Traveling Without Actually Going Anywhere: Universal Yums from South Korea

The September 2022 Universal Yums box was packed with snacks from South Korea. While eating, we listened to traditional Korean music and K-Pop tunes. First, I gobbled up a marshmallow choco pie that was absolutely delicious and soft. It has black sugar milk tea flavoring, but I could not have told you that without looking at the wrapper. This snack is actually banned from North Korea, because the government feared capitalism since these pies were so popular!

Next, I consumed spicy chicken flavored corn puffs. These were extremely spicy and reminded me of the Pops cereal in terms of shape and texture. I then tried mascarpone filled shortbread cookies. I was surprised to learn that mascarpone is Italian cream cheese! The light wafer cookies tasted like they had white chocolate in them, not cream cheese.

Later, I ate sweet and sour grape flavored chews, which were chewy like a Starburst. It tasted a bit like grape medicine, but not too overpowering. It wasn’t my favorite treat. Next, my husband and I ate shrimp chips! Yes, you read that correctly — we ate chips that tasted like shrimp and were made with real shrimp! It was crazy how well they tasted like shrimp! My husband loved them because they were puffy and tasted exactly like shrimp. I like shrimp, and I thought the chips tasted like shrimp, but it was so odd to be eating a chip but not a shrimp! They also had a weird smell to them too.

Following the mysterious shrimp chips, we tried peach flavored gummies. They were shaped like peaches and hearts, which I adored. Also, they had a nice light peach flavor. I’m pretty sure David let me have all of them since he doesn’t like gummies because of the texture.

We learned from the informational booklet that dreaming of pigs is considered good luck in South Korea. Also, in order to become a masseuse, you need to first be blind; in 1912, this law was created so that the visually impaired could have a career they could pursue. This was an interesting box with a mix of spicy, chocolate, shrimp, and fruit flavors! My favorite was the marshmallow choco pie, and my least favorite were the shrimp chips.

Next stop on the snack express: Spain!