Zombie Bentos

If it smelled like natto, it would be even more realistic!


see more My Food Looks Funny

Toasted

No matter how cheap a breakfast combo might be, seeing only a half a piece of toast in this ad makes me feel like I'd be getting ripped off.

Even if it includes unlimited drink bar AND a hard-boiled egg, who thought this was a good idea? Was it because a whole piece of toast wouldn't fit on that plate?

Coffee and Raisin Bread

I am fascinated and scared by this little coffee shop. Or rather, coffee and budoupan shop. It's called Maitsuru, or dancing stork. The fascination stems from the combination of the English word for coffee, instead of the katakana kohi, with the Japanese word for raisin bread (budoupan). I am scared because the bread display in the window looks like it was put out there a few decades ago.

Sakura Yogurt

It's sakura (cherry blossom) season again in Japan. That means a lot of sakura-flavored items in  traditional Japanese sweet shops and also in places like Starbucks. This year was the first time, however, that I saw this product -- sakura-flavored Danone yogurt. Tasted pretty good, if you like sakura flavor. What exactly is sakura flavor, you may ask? It's not cherry! It's actually the perfume-like flavor that comes from the dried flowers and/or leaves. I like it, but I believe it's an acquired taste.

Hallelujah!

I had read about miracle fruit in the New York Times about a year ago, but yesterday was the first time I had ever seen it in a supermarket. Apparently, if you eat this berry, for about a half hour afterwards, any sour foods that you eat will taste incredibly sweet and delicious. I personally don't see the point of this, especially since I usually eat sour foods because I like the sour taste. The price is another factor that will keep me from trying it: 580 yen for one! Maybe they could reduce the price if they didn't over package the thing. Yes, that is just one tiny miracle fruit inside all that plastic. Even more amusing is how the price sign says one "pack" is 580 yen when you're not getting a pack of anything at all, just a lot of packaging!

Pig Out

I'm not usually a fan of fried food, but this tonkatsu at Tonki in Meguro was fried pork cutlet heaven. Diligent servers dressed in white kept piling free cabbage on my plate, and I think eating it all helped soak up the grease that would have otherwise collected in the bottom of my stomach.

Ganji Curry

Stopped by my favorite Japanese curry rice place, Ganji, in Shinjuku yesterday for a late lunch. As you can see from the restaurant's sign on the street, it's located right next to Mania Shop Slum. Their beef curry has just the right combination of sweetness, spice, and big chunks of meat. I've had beef curry at many other places where I am left feeling like Clara Peller in the Wendy's commercial, but here I definitely get my 950 yen's worth. There's always some good classic rock playing in the background, and the Charlie Chaplin posters and old record album covers decorating the walls give the place a warm, worn-in atmosphere.

Patbingsu

When my girlfriend and I went to Seoul last January, we enjoyed eating Patbingsu -- -- Korean shaved-ice, soft vanilla ice cream, assorted fruits, mochi and sweet beans. It's similar to Japanese kaki-gori, except the proper way to eat this Korean specialty is mixing it all up into an unrecognizable mess. Last week, we went to IceBerry in Shin-Okubo, which serves up some good Patbingsu. Unfortunately, I only have the pretty "before" photo. My girlfriend took an "after" mixing photo. Oh, this is a two-person serving, hence the two spoons. I could probably eat it all by myself, though, if I had to . . .

Onsen

We stayed at Daikon-no-Hana, a hot spring inn, in Miyagi Prefecture on Sunday. This is one of the private outdoor baths by the river. The photo was taken on Monday morning after breakfast. The night before we visited the bath. Although there were lights at the bath, the inn provided flashlights because the raised wooden walkway through the woods was pretty dark.

Hip To Be Square

Japan. The only (?) country where you can buy square melons.

Tea Time

Last week's anmitsu at Toraya in Ginza. Sweet beans and apricot and shiratama (marshmallow-like balls made from rice, not to be confused with rice-balls, which means something else) and more...yum.

Sweet stuff

Sweet stuff
Originally uploaded by Braincell Jupiter

Yummy and pretty jelly candies from Kyoto courtesy of my girlfriend.

Animal Cookies

The first time I came to Japan I bought a bag of animal cookies in Tsukiji, and I loved 'em. Now whenever I see some for sale, I usually buy a bag. They are much better than the animal crackers that are available in the U.S. The main reason they taste better is that they've got icing on them. On Sunday, I bought a bag of them in Sugamo. 200 grams worth. I just finished the bag at work. I often buy them at Muji stores, too. The Muji bags are much smaller, only 80 grams. The shape is a bit cuter than average ones, but the taste is about the same. The cookies are called doubutsu youchi. Doubutsu means animal, but I didn't know what youchi meant. After some research, I found out that it comes from the word for kindergarten, youchien. The name apparently comes from something called "kindergarten biscuits" that came into Japan from Britain in the late 19th century.

