with more readily available and less satisfactory American junk foods--greasiness, crunchiness, ease of storage and transport--but it's creamier, heartier and doesn't taste so intensely of fried corn. Perhaps it's the buckwheat? The barley? The beans? Some of the ingredients on the list help me better understand the substantial charm of this Mystery Snack.

The Ingredient List

Lotus seed, corn, job's tear, buckwheat, wheat, runner bean, mung bean, red bean, black bean, barley, black glutinous rice, brown rice, vegetable oil (palm oil), sugar, yolk powder, non-fat milk powder, soy sauce powder, glucose.

The Mystery of the Name... Solved!

Tiny English print on the front of the packaging calls it an Egg Yolk Rice Roll, but Googling this didn't produce any images of the product. The back of the packaging, in tiny letters above the ingredient list, proclaims the official name of the product to be "ABC Rice Roll-Egg Yolk Flavor," but Googling this didn't produce any images of the product either.

Despite its appeal, the Mystery Snack isn't being marketed to an English-language audience enough to even be found through a quick Google search! I have no idea what's up with that, because the Mystery Snack rules and there's a huge English-language snack market out there, just waiting to be formally introduced to them.

I will special-order more as soon as I run out, and I will do my best to ration what I have until my next paycheck.