Konbini Goodies - Hard-Baked Ottotto with Oat Bran (JPY148)

I found Hard-baked ottotto with oat bran (product information is available only in Japanese) at an outlet of Lawson, a Japanese convenience store franchise chain. The original ottotto was a junk snack made by Morinaga, a Japanese confectionery, which is now famous for having employed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's trouble making wife before the marriage. But this new guilt-free goody is a product of the collaboration between the snack manufacturer and the convenience store chain. Its carb intake is 50% of the original one for being baked instead of deep-fried and for the use of oat bran and okara. Okara is soy pulp or tofu dregs and for this, you may think it taste awful, but you are wrong. It tastes the same as original ottotto and goes well with beer and soda. As you can see in the picture, one bag contains only 9.3 grams of carbs and 148 kilocalories. But you have to be careful about one thing. The total amount of carbs of this new product is 9.3 grams (versus of 19.6 grams for the original product) per bag, its total calories (148 kilocalories) is greater than those of the original one (113 kilocalories) due to a net weight difference (35 grams vs. 26 grams). So, if you eat all of a bag of the new ottotto, you end up having more calories. By the way, okara is often used to make cookies, cakes, hamburger patties, etc., more filling to reduce calorie intake. If you live in Japan and have a tofu store in your neighborhood, you may be able to get it for free (because usually tofu stores just throw it away). 

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