Tempeh comes from Indonesia, it is fermented soy beans that form a soy bean block in the process.
It is popular in the West as it is high in protein which makes it a good vegetarian ingredient.
Modern Tempeh is made with green peas, quinoa and even peanuts.
The fermentation process is started by culture that contains Rhizopus mold which grows and binds the beans together.
Think of the white mold like Brie depending on what culture they use.
In London, you can get Tempeh dishes or you can also buy ready to eat Tempeh at the supermarkets available in original and curry flavoured.
I love unseasoned tempeh because it is sour and it has a sticky and firm, yet mushy texture.
Enter Tempeh chips which are a new crispy snack, there are a few brands about and Mamame looked good because they had cheese flavour.
I got the original because I couldn't find cheese and being original you could always eat it with cheese.
Taking them out of the bag, I was surprised at how thin the slices were.
Unfortunately there was a sweet smell of coconut which I wasn't expecting because tempeh is savoury.
I am not sure if it was a blessing in disguise because the cheese flavour could be sweet just like all Asian savoury snacks that taste sweet.
Trying the chips on their own, you get some sweetness and a coconut taste so when paired with maple syrup it was delicious.
The texture is similar to taro chips and cassava chips.
Since I wanted cheese tempeh chips, I had it with blue cheese and it was really nice.
Also tried it salt and vinegar mayo, Ketchup which were a match made in heaven however it defeated the purpose of a healthy snack eating it like that.
To summarize, they were nice but I was hoping them to be plain Jane with no seasoning or salt only.
I would like to see some popular English crisp flavours on Tempeh chips like Salt and Vinegar, cheese and onion, sour cream and dill etc.
In Asia, I imagine salted egg tempeh chip being popular.
In the end, I managed to find the Cheese flavour tempeh chips, they were in a similar fashion.
You can get that lovely wotsits cheese flavour but there is still the sweetness and stubborn coconut coming through.
