Tokyo Strawberry Chocolate Daifuku

My husband and I took a trip to Odaiba, an artificial island in Tokyo bay, several weeks back. With a country as small as Japan, you'd think they'd be busily building up as many artificial islands as they can to expand their territory, but this is the only one (so far, and that I personally know of). That being said, with a birth rate of 1.4 per children per couple, I guess they don't really need to worry about things becoming crowded any time soon.

The Odaiba area is known as a popular shopping and tourist spot for the younger set, but I dragged my 46-year-old bones out there and tried not to look too out of place as both an "old lady" and a foreigner (no quotes necessary on that one). It's known for it's architecture and views, but it should also be known as a place in which you have to pay to walk into a lot of buildings. The Fuji Media building, which has a spherical structure on about the 9th or 10th floor, charges 500 yen ($6.04) just to go up there and visit a shop. Similarly, the Joypolis, a gaming center, also charges 500 yen to get in. The charges wouldn't be so bad except that once you get into these places, you have to pay for anything that goes on or is acquired. It's essentially being asked to pay to walk in the door and then pay more. I guess you can get high school kids to do that, but not this old duck.

There is a shopping and restaurant complex there called "Aqua City" which had no less than 3 branches of the same souvenir shop. They carried the requisite "Hello Kitty" crap as well as lots of "Tokyo Banana" snacks. Ultimately though, we settled on the pictured box of strawberry chocolate daifuku as our souvenir treat for the area. Note that though I do not review every Japanese sweet souvenir that we buy, I do buy something on the traditional end of the spectrum every time I go somewhere of note. This is part of how I cap the experience.

Though food-based souvenirs that one procures in the area one visits are common, I honestly do not believe these are in any way unique to Odaiba. In fact, a few weekends back, my husband and I were strolling through a game center in Shinjuku and found that one of the UFO Catchers (a claw game) had this very sweet in it as a prize. So, in terms of where you can get this, I imagine that they can be found in many different places, but rather unpredictably so. We paid 650 yen ($7.85) for our box of about 18 small (about the size of a quarter or 100-yen coin). If you're really skilled at claw games, you might be able to get a box of them for about 100 yen ($1.20).

For those who don't know what daifuku is, it's a mochi (pounded rice cake) ball with a filling stuffed in it. The mochi is usually bland, soft and a little chewy and the filling ranges from various sweetened beans to custard to ice cream. These ones were very, very soft and had a great texture both in the velvety chocolate filling and the rice cake. Though they smell like strawberry, the strongest element is the pleasantly chocolatey interior. I'm not a big fan of the strawberry chocolate combination (these were my husband's souvenir choice) but it works here because neither is incredibly potent and the strawberry is so weak overall as not to compete with the rich chocolate filling. The only "bad point" about them was that they were liberally covered in a flour-like substance that immediately fell all over my shirt when I ate one.

These were delightful, and we even served them to a guest and she really liked them as well. They are an excellent souvenir and have surprising longevity for something which really needs to be kept fresh (since mochi gets hard when it goes stale). It took us three weeks to finish the box and the last was as good as the first.

Befco Soy Sauce Kakimochi

People love to build lists of "you know you've been in Japan too long", and I always find them to be attempts to be a little too cute and clever, not to mention sometimes insincere. That being said, I have definitely witnessed some peculiar and authentic "you've been here too long" behaviors. One of them is when foreigners who are speaking Japanese on the telephone and they actually start bowing near the end of the call. Yeah. They do that, but I don't.

For me, I think that one thing that is an indication that I've been here "too long" when I have gone from thinking soy sauce rice crackers are too common and pedestrian to be worth my attention. Since I grew up in the rural northeast, rice crackers unless they were the type of pressed puffed rice cereal discs sold by Quaker, were not something I encountered. I first experienced them in Japan and I've been here long enough to see them as "old hat".

Considering my expression of the yawn factor of soy sauce flavored rice crackers, one may wonder how I came to review them. The answer would be that I am cheap. Several types of Befco rice crackers were on offer for a mere 69 yen (84 cents) at Okashi no Marche snack shops. This is between 50-70% of the usual price. I'm guessing that this is because they are close to their expiration date at the end of April. I've noticed that Okashi no Marche has the lowest prices among all of the snack shops in my area, but that's because they seem to be a repository for some of the more mature cases of snacks. That's okay though because most of the expiration dates are conservative anyway.

There are 12 individually wrapped largish crackers in the bag and they are flavored with soy sauce and nori. They taste rather savory and have a familiar cooked soy sauce flavor. They are neither too intense nor too bland and are unsalted but carry enough salt in the sauce. Two of the ingredients are coloring agents (caramel coloring and annatto), which I guess goes to show that brushing soy sauce on crackers isn't sufficient to paint them brown enough to make them visually appealing to customers. The texture of these is light and crispy. They're hard and slightly brittle in a way that makes them a nice substitute for chips. At 17.5 calories per cracker, they're a little less fattening than chips.

