"I’m scared" was all I could think of before eating this snack. I don’t know what possessed me to buy this but I think it had something to do with "adventure" and "thinking outside the box", ectera. I was looking for something out of the "norm" which is usually a snack type treat or straight up candy. And lookee, lookee, I found these guys staring at me from the shelf at Asia Market in Creve Coeur, Missouri. I really had to think about this purchase since I know I coulda bought an awesome sembei mix for the same amount of cash but curiosity and sheer perversion won out and the lil’ buggers came home with me.
It says “Tamagogani” on the package but I think they meant to say “Tamago kani”. Tamago means egg or fish egg. Kani means crab. So you put the two together and get the rough translation of "egg crab" or baby crab. Tamago kani is manufactured by the Takuma Shokuhin Company . These are the same people who came up with squid flavored chocolate and curry flavored chocolates. Ho boy! Can’t wait to put that in a Christmas stocking!
Let’s just look at these guys for a minute before chowing down; they’re hermit crabs that’ve been roasted whole (in the damn shell!!) and candy coated in a mixture of Red #40, sugar, soy sauce and MSG. Then, lil’ sesame seeds have been liberally sprinkled on top. They look almost exactly as they did in life except that they’re more red, dismembered and sesame coated. Their wee black eyes seem to say, “You killed us Rachel! Why? Don’t you love us anymore?” Gee, if that doesn’t put a halt to your snack attack then nothing will.
I waited until I was really hungry to eat this, I mean REALLY hungry. We all know hunger is the best spice. But actually, no amount of spice in the world woulda made this crap any better and I had a lotta spice at 1:00 in the afternoon.
I put one in my mouth and waited for the party I was promised on the packaging. No bells no confetti, just a sweet and incredibly salty flavor kinda seeped onto my tongue. Chewin’ time…Oh, grosss!! It’s crunchy in a baaaad way! Eww, gritty, crunchy sand abrading teeth, must, chew, faster! I crunched and more salt exploded in my mouth. Arrgggg! Keep on chewing Rachel; it’s almost over, but noooo! There’s a chewy inside as well! It’s the small, barely there amount of crab meat that all hermit crabs hide inside their chitinous selves. So now, along with sandy, gritty crunchiness, I’m assaulted by chewy morsels of roasted crab meat that don’t taste like crab!!
Finally after what seemed like forever, it’s over, I swallow it and now I’m really thirsty. I look at the package and at the small forms on the plate and decide to try it just one more time. Craappp! Same thing! Wait, wait, wait, just one more…Stupppiddd! OK, now, they can’t be so horrible (I’m really, really hungry by this time BTW), so one more. Bleh, now I’m done.
I have horrific heartburn and my mouth feels like a sandy sewer, but it’s over with. My chest hurts for some reason and I have a hard time breathing (No, I’m not allergic to crab or MSG, I thought of that). Don’t know why…maybe it’s the fact that my innards are retaliating for the brutal torture I’m putting them through by eating this crap. Ohhh, it feels like a lump in my chest. If it feels bad there I don’t wanna know how it’s gonna feel in five hours…
I have no idea what to say right now. I feel kinda dirty for having eaten so many when I knew they were awful. Hell, it’s an hour later and I still have a nasty salty, ass-like after taste haunting my mouth. How Takuma Shokuhin executives look at themselves in the mirror AND stay in business is a mystery to me.
TEXTURE:
FLAVOR:
APPEARANCE:
PACKAGING:
Giving these hurtful snacks an overall:
Thank you for being there to try these things out so that we don’t have to.
Hahaha GROSS!!!
This justifies HYDE”s US Tour in Baltimore when he said “Do you guys like CRAP?” instead of crab lmao
Such martyrdom!
Don’t mention it -zingor, really. I still feel ill.
Yep, -Hinano VERY gross. After I ate ‘em I put em’ in a brown paper sack to show Dave. The smell was overwhelming and we ended up pitching the whole bag. I just can’t be that cruel to fob this crap off on somebody, even if I detested them…too cruel
Martyrdom -Zeroblade? More like masochism. I figured these would suck but I was all like “Yeah! I’ll show you!”
Yep, I showed them. I think they’re still in my guts trying to claw their way out.
I’m not sure the package text is a mistake – there are other instances where a ‘ka’ can become a ‘ga’ when put together with another word, so this is likely one of those instances
My Japanese isn’t all that great -Colin as my friends will attest. Thanks for the heads up on the crab translation!
The crab is not as bad as reviewed here, but if you are not used to exotic stuff like this, then you will not like it.
Jimmy – Rachel and I are very used to eating exotic snacks – but she really didn’t like them! I didn’t touch the little critters.
They’re NOT hermit crabs. You can tell by looking at them and comparing them to hermit crabs.
