SpyShopper-- Taste-Testing New Chip Flavors

My all-time most favorite chip flavor:  UmeShio!  (Pickled Plum Salt)

Everything is seasonal in a Japanese supermarket-- including flavors of chips.  At left, my favorite chip flavor *ever* (even better than Salt & Vinegar).

thank goodness the bags are small...

When the plums ripen in June, it's time to make Umeboshi (dried, pickled plums-- I like the kind, pictured at right, made with honey) and Umeshu (plum liqueur).  It's also time for the Ume flavor chips!  Yay!  You can tell they're meant for summer because that huge kanji in the middle says "SUMMER" (natsu), and the bag is decorated with fireworks and a windchime.

I found two new flavors at Daiei today, though, that I've never even seen before, let alone eaten.

That flavor up there is Asparagus-Bacon, a popular side dish in the summer when the asparagus is in season (just wrap the cut asparagus spears in a piece of bacon and fry--extremely yummy!).

This was not a bad chip flavor at all--very savory, and there actually was a bit of an asparagus taste.

The other flavor I found was "Yakitamanegi"... fried onion.






This flavor *rocked*.  Very onion-y, and it really matched the potato taste well.  Umeboshi is still my favorite, but I would definitely buy this again for a change of pace.

I also gave the two new flavors above to the kids and a couple of friends in a blind taste test.

Results:
Teddy--  liked both flavors, but liked the asparagus the best
Teddy's friend-- liked both flavors, but liked the onion best
Koshi-- definitely liked the onion... tasted the asparagus...said it was ok...tried it again... then I told him what  flavor it was... and he said "bleah!"
Koshi's friend-- liked both ok, but like the onion best
Cici-- thought both flavors tasted weird
Me-- I liked both, but liked the onion a little better

Fried Onion:  five 'Yes', two 'OK', one 'bleah'
Asparagus:  one 'Yes', three 'OK', two 'bleah' (of the two 'beahs', one of those was not a decided 'bleah' until the name of the flavor was revealed.  I expect my mom will laugh about that;-))

Itadakima--su!

SpyShopper-- A Guessing Game

A cake...what?

Guessing Game Time!

They had slices of cake out at our Daiei today.  Sometimes I get some for dessert.  Today, I just took a photo because what the sign says is one of my favorite loan words in Japanese.

Here's the game (open to those who don't speak Japanese, or at least not very much.):

The sign above the cake (the one telling you that it's Y98 each) says "Cake Viking".

Guesses as to just what exactly they might mean by that?  The sign is written in Katakana, the syllabary used to transliterate foreign words.  So the sign says literally (just transliterated, not translated--it's two English words written in Katakana) "Cake Viking".

Gambare!

UPDATE
  Minna yoku gambarimashita, ne!! (Everyone tried very hard!)
Alice is the closest-- it basically *is* a buffet, and the same word "Viking" is also used in restaurants to mean that (and was, in fact, where I heard used first).  The question, though, is "Why 'viking' to mean 'buffet'?"
 Well, it goes something like this (although I have no direct evidence of the correct etymology, so this is my Best Guess etymology):

    Another word used in English for 'Buffet' (borrowed from French), is 'Smorgasbord', borrowed from Swedish.  Click on that link back there for more Food Porn.   'Buffet' and 'Smorgasbord' are pretty near translations of each other.  English (greedy language that it is) has borrowed both words.
Japanese, like English, loves to import sexy foreign words to sell stuff... but apparently 'Smorgasbord' was just a bit much for Japanese mouths to handle.  So since the Smorgasbord originated in Sweden, and Sweden is a Scandinavian country, and the Vikings were *also* Scandinavian... Viking just got substituted for Smorgasbord.  Or 'Smorgasbord'=Viking-Style, with 'style' left off.

In restaurants, the Drink Viking is very popular (same as the US--where you just go up and get your own drinks out of the fountain and coffee from the pot instead of the waiter bringing them to you).  Drink Viking is, in fact, the first place I heard the term.  Thought it was *hilarious* (well, once I'd figured out what the heck they were talking about).  Every time we go to a restaurant that has one, I wish desperately that I still had my horned Viking helmet that I used to wear when I taught German (Diana will know what I'm talking about;-)).  I would dearly love to saunter up to the Drink Viking... and calmly  drop ice cubes into my glass with a horned viking helmet on my head;-)  Mysteriously, there never seems to be any mead available at the Drink Viking, despite the inevitable images of Valhalla that the term conjures up.

So there you have it (maybe)... convoluted enough for ya?

SpyShopper-- Vegetables for Spring

Fuki no Tou (Petasites japonicus, left)  and  Kogomi (Matteuccia struthiopteris, right)

Oooh!  It's springtime and all the interesting, "what-on-earth-is-that?" vegetables are appearing in amongst the usual broccoli and green peppers. 