I liked these just fine, though I'll be honest and say that soy sauce isn't really my top choice of flavors. It's not that I dislike it or anything, but rather that it's not the bee's knees for me. If I saw these for full price, I wouldn't get them, but if I had a chance to get them for such a low price again, I'd pick them up.

After the Quake (I'm OK)

A liquor shop which we walked by after the quake. It smelled intensely of beer because of broken bottles. They were trying to clean it up and pushing liquor soaked water out the door in addition to discarding damaged bottles and their boxes in a pile in front of the store.

First of all, thanks to the folks who have expressed concern about my well-being after the quake. As I type this, we're still experiencing aftershocks and I'm developing some post-traumatic stress. The quakes were strong, long, and scary, but my husband and I are okay. Things fell from shelves in our apartment, and my husband's work canceled the rest of the day's work because of the transportation disruption, but so far things are okay and I hope we have seen the last of it (save the aftershocks which seem endless). The hardest hit areas were coastal ones due to tsunami and some areas with fires. Fortunately, Tokyo seemed pretty well prepared for this and was far enough from the epicenter that damage wasn't as bad as it might have been.

I am truly grateful to those who felt concern for my well-being. I'm sure that all of us are hoping the best for those who have been harmed and that the damage and deaths are at a minimum. I feel deeply for those who have seen some pretty devastating damage and sad at seeing the news coverage of the hard-hit areas. I hope all of my readers who live in Japan have been as lucky as me and have also come out unscathed.

Variety Friday: UFO Catcher Snack Prizes

Boxes of Oreo mini-packs and Ritz crackers as prizes and shrimp-flavored salted snacks on the right. (Click any picture to see a bigger one.)

For those who know it by another name, a "UFO Catcher" is often called a "claw crane" or "claw game" in English-speaking countries. It may be know by a great many names according to Wikipedia, but I have to say that the Japanese name is a bigger curiosity and a more creative choice. Incidentally, we say, "U-F-O" and the Japanese say "yoo-foe" (like a two-syllable word rather than individual letters). I hear Japanese folks use this word most often in reference to a popular line of ramen rather than the games I'm going to write about today.

Bags of 45 Tirol candies. This size Tirol is usually 10 yen per candy (10 unit packs for 100 yen).

I've always been curious as to why claw game are called UFO Catchers in Japan and one web site states that this is because the claw mechanism resembles an alien craft. This makes as much sense as anything I could conjecture, so let's just agree that they're right and move right along to the snack prizes that are supposed to be the focus of this post. (Yeah, yeah, move along grandma and get to the point....)

Large tubs of gum. These are full of tiny boxes of pea-size pellet-style gumballs that are marketed at children. I see them for about 10-yen a box in some kid's snack sections.

The truth is that my husband and I had little experience with these machines up until I developed an odd hankering for a debuneko (fatty cat) plush toy. Neither of us thought we could handle the machines but one day he decided to give it a shot, and he threw in a 500 yen ($6.12) coin for 6 tries. Oddly enough, he scored 3 (smallish) prizes and an interest in these machines was born. My involvement extends to watching him win things and then enjoying the prizes. He is learning the ropes and testing his skills.

The UFO Catcher KitKat prize box with plastic loop attached.

Not too long ago, my husband found himself waiting an overly long time for an order of yakitori to go and he decided to explore the UFO Catchers and decided to try his hand at one of the machines that offered boxes of KitKat minis as a prize. That machines was rather different than many which have plush toys as prizes because you have to grab them by plastic loops. Many of the snack boxes themselves are too big, heavy, or awkwardly shaped to be grasped by standard claws. My guess is that only places with specialized machines to accommodate the particular larger size of a prize do not have loops for grabbing.

If you view the box on end from the "bottom", it is designed to resemble a KitKat finger, which is rather nifty.

My husband had to take several tries just to get the plastic loop off of a rubber ball that it was lying on. He put in 500 yen for 6 attempts, and had to put in 200 more yen to finish the job. The KitKat box contains a bag of minis which can be had on sale for 200 yen, but is commonly sold for 260 yen. The bag of minis is in no way special or different from what you can buy at the average market.

The bag of KitKat minis that was crammed in the box.

Unless you stumble across a machine which has the object you desire in an advantageous position, you're almost certainly not going to get value for the money you put into the game. Mainly, the object being in a good position happens because someone before you tried to get it and failed enough times to give up. Note that I've encountered people at a local game shop rearranging the prizes so that they are in a more difficult position so you have to catch them at just the right time or they'll be tidied up by people whose job it is to convince you to put more money in the machine.

