But the potato chips that inspired it still have a Japanese twist.

Even in Japan, sometimes people find a bowl of plain white rice to be just a little too bland. At those times, diners craving a bit more taste bud stimulation reach for a packet of the powdered rice topping called furikake .

Furikake is usually made from ingredients like egg, fish, and sesame, imparting a traditional Japanese taste to the rice it’s sprinkled on. But Shizuoka-based furikake maker Nichifuri had a more modern, and Western, inspiration for its newest product: potato chip-flavor furikake.

Pictured above, the new furikake is modeled after Koike-brand potato chips, which first went on the market in 1962 and have been perennially popular in Japan ever since. The potato chip-flavor furikake isn’t completely devoid of Japanese elements, though, as it’s based on Koike’s nori seaweed and salt-seasoned chips. And while the simplest production process would have just been to crush some actual potato chips into little bits and repackage them as furikake, that’s not what Nichifuri has actually done. Instead, the potato chip-flavor furikake is made from dried mashed potatoes, which have a chip-like crunchiness, with nori, fish extract, and kombu added for extra flavor.

The potato chip-flavor furikake is on sale now, priced at 130 yen (US$1.15) for a 20-gram (0.7-ounce) bag, meaning that you should have plenty of change left over to pick up some of Japan’s new potato chip-covered chocolate for dessert too.

Source: Narinari via Jin, PR Times
Top mage: PR Times