More Strange and Mysterious Food Items
Okay, maybe not that strange and mysterious, but still possibly interesting. I was trying to decide what to make for dinner, and I started taking pictures of the things in my cupboards, so now we're going to play the, "What's in Amanda's kitchen?" game. See, I teach elementary school, so everything must be called a game, even if it's not. If you are listen quietly, I might even give you stickers as prizes!
There's a fair amount of boring normal stuff like eggs and milk and carrot sticks, so I'm going to skip all of that and just focus on the uniquely Japanese items.
On the left, you will see one of my favorite Japanese items: jellies! I always keep my apartment well stocked with them. They're kind of like jello, but a bit firmer, and they aren't refrigerated. You just pull off the top and suck them right out of their little cup. These are my favorite kind, peach, but they come in a variety of fruit flavors.
On the right is some mochi. It comes in little hard cakes, but when you heat them, they expand into sticky, chewy mochi puffs. These can be eaten on their own with a little soy sauce or used as an ingredient in something else. They're pretty fun. Note the individual packaging on both the jellies and mochi. The Japanese are notorious for overpackaging everything.
Next are the bread items. On the left is a strawberry bagel. Just pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, and it steams itself in the bag for a warm and soft bagel.
On the right is bread, which doesn't seem that special, but this is Japanese bread. It's unsually thick and spongy. Great for toast, not much for sandwhiches. If you want a loaf of bread, this is it. Forget all the varieties you have in America. Japanese loaves of bread are pretty uniform. The only variety comes with how many slices come in your bag. You can buy a bag of 4, 5, 6, or even 8 slices. This bag was a 4 slicer.
One of the many frozen "just add...." and serve over rice packages. This one contains meatballs and sauce, just add peppers and onions. My favorite kind has lotus root, sauce, and pork, just add Nasu (japanese eggplant). It's eggplant helper! There are a HUGE variety of these kinds of food available at the super market. It'snot a uniquely japanese concept, but I don't think it's utalized to this extent anywhere else.
Next is my sauce collection. From left to right we have soy sauce, japanese mayo (note the squirt bottle), that ubiquitous ketchup+worcheshire "sauce" sauce, and goma sauce. Goma sauce is made of sesame seeds and makes the best salad dressing ever.
Curry! All you have to do is drop the silver bag in a pot of boiling water for about 3 minutes, then cut it open and pour over rice. All the veggis and meat are already included, and the pot doesn't even get dirty. It's kind of the Japanese version of canned soup. There's a whole aisle of various curries in the supermarket. Most are Japanese, but I found a few delicious Thai varieties too. Just watch out for the green Thai curry. Japanese people generally don't like very spicy food, but that curry was almost too hot for me to eat. I don't know how it ended up in a Japanese supermarket.
I've saved the best for last! Icecream!! Naturally, I've sampled a wide variety of Japanese icecreams. This is my favorite so far. The thing about buying icecream in Japan is that they don't sell it in big containers like they do in the US. There's only a bunch of different kinds of icecream bars or single serving cups.
This particlar kind of icecream bar has milk flavored icecream on the outside and strawberry on the inside with a cap of sweetened condensed milk. Yum!
Please look forward to our next, "What's in Amanda's kitchen?" game. I know I will!
There's a fair amount of boring normal stuff like eggs and milk and carrot sticks, so I'm going to skip all of that and just focus on the uniquely Japanese items.
On the left, you will see one of my favorite Japanese items: jellies! I always keep my apartment well stocked with them. They're kind of like jello, but a bit firmer, and they aren't refrigerated. You just pull off the top and suck them right out of their little cup. These are my favorite kind, peach, but they come in a variety of fruit flavors.
On the right is some mochi. It comes in little hard cakes, but when you heat them, they expand into sticky, chewy mochi puffs. These can be eaten on their own with a little soy sauce or used as an ingredient in something else. They're pretty fun. Note the individual packaging on both the jellies and mochi. The Japanese are notorious for overpackaging everything.
Next are the bread items. On the left is a strawberry bagel. Just pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, and it steams itself in the bag for a warm and soft bagel.
On the right is bread, which doesn't seem that special, but this is Japanese bread. It's unsually thick and spongy. Great for toast, not much for sandwhiches. If you want a loaf of bread, this is it. Forget all the varieties you have in America. Japanese loaves of bread are pretty uniform. The only variety comes with how many slices come in your bag. You can buy a bag of 4, 5, 6, or even 8 slices. This bag was a 4 slicer.
One of the many frozen "just add...." and serve over rice packages. This one contains meatballs and sauce, just add peppers and onions. My favorite kind has lotus root, sauce, and pork, just add Nasu (japanese eggplant). It's eggplant helper! There are a HUGE variety of these kinds of food available at the super market. It'snot a uniquely japanese concept, but I don't think it's utalized to this extent anywhere else.
Next is my sauce collection. From left to right we have soy sauce, japanese mayo (note the squirt bottle), that ubiquitous ketchup+worcheshire "sauce" sauce, and goma sauce. Goma sauce is made of sesame seeds and makes the best salad dressing ever.
Curry! All you have to do is drop the silver bag in a pot of boiling water for about 3 minutes, then cut it open and pour over rice. All the veggis and meat are already included, and the pot doesn't even get dirty. It's kind of the Japanese version of canned soup. There's a whole aisle of various curries in the supermarket. Most are Japanese, but I found a few delicious Thai varieties too. Just watch out for the green Thai curry. Japanese people generally don't like very spicy food, but that curry was almost too hot for me to eat. I don't know how it ended up in a Japanese supermarket.
I've saved the best for last! Icecream!! Naturally, I've sampled a wide variety of Japanese icecreams. This is my favorite so far. The thing about buying icecream in Japan is that they don't sell it in big containers like they do in the US. There's only a bunch of different kinds of icecream bars or single serving cups.
This particlar kind of icecream bar has milk flavored icecream on the outside and strawberry on the inside with a cap of sweetened condensed milk. Yum!
Please look forward to our next, "What's in Amanda's kitchen?" game. I know I will!