In my research, I turned up a blogger who claimed that you can ask the attendants to reposition things for you to improve your chances of winning or getting the prize you want, but I find this hard to accept as a general condition at all game centers. The blogger's contention was that you're supposed to be able to win the prizes and they "want" you to get them. This flies soundly in the face of all of the times when I've watched prizes that were close to the edge or lying at advantageous angles being tidied up so that they lay flat and are harder to get. If they want you to win, they aren't going to do this. That being said, as certain prizes run low and are close to being swapped out, I've also seen the remaining ones placed at an angle which makes getting them a cake-walk. And, I've had luck with certain game centers (Adores) when a prize we wanted was out of reach at the back of the machine. When they moved them forward, they put them in a really easy to get position. However, this is unlikely to happen with food prizes since they're all pretty much the same.

The main good point of the snack food prizes is that the boxes that the objects come in are uniquely designed (and you get to enjoy the joy of victory or the agony of defeat from playing the game). You can't really get the same type of packaging elsewhere and since they are so large, they could be considered ideal for sharing with friends or coworkers.

Karamucho spicy potato chips in large poster-size tubes. I'm sure that they're crammed full of 3-5 smaller snack-size chips and not a big bag.

The main market for these is young adults, particularly junior high school, high school, and college students. You don't tend to find UFO Catchers which offer these large and unique containers of snacks in the small game centers which tend to cater to kids, families and those who are casual players. And note that people of all ages will occasionally stop by small centers and give these games a try. There's one in my neighborhood which I witness all types of people playing on occasion. The ones that offer small stuffed toys are especially popular with women who look to be 25-35 years of age. You only tend to find machines with snack prizes in very large game centers. None of the ones at the two smallish places in range of my neighborhood offer food prizes.

A UFO Catcher with individual sizes of ice cream in a refrigerated bin.

One of the more interesting machines I found in a large game center was at Sega's Joypolis in Odaiba. It was selling ice cream in small sizes. You could have a try for an average of 50 yen per attempt. Depending on what you got, this could be good value since Haagen Daas individual containers cost about 300 yen ($3.67) in many places. However, I'm not sure how easy it is to snag one. The interesting point is not the potential value, but rather the fact that these are clearly designed to be a type of snack vending machine for the kids who are taking advantage of the attractions in Joypolis. In addition to the ice cream prizes, there were also games with individual packages of Hi-Chew. Unlike the machines in other game centers, which offer large volumes as prizes, those ones specifically were offering very small amounts.

I don't have any experience with these games back home so it could be that the food prizes I'm talking about are in no way unique to Japan. I did do a search on prizes for such games and all of the strange ones, including live lobsters, lead back to Japanese (or Asian) UFO Catchers. Claw games that seemed for the American market mainly focused on stuffed toys. The only candy claw games were tiny little mini games that looked like they were to be sold for home or party use. I would welcome comments about differences or similarities, particularly in regard to food prizes, in these types of games in other countries.

Les Ricesses Sweet Strawberry Roll Cake

Since I haven't lived in the U.S. for quite some time now, I wonder how many domestic creations are offered under French brand names as compared to Japan. Not only are many sweets and baked items offered under French names, but it's also incorporated into a lot of apartment building and business names. Does this lend an air of sophistication? Is it conjuring up the odors of fine cheese and wine? I guess back home after the whole "freedom fries" debacle, it's not likely that American businesses are thinking using French words is going to

The truth is that I have never studied a bit of French (I studied Spanish) and only know that "les" is "the". I checked a translator and it appears that "ricesses" isn't a French word, so I don't know what the deal is supposed to be with the brand name of these cakes. Is anyone out there has an idea, let me know. If it's something vaguely pornographic, well, perhaps that'll add some spice to things.

My husband and I encountered this line of individually wrapped cakes at Seiyu supermarket. There are three flavor options, each quite conventional: strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. He wanted to try strawberry, so that's what we paid our 268 yen ($3.27) for. The bag has ten little cake nuggets at 77 calories each. For dainty sorts, it's about 3 bites. For more robust eaters, I'm thinking 2 tops. For Japanese people, who based on my T.V. watching experiences seem to want to cram as much into their mouths as possible, I'm guessing this is just one bite.

The cake is extremely soft and fluffy which is good because if it was firmer it'd probably squirt out the filling onto your computer screen from the pressure your teeth places on it to bite through. The filling is fatty, sweet, and decently flavored with only marginally fake strawberry filling. One thing I really do like about cakes in Japan is that the whipped fillings are generally more "real" than those in the U.S. They always feel decadent on the tongue. The only thing which my husband didn't care for about these was that they have an aftertaste or chemical which he associates with Japanese snack cakes. I'm guessing this is a preservative of some sort, and, while it annoyed him, it didn't bother me.