Delicious Dekopon

I've recently "discovered" a new fruit here in Japan. Dekopon. Basically, it looks like an ugly orange with a protruding navel. I always avoided them for some reason. I think I judged the book by its cover and simply assumed that the ugly exterior must mean it would be sour and full of seeds, or be tough on the inside. Well, I was wrong. So far in the last couple weeks I've eaten about 10 or so, and they are sweet, almost always seedless, and super soft, almost like a gummy candy. I would probably even say, "Move over mikan," but it seems the dekopon season starts around the time the mikan season ends. Winter for me in Japan means eating bags of mikan. Now spring can mean pigging out on dekopon. Maybe my belly button will soon start to stick out just like the fruit.

Titalicious

I love the traditional Japanese sweets known as wagashi. Over the weekend a show on TV featured a walking tour that included Kakushin Wagashi, an old store near Kagurazaka Station. The third generation owner decided that when he took over the business he would make wagashi that hadn't been made before. Some creations are decidely un-Japanese, like the "Indora," a dorayaki pancake-sandwich treat that replaced traditional bean paste with a mixture of spicy curry and almonds. But the shop's most popular sweet, especially among children, is "Oppai-chan." Oppai in Japanese means breasts, and that is exactly what this wagashi looks like. As for flavor, it's milk-flavored with apple slices and white bean paste. My mouth just waters at the site of it. . . or should I say them?

Soy Sauce for Ice Cream

I love Japanese sweets. One of my favorites is mitarashi dango, round rice dumplings on a stick covered with a sticky, sweet and salty syrup. The base ingredient of that syrup is soy sauce. I always wanted to use that syrup for pouring on top of ice cream, since it is similar to caramel. Well, I found out recently that there already is a company out there selling soy sauce for ice cream. It's got a very original name: "Aisu-kurimu ni kakeru shoyu" (loosely translated, "Soy Sauce for Pouring Over Ice Cream"). I haven't found it on the shelves of the local supermarket, so I might either have to order it online or do what I originally was planning on doing, making my own. Additionally, I found some other interesting recipes in English from the official Kikkoman site, including this one for Green Tea and Soy Sauce Ice Cream.

Sumo-sized Dinner

Last night we ate Chanko Nabe. Nabe is basically a big hot pot of stuff that you cook yourself at your table. Chanko Nabe is the version that sumo wrestlers are famous for eating. The restaurant is named Tokitsunada, after the former sumo wrestler that runs it. His face appears as a drawing on the sign outside as well as on the chopstick wrappers. I didn't realize he was a real person, however, until Rie pointed at the wrapper and said, "He's here." When I looked up I saw a big guy walking around, and he proceeded to approach every customer's table to welcome them. He no longer looks like a sumo wrestler though, just a big guy with a pig nose. On a darker note, recently the former master of the stable where Tokitsunada trained was arrested along with three wrestlers in connection with the beating death of a 17-year-old junior wrestler.

Safe snacks

I just can't read a story about "hardness indicators" without laughing. Apparently, there is a new system for letting customers know whether the rice cracker they are about to bite into is really a rock or if they can eat it without putting in their dentures. According to the Mainichi newspaper:

"Rice cracker fans' teeth may get a break from April when the popular snacks will come out with clear indications of their hardness, preventing accidents from biting a biscuit that's too hard."

The photo shows what the labels will look like. The far left is the softest; the far right, the hardest. Is it just a coincidence that hard harder the cracker gets, the larger the indicator gets as well?

Akihabara Curry Shop

I ate lunch yesterday at one of the branches of Akiba Curry, a curry rice shop in Akihabara, the famous electronics and assorted geek fetishes district near the office where I work. After I sat down, a bowl of three unshelled hard-boiled eggs was placed on the counter in front of me, and the waiter told me that the eggs were "all-you-can-eat." Which got me wondering. . . how many hard-boiled eggs could I eat? It's one thing if you are only going to have a lunch of hard-boiled eggs, but it's another thing if you are supposed to eat a bowl of curry and rice on top of that. In "Cool Hand Luke" Paul Newman didn't bet that he could eat so many hard-boiled eggs AND a plate of curry rice. In the end, I just ate two eggs as an appetizer, let the third one sit in the stainless steel bowl, and didn't exercise my right to free refills.