Gold-leaf seasoned potato chips are Japan’s newest edible salute to the new emperor

https://ift.tt/2OLZYuv Casey Baseel

Gourmet snacks are surprisingly affordable, only available at convenience stores.

Next month, Crown Prince Naruhito will become the emperor of Japan, and the country will enter a new imperial era, to be called Reiwa. With the 30-year Heisei period coming to a close, people across Japan have been looking back nostalgically on the past three decades, but on May 1, it’ll be time for Japan enter a bold, new era, with bold new snacks.

Snacks like potato chips seasoned with gold.

Japanese snack maker Koikeya has announced that on May 1, right about the time Crown Prince Naruhito is ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne, the rest of us can have chips dusted with powdered gold leaf ascending to our mouths. The company’s new Shining Salt (“Kirameki Shio” in Japanese) potato chip flavor was born of Koikeya’s desire to create “a suitably dramatic, luxurious, and special potato chip with which to adorn the start of the Reiwa period.”

For an extra-premium feel, the Shining Salt chips come in a gold-colored bag packed inside a formal black box. The package is also functional, since when you flip it around to the back there’s a framed white field for you to write the kanji for Reiwa in, then hold up the box like you’re a government official at the press conference announcing the new era’s name.

Welcome to the Reiwa Era. #令和 #新元号予想 ＃新元号発表 https://t.co/oXQgv7gB5z

—
Oona McGee 🇯🇵🇮🇪🇦🇺 (@OonaMcGee) April 01, 2019

The “salt” portion of the Shining Salt chips is special too, as instead of ordinary salt, they’re sprinkled with moshio, a type of salt made from seaweed using traditional methods.

▼ The back of the box, patiently waiting for the purchaser to add his or her calligraphy

The Sparkling Salt potato chips go on sale at Lawson convenience stores on May 1, with an expected price of 300 yen (US$2.70), and if you’re hungry for even more edible gold to celebrate the new emperor, there’s also this Tokyo restaurant’s gigantic 100,000-yen (US$900) hamburger.

Source: PR Times via Japaaan
Images: PR Times
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