I liked these, a lot, but there are economics to be considered when reaching a conclusion about a repeat buy. These 10 tiny servings cost a lot more than a single roll of a Lawson's Value Line roll cake and those cakes are easy to find, and offer as much and possibly more total cake quantity. The flavors are also generally more interesting and varied since Lawson's issues seasonal flavors like chestnut and green tea. The main benefit of these Les Ricesses cakes (besides the fancy name) is that they are preserved and packed such that you can keep them around for several weeks without their going stale. Since the Lawson's is one big roll, you have to finish it up in about 3 days before serious staleness sets in.

If you are the type who likes to keep a little nibble of cake about the house for times when your sweet tooth is aching, this is a tasty choice, but if you just want a Swiss cake roll treat for a day or two, the Lawson's is a much cheaper and less wasteful option.

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Click this for a much bigger version that you can read, if you read Japanese.

Krispy Kreme Japan started selling mini donuts on February 22, and while we haven't tried the donuts yet, we did get this nifty advertisement with a cut out car somewhere around Valentine's Day. The car is supposed to be a replica of an early (1930) Krispy Kreme mobile (a donut-mobile?).

As I was writing this, I translated 3 of the flavors by reading the katakana below each picture, then I realized that it's written in English above each picture. This is something that starts to happen after you have lived here awhile. You stop seeing English when it's right in front of you while you doltishly squint at the Japanese and read it.

 The nice-looking Valentine's Krispy Kreme donuts. My husband was given these by a generous and kind student for the holiday. Two are still in our freezer waiting for him to want a morning sugar rush.

The doughnuts represent relatively poor value economically, but I'm guessing based on my experiences with various Krispy Kreme offerings  that they aren't going to impress on the taste front either. No matter how cute they look, I'm not likely to partake, but my husband is much gamer (and more interested in all things doughnut) than me.

Kadou USA American Fried Potato Snack

That's one happy potato, and it's nice to see that he comes in peace.

There is very little about the name of this product that rings true. First of all, it's not from the U.S.A. and the snack is not an American one. This isn't terribly shocking as the Japanese love to call things "American" which are not from America. That's okay because I'm pretty sure Americans love to call things "Japanese" which are not (not to mention many other nationalities).

The second thing about the name which is odd is that it says "fried" when these really seem to be some sort of baked processed food. They aren't greasy on the outside and don't taste particularly fried. Also, the color is very pale and if they were fried I'd expect uneven browning around the edges rather than uniform color. Finally, there is very little in the way of actual "potato". The first ingredient is flour. You don't run across "potato" until the fourth item on the list.

This is a kid's snack which I probably never would have purchased on my own, though I'd guess it costs as little as 20-40 yen per bag (25-50 cents). This came with my Okashi no Machioka "lucky bag." I just know these sorts of potato things aren't very good based on past experience.Though this is made by a company called Kadou (which has no web presence), it's distributed by kid's snack maker Yaokin. Most of Yaokin's stuff looks like this snack with bright packaging, small portions, and cheaply designed cartoon mascots.

These taste about as you'd expect. They're salty and fairly bland, though there is a little bit of a potato kick to them. In fact, they are very similar to the pebbly vegetable Calbee snack without the little multi-colored vegetable lumps. The portion size is very small at only 10 grams (.35 oz.), and if you were in absolute despair for a salted snack, you might be happy to have these because they're crispy and salty, but they're just isn't much else going on with them.

Pporo Chocola

If you shop in Japan for a long time, you start to see the same foods in the same places over and over again and this Pporo Chocolate is one of those. I've run across it in many department store basement shops. It's the sort of thing I recognize, but have never had the inclination to buy. The array of foods that fall into this particular category for me personally is incredibly vast. It's not that there is anything wrong with such foods, but just that they tend to be on the pricey side and look like they're not all that good.

This confection fell into my hands via the generosity of one of my husband's students. I found out the price online and it is 350 yen for a 5-slice package. Each piece is about 6 cm x 2 cm (2.3" x .8") and relatively dense. When my student gave this to my husband, she said that she had heard that it was very good, and my searches online revealed that it is pretty popular among many Japanese folks. One of the promotional points is that it contains ingredients originating from Hokkaido. Hokkaido is in northern Japan and well known for being too damn cold for most Tokyo-ites to bear, but also for its agricultural products including its butter and dairy.

