Gobo Chips with Seven Spice Powder

Brand: Sozai

Found at: Bokkusu

This is the most hipster thing I think I’ve ever eaten and I LOVE IT. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool hipster, after all; how could I not?

And as a hipster extraordinaire, I can attest that gobo is possibly the most absurd of the obscure Japanese vegetables. There’s just nothing about it that screams “food.” First of all, it’s entirely the wrong shape: like a long, thin wiggly carrot. You’d see people bicycling home with a meter-long gobo root waving frantically out of their grocery bag like they’d kidnapped some sort of alien life-form and are struggling to keep it from escaping. Second of all, it has a woody texture and an earthy taste that reminds me of what you get if you touch your mouth after a day of gardening without gloves. Honestly, if you go out and take a nibble on any old random root (please do not actually do this) it would probably taste pretty similar to a gobo root.

But wow, does it make a great chip. I don’t know if it is the salt or the seven-spice powder but I am smitten. It’s flavourful, it’s crunchy and it’s just a teeny tiny bit earthy (which is, in my opinion, the right amount of earthy). Who would’ve thought that the true purpose of this ugly, unwieldy plant is as a salty snack food? Life is wild.