Day 317

Fried Seaweed Cookies: After my last few not-so-tasty offerings from the Hoa Binh Market on Buford Highway, I was apprehensive about trying these Taiwanese "fried cookies" I found there during my last trip. In all fairness to the market, it wasn't their fault that I didn't enjoy the foods I've tried so far, but I really hoped the cookies were better.

Like most Asian products, there wasn't much English on the packaging, so when I decided to open these today, I perused the ingredients first. Wheat flour, sugar, butter, egg, seaweed, salt...it all sounded fairly innocuous. The seaweed appeared to have been dried, then flaked and sprinkled on top of each cookie after baking. Anything had to be better than the preserved orange peel from a few days ago, so I opened the bag and gave them a try.

Actually, they ended up tasting pretty good. Not much different from a thinner, crunchier vanilla wafer, to be honest. The small amount of seaweed (pretty much the same as dried nori) was almost undetectable, and it didn't really add any flavor to the cookie. Despite not being very unusual, they were tasty, and I ate several of them before giving up. I could see them working well as a light dessert or snack. Not bad.