Cherrilicious

Monday, November 01, 2004

Combini Food: Episode 1

Japanese convenience stores are wonderful places.

They`re like a Roald Dahl`s creation, a Willy-Wonkaish factory full of mysterious treats sitting neatly in their compartments, waiting to jump out at you and persuade you to eat them.

I encountered some of my most interesting meals in the combini (Japanese for convenience stores)

The utterly tempting Buta-man, aka meat bun. (Actually, the counter staff passed the wrong bun to me. Wanted to try another variety but what the heck, food is food, especially when you`re famish, then food becomes good food.)

I was pleasantly surprised by the filling inside it. Chunky meat cubes and bamboo shoot pieces, slices of mushroom and cabbage encased in a snowy-white, fluffy blanket.

It`s like a miniature meal in itself.

On a cold morning, you prepare to eat it by putting it in your palms to absorb the heat. Somehow it increases the comforting taste of the bun.

It simply warms you on the outside and inside.

There`s another wonderful invention that`s a clear representation of the Japanese innovativeness: Pizza-man or pizza filling in a bun (not the brown Western type but the soft, white Chinese concoction).

When you peel the bun apart, the cheese just strings across it, desperately dangling in mid-air. It`s really fun.

Like watching food gymnastics.

As for the taste...hmmm...interesting. Melting cheese, infused with the sweet taste of tomato sauce and delicately supported by the gentle white bun, brings to mind a fusion of the flavours of the East and West.

Interesting.

Carol blogged @ 8:29 PM

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About Carolyn

Female
Dog year
Pisces

Now in:
X America
X Australia
X Japan
0 Singapore
X Taiwan
X other parts of the world
X bed

Fav:
Travel, photography, eat strange food, getting lost, jogging, staring at the sky, reading, real-life ghost acounts, spacing out, zzZ!

Warning: Never disturb her just before and after sleep, NEVER.

About life... :
Live without any regrets.

My rules:
LIVE hard, appreciate little things and be contented with what you receive.

Food that I`ve tried so far:

abalone, ants, bird's nest, caterpillar, century egg, chicken, clam, crab, crocodile, duck, eel, emu, fermented tofu, frog, fugu (puffer fish), ginseng, goose, grass, horse, jellyfish, kangeroo, limpets, lobster, mussel, natto, octopus, ostrich, ox tongue, oyster, pig, prawn, salmon, salted duck egg, scorpion, sea cucumber, seaweed, shark, shrimp, snails, sparrow, squid, stingray, tuna, turtle, venison, whale

apple, aronia berry, artichoke, avocado, banana, blackberry, blueberry, cherry, coconut, cranberry, dates, dragonfruit, durian, fig, gooseberry, grape, grapefruit, guava, honeydew, jackfruit, kiwi, lemon, lime, mango, mangosteen, nectarine, olive, orange, passionfruit, peach, pear, pineapple, plum, pomegranate, prune, rambutan, raspberry, sago, soursop, starfruit, strawberry, watermelon, wintermelon, wolfberry

almond, broadbean, caraway seed, cashew nut, chick peas, flax seed, green bean, lotus seed, macademia nuts, peanut, pecan, peppercorn, pine nuts, pistachio, poppy seed, pumpkin seed, red bean, sesame seed, soyabean, sunflower seeds, walnut, watermelon seed

chamomile, cherry blossom, chrysanthemum, echinacea, elderberry flower, hibiscus, lavender, lily, lotus, rose

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