Random Picture #136

Both photos courtesy of BlogD (used with permission). 

It's nice to see that the Japanese merchants are really getting into the spirit of the season. That's the spirit of selling more stuff to people, of course. These are kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) cream bread which were on sale in Ikebukuro. The face is a chocolate cookie mixture, probably similar to the coating on melon pan. The bread is pumpkin flavored and inside is custard cream. I'd be happy to sample these if I were in Tokyo if it weren't for the fact that they look like a family that didn't look like cream bread created close enough to  Fukushima's nuclear plant to create some unfortunate results. These are actually very unusual in that they are rather sloppily made for a Japanese bakery. Usually, they're  more meticulous than this.

The cheesecakes in this picture are much closer to what one would expect from a Japanese bakery. They are "rare cheesecakes" (like New York style, except lighter, as opposed to baked cheesecake) and the stenciling is pretty perfect looking. Despite having pumpkins on them, they aren't pumpkin flavored, though those are mini pumpkin pies down below. I wonder if those pies are Japanese pumpkin (kabocha) or American. Yes, the taste is very different. I wouldn't buy one though as 845 yen ($10.65) is far too expensive for a tiny pie.

Random Picture #82

I've written before about portion sizes in Japan, and how they often package things to make it easier for people to eat less. This does not hold true in all cases. In fact, one of the few food areas in which large sizes is not uncommon is baked goods which are sold in convenience stores or markets. Those packaged bread-based products are often huge. One of these enormous specimens was available at the awesome discount shop Tsurukame and I paused and had my husband get a picture of it using my arm as a point of comparison. This is about 16.5 in./42 cm. of refined carbohydrates mixed with sugar and damaged fats. If you were to gobble it all down at once, you'd be ingesting 1233 calories. Of course, I'm under no illusion that this is meant to be eaten by one person. Chances are, it's a family pack type of thing and this is meant to be divided into as many as 10 servings. Either way, this is one monster "cream bread" pastry for the bargain price of $2.