きのこの山(紫いも): Kinoko No Yama (Murasaki Imo)

(picture taken from Amazon)

Kinoko no yama, or mountain of mushrooms (loose translation) is a Japanese sweet snack that is very similar to Pocky. Pocky is a crisp biscuit stick covered in chocolate (original flavor) but not limited to JUST chocolate!  Around the 70's new flavors such as almond and strawberry arrived. So, if you're  familiar with this snack, Kinoko no yama won't come as surprise in terms of flavor. In the end, it's a pretty straight forward concept and snack.

I have a Penpal overseas and she was kind enough to send me this one: 

The taste of it is essentially chocolate (white) of course, but most distinctly milky! (as I'm guessing it says 'Milk' in katakana) 

Just like the original, the little chocolate mushrooms are all in this little bag. Nothing really new with the packaging. The white is not really my favorite taste, but maybe others out there will dig it! 

I went to Marukai in Azusa and cruised along the various snack isles when I found this interesting one: 

Purple potato or ube (shout out to Filipino readers!) This one was SO wacky! (in a good  way of course, but I never tasted it in this form!)

They're cute and individually wrapped, it was something that was unexpected for me, and to top it off...

It's gigantic!! I mean, look at the size comparison to the original size. That thing is massive!

The white strip tastes like white chocolate. But if you can see, there are little black specks. Those are black sesame seeds! the purple part tastes so much like a steamed purple potato, and the combination of chocolate and sesame really pulls the whole thing together. The toasted seeds trick your taste buds into thinking it's cooked and, well, roasted almost! It's really clever and delicious. I'd buy this over the original flavor ANY day. Way to go Meiji!