Taro Brand – Hot Chilli Flavored Fish Snack
Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Fishy, sweet, umami
Recommended: Conditional
Texture: Soft and chewy
Ingredients: Fish meat 62.5%, sugar 10.7%, tapioca starch 9.2%, hot chili 4.9%, wheat flour 3.9%, iodized salt 2.1%, flavor enhancer (Monosodium Glutamate and Disodium 5′-ribonucleotides)
Taro is a Thai brand focusing on dried fish snacks. Dried fish snacks are popular throughout Asia and include not only fish snacks like these but also dried squid, cuttlefish, crabs, and and a bevy of other oceanic delights. While we’re quite comfortable with dried meat snacks in the west such as beef and other animal jerky dried seafood always seems a bit more scary. I decided to jump in and give a dried fish snack a try with what is reportedly Thailand’s most popular brand, and decided to go right to the top with their hottest flavor.
With the package being mainly in Thai it’s a bit hard to get a full grasp on the ingredients and what the claims on but thanks to Google Translate I can get most of the idea. The front of the bag proclaims 7 grams of protein per 30 grams of fish jerky, 42 milligrams of DHA, which is an Omega-3 fatty acid, and 48 millgrams per 30 grams of Omega 3, 6, and 9. Omega-3s have a lot of health benefits including promoting eye, brain, and heart health and helping skin repair damaged cells. The front also claims 102 milligrams of collagen per 30 grams, collagen being good for your skin and hair. The primary ingredients are 62.5% fish meat, which Googling the brand states that they usually use ocean white fish or lizard fish. While lizard fish sounds scary it’s apparently quite a delicious fish that many people compare to seabass or flounder. Next is 10.7% sugar and 9.2% tapioca starch, both to help cure and dry the product. 4.9% hot chili, 3.9% wheat flour, and 2.1% iodized salt round out the major ingredients. Below that it’s stated that this also contains MSG and Disodium 5′-ribonucleotides as flavoring agents. I’ve mentioned Disodium 5′-ribonucleotides before but it contains both disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate which are complimentary glutamates to MSG and help multiply the umami flavor.
Opening the bag the aroma struck me as incredibly similar to fish food. Thankfully when you pull some strands of the jerky out that aroma dissipates quickly and is replaced by more of a savory one that’s slightly fishy. The jerky itself is cut into thin strands or strips and it has a soft chewy texture, almost like much more chewy enoki mushrooms. The sweetness from the sugar is very apparent which is interesting with the fish flavor. Being fish jerky the fish flavor is of course concentrated more than it would be in a fresh piece of fish but I didn’t find it offensively fishy. The heat comes through after the sweetness and is more of a general hot flavor than one of any particular chili pepper that I can identify, similar to how certain spicy American snacks like Takis or Hot Cheetos can taste spicy but you can’t determine an exact pepper or even pepper flavor apart from general heat. There is a nice deep umami flavor which also translates into an almost smoky flavor in the background, though that could also be from some part of the drying process. The fish flavor lingers a bit in the mouth afterwards.
I’m happy I was able to try these but I’m not sure I can unequivocally recommend them. Whether or not you’ll like them will depend heavily on how much you like fishy flavors. These are quite a bit more intense than canned tuna or even canned sardines. If you love tinned fish however these may be up your alley. If you’re the type that only eats fish if its deep-fried probably best to stay away.
