Random Picture #219

I used to get irritated when I was in Japan and the Japanese perception of American food and culture was limited to hamburgers, steak, fries, and bread. It was as if they couldn't accept that Americans ate a broader range of foods than those available on the McDonald's menu.

Now, I get to turn my irritation toward Americans who think that Japanese food is focused on daily consumption of green tea, sushi, and, apparently, Pocky. In Japanese markets, which tend to cater mainly to Japanese folks, but also want to attract other people interested in all things Japanese as well, I've found that there is an over-abundance of certain types o things and green tea is definitely one of them. The display above was at Marukai market (last week) and shows a heavy concentration of snacks made with green tea. I realize that this is seasonal (and I showed a picture of a strawberry snacks display before), but I've also found that other flavors are rather slim pickings.

It's nice to know that stereotypical and simplified notions of other cultures are one of the things which most cultures will always share. 

Random Picture #218

It's becoming clear that cranberry is now a thing in Japan. I've been seeing more items containing cranberries including some chocolate-covered ones. I've done a bit of research and this sort of spread of cranberries isn't truly new to Japan, but it's definitely seeing a surge right now which I either didn't experience or notice during my 23 years in Japan. Since I love cranberries, and found them in short supply while I was in Tokyo, I hope I would have noticed if suddenly cookies and candies featuring them started popping up all over the place at the same time. However, I'm not so arrogant about my perceptual skills as to say it didn't fly right by me.

These "all cranberry" cookies are the latest in the long line of fruits that Tohato has dried out and sandwiched between two biscuits in their rip-off of Garibaldi biscuits. I've not been entirely impressed by the "all fruit" line in the past so I gave it a miss. I may be persuaded otherwise in the future, but I have more than enough snack review fodder lying around and don't need to toss another pack on the pile. 

Random Picture #217

Excuse my flash, and you can click on this image to see a bigger one.

Many a man would like society to put up something called a "beer signal". It would have lights telling you "drink", "don't drink", and "prepare to drink." This peculiarly named place has a "Spanish Belgian" concept behind it. They serve tapas, but they offer Belgian food and beer. So, the only Spanish part is that they do small portions to be enjoyed with imported booze. I'm not sure how that is different from Japanese otsumami (which is snacks served with alcohol), but mine is not to question. Mine is to make fun of their sign's English...

The oddest part of this sign is not the name of the place (though it is peculiar), but the first grouping of food - the "fling pan lunch". I'm sure that this relates to some sort of cooking style in Belgium, but a casual search didn't yield anything that makes sense to me and I'm not interested enough to go too deeply. Besides, the truth can't be nearly as amusing as thinking that pans are actually being flung around the kitchen in some sort of violent avant garde cooking process, so I'll stay with remaining ignorant. 

Random Picture #216

For those who don't know my particular regional supermarket options, I'd like to start out by saying that Safeway is a chain of markets that is common in California. It may be available in other areas, but I know it is not on the East Coast as my sister (who lives in Pennsylvania) had never heard of it before I moved to California. It's like Giant Eagle or Kroger's in the East, or Seiyu in Japan. That's my way of saying it's a pretty boring all-purpose market at which you don't expect to find anything especially exotic.

All of that being said, it seems even boring markets in my area carry bontan ame and Pocky. At first, I was really impressed by them, but now I see these items so much that I don't even notice. That being said, a new Safeway opened recently in the Cupertino area and I was shocked to find this Japanese "purin" (pudding) container for sale there. This particular branch also carries bakery items from the Sogo bakery and I'm guessing their range is broader because the area hosts a lot more residents of Asian descent. The lesson for me is to not take for granted that a chain store is a chain store is a chain store. You never know what surprises might be lurking. 

Random Picture #213

Recently, I was talking about Asian bakeries with my sister-in-law. We were talking mainly about a chain called "Paris Baguette" which has a French-sounding name, but is actually Asian and has a focus on Japanese- and Korean-style offerings. Of course, when I talk about baking and Japan, I really mean the European-style confections that Japan has modified for its market's tastes.

One of the things which Japan modified for its tastes was flan, or, if you prefer, pudding, or, even "creme brulee" without the burnt top. I've always been confused about whether this should be called one or the other. As you can see by the side view, this is essentially flan. It has a sweet syrup on the bottom and a thick pudding in the center. Personally, the point at which flan and pudding are separated comes at how thick they are. Flan can stand on its own, though it may wobble a bit. Pudding tends to be a bit more gooey and needs a container to support it. At any rate, the plastic containers of "purin" that you see here were in a supermarket in Tokyo and they have whipped cream as well as chestnut puree (the ones on the right). The ones on the left are "fruit purin", but the curious thing about them is that they have a mini purin on top of the larger purin. It feels like one of those mirror within a mirror deals, only with food.

