The Ultimate Battle: Which Country Has The Best Movie Snack?
- Elina Lee
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 31 minutes ago
Walk into a movie theater, and it’s no surprise to be met with the buttery waft of freshly popped popcorn or the sounds of fizzling soda. But what if you were instead met with the mouth-watering smell of cinnamon churros or savory dried octopus sticks that are considered to be the norm for countries around the world? I asked what my fellow international friends deemed to be the most popular (or their favorite) movie theater snack to munch on at their local movie theater. There’s sunflower seeds for smaller provinces in China, dried mangos for the Philippines, churros for Spain, karaage chicken for Japan, dried octopus for South Korea, and last but not least, a croissant for France.
Here in the United States, the majority of movie goers (myself included) don’t think twice before opting to grab a bag of popcorn. After all, popcorn is the ideal snack chosen by attendees of movie theaters. It’s expanded beyond movie theaters, where even watching movies at home calls for popcorn — Orville Redenbacher and many other microwave popcorn brands have devised a formula to recreate the iconic buttery goodness of movie theater popcorn to be enjoyed at home.
Just like popcorn, many of the foods I’ll be trying have made their name as a movie theater staple. The majority of these snacks are neither obscure nor solely enjoyed for movie nights, where dried mango strips and popcorn chicken are enjoyed in a variety of scenarios. But to spice things up, I’ll be grading these snacks based upon the four aspects which I believe make popcorn the ideal movie theater snack: the taste, the bite-sized hand to mouth accessibility, the presence of a delicious aroma emitted from the snack, and, most importantly, how easy it is to sneak it into the theaters. At the end, I’ll reveal which international movie snack fits the bill to become the next big hit in theaters worldwide.
Mango Strips (Philippines)
Taste: 8 out of 10
The BSHTMA (bite-sized hand to mouth accessibility): 6 out of 10
Aroma: 2 out of 10
Sneakability: 5 out of 10
Not much of a smell as it’s dried
Not bite sized, have to tear off
A bit too sweet, felt like eating candy (but maybe that’s the point?)
Pretty easy to sneak in, may encounter some problems as the snack isn’t bite sized and thus takes up more area–>can be detected easier
Sunflower Seeds (China)
Taste: 6 out of 10
The BSHTMA (bite-sized hand to mouth accessibility): 8 out of 10
Aroma: N/A out of 10
Sneakability: 9 out of 10
Sunflower seeds carry no smell nor aroma, which is an essential part of popcorn’s sensationalism
It was hard and crunchy which I enjoyed until I had one seed that couldn’t be chewed (The shell wouldn’t break and just splintered off)
One of sunflower seed’s biggest advantages is it’s snackable—and sneakable—size
Although its size is a bonus that many other treats don’t have, I personally don’t find these to be an appealing movie theater snack
Churros (Spain)
Taste: 10 out of 10
The BSHTMA (bite-sized hand to mouth accessibility): 5 out of 10
Aroma: 7 out of 10
Sneakability: 3 out of 10
Who wouldn’t want to snack on an aromatic cinnamon treat while attending a movie premiere?
The churros were warm, and the cinnamon and sugar brought a distinctive flavor to the otherwise ordinary fried dough
Similarly, the smell of churros is enhanced by sharp notes of cinnamon which, although I thoroughly enjoy, I understand to not be a universally used flavor profile
I can see this being a tough snack to sneak in as the sugar and cinnamon coating have the propensity to fall everywhere, from your sweater to the bottom of your bookbag
You can sneak them in, but at what cost?
(One note is that churros in Spain are often dipped in thick hot chocolate too before enjoyed)
Karaage Chicken (Japan)
Taste: 10 out of 10
The BSHTMA (bite-sized hand to mouth accessibility): 8.5 out of 10
Aroma: 9 out of 10
Sneakability: 4 out of 10
Each bite explodes with pure fried-chicken bliss in your mouth, with the juicy flesh of the tender chicken contrasting the crunchy coating
Does not have as strong flavor profile as the octopus sticks or the churros, but I believe that it allows for the snack to remain a snack and not the star of the show
The steam which emanates from a bowl of karaage chicken is distinctive
My only note is that its strong, far-reaching smell—especially when the chicken is hot—might bother people sitting near you
Its distinctive smell and often crinkly packaging does not make it an easy snack to sneak in
Dried Octopus Sticks (South Korea)
Taste: 8 out of 10
The BSHTMA (bite-sized hand to mouth accessibility): 7 out of 10
Aroma: ? out of 10
Sneakability: 9 out of 10
Tasted savory and was very chewy, an interesting taste that wasn’t fully seafood but also wasn’t an everyday flavor—is an acquired taste
Pretty portable in zip-locks, and their flatness is a plus
Aroma was buttery and appetizing for me, but I know foreigners would digress as it carries a strong seafood smell
Although its size is sneakable, the smell of these octopus sticks is both very distinctive and pungent
Croissant (France)
Taste: 8 out of 10
The BSHTMA (bite-sized hand to mouth accessibility): 3 out of 10
Aroma: 7 out of 10
Sneakability: 2 out of 10
I got a strawberry custard croissant that was decadently sweet and as absolutely perfect in terms of what you look for in a pastry
However, the golden flakes of the croissant would fly off with every bite, which prevented me from experiencing the full croissant experience
One downside of the size of the croissant, as its larger size compared to popcorn requires deliberate and thought-out chomps into the pastry, which I can see taking away from the movie
Although the croissant doesn’t carry a strong smell at a distance, getting closer will take your nose soaring away on notes of buttered layers and the light sweetness of the whipped cream inside
Hard to sneak in as it can get flattened or scatter flaky bits everywhere
And the winner is…
Karaage chicken! Call me biased, but as a #1 chicken enjoyer, being able to snack on bits of tender goodness while watching anything from a thrilling horror to a heart-warming comedy allows the viewer to feast both with their eyes and their taste buds. The crunch of the popcorn chicken’s crispy outer crust resembles that of, well, popcorn, and carries a texture profile and savory notes that align with popcorn’s crunchy, salty taste. The sneakability of karaage had it in tough competition with the dried mango sticks, the runner up, however the sweetness of the mango strips became something that I unfortunately could not get over.
Next time you’re headed to the movie theater to watch the next hit, make sure to take a (well hidden) batch of golden karaage with you to make the movie truly un-for-get-a-bowl.