I’ve been away from this blog for a very long time so I may be announcing this to an empty room, but I’ve spent the last seven years slowly writing a book and have finally finished it. If you like my writing in general, you might want to check it…
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Bokksu, a Japanese snack subscription box service, to see if I’d be interested in reviewing their Hokkaido box of snacks. I’d seen ads for this box a few times before, and I’ve subbed to snack subscriptions in the past, but I’ve never…
I have never been much of a Pringles person. Sure, being a fairly organized person who likes orderly spaces, the concept of Pringles appeals to me. Who wouldn’t love an anal-retentive concept in which your chips are well-behaved and identical such that they stack neatly into a canister. What’s not…
Things in life don’t always go as planned. I had hoped to do proper reviews of everything in this box, but two people who were important to me died suddenly and unexpectedly shortly after I received it. One of them was my best friend in high school and her husband…
If you ever wondered what a Ritz cracker would look like if it could mate with another Ritz and reproduce, these cracker sandwiches will sate your curiosity. Imagine happy families of Ritz crackers and their tiny little babies sharing loving glances. Then, Bourbon comes along and rips the infants out…
The site for the “giza giza” (ridged) potato chips that Calbee makes encourages you to enjoy the chips slowly one by one. I don’t know if they are letting you know that the experience is better if you eat them slowly or if they care about your health and are…
This is another form of “dagashi” (kid’s snacks) with some cute and inventive design. The pops are designed to look like flowers that are tethered at the base. You snap them apart at the root to eat each “pop.” These aren’t actually lollipops though. They’re small amounts of chocolate (about…
My stroll through the ZenPop box is one that I’m hoping will be far less leisurely so, with any luck, I’ll be posting one review a day until I wear myself out, get called in for grand jury duty, or put on too much weight from an abundance of appealing…
The latest in my continuing marathon of reviews of my ZenPop box is a “health” drink/snack from Orihiro. Orihiro specializes in food targeted toward women who are calorie-conscious and up on all the latest food fads that are supposed to keep you younger looking and in the pink. These are…
Display of Japanese sweets at Nippon-ya in San Francisco’s Japantown There are roughly two types of Japanese snacks. There is the loud, colorfully packaged stuff that is sold in consumer packaging. It is so shelf-stable that it’ll likely survive the current administration’s efforts to bring about a nuclear war. These…
As I mentioned in my “I’m back” post, I now live in a very remote area. What is more, I also live in a small town (less than 10,000 people). There are very few local markets and I can charitably say that local tastes match local political views; they are…
Natto is often considered to be the most unique and strange food experience when it comes to introducing Japanese cuisine to foreigners. It’s stinky, sticky, and reminds you of mucous. While as a singular food, natto may indeed be one of the strangest things you can eat in Japan, there…
Last week, I talked about things in Japanese food culture that taste like nothing. Coincidentally, I found the quintessential food that tastes like nothing – shirataki noodles made from konnyaku. The Japanese version of these are usually translucent and look like deep sea creatures spindly body parts or particularly disturbing…
Nippon-ya did a survey and this box of sweets was their most popular. I can see why that is the case if only based on the packaging. It has beautiful wrapping and wrappers. The fact that I even think about things like that shows just how much I became affected…
This gummy’s packaging lets you know very well that it’s made for kids, especially those who think they need to put up a peace sign any time a camera is pointed at them. That is something that I always associate with life in Japan and I can say that I…
I was both looking forward greatly to this donut (because it’s lemon!) and wary about how it was going to be (because, Japanese). I am not a huge eater of donuts, but I did find that packaged donuts in Japan had some very predictable problems. It’s not that American shelf-stable…
One of my students used to come for her lessons after working and it was close to dinner time. This sometimes benefitted me because she would bring some treats with her and share them with me as we talked. I would ask her occasionally if she was hungry during the…
My friends and I have an inside joke about corn. I’m not exactly certain how this happened, but it is a lot like being a Monty Python fan. The more you say something, the funnier it becomes, but only to you and everyone else thinks you’re a dip. So, it’s…
