If you've been to Singapore or Malaysia in recent years, you've probably caught onto the hype that is IRVINS Salted Egg snacks. Started in 2015, the chip and snack company has already grown into an international phenomenon, with a presence already in six other countries, including the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand.
The snacks have been notoriously hard to bring into the US beforehand, with the best option involving smuggling them through customs in the past. Those trying to purchase them to bring back often had to wait in long lines or go home empty-handed after they sold out.
As of today, however, IRVINS Salted Egg are about to become a lot more accessible to US consumers, as they'll be launching in stores around the country.
Photo courtesy of IRVINS Salted Egg
For those unfamiliar with the concept of salted egg, salted egg yolks are a popular ingredient in Southeast Asia, often used as a condiment or in small amounts. IRVINS founder Irvin Gunawan expanded on that flavor at his Malaysian and Singaporean seafood restaurant in Singapore, serving salted egg chips as a side dish. The chips became immensely popular as a result, eventually blossoming into a full-on snack brand.
To start out, IRVINS will have a few varieties of chips up for sale in the US, while you'll still have to get the fish skins they're known for in the aforementioned way. The flavors they'll have include the Salted Egg Potato and Salted Egg Cassava in both regular and Hot Boom (aka spicy) flavors, as well as their standard-flavored Crunchy Roll. Each bag comes with a suggested retail price of $8.99.
The initial launch is coming soon, with the first bags up for sale at spots like Bopomofo Cafe, a SoCal boba shop run by Philip Wang of YouTube and Wong Fu Productions fame. Bopomofo will get the first exclusive, with the chips for sale there indefinitely starting February 25th.
Bopomofo Cafe co-founder Eric Wang told Foodbeast that the exclusive partnership between his cafe and IRVINS has been in talks since early 2019, and will expand into more than just selling the currently existing flavors. When IRVINS does introduce other new products into the country, including the eventual release of its salted fish skin, Bopomofo will have them as well. The cafe will also be planning pop-ups in other major US cities and abroad (including Singapore) in the near future.
California and Texas will be up next, with San Francisco and Los Angeles getting the snacks in several Asian grocers. These include H Mart, 99 Ranch, Seafood City, Marina Foods, Lion Foods, and Pacific Super. In Texas, Ding Tea locations in Arlington and Garland will also be selling the chips out of their stores. You can expect all of these places to have IRVINS products by the beginning of March.