Random Picture #212

My husband and I recently attended a festival in Japantown in San Jose (as I mentioned in last week's random picture). When I got to these festivals, I'm interested in both what sort of Japanese things are on offer and how those things differ from what I experienced in Japan. I'm not a purist about such things, mind you. I'm not going to poo-poo something that is inauthentic. I experienced enough "American" things which has been adapted for Japanese tastes in Japan to know that what sells in one place in one form doesn't sell in other places. Changes are necessary.

The picture above is manju (Japanese sweets with sweet bean fillings and mochi - pounded rice cake - exteriors). I noted that the manju on offer at the festival was jewel-toned and much darker in color than that in Japan. It also included flavors I didn't tend to see there like peanut butter and coconut. The color coding on these was, at least in part, to help people separate the flavors. My guess is that it was also to stop them from all looking like greyish blobs as sometimes that is how they look when not coated in some sort of powder or having a strong, colorful flavor element mixed in. I also noted that these were bigger than Japanese sweets, but that's no shock either.

The truth is that, though I don't judge the American alternations negatively and I understand where they come from, I suffer as much from the tendency to like what I know better than variations. Since I experienced Japanese food in Japan, I don't tend to like the American (or other) variations as much or feel drawn to them. They don't taste "right" to me, but I know this isn't that they're "wrong", but just a reflection of what I grew accustomed to.

Random Picture #211

Pocky products on display that were eligible for the promotion - these are mostly variations on green tea.

In my post about Nijiya Japanese market, one of the things that I was told and forgot to mention was that the shop is often offered promotional items, but they are so small that they have no chance to display them. During a festival in San Jose, the Nikkei festival, they made an effort to get those items out where customers could see them.

If you look behind the blurred picture of my husband holding an inflated Pocky stick, you can see three enormous reproductions of boxes of Pocky and Glico's Pejoy. I hadn't even noticed those boxes until after I'd taken this picture as I was focusing on the sticks themselves. There was a sign at the check-out counter which said that you got "free Pocky swag" if you bought three or more boxes of Pocky. My husband is holding a sample of said swag.

Obviously, the swag are leftover inflated sticks from the display that you can see behind them. No, they weren't going to climb up and take a stick out of the display. There was a trash bag with the leftovers sitting next to a shelf with stock and in front of a refrigerator case. While hardly an elegant presentation, at least it made it easy fro them to tell us what the swag was. That made it all the easier for me to decide it wasn't worth buying three boxes of Pocky, particularly since I've never been the world's greatest Pocky fan anyway.

I'm curious about whether or not my readers would want this sort of collectible item. Would you buy three boxes of Pocky (at $1.69 each/about 170 yen) just to get one of these tubes?

Random Picture #210

There was a time in the 1970s when pyramid power was a big deal. People would construct or buy little pyramid structures to sit in and meditate or masturbate or something or other to bring them more power. That sort of happiness is parodied to some extent in a Seinfeld episode in which a natural "healer" or holistic practitioner treats George for tonsillitis by having him drink some concoction while sitting under a pyramid shape (the pyramid comes in around the 3:16 mark).

Meiji obviously wants to get a piece of that pyramid power and have created a variation on the Meltykiss/Meltyblend that has a different shape. Cubes are fine, but pyramids are that much better. They also appear to be better for Meiji's bottom line as this box of chocolates cost $6. Usually, Meltykiss/Meltyblend are around $4. I'm not sure what the big boost in cost is all about, but I will have to live without the power of pyramid-shaped chocolate at that price. 

Random Picture #207

As I "warned" in my Monday review, everything is coming up strawberry right now. This was the display at Marukai market, one of several Asian markets within driving distance of my home. Everything you see here is strawberry sweets. It is mainly various types of cookies (Kabaya's crispy "Panda" cookies, 3 types of Bourbon petit cookies featuring strawberry in each, Delicia strawberry fromage cookie/candy combos), but there are also pretzels (Toppo, Pocky and Pocky Midi), cakes, candy (Hi-Chew and Look) and wafers.

As someone who is not an enormous fan of starwberry, I won't be sampling all of these, but I couldn't resist a few of them. You'll be seeing reviews of at least 4 of these items and a few have already been reviewed (linked in previous paragraph). If you love strawberry, I guess now is the time to track down some Japanese snacks. 

