Today, while shopping at our local Asian Grocery store we found something that we had never seen before. It is called “Perfect Overbalanced Mouthfeel”. Since we are regular shoppers of the unusual, it is not out of the ordinary for us to see packaging with poorly done translations, but this caught my attention. I picked it up as I asked my poor long suffering husband what the heck is this stuff as I investigated the package. There is a photo on the front of the package that appears to be some sort of noodle – but it looks more Italian in origin than Asian; however, thankfully there was more English writing on the front, so I read this out loud to my husband. It reads, and I have copied it verbatim: “Choose the wheat carefully, refined and succeed, include the abundant mineral substance trace element richly. Can make you is it happen flourishing. Mouth breath after eating add vigor like season tree being long time”. My husband and I looked at one another and sort of giggled. Hmmm????
Needless to say, this little blurb was not really very helpful, so I still was not sure what I had in my hands. Nonetheless, Perfect Overbalanced Mouthfeel comes in two different packages at our local store; one is green and the other is pink. The green package has a photo that is very apparently a bunch of green onions on the front; while the pink package appears to have a box of kitty litter on it. I am sure it was not kitty litter of course, but I really have no idea what it could be and since, clearly, we felt that the onions would be the tastier of the two flavours we bought the green package.
So, here I am at my computer, package in hand and now, I will try it. On opening it, the dogs like the smell of them. But dogs, they like a lot of smells that I am not really impressed about! They roll in dead stuff if given the chance, so dogs being a fan, in and of itself, does not make me feel any better about the product.
Each is wrapped individually and now that I see them they look sort of like chips stuffed with some brownish stuff; but still, they seem, dubious at best. I am happy that I did not buy kitty litter flavour or I would chicken out right now. These though, onion, I am committed to try them.
I really don’t like the way they smell! They remind me of the stuff that my dad would mix with milk to give to calves whose cow mom’s wouldn’t feed them, only the smell is more sugary. The texture of them does not feel bad, sort of crispy and flaky. So I take the bite.
Ok… Here it is! It turns out that Perfect Overbalanced Mouthfeel is a sort of sweetened onion flavoured cookie-chip on the outside and a sticky crispy mineralish, sweeted onion and raisin flavoured middle. Not your average snack.
I took a little bit and gave mine to one of the dog herd. Minnie liked it. I still taste it in my mouth as I write. Both my husband and I still make faces and smack our mouths in distaste. My conclusion, they were not lying as far as overbalanced mouthfeels go – this was perfectly overbalanced, but would I eat them again? No way!
I have a whole pack left, they are individually wrapped so should stay fresh for a while. Anyone out there hankering for a truly overbalanced mouthfeel you can have some with a coffee when you come by here. They are not as bad as the yummy, yummy Chinese candy that my friend Lili brought back to me from China. Yummy, yummy Chinese candy is my least favorite food. This is the candy which is ginger and seaweed coated in salt. If you know it, you will know what I mean, it is even nastier than fermented tofu in hot peppers.
So, you can see, I am interested in trying new things, but what I want to know, is would you have gone ahead and tried them if you were me?