The one on the left I may just go ahead and buy, since Cici will be thrilled.  Or at least interested.  The very first story in the second grade language textbook is a sweet little tale called "Fuki no Tou"...the vegetable (flower head, really) on the left in the photo above. 

I just realized that this photo I took of "something" growing in a neighbor's backyard... is in fact Fuki, also called Giant Butterbur or Bog Rhubarb (seriously, who thinks of these names?).  Both the unopened flower buds (in the top photo) and the stalks are edible. 

The Fuki stalks (which aren't too expensive, and can be purchased peeled and parboiled) I have cooked with before.  They taste nice simmered with sliced bamboo shoot in a cup or so of water with a tablespoon each of light soy sauce and sugar.  Sprinkle katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) on top for a rather elegant-looking spring dish which is also filling (lots of fiber).

The other vegetable, Kogomi, looked to me rather like the fiddlehead of a fern.   Come to find out... it *is* the fiddlehead of a fern!  Well!  Who knew?   The fiddlehead of the ostrich fern, in fact, which my mother had planted in abundance on the shady north side of our house.  I had no idea you could eat those!

Y498?  Yikes...

I'd like to cook something with the Butterbur flower heads (just like in the second grade story-- I *think* all three kids would try it, since they've all read that story...).


Bit on the pricey side, though (Y498!! Holy Butterburs, Batman!)...


Itadakim....maybe!

Spy Shopper--Eat All Your Mums!

That's right--flowers!  And I'm not in a flower shop, no, nor the florist section of the grocery store.  I'm in the vegetable aisle--and those are chrysanthemums.  For eating.  Really.  It says so right on the package:   "Shoku yo giku"...eating use mums.

beautiful just to look at...

Remember when I wrote about chrysanthemums?  The beautiful row of yellow ones I found out on a walk?  On the other side of that empty lot was a house with the friendliest Irish setter I've ever met.  Falling into conversation with the dog's owner (a very kind O-Baasan who cut persimmons off her tree and sent them home with me), she told me that the mums I was admiring were edible.  The same kind, in fact, as the ones I sometimes saw in the store.  She thought these, however, had gotten a bit too big.  The man who planted them, she said, had let them go a little too long, and now they wouldn't be so good to eat. She recommended tempura, I think...

Full disclosure:  I have never eaten them myself!  Or cooked with them, because I haven't taken the trouble to seek out a recipe.  Of course, you do see small yellow chrysanthemum heads adorning sashimi, along with the shiso leaf and wasabi--but that's not the same as cooking with them...

...I have, though, eaten the leaves "Shungiku"--you can see them in the bag there, next to some hakusai.  They're displayed next to each other because you can put both kinds of greens into Nabe--a one-pot dish of simmered greens, carrots, mushrooms, tofu, and fish or shrimp or meatballs or other protein.  Warm, tasty, easy, and fast to clean up--what's not to like?

...and since they're only Y198, I think I may just get some the next time we have Nabe...

SpyShopper--In the Shopping Basket...And a Recipe

The first several times I went shopping for real in an actual grocery store (not in a conbini), I spent half the time surreptitiously ogling other ladies' shopping baskets to see what sorts of things they had in their baskets.  I was surprised at the number of green vegetables, the fish, the...the other stuff that I couldn't identify, but which looked to be healthy food and not junk food.  I saw far less processed food, and a great deal more ingredients to cook food.  Every time I go home, I'm surprised by the difference in what's in those baskets.  Not just the size of the basket, either--although American shopping carts are at least twice the size of the baskets I use here.  Japan is like much of Europe, in that women still tend to go shopping every day (or every other day), and so can carry their purchases around in just one basket--they don't necessarily need a cart.  Since they go every day, they tend to buy a great deal more fresh food rather than boxed or processed.

So what's up there in my basket?  Nira--garlic chive, mah favorite!  High in Vitamin A, and warming in the winter.  Do you have some shoyu (soy sauce), a little sugar, and some sake (or mirin--sweet cooking sake), and some powdered dashi (soup stock--look for "Hon Dashi")? 

If you do, here's how to make Nira no Tamago Toji (Egg With Garlic Chives) (serves 4)

300g garlic chives (one bunch, like up in the basket), sliced 4-5cm
4 eggs, beaten

Soup
120ml dashi (stock--put the powdered dashi into hot water)
1Tbsp sugar
1Tbsp shoyu
1Tbsp sake (or mirin)

Bring the soup ingredients to a boil, add the chives, and simmer until cooked (2 or 3 minutes).  Beat the eggs and pour them over the soup.  Put the lid on the saucepan and simmer until the egg is mostly cooked.
(Note:  I make this with double the amount of soup 240/2/2/2, because my kids like it.  It's fine either way.  If you're cutting the recipe in half, just use two eggs and leave the soup amount the same, 120/1/1/1).

