Hey Ha Chips by Smile Fruit (Thailand)

"The smile of deliciousness."

I love this tagline.  I also love snacks.  And exotic fruits and veggies.  And thus, I was thrilled to find Smile Fruit, a maker of fruit and veggie chips in Thailand (although I had them in Singapore), under the product name "Hey Hah".

Smile Fruit is a Thai company, around since 2002, featuring vacuum fried technology ... whatever that is.  Less fat than fried foods, yadda yadda.

They make a fairly large product range, and I actually tried nearly the entire product range, but didn't takes notes or photos until the last few, when I realized how unique, and often delicious, they were.  To eat them, they recommend, well, as a snack, to munch on any time.  Or, with milk ("enjoy like your cereal in the morning"), with salad ("enjoy with salad for your dinner"), and with yogurt or ice cream.  I never thought of some of these alternate ways of eating produce chips (besides tossing into salads, which I did do before reading that), but now I wished I had tried some more with milk!

Vegetable Chips

For veggies, they make broccoli, okra, onion, sweet corn, sweet potato, and cherry tomato chips, along with a mixed veggie bag.  I remember really liking the onion ones in particular.

Packaging.

All varieties come in large bags of multiple servings, although it is quite easy to just eat an entire bag in one sitting.  The packaging shows the fruits and veggies in their natural state though, and doesn't really reveal what is inside.

Broccoli Chips.

The broccoli chips really do look kinda amazing.  They are literally big pieces of broccoli, just, crispy.  Not flattened or anything.

I didn't find them particularly compelling as a snack food though, I didn't want to just munch on them.  Then again, I'm also not one who would ever get compelled to just eat broccoli anyway.  And well, they tasted like broccoli.  No seasoning on these besides some salt.

The texture really is unique, crispy, but the regular size broccoli pieces makes your brain slightly confused.  Nice form factor, but, eh, broccoli?

Broccoli Chips on Salad.

I did try to have a few alongside a salad one day (I gave up and went to get some "real" chips though), and once I realized I didn't want them just as a munchie on the side, I tried tossing them into the salad.  They added some interesting texture for sure, but the large size pieces that were good for munching, weren't great in that crispy form in a salad.

And no, I didn't try them with milk like cereal ...

*** cuz they were different, but would get again.

Fruit Chips

The fruit chips are all interesting tropical fruits (well, besides the banana chips), ranging from more common pineapple and coconut to mango, jackfruit, and yes, durian.  I remember liking most of these ...

Jackfruit Chips.

The jackfruit chips were large chunks of puffy but crispy jackfruit.  Sweet, fruity, and somewhat ... starchy?  They definitely reminded me of freeze dried durian chips (which I had many of during my time in Singapore), but, without some of the funk.

I really liked them, but found that a few went a long way.  Just 3 chunks and I was pretty satisfied.  I also, unfortunately, found that, much like durian sometimes, my stomach didn't seem as pleased with my consumption of these, so it is good that I generally didn't want too many at a time.

Jackfruit Chips (January 2021).

I found another bag of these in my pantry, months later (not expired!), and gave them another try.

I really liked them again.  Yup, sweet, fruity, a bit starchy ... and really fun to munch on.  Zero funk at all.

As before though, I found that I only really wanted 2-3 at a time. I loved them, but felt very ... satisfied after just a couple, perhaps my brain learned from last time?  I never felt I had too many nor had them poorly effect my stomach.

****, would get again.