Something Strange, Something New...

For starters, we both apologize for not posting last week. Nat was busy and I was lazy. We do have some photos of a couple odd things we found in the stores, so I shall share our experiences with you.

First up, chocolate-covered potato chips.
I saw these while in the check-out lane at the grocery store. I was amused. The potato chips are Pringles-style and are coated on one side with chocolate. The same sort of chocolate you'd coat a pretzel with. In a way, they did taste like chocolate covered pretzels with a lingering hint of "WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU DO TO MY PRINGLES?"

Nevertheless, we found it difficult to stop eating them (until they were gone and by then we no longer had a choice). I believe Potattcho is the brand of chips (to rival Pringles). I'm not sure I would suggest these, but they were definitely different.

I Love Vegi is really most remarkable because of its name. At least it is to me. We have mixed fruit/vegetable juices in America, so this doesn't come as a huge surprise. Some Japanese brands even show up in the US sometimes. If you ever see Kagome vegetable juices in your grocery store, those are Japanese.

So far, we've only been able to get this brand from vending machines. It's fairly sweet but, from what we've been able to read, it is only sweetened by the fruit juices in it. What's in it, do you ask? Why, I shall tell you!




I numbered the ingredients on the can so that you can see the ingredient list yourself and follow along.

1. Orange
2. Apple
3. Grape
4. Banana
5. Peach
6. Lemon
7. Carrot
8. Tomato
9. Spinach
10. Moroheiya (also known as Jute...not well known in the USA either way)
11. Cabbage
12. Celery
13. Lettuce
14. Broccoli Sprouts

Next up is our blueberry-grape dessert vinegar...to drink.

When I first bought this, I thought, "Oh! How novel! Vinegar made from blueberries! Well, I've seen vinegar made from champagne, roses, violets, pomegranates, raspberries and, well, lots of things. This shouldn't be any different! I shall make a vinaigrette!"

I did, in fact, make a vinaigrette and a small salad for my lunch on the day I bought this. It was a mistake. It was far too sweet for a normal vinegar, so I realized that this had some sort of special purpose.

After some research, I found that blueberry-grape vinegar was one of several sweet, fruity vinegars that are a current beverage fad in Japan. The vinegar is mixed with water (our particular vinegar-water ratio is one part vinegar to four parts water) and imbibed. I tried it and it actually tasted pretty good. It tastes like juice with a pleasant tang. I'm not entirely certain it's healthy to be consuming too much of this too often, though. It is still vinegar, after all. So, one drink every few days...and not along with a salad dressed with a vinaigrette.

Last, we have a picture from our Thanksgiving meal.

This is Peter Corn. It is pre-cooked cob corn in a vacuum-sealed bag. It is named Peter. We ate him. He was delicious.

The majority of corn in Japan comes from the northern island, Hokkaido. Wheat, dairy and beef also tend to come from Hokkaido. That's because these things just grow better there. However, since Hokkaido tends to have weather patterns similar to Michigan, the growing season is really short, so corn is more and more difficult to come by in the winter and spring. There will always be some corn coming in from some mystery location that is always sunny (which is sometimes Australia), just not as much.

The growing season here...I'm not sure. Some of the crops look like they just planted new rice plants last month, but I'm not sure. The camellias (Camellia sasanqua) did just start blooming around the beginning of November and are still going, though. They're very pretty. I've been told that one house (or maybe it was a shrine) has a camellia festival in the spring, though those camellias are a different kind (Camellia japonica). The two types of camellias are considered completely different flowers by the Japanese. The autumn camellias are known as "sazanka" and the spring camellias are known as "tsubaki".