Chocolate-covered potato chips

Omiyage is big business in Japan. Every town or city of any size or importance has a store selling boxes of packaged sweets, cakes, cookies, dried squid, or whatever the town is supposed to be famous for. People buy these as souvenirs to bring back to co-workers and associates. It's a nice custom when not taken to extremes, though I always feel bad for the people in those stores staggering under the weight of eight or nine boxes and obligations. ^_^

What you see here are Royce's chocolate-covered potato chips. They are omiyage from Hokkaido; Royce have a number of other chocolatey products, but this is probably their most well-known.

I was given these as a gift this time, though I have had them before. I'd say they are good for a novelty. The chocolate on its own is sweet and fairly nice; the chips are satisfyingly crunchy, and also oily and salty. I love chips and I love chocolate, but together? The whole 'sweet and salty' combination was just too weird for me, and I didn't like them.

That, and the fact that any time I try to eat them, even eating half a dozen gives me stomach pains. I speak as someone who has, in the last 24 hours, eaten two cream puffs, a Tim Tam, a slice of pizza, a donut, a cookie and a strawberry cream cheese tart, with impunity. However, I know some people like them, so I would recommend at least trying them for the novelty. ^_^