My friend and fellow blogger Joe Distefano is always going on about Asian snacks and candy. We try to beat out the other in finding the best, strangest, and tastiest Asian snack to munch on and talk about. I remember when I dared him to buy a bag of small candied crabs a few years ago and put them in a candy bowl in his desk at work to see what the reaction would be.Well, today I ran across a tasty little snack when i was out shopping. I have been suffering from the flu related blues for a few days and had to get out of the house. Most people go shopping for clothes or power tools when they need a pick me up. I go food shopping, especially at ethnic markets. This snack is Asian Best brand "Crispy Snack Sesame Anchovy Fish." They are headless anchovies that are fried, candied, and covered with a chili powder and sesame seed coating.
They look kinda strange, these 1-2 inch long golden, shiny fish all studded with sesame seeds with red hints of chili powder. The smell is slightly fishy but the taste barely makes you think of fish at all. They are crunchy sweet at first, with the sesame taste coming through like those sesame brittle candies. Then the chili burn comes along, followed by a hint of fried fish. They are super tasty little snacks and great beer or cocktail munchies. Surprisingly they are low in fat and calories, and have tons of calcium. I can't wait to put them out as snacks at my next cocktail party.
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-23-2007 @ 1:11PM
dagrappler said...
don't invite me to your next cocktail party...THAT STUFF SOUNDS NASTY!
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3-23-2007 @ 3:41PM
Tran said...
I love this stuff, I don't care what anyone else thinks (although, it does leave an awful smell on your breath afterward). There's a great little shop in Little Saigon (Westminster, CA) that sells the BEST in different levels of spicy-ness.
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3-23-2007 @ 10:48PM
corrin said...
nasty?! no way! crispy fishies are awesome!
yum yum
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3-24-2007 @ 1:00AM
museinthecity said...
Are these crunchy all the way through or slightly chewy? I ate something exactly like it and blogged about it http://citymuse.blogspot.com/2006/05/weird-snacking_114802882836386808.html; I think I left a link to it at Joe's post about the crispy crabs, too. There's another fishy snack that I like better than this one, though: crispy deep fried anchovies, which were spicy and sweet. Very, very addicting. I talked about it on the same post.
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They are crunchy all the way through. Very crisp and light. They seem to be very similar to what you tried but covered with sesame seeds. --JMF--
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3-24-2007 @ 1:26AM
megan said...
"Most people go shopping for...power tools when they need a pick me up."
lol Jonathan. Tim "The Toolman" Taylor
would be proud ; )
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3-24-2007 @ 11:50AM
Vince said...
Oh, be careful -- these are practically habit forming!!
Here in Toronto we can buy them in large plastic jugs similar in size to a very large tub of peanut butter. I ate that completely in one sitting, watching a one hour show on Discovery Channel or something.. Let's just say I didn't have a good night's sleep that night. :-)
But you are right.. they are sooooo goooooood...
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3-24-2007 @ 9:38PM
Miss Tiffie said...
they do smell but they are healthy and have tons of calcium and they're really really really good. sometimes i eat them too fast and kinda choke a little since they're pretty hard. but so yum yum yum!!! (haha but that's probably b/c i grew up snacking on them)
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3-25-2007 @ 10:41AM
bdw said...
Heads off? Where's the fun in that. Pass the whole critters, heads and all, around at your next cocktail party, after the appropriate number of drinks. See how many of your in-laws friends you can alienate by turning it into a machismo contest. Invite the local biker gang down, too. Then start on the whole baby eels. And those candied crabs sound disgusting, too.
I tried em once, won't try them again. They're whole dead baby fish with extra salt, sorta like whole shell-on sunflower seeds, but with extra bad karma added.
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3-29-2007 @ 11:06AM
Annie said...
I buy packs of headless and gutted (the whole ones have a bitterer flavour) dried anchovies in the Chinese supermarket, deep fry them myself, add deep fried cashews and a good sprinkling of cayenne.
Wonderful - spicy, crispy, salty, like little bits of fish crackling!
Luckily the nearest Chinese Supermarket that sells them is eighty miles away or I'd never stop eating them!
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