American High School Kids Trying Chinese Snacks for the First Time

Jordan reached out to me via text recently, and sent me a link to this video. It’s of American high school kids, trying out Chinese snacks for the first time.

Recently, when I was back in Indianapolis for my Auntie Dawn’s funeral, I brought with me some Chinese candy: Haw Flakes and White Rabbit. I had gotten some of these to put as wildcards in the Operation candy dispenser.

These two snacks were items from my childhood, and in particular from my memory of time at my grandmother’s house. Knowing that I’d be seeing all my cousins, I brought the excess candy with me to share.

Suffice it to say, all the cousins remembered these candies. And they were a fun topic of discussion, while we were all gathered at my sister’s house in the late afternoon/evening.

This link from Jordan was really fun to receive, and hilarious to watch:

The kid that kept ranking things with decimal points was my favorite. It’s like you can just see him wearing a lab coat, and can imagine him discovering the cure to some major disease in the not so distant future.

And oh! Sachima (not how I would spell that, but it’s close enough). I had completely forgoten about this. I have a very specific Platonic ideal of this snack in my head/memory, from a bakery in San Francisco (my parents would bring some home, after their travels).

I think it was called Three Queens bakery? I can’t picture the name, but I can see the logo – a pink box, with thin, dark blue lines with the outline of a crown.

I’ve had Sachima since, but no version has ever compared to the version I got as a kid. I really should have tried to find some of this snack when we were walking through Chinatown with Grace, a few days back.

Funny to think of these snacks as so care to my childhood, and to see them being tasted for the first time by American kids. I’ll be curious how many of them will remember these snacks, when they grow up.

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