Japanese food found in supermarket; time to list my favourites so far…
These are called Furi Kake ふりかけ which means dried food sprinkled over rice. They usually come in small packets and are very useful in adding flavour and colour to Japanese rice. When I want to prepare a quick bento for school lunch, I would usually use one of these with tuna and lots of vegetables, make a hearty meal ^_^
Actually I am sure these are sold back home too, but they are probably much cheaper here, 5 small packs going for about 100 yen (about S$1.30). There are many flavours to choose from, above are salmon and plum. I think there are also vegetables and sesame?
I was so pleased when I found these in the supermarket. ^_^ heheheh.
I prefer the maccha 抹茶 flavour as it really goes well with sweet chocolate. The white peach flavour is refreshing. Again, I am pretty sure they could be found back home, maybe? A friend managed to get the limited sakura flavour and he loved it, but it is no longer sold now!
I started eating these few years back but they are expensive back home. Here, it is very reasonably priced. Kaki no Tane, a great snack! The kaki (persimmo) and peanuts are a powerful combination, a bit spicy and a bit salty, a bit sweet. I remembered reading an article by Haruki Murakami, he was always pissed off that his wife would just pick on the peanuts to eat! His theory is that only the powerful combination is acceptable, so imagine how he felt when he found only kaki and no peanuts in the bowl…
The funny thing is that they would always have a short description of some characters on the back of the packaging, usually quite quirky.
When I realised that haiku were written on the packaging of these teabags, I was presently surprised, and even more surprised that I could understand some of them… hehehe. These are winners’ works in competitions.
The first one is roughly translated into:
In the entire universe, it might be pitch dark, but I am in it.
Second one:
The young lad found on the chair of the library in February…
Be assured that they sound much better in Japanese. ^_^
According to my friend, this brand of sesame biscuits are really popular in Japan, their most popular being the green tea flavour, but I have finished those before taking its photo… hehehe, so this is the chocolate flavour. The original flavour is good too! During sale, could get 1 pack for less than 100 yen.
Do you know anything I should definitely get my hands on in Japan, if yes, let me know quick!