Enjoy!  I put the recipe up, because it's no use telling you all about nifty vegetables if nobody knows what to cook with them :-))

Other things in the basket:  a Naga Negi (Allium fistulosum, Japanese bunching onion), cha-wan mushi (savory steamed egg custard--which I *could* make myself, but these were for a busy day), moyashi (bean sprouts), curry roux, ramen (ok--not everything is perfectly healthy, but the bean sprouts go on top of the ramen, so that helps...right?).

Full disclosure:  the basket photo above is Pre-Snacks!

...I also bought a bag of Nori-Shio (Laver-Salt) chips.  Number Two Best Flavor Ever (Number One is Ume-Shiso, which is not out right now--even chip flavors are seasonal here, which I like).  Note that those bags are 60grams, and there's only one other bag size of chips--130/5grams.  *Everything* is sold in smaller amounts...

...Consomme-flavor chips, a close runner-up.  These are so much tastier than barbecue!

...A seasonal flavor:  Wasa-beef (wasabi & beef), which I haven't actually tried yet, mainly because I don't think the kids will eat them.  I *have* tried Wasabi & Mayo, which were very nice, if a bit spicy-spicy in the nose...

...I also got some Ume-Kombu (dried kelp with ume powder), on the left....

...but decided to forgo the little dried Iwashi snacks this time (yes--kids really do eat these.  Kittehs, too.  And crawdads.)

Maybe next time...:-))

Oishiso, desho! (looks delicious, doesn't it!)

Mata asobou,  ne!

SpyShopper--In The Liquor Aisle

Since I recently posted on how to make your own Umeshu, I thought readers might be interested to see what's available in a basic liquor aisle--and how much things cost.

The tall green bottle there in the photo is the best known brand, Choya--the one with several plums in the bottle and a wide mouth so you can get them out and eat them.  Dr. Coyne over at WEIT just bought a bottle of the Choya to try, and paid about $12 at Binney's in Chicago.  The price on the bottle in the photo is Y1000, or about $11 or $12 given the current exchange rate--not bad!!  So Binney's, it would appear, has very reasonable prices:-))

Here's more of the Umeshu section of the liquor aisle.  It comes in glass bottles, and also cartons and cans--straight and carbonated (umeshu soda is *good*!)  The medium size white carton is "Sarari to shita umeshu", a commercial for which I posted the other day.  It's not terribly expensive ($5-6 for a medium carton, $8-9 for a large carton), and umeshu mixes well with lots of things--soda, tonic, milk (for a yogurt-like drink), hot green tea, ginger ale, sour mix, and I'm thinking of heating some umeshu to steaming and mixing it with some of my sweet ginger syrup that I put in tea...

 ...as long as we're in the liquor aisle--here's a new one I saw today.  Apparently Sapporo Brewery and Royce Chocolates have teamed up and produced some type of hops-based drink that incorporates chocolate (bitter)...

...and sweet...

...for Y260 a can, which I though was a little steep.  And slightly weird--I can't quite imagine that beer taste and chocolate taste would...match.

If anybody is desperate to know what it tastes like, tell me and I'll buy a can--in the spirit of scientific inquiry, you know ;-))

UPDATE
 So...I went to get butter.  Which I promptly forgot, as I remembered six other things I needed, prompting a call to my husband at 7pm asking *him* to pick up some butter.  This is not the recommended way to stick to a budget.  I did, however, get a can of Sapporo/Royce Chocolat Brewery-Sweet.  And I did taste it.  Not being a beer drinker under normal circumstances, I think I've gotten in *waaay* over my head in attempting to drink and describe something which is, basically, beer.  Or...ale?  Dark ale?  A stout?  Not Budweiser--not by a long shot.  I could certainly taste cocoa (I think), but the oddest thing was having an extremely strong memory flashback triggered by the initial taste on my tongue...yet being utterly unable (still--this is the next morning) to recall the memory.  Like having an important-looking light flashing desperately on the dashboard of your car, but not having the faintest idea what that light is for.

Back to the beer (beer?).  At Y260 a can, I personally wouldn't buy it again--it just wasn't all that.  Though, to be fair, it was in a can.  Possibly a fresher version would be better, or more interesting.  To be more fair, I should find a friend who likes beer more than I do to taste it and give an assessment.  Gomen Nasai!

SpyShopper--Vending Machines

Per a reader request, I'm starting a series on The Vending Machines of Japan.  I know that sounds like a coffee table book, but bear with me--I have been fascinated by vending machines here since the day arrived.  Literally.  I distinctly remember my first encounter with a vending machine at Narita.  I was exhausted, just arrived, thirsty.  Scanning the arrivals lounge, I spied a machine.  Unfamiliar cans and plastic bottles, except for the Coke, and a great many more choices than I'd ever seen in a machine.  I was thirsty, so I didn't want Coke....but what?  I couldn't read.  Anything.  For the first time since age (4? 5?), I was completely illiterate--an odd feeling.

