shrimp crunches: I take the plunge

I had to know.

So I made a big deal, today, of buying a pack of shrimp crunches (saeu-ggang in Korean)—the chocolate-covered monstrosities that I had blogged about earlier. They're called "choko-saeu" (ChocoShrimp) in Korean, and as it turns out, nothing has been done to blunt the salty, shrimpy taste of the crunches: they're simply dipped or dunked or soaked in a layer of surprisingly strong dark chocolate.

The first crunch was revolting. The class laughed as I put it in my mouth, chewed, and made a face. But the second and third crunches... weren't that awful, really. I had written, in that earlier post, that it was possible for the artificial shrimp flavor and the artificial chocolate flavor to combine in a non-vomitous way, and it turns out I was right. I still can't imagine dipping a real shrimp into chocolate fondue, but these crunchy, crackery bits of salty and sweet weren't that bad in the end. They weren't great, either: I have no desire to go back and buy another package. The only value I'd get from eating a second package would be entertainment, given how morbid the concept of shrimp plus chocolate is.

The students were also curious to try the abomination, so I let them each pluck a single crunch from my bag. Opinions varied, and I made the gustatory experience into an exercise: describe the taste to your partner.

As I tweeted some time back, though, shrimp-with-chocolate is an actual thing.


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