Random Picture #206

Sometime in the last year that I was living in Tokyo (that's 2012 for those who aren't keeping track), bagna caude caught on as a food fad. The bureau for Japanese food fads must have decided that they needed a more expensive savory option in lean times in order to drum up some revenue for restaurants. This Italian "dip" usually is made up of garlic, butter, anchovies, and olive oil (among other possible ingredients including truffle oil and cream). The latter two are pretty pricey in Japan and the dish not only is hard on the hips, but can be a little rough on the wallet.

Muji, a chain of stores that specializes in simple-looking "generic" goods, has solved the issue of how hard it can be on your coin purse by offering a "bagna caude kit" for a mere 210 yen (about $2.10). You still have to provide the cream and olive oil, but they've got the rest covered. I wish to a small extent that I had bought this and tried it. However, never having had real bagna caude, I would lack the frame of reference from which to evaluate this instant stuff.

Random Picture #205

The picture above is of a poster for a restaurant near my old apartment in Tokyo. The characters on the left say "samurai" in katakana (the phonetic alphabet used for foreign words - at least usually). I was looking back through my pictures from Japan and something I hadn't thought about in many years occurred to me and that was the fried chicken and the way it is prepared. I don't eat fried chicken, but I did have some many, many years ago when I first arrived in Japan and it is quite different from what you get in the U.S.

You'll note that it is lighter in color. It is more like tempura in terms of the coating than fried chicken in the U.S., which tends to have a redder, darker, and much spicier coating. I also have a vague recollection that the Japanese version tastes of white flour and a hint of soy sauce and ginger, but the years may have dulled my taste memory. Of course, I'm not talking about Japanese KFC, which is almost the same as American KFC, but rather traditional pub-style (izakaya) fried chicken. Also, you'll note the thick slabs of chicken skin on the skewers of (thigh) meat in the center. That's actually supposed to make it more appetizing to people since the Japanese like to eat the skin.

If any of my readers has had non-KFC fried chicken in Japan, I'd like to hear your recollections of the taste. I have to admit that I haven't eaten it for more than 20 years and can't really trust my memory, but the appearance of what is in the picture is exactly what I remember.

Random Picture #204

I'm not sure if these are supposed to be intelligent or if they're supposed to be sparkly and bright, but I was intrigued by these Bourbon Brilliant Truffles. It seemed to me as if they were positioned as a competitor for "Melty Kiss".  It's not only the fact that they have a similar-looking confection with a creamy interior and a powdery dusted exterior, but even the package design is similar. The Melty Kiss boxes (which you can see if you follow the link to previous reviews) have snowflakes in gold embossed printing all around the pictures of the candy. These have little lens flares/sparkly illustrations.

This offering from Bourbon even shares the very high price that Melty Kiss often carries. However, I wasn't intrigued enough to pay such a fee just to sample them, but, if they go on sale, I'm likely to give them a go. However, I'll be gravely disappointed if they don't sparkle like a vampire in a Twilight movie. (Note: I have never seen one of those movies nor read the books, but I have read a fair number of snarky reviews and lists about them so I know the vampires don't combust in sunlight as they properly should - as is the case in real life.)

Random Picture #203

David Letterman used to do a line repeatedly in which he'd say, "does this look infected to you?" While looking at these cakes, I'm thinking they look a little infected to me, or possibly "infested". Those little black things are beans, not bugs or spots of mold. The cakes are "mushi" or steam cakes. They're actually a sponge cake that isn't especially sweet, but tend to be fairly fatty. They're usually quite fluffy and, though the texture is light, some of them are rather weighty. In fact, as I've mentioned in other posts, misunderstanding how caloric these babies can be helped add some weight to me in my early years in Japan. 

These are quite popular and I think they are one of the older sweets. My guess is they were borrowed cuisine from China. I've mentioned before that Japan got its baking culture largely from Europe. These steam cakes are not made in an oven, but usually on the stove top. That would explain their long history and the nostalgic popularity of them. If you'd like to try your hand at making your own (sans bizarre-looking beans), there's a recipe here.

Random Picture #201

I went to an area in San Jose called "Little Saigon". I perused a supermarket there which offered a lot of durian-flavored items. This one stood out to me not because it was a durian salted snack, but because it is designed for the Japanese marekt. On the left side, it says "durian maki". There's a little cartoon man with a headband that has the Japanese flag on it in the lower right. "Maki" means "roll" in Japan and I'm guessing the little fellow is supposed to represent a sushi chef. Perhaps these are supposed to be a snack version of a sushi roll made with durian? Any way you look at it, this is one scary-sounding snack. And, no, I did not buy it.

