Foreign tourists sample products at a tasting event for the Seoul Snack Rice Chip series held Thursday at the Seoul My Soul Shop Seoul Gallery in Jung-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]
Foreign tourists sample products at a tasting event for the Seoul Snack Rice Chip series held Thursday at the Seoul My Soul Shop Seoul Gallery in Jung-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government launched two new flavors of its Seoul Snack Rice Chip line — kimchi fried rice and soy butter — on Thursday, saying the products reimagine familiar Korean home cooking and food culture as a snack.

The Seoul Snack Rice Chip is a cracker developed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Pungsimdan using domestically grown rice as the main ingredient. The first installment, released in June with vegetable fried rice and seaweed flavors, has now been followed by this second wave of products.

The chips are baked rather than fried to reduce calories, and sugar content is capped at 1 gram per serving. A 15-gram bag contains 64 kilocalories for the kimchi fried rice flavor and 65 kilocalories for the soy butter flavor.

Like the original products, the new flavors are available at six Seoul My Soul Shop locations, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) Design Store, Pungsimdan cafes, the DDP online mall, Coupang Inc, Naver Smart Store and the Pungsimdan official online store. A box of five bags (75 grams total) is priced at 6,400 won ($4.60).

To mark the launch, the city is running a promotional event through Aug. 31, selling a set of two new-flavor boxes at a discounted price of 9,800 won, down from the regular price of 12,800 won.

A Seoul Snack holiday gift set will also be released ahead of the chuseok holiday in September. The set will include all four flavors and is designed as a seasonal gift for family and friends.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is working to extend the brand value of "Seoul, a healthy city" into everyday life through a range of food products, including Pulmuone's Seoul Ramyun and Seoul Jajang, Koryo Dang's Seoul Bread, and CU's Seoul My Soul healthy convenience foods.

Kim Hyeong-rae, the city's public relations planning officer, said he hopes the Seoul Snack Rice Chip will become "a snack that lets tourists visiting Seoul experience the city's flavors and culture, and a signature Seoul snack that residents can share and give as gifts to family and friends without a second thought."


ken@heraldcorp.com