I hadn't any idea what to choose, so I simply chose a can with the prettiest picture on it, put in some money, and picked up the can.

Which I promptly dropped.  Hot!  A hot can out of a machine.   Pulling my hand into the long sleeve of my shirt, I picked up the can again, opened it, and took a sip.  Tea.  Not black--some sort of green tea.  Good--and warm.

Looking again at the machine, I noticed what I (in my jet-lagged state) hadn't before--that some of the prices had a blue background, and some were red.  The tea I had chosen had its price listed on a red background--hot.  Cold and hot.  Now that I can read, I can see that it says right there "つめたーい" (tsumeta-i) and "あったかーい" (attaka-i), cold and hot, respectively.

L to R: pure green tea, royal milk tea, straight tea, lemon drink, soda, vitamin drink

At the time, I was astounded by the variety of drinks to be found in vending machines--machines that are *everywhere*.  Sometimes every few feet.  They contained 4 or 5 or more types of tea, an equal number of coffees, juice, sports drinks, yogurt drinks, vitamin drinks, and very little in the way of sweet carbonated drinks.

click on images to enlarge

Top row--mix juice, peach/mango soda, coffee,hot green tea, hot lemon tea, hot cocoa, hot milk and coffee.

Bottom row--hot cafe au lait, hot blend coffee, hot different blend coffee, hot another blend coffee, hot sugarless coffee, hot different milk tea.

And the next machine up the road will have a different offering.

The problem with having bounteous vending machines all around, is that when I go home, I'm *shocked* by the lack of variety in American machines. The machine above is a Coke machine--see all the tea and coffee?  You could picket Coca-Cola offices and demand that they put into US vending machines all the good tea and coffee they've developed in Japan.   "Non-carb drinks" they're called.  They're so much better for you:-))
Click on that photo up there--the tea (in a pet bottle in this case)  on the top row, all the way to the right, is So-Ken-Bi-Cha, the tea in the hot can with the pretty picture I had the day I arrived.  My goodness, I love vending machines in Japan!

Mata Asobou, ne!

SpyShopper--Strawberries

Mmmmm--December in Japan brings the strawberries (grown in greenhouses, so as not to compete with the summer melons...).  Sweeter, more perfect berries are simply not to be found...

  ...hand-picked and gently placed all the same direction in the package--for the top of the Christmas cake, or just to eat dipped in  sweetened condensed milk.

But when was the last time you paid $6.80 for 11 strawberries?

Grrrrr... not today!

Spy-Shopper: The Fish Edition

Here's what amazed me, as a naive Hoosier girl brought up far from any ocean, the first time I set foot in a Japanese supermarket:

...and that's just in front of me.  There's an equal amount of fish available behind me.  That entire corner of the store is dedicated to the Fruits of the Sea.  I'd never seen so much fish in one place in the whole of my life, except for Hamburg's Fischmarkt.  But that's down by the port--you sort of expect to see whole fish for sale in a place like that early on a Sunday morning.

...Sanma, 88Yen... each.  Healthy, yes.  But we may want to reconsider, given the ill-health of the world's oceans.

...this is why I rarely take Teddy shopping with me.  That child can *not* keep his hands off the fish:-))                                 

...Teddy couldn't stop touching the mussels, either.  These were 98Yen.  Not in Indiana, they ain't!

...Buri, 278Yen for a package of three.  I had to wonder, though, what they were going to do with that huge Buri in the back, since there was no price on it... .   Surely not just for looks?   I apologize for not translating the names of these lovely denizens of the sea--but I haven't the least idea what they're called in English.  When I get home this evening, I'll see if I can't look them up:))

Happy shopping, Happy Thanksgiving (if you're in America), and Mata Asobou, ne!

Yokohamamama Goes Spy-Shopping

When you are traveling, hit the tour spots if you must--but whatever you do, don't miss the grocery store:))

I happened to have the camera with me when I ran to the store, and lo and behold:

Oooh--shimeji!

...and Eringe, too!

 Just like that--growing out of the containers.  They hadn't been cut off and packaged yet, so, naturally, I bought some of each (even though I have no immediate menu plans that involve shimeji or eringe.....hmmmm....thinking...).  98 Yen (less than 98cents American at the current exchange rate) was quite a bargain to buy mushrooms right out of the growing container (which I didn't get to keep--rats!).

I use shimeji frequently in soup or ginger pork and whatnot, but I love Eringe--the way it looks like a little family, see:

Awww-Papa, Mama, Big Brother, Little Brother, and Baby Sister!

I love produce in Japan--simply the fact that there's such a variety of it, a zillion things I've never eaten.  But mostly I love their ability to make a cute character out of literally anything...

....The Mushroom Guys!