Random Picture #200

My apologies for this being a random picture of something which is not Japanese, but this was a curiosity that I had to ponder and ask my readers about. The sign on this, if you can't see it, says "NS Indian Bob Snack". I don't know if this is supposed to be a Native American whose name is "Bob" (which would be a somewhat unusual name in such a case) or if "Bob" means something in Korean which I do not know about. I'm also not sure what being "Indian" (or more properly since the headdress makes it clear, Native American) has to do with this salted snack product. They are, apparently, made from corn so that may be the missing link.

The manufacturer's web site for this offers not insights other than this is a snack with somewhat politically incorrect overtones that is good for the whole family. 

Random Picture #198

Certain things exist in many cultures. I can't say "all cultures" because I'm sure there are many undeveloped or tribal cultures which don't have things like pornographic chocolates, but most developed countries that have mastered the art of packaged shelf-stable candy are likely making such crude offerings. The main difference between how pornographic items are managed in Japan and in the U.S. is their visibility. These "oppai" (boob) chocolates were not in some obscure shop catering to adult tastes or even a specialty market. They were in Narita airport and were one of the last things that I took a picture of on my way out of the country. While it's possible that breast-shaped white chocolates are for sale in major airports in the U.S., I do have my doubts.

Random Picture #197

When I was still in Japan, I rarely picked up the Tirol variety packs because they sold the same old flavors with one new one in order to encourage people to buy a lot of mundane flavors with one interesting one. Times have not changed. Tirol still follows this marketing scheme and I still won't buy them. Of course, in Japan, these things cost about 1/3 what they do here.

The above variety pack was at Nijiya market for a little under $6 for 27 tiny pieces of chocolate. The old flavors are strawberry jelly, coffee nougat, biscuit, almond, "milk" (like condensed milk), and cookies and cream. The new flavor is "raisin sandwich". Those kinds of cookies are very popular in Japan and actually quite tasty. They're delicate little biscuits that are on the flaky side with a cream and raisin filling. I'd be shocked if the candy in any way resembled the cookie that I so enjoyed in Japan.

Random Picture #196

One of the problems I had before leaving Japan was that there were all sorts of nifty things which I wanted to buy and bring back with me as souvenirs, but I knew I couldn't fit them all in our bags. I also knew that, cute as some of them were, they didn't have much in the way of utility. I could justify buying a yukata, but not a plastic figure. 

It seems that I did not necessarily leave that temptation behind. The above picture is of plastic bento boxes with shelf-stable gelatin ("jelly", as it is called in Japan) desserts inside of them. The price is a bargain considering that the cheapest bento box that you can buy is $1.50 (at Daiso Japan) and is not as cute as these. You get gelatin and a keepsake. Tempted as I was to pick up one of these for posterity, I just could not think of a good use for the box so I reluctantly passed. If I could have found a pragmatic reason, one of those cat face boxes would be in my possession right now.

Random Picture #195

This is the time of year for me at which I most long for being in Japan again. Christmas is generally better in America, but New Year's is definitely better in Japan. The picture above is the selection of snacks that one could buy in one of the Meiji shrine shops on New Year's day. My husband and I went there the year before we left (2011) and got this shot of the sorts of snacks on offer.

As you might guess even if you can't understand the Japanese or make out what is in the bags, these are all rather old-fashioned snacks. I think that they are designed largely with older folks in mind or to evoke a sense of nostalgia from people who went there as children. Note that I do not recall seeing Pocky at Meiji shrine, though I'm pretty sure I saw it at kiosks at at least one of the other shrines I went to during my time in Japan (definitely at one in Kamakura and possibly at Yasukuni).

Happy New Year to all of my readers. I hope that the year ahead brings you many positive changes and challenges as well as good health and fortune.

Random Picture #194

Merry Christmas to my readers. I hope you're all enjoying your holiday.

If you were in Japan, you could be leaving Santa a little treat. He wouldn't eat it, of course, but he'd feed it to his reindeer - at least that's what the illustration on the bag seems to be telling us. These are "choco daifuku" or chocolate-filled rice cake. These shelf-stable versions of daifuku tend to be a little disappointing, especially if they are designed for kids. The rice cake can sometimes be a bit touch or stale, so, despite the adorable holiday-themed packaging, I didn't opt to buy such a large amount for reviewing. I had other plans for my holiday nosh, as you'll see by Friday's review. ;-)