I’d like to fancy myself a man of refined tastes. When I eat ice cream it certainly ought to be rose flavored. My colas? Well, they better be of an unexplained taste. And when it comes to crackers, I accept nothing less than those doused in the essence of sea urchins.

And now you can too! All you have to do is pick up a pack of Waza No Koda Wari Noko Uni Shoyu crackers at your local food vendor this winter season.

These little 44-gram (1.5-ounce) bags of rice crackers are deeply penetrated by the fine flavors of both soy sauce and sea urchin. The Noko Uni Shoyu part of the name means a slathering of sea urchin paste along with a blend of two distinct soy sauce flavors: the heavy saltiness of Koikuchi Soy Sauce with the strong savoriness of Tamari Soy Sauce.

Normally this much flavoring would crush a mortal cracker, but luckily these are Waza No Koda Wari crackers. Baked at an impudent thickness and then crushed into granite-like chunks, only these masses of rice can handle such a heavy taste.

After opening a bag the salty aroma of sea urchin filled the room—a potent scent from such a tiny bag of snacks. Sure enough, after eating there was no surprise regarding the taste. It was every bit as salty and satisfying as an ocean wind, but that was hardly the most impressive thing about these crackers.

In order to support such a hardy taste, these crackers were exceptionally crunchy. They weren’t impossible to bite through like a jaw-breaker candy, but just within the limits of the average human jaw. As a result, biting into it caused vibrations to ripple through my cranium and made my whole world appear like the opening credits to the 1995 movie Se7en.

▼ How Waza No Koda Wari crackers look while eating.

Even though every bite caused my skull to rattle around in the oddest way, it was still painless and delicious. If you want to experience this unique texture too, then pop into a convenience store or supermarket anywhere in Japan before the end of February and pick up a bag for about 120 yen (US$1).

It truly is a unique rice cracker, and this is coming from a guy who ate wasp-filled ones.

Source: Entabe (Japanese)
Photos: RocketNews24