You can see that the interior looks moist like a fudge brownie from the pictures, but actually it's oddly both dry and moist simultaneously. The chocolate flavor is neither deep nor weak and the texture is crumbly but dense. It's like a brownie that has been somewhat vacuum desiccated. That is not a bad thing, mind you. I think that the lack of moistness is related to the reduced sugar content. This is not an incredibly sweet cake, and I rather liked that. My husband, however, was not a fan. For him, it wasn't "potent" enough either in terms of the sweetness or chocolate intensity. I rather liked the texture, especially with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

I ate 4 of the 5 pieces of this (not all at once, mind you, I'm not a hog) and I enjoyed them, but I'm not sure I'd personally purchase it. I would certainly welcome it as a gift should we receive it again, however. For me, the bar on non-cookie-baked-good-based snacks (say that five times rapidly) is higher than on other things. This is because I am capable of making very impressive brownies, cakes, and muffins on my own and I have better control over the ingredients and outcome. The main "problem", small as it is with this particular product, is that the preservation technique impacts the texture. One of the reasons this is a bit dry (yet still fatty) is that that means it can stay edible in its foil packaging for a longer period of time.

I'm giving this a happy rating because I think it's good, but I'm offering that rating with a caveat to readers. Don't expect this to be a fudge brownie or a fresh bar cookie experience. If you like not particularly sweet and somewhat dry brownie-type confectionery, this will suit you. Otherwise, you may be disappointed. For 350 yen though, and given the state of baked goods in Japan, this isn't a bad option if you're jonesing for this type of thing and don't have your own oven.

Variety Friday: Daruma KitKat

 "KitKat Mail" (daruma edition) front.

You know that study season is upon you in Japan when all of the KitKat displays start to bloom. In Japan, around the beginning of the year, kids start gearing up for their entrance exams to various levels of the education system. Competition for public high schools is fiercer than ever now that they are free. Those who don't succeed and have to attend private schools are going to make a sizable dent in their parent's bank accounts.

 KitKat Mail (daruma edition) back.

My husband and I were at the local post office sending off a package to a friend back home when we noticed a display box which had about 6 little plastic daruma dolls with KitKat logos on them. It was in front of "KitKat Mail" boxes of the candy which are always on offer at our local postal facility. After hemming and hawing a bit, we asked what the deal was because we couldn't see the back of the box and the front looked like nothing special.

 Detail of back, illustrating how you paint in one eye and later the other.

It turns out that these KitKats have the plastic daruma inside of the box, though the display made it appear that you would be given one as a promotional gift rather than receive one inside. Daruma, for those who don't know, are used to mark the start and successful completion of a goal. The owner paints in one eye when the goal is started and the other eye is painted in when the task is done. Clearly, these are marketed for kids to mark their successful entry into the school of their choice. I'm guessing they cook their little plastic heads in a microwave into a gruesome mass if they fail.

 Box contents.

The curious thing about this was that a handwritten sign was on the display box stating that you couldn't buy these KitKats unless you spent at least 140 yen on postage at the post office. That happens to be the price of mailing this box in Japan, but we were able to procure one despite not having anyone to mail it to because we'd spent 330 yen on an international package. I don't know if it is a rule at all post offices, or just ours, but this is probably something they do to prevent people from treating the postal service as a distribution network for special KitKat promotional items. After all, I'm sure the whole reason that Japan Post is in bed with Nestle Japan on this front is that they hope to enhance their postage sales, not to sell more KitKats for a private corporation. The KitKat box with daruma cost 240 yen ($2.93).

For your investment, you get the sturdy box, the plastic doll, and 3 KitKat minis. It's terrible value for your money unless your aim is to pep up a studying student with a small gift rather than get some sugary treats. If you're a collector of all things KitKat, then this is pretty much a "must have" edition, so I'd recommend hopping to the nearest post office and getting one now, though you may have to buy some stamps, too.

Nippon Ham "Meat and Vienna" La Pizza

The DSM-IV is a reference guide for those working in psychologically related professions that sets criteria for mental illnesses. I no longer have access to one (and when I did, it was the DSM-III... yes, I'm an antique), but I wonder if there is a disorder listed in there which relates to people who crave bad pizza yet still are disappointed by it when they get it. I'm pretty sure that I suffer from such a disorder (malus pizza opto), and the fact that I bought this package of 3 mini pizzas is proof of that.

When I saw this for 250 yen ($3.00) at Yuakaraya supermarket, I could see enough through the clear parts of the packaging to see that there isn't enough cheese on one of these to satisfy an African Pygmy mouse. I knew that, yet I threw it in my basket anyway because the compulsion to buy bad pizza is utterly irrational. Considering that there was truth in advertising, not only from what I could actually see but also from the illustration in the upper right corner, I can't even hold Nippon Ham responsible for my disappointment.