Also, it is supposed to say “tamagogani”. When you combine two japanese words in this way, the hard consonant is softened, like when you combine “maki” and “sushi” to get “makizushi”.
Lastly, these things are delicious! It’s not gross in any way! Then again, you are in a land locked state. ^_^
Jason
Seattle, WA (formerly New Orleans, home of doing weird things to innocent crustaceans)
-Jason, I’m not the greatest with my Nihongo, I’m the first to admit that ^^;;. My search for a translation lead me to “kani” for crab. There really was not much online in the way of an explanation for this snack’s meaning. Thank you for the quick lesson :3
I’ve lived on US southern coasts most of my childhood: Texas and South Carolina. I remember eating jumbo shrimp, ruffie, red fish and flounder for dirt cheap. I was quite the fisher gal growing up believe it or not ^^ (a 12 lb. red fish when I was 12…’nuff said). We even went crabbing in Florida whenever we were there. Ah, memories… anywho, my bad with the hermit crabs. I adore seafood and love Japanese snacks for sharing my affinity for Oceania inspired flavors but this snack was taking something good and making it into something bad. It is a “to each his own” world (thank god) but *Yeck* I just can’t agree that these guys were anything but painful…
You and my sis are so damn lucky to live in WA!! Wahhhh! I wanna live in Seattle! T_T My sis lives in Bellingham and I’m so jealous of her! You have that gi-normous fish market! *sighs and thinks how $4.99/ lb. for frozen wild caught salmon is as good as it’ll get*
I gotta tell you – I remember Rachel had the bag sitting on the table and I was like “nooo waaay am I gonna eat this”! The next day when I came home she had already tried ‘em and said she still had the taste of them in her mouth. Yuck!
When I smelled the bag, I was like “sorry to insult you, little critters – but you stink”!
Poor little dried up critters!
I LOVE these!!!!!
Really -Rebecca263? To each their own. I’m glad you’ve found an unusual Japanese snack you really enjoy. Could you share a few pointers on why you love these guys? I’m curious to hear an opposing perspective in this discussion.
I actually like em. The taste was a little overwhelming at first, but I like salty-sweet things. But, yes, my one complaint would be the sand grit…thing….
@Micha, I also love salty-sweet things. I even gave these guys multiple tastings. But the heart burn, the wheezing, and the palpitations where too much to ignore. You have an iron stomach and I salute you ^^/.
I’m pretty sure i’ve tried something similar to these before except they weren’t coated with sugar and soy sauce. Without the sugar and soy sauce they’re actually quite delicious.
@random guy, if it were just the dried crab meats, this would be an awesome snack. I can’t get past the shells. They retain sand particles and get stuck in the back of my throat. To me, that’s not worth the trouble for the tasty innards. But you’ve had ‘em without the flavoring? Interesting…same company by any chance?
The’re not that bad….maybe the brand’s no good
@someone, I don’t know if I have the guts, literally, to try another brand of these (T-T).
i actually love these. in fact, i’m seriously eating them right now as I type. they are crunchy and delicous. i actually really like the flavor, but then again i’m an asian food addict, it might have to do with the fact that i am asian and have a real appreciation for different foods. then again, to each their own right?
@Elisa, I’m a huge Asian foods fan, but there are some Japanese foodstuffs I can’t stomach:
Well, that wasn’t as long a list as I thought. The natto, meh, maybe that’ll change when I find a good brand, but these crab snacks give me chest pains, literally. I physically cannot eat them and they smell gross. But the smell factor is something that doesn’t matter much when it comes to Asian foods. I mean durian reeks, but it’s kinda tasty!
I just came back from three weeks in Japan and you are correct – those are absolutely disgusting! Most Japanese food is absolutely fabulous and I am salivating just thinking about grilled fresh hotate, sashimi with fresh wasabe, lamb at the yakitori bar and okonomiyaki. Apart from the babies that you mention here, the only thing that I found a bit gruesome was whalemeat, which I nibbled at to avoid insulting my host.
Overall though, the food is so good as to knock your socks off! Oishi!
@PJVT, whale meat? Oh, yark. Polite or no, I couldn’t even try it. But it sounds like you got the full culinary experience while you were there! Good for you! Which food do you miss the most and do you miss it enough to make it at home?
how can you eat something so helpless and unharmful to the world what if aan alien ate you you wouldn t lke it would you i know i wouldnt what i am trying to get to is please dont eat them at all
ooh i love these things though!
Dear Rachel -
This made me laugh — you’re a great writer. I must tell you, though, that these are NOT hermit crabs. Hermit crabs have a soft, squiggly, swirly butt (talk about scary) and they protect this unshelled rear-end into borrowed snail-shells.
These candied snacks are simply whole crabs, in their whole shells.
This will horrify you, but i find them delicious. However, RESPECT! We are all entitled to like what we like. I also like Cool-Whip tacos, so, go figure.
V