Curry Arare: A Classic Dagashi Wheat Cracker from Yaokin
“Arare (あられ)”, literally meaning hailstone, is a common traditional Japanese rice cracker made from glutinous rice called “Mochi Gome (餅米)”, but in modern times, it’s also made from wheat flour and favored especially by kids.
In general, the Arare consisting of the Mochi Gome rice is classified as Wagashi, whereas the one made with wheat flour is usually considered a variety of Dagashi and tends to be sold cheaper than the former type.
Representative examples of such Dagashi Arare wheat crackers are Cheese Arare and Curry Arare, and this time I bought the latter curry-flavored Dagashi snack.
Yaokin Curry Arare
Today, several Japanese confectionery makers are producing Curry Arare, but among those, the one from Yaokin is especially popular. “Yaokin (やおきん)” is the top Dagashi company famed for marketing the Umaibo corn puff stick, by the way.
This Curry Arare from Yaokin (25 grams) can be found in many supermarkets and is sold at 30 yen (about 0.3 USD).
These are made up of 3 colors; The yellow crackers have a savory curry flavor and are associated with squid meat cut like a pinecone, while the orange and green crackers are like vegetables but shaped like a fish.
The curry crackers are not overly spicy but well-seasoned and taste pretty good, so I think they can be a great treat for kids. Needless to say, I could also enjoy it!
Ingredients
Lastly, let’s see the specific ingredients. According to the upper list, the Yaokin Curry Arare Dagashi snack mainly consists of wheat flour, vegetable oil, sweet potato starch, salt, rice flour, spices, dextrin, powdered sugar, curry roux, powdered soy sauce, protein hydrolyzate, beef extract powder, dextrose, and corn grits.