Each pizza is about 12 cm. wide (4.7 in.) and comes with a decent amount of sauce and a serviceable smattering of little pieces of sausage. There are only 199 calories per pizza, but that's no surprise given the small amount of cheese. Frankly, I knew when I bought them that what I was really getting as "pizza-like bread". My hope was that the crust was a good experience and the flavors of the sauce and wieners pleasant. I don't eat much white bread (I mainly make my own whole wheat bread) and this was an indulgence that I wanted to enjoy with some leftover chicken breast.

While the cheese was practically non-existent, the crust was pretty nice, but not as a pizza crust. It was more like a mildly crispy, chewy bit of bread reminiscent of nan. The only thing is that I wouldn't follow the cooking instructions on the bag for the best results. It recommends 4 minutes at 1000 watts, but I got the best result using 500 watts for about 10-15 minutes. Cooking at the higher wattage for a shorter time just left the bread soft and warm rather than givng a bit of a crispy edge to it.

As a pizza, this really doesn't work at all unless your definition is limited to a smattering of toppings on soft bread. If that floats your boat, then by all means run out and buy this pizza as soon as possible and experience three nights of subjectively good pizza bliss. For me, this worked well as an interesting bit of bread, but it also was a nice base for building a better pizza by adding an ounce (28 grams) of cheese and some leftover cooked chicken. However, I wouldn't buy this again. I'm far more likely to try a new sort of bad pizza next time my disorder kicks in.

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 Click this image to view a much bigger one.

Girl's festival, sometimes called the doll festival (雛祭り or hinamatsuri) is coming up on March 3. Baskin Robbins Japan is offering specially designed ice cream creations for the occasion. For 650-680 yen (~$7), a cup with a few scoops of ice cream, a couple of sugar figures, and whipped cream and some tiny sandwich cookies are on offer as well as a box meant to mimic doll displays with single scoops with whipped cream and sugar heads.

Baskin Robbins prices in Japan are generally pretty expensive and these are even pricier, but they are cute and nicely designed to bring the festival dolls to mind. I wouldn't buy them, but then I'm not a small Japanese girl who spends every "girl's festival" facing a display of gorgeous dolls that I'm not allowed to actually play with. I think a little somewhat expensive ice cream wouldn't be much to ask in compensation for tolerating the big tease of beautiful dolls I can't touch every year until I'm old enough not to care.

Tea's Tea Stick Latte Ginger Chai

Thanks to a trip up a mountain, the Tea's Tea brand has hooked me as a repeat customer. If they could just get everyone to climb a mountain in winter with a vending machine offering their drinks as handy hand warmers, Ito En might sell a lot more tea. Perhaps I should offer that idea to them as a marketing solution. It's a little convoluted, but I've seen worse in Japan like a politically incorrect actor dressed up like a stereotype of a Mexican stutter-stepping his way through a "Don Tacos" commercial.

Given my enjoyment of the soy milk tea I previously reviewed, I jumped at the chance to sample this 4-pack of instant ginger chai tea when I saw it at Seiyu supermarket for 187 yen ($2.24). Most of the chai mixes you see available in Japan are supercharged with sugar, but this was only 34 calories so I figured there was a good chance that it wouldn't be quite such a blood sugar bomb.

Each packet makes a 150 ml. (3/4 cup) serving of tea. This is a relatively small portion, but very much in line with the norm in Japan for individually packaged portions of instant beverages. In a former review of Maxim's Oreo and Mont Blanc lattes, I mentioned that those packets only made 130 ml. of coffee (and at nearly double the calories of this tea). Note that this tea can be mixed either as hot or cold tea, but I only tried it hot.

My main concern with this was that the ginger element might end up overbearing and that the chai aspect masked. Fortunately, though the ginger was strong, it didn't obliterate the chai flavoring but rather competed with it. The blend is potent, but very gratifying. It contained not only good solid elements of ginger and chai, but also the slightly floral notes of good tea. The only criticism a person might have of the entire balance was that it was a bit on the sweeter side, but frankly, I prefer my tea quite sweet.

From an economic viewpoint, this isn't much of a bargain over buying bottled tea since you can generally get a 500 ml. bottle for about 100 yen. From a pure volume perspective, this is about half the tea for almost half the price. That being said, ginger chai isn't sold as a prepared tea so this is the only way to get it. It's also convenient for tossing into a desk and making on the fly at the office when you're in the mood for a flavorful tea blend. It'd be a great thing to distract you from a sugar-craving when you're starting to drag in the early afternoon and crave chocolate.

I loved this, and will definitely get it again, but it may be too sweet for some and/or too intense for others. Unless you are extremely sensitive to either of these, I'd recommend giving this a try.

