Each morning I start the day by reading a few slices. I usually know what I’m going to write, or I’ve already written my own slice the night before. This morning I woke up and I had nothing planned yet. I was uninspired. So when the first three slices I read today were all about food, I knew the universe was telling me something. This slice was inspired by the this post: What My Childhood Tasted Like.
When your parents are immigrants and you live in Southern California, where food from any place in the world can be found in 40 minutes or less, you grow up eating some snacks that not everyone has heard of. Might I suggest a few of my childhood favorites to add to your grocery list the next time you want to nosh on something different than your usual fare?
• Shrimp chips-There are two kinds: ones shaped like little sticks and ones that are more traditional chip-shaped (you see them in Chinese restaurants). We always ate the sticks at home–salty, a little fishy, crunchy, yum.
• Haw flakes-I hadn’t eaten these in decades and my sister recently introduced them to her son and our niece. The three-year-olds loved them. The adults, not so much. We couldn’t remember why we liked them as kids. We also realized after all these years, we didn’t even know what they are made of. (They’re made of Chinese hawthorn, apparently.)
• Japanese baby crackers-We didn’t know they were baby food at the time! Slightly sweet little cookies that dissolve in your mouth–they were so fun to eat.
• Nori strips-Roasted seaweed packed in snack-sized strips. Other kids thought it was so strange of us to eat seaweed and now you can find this at Trader Joe’s!
Well, now I might need to go to the grocery store and pick some of these up. But not the haw flakes!
Haw flakes and other delights
March 11, 2021
Like you, I didn’t know what I was going to write and wound up writing about a childhood game. Sometimes we don’t realize the richness of our past. I love this post and will have to hunt down some of these new foods.
Living where I do I am not sure if any of these would be found in our local grocery store. Something to check for. For me, snacks were usually chips and pretzels. Using them to scoop up ice cream was an added treat.
Tastes do change 🙂 I hated any dish made of bitter gourd as a child but it has been my favourite for a long time .
I love shrimp chips and nori strips! Both are very “more-ish” as they say in the UK. I haven’t heard of the other two. Thank you for the interesting Slice!
One thing I loved about my visits to London was the variety of crisp flavors! I’d love to know more about this term “more-ish”.
I enjoyed reading your version of memory foods! Great idea to include pictures and even where you can buy certain items I want to try all of foods you mentioned, except the Haw Flakes, of course!
Food memories? Sign me up! Your tastes change, but each of those tastes are just so foreign to a Mid-Western boy like myself, and that why I love these slices. So many different perspectives, different ideas, different tastes out there to sample! I’ve bookmarked this so I can see what I can find when visiting a more urban area this summer! 🙂
Thank you for sharing today! 🙂
These are definitely different and sound worth trying. Wonder if they sell them in Australia? It’s a possibility. A great memory and I’m impressed you usually write your slice ‘the night before’, wow!