Kasugai Chocolate Marshmallow Hard Candy

There are a lot of ways to add variety to a small pool of mundane elements. One way is to start pairing traditionally savory elements with sweet ones. This is how the notion of chocolate-covered bacon was given birth into a braver, fatter world. Another is to play with textures and to put together two things which wouldn't usually be paired. Kasugai has taken that route with these chocolate hard candies.

Up until now, all of my marshmallow experiences were of the variety which included regular chocolate (like the sort you eat in a candy bar) covering, sugar crystals or some sort of quasi-congealed coating (doesn't that sound yummy?). The main idea was that whatever was paired with the puffy marshmallow was capable of yielding when bit into. This allows you to appreciate the soft marshmallow with a variable texture or flavor without shattering your teeth.

I found this intriguing candy at Seiyu supermarket for about 160 yen ($1.92) for a bag of 15 pieces, each the size of a typical piece of hard candy. Each candy is 18 calories of tooth decay potential. The first ingredient is syrup, followed by sugar, and vegetable oil. The marshmallows are made with gelatin, and they don't have that funky Japanese marshmallow flavor or texture that many foreign folks find off-putting.

The peculiar thing about this candy is that the shell is a typical hard candy that is designed to be sucked on rather than bit into. Inside is a soft vanilla-flavored marshmallow. I guess this is a bit like a variation on a Tootsie Pop, though you can't really lick this to get to the center. Instead, you have to suck on the flavorful coating until it either gets thin enough to bite into. I guess there won't be any strange animated commercials with owls who steal your candy for this product.



The chocolate candy on the outside has a rich cocoa flavor and is quite tasty. Once you get to the marshmallow inside, you are treated to a good dose of vanilla and an interesting mix of crispy candy shards with the pillow of marshmallow. It's a very good flavor combination, but there is something about the way in which the entire experience works which just feels "off". I think the main reason for this is that the marshmallow, unlike the chewy center of a Tootsie Pop, starts to disintegrate and collapse so rapidly. That doesn't make this in any way a bad thing. It's just unusual.

While I enjoyed these, I'm not sure I'd get them again. I love marshmallow, but there isn't enough of it here to give a true experience with it. It's more of a hard candy experience than a gooey marshmallow one. I guess the bottom line is that if I want a chocolate hard candy, I'd have the Senjaku Diet Cocoa candy, and if I want a marshmallow, I'll have the real deal which is four times the size of the little tidbit in this candy. This is not enough of one or the other for a repeat buy, but it certainly is tasty enough to finish the bag.

Ginbis Tabekko Animal Biscuits

Attentive readers with an impeccable memory may recall that Ginbis is the maker of "asparagus biscuits", which don't actually contain asparagus. According to their web site, this is the company's "long seller" and it has recently been revamped (likely just the packaging). Of course, this is their long selling "biscuit" and the asparagus biscuits are the long-selling "stick biscuits". This is a little like talking about the best "long hairstyle" and best "semi-long hairstyle".

At any rate, this is part of a small collection of kid's cookies that are on offer. In the U.S., we'd call this "animal crackers", but these are actually rather different in composition. They are thinner, crispier, and much, much more flavorful. Like the asparagus biscuits, they are flavored richly with sesame seeds and are slightly greasy. The  main difference is that they don't have the same level of browning and don't carry a certain "over-baked" flavor. They're also rather salty on the outside, which is an interesting choice for crackers designed specifically for children. That being said, the salt really works on these, as do all of the other flavors.

Yes, there are important words to be learned in English.

Note that these are "educational" snacks. Each cookie has the name of the animal it depicts in English and the back of the box has Japanese and English for each animal. It's actually not a bad idea, but I somehow doubt kids are picking up much English from this considering the fact that the shapes are pretty general and don't clearly depict the animals they represent. There are 46 animals named on the back of the box, and I counted 46 crackers in my box. I didn't check, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of each named animal was represented. That would be one of those attentive to details types of things a Japanese manufacturer would do. 

I got these with my Peacock Fukubukuro, so I didn't pay for them individually. I've seen them at many supermarkets. This is a fairly big box at 63 grams (2.2 oz.), and I'd guess that it costs around 150 yen ($1.83) given the size, though it could cost closer to 200 yen ($2.43). I calculated each is about 8 calories. The whole box is 344 calories and says that 12 is a serving with 80 calories. Their calculations don't really jive but I think it's not worth sweating whether these are roughly 7 or 8 each. 

I really liked these. They were like the version of the asparagus biscuits that I would have liked. These are clearly the same basic formula or dough just pressed, shaped and baked differently and it makes a difference. The flat little crackers have a nicer texture and they aren't too dark. I'd definitely buy these again. They make a great and flavorful tea time snack and you can eat quite a lot of them without overdoing the calories.

Sun Lavieen Monkey Banana

If I were a typical American kid, I'd think this was the sort of treat designed to sneak something into me that I wouldn't want to eat. In this case, the food of dubious value would be white beans. They happen to be the first ingredient in the list for these castella-based cakes. For those who don't know, castella is a type of Portuguese sponge cake that is very popular in Japan.

My husband spied these at Peacock supermarket and decided he wanted to give them a go. At only 100 yen ($1.20) for a 70-gram bag (2.5 oz.), I was game to invest. Besides, anything with "monkey" deserves a few brownie points and "banana" is an added bonus. I'm not sure, incidentally, what these do to earn the good name "monkey", however. They don't look like monkeys. They don't taste like monkeys (that I know of). And, unless Japanese monkeys are fed a diet of white beans and castella, they aren't monkey food.

This was more first sampling of a product made by Sun Lavieen. I checked out their web site and they make a variety of cakes designed to sit on shelves for a prolonged period of time without spoilage as well as some chou-based, eclair, and waffle offerings which are in the chilled sections of markets. All in all, they appear to be a youngish (by Japanese standards, established in 1963) mid-size company (290 employees) that fills a certain niche. The thing which most distinguishes them from other companies is that they appear not to have any cartoon mascots.  Their motto is "we propose stylish tea time by delicious confectionery."

The expected issue with these was that they would be dry, and they are. In fact, they're exceedingly dry both because they are castella and preserved. The flavor is of fake banana, reasonable sweetness and the usual cake and margarine mixture. Note that there is no actual banana in the ingredients list.

I'm not sure who would enjoy these, not because they are truly bad, but because they are not very good. Mainly, they are dry and not sufficiently flavorful in nice ways (fake banana doesn't count as "nice"). About the only thing they have going for them is that each ring-finger-sized cake is only about 35 calories and they'll probably last awhile without spoiling or getting any drier even after being opened. I imagine these also would be good as part of a trail food kit that you can toss in a pack and carry around for several days. Aside from that though, I can't imagine pondering having these again, though my husband and I may slowly finish the bag.

Random Picture 51

 Click to see a larger image.

There's a retro candy shop in the Saitama LaLaPort shopping complex that my husband and I visited late last year that carried a huge variety of old-fashioned Japanese candy and some toys. I wanted to go there to see if I could pick up some nifty retro snacks for review. Unfortunately, they were blasting Japanese pop music so ear-splittingly loud that I could not bear to remain in the shop for much time at all. I'm not kidding about how unpleasant it was. My husband left immediately and only took pictures from outside of the shop because it was so unbearable.

The shop had some pretty interesting stuff, but unfortunately I wasn't sufficiently deaf to endure shopping there. I guess they feel that, if you can still hear well enough not to require a hearing aid, then you are too young to remember the contents of this shop and therefore do not need to be in it.

Hazelnut Chocolate Daifuku

Having one good experience with a Japanese snack will often lead me to become more adventurous with all snacks made in the same general mold. The experience I had with Lotte's Yukimi Daifuku ice cream, tiny balls of creamy vanilla goodness wrapped in soft stretchy mochi (pounded rice cake). If vanilla ice cream was good, hazelnut chocolate had at least the promise of being better.

This product is made by one of the "faceless" little companies that help fill the shelves and cases of 100 yen shops and "konbini" (convenience stores).  The company is Daiichi Syokuhin and makes a lot of low quality ice milk products, including a vanilla bar that I reviewed unfavorably before and a chocolate one that I liked. I've seen a lot of their products and pondered trying them just because they look pretty good, but I always know deep down that the chances that they're going to be worth the added fat cell size is unlikely.

I found this package of two (60 ml.) balls of ice  milk at Lawson 100 for 100 yen ($1.20). I did so fully aware that ice milk was unlikely to live up to ice cream, but I have had some pretty good experiences in Japan with ice milk. I'm sorry to say that this wasn't one of them. The texture was not very fine and you could detect some of the ice crystal structure that comes from too much milk and not enough fat (or not enough blending).

This was less of a problem then the fact that the chocolate flavor was extremely weak and the hazelnut completely undetectable. Mainly, there was a bit of a coconut flavor, some sweetness, and coldness and texture. The mochi covering was nicely sweet and stretchy, but so thin as to lend little more than a flexible wrapper for the ball of ice milk.

Each serving of this is only 87 calories, and certainly this offered the potential for a good portion-controlled bit of ice milk, but it just wasn't that good. It wasn't bad at all, mind you. It really needed either stronger flavors or better texture (or both) to make it a winner. I ate half and my husband ate the other, but neither of us would have it again.