Japanese food

[Greg]

Why do you assume I haven't?

There was a party once for JB's birthday, where that was the drink I brought. Everyone else brought Jaeger.

[Drunk Monk]

Ouch. Those jaeger years. Bad medicine.

So what did you think of goldschlager then?

[Greg]

Pretentious?
I have no recollection. It was one shot thirty years ago.

[Drunk Monk]

Come on now. How many times have you digested gold? And you don’t remember? Not even checking out your poop the next day?

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You Can't Polish a Turd, but You Can Roll It in Glitter

[Drunk Monk]

The Heisei period is ending because the current emperor is stepping down.

Well, since my Asia expert couldn't be arsed to find out, steps had to be taken.

I am here to redeem myself with the farewell to the Heisei period from a coffee ad.  This explains everything...and more.

[Greg]

I want to see that movie.

I was watching Captain America the other night and had completely forgotten that Tommy Lee Jones was in that film.

[Drunk Monk]

I want to see that movie.

I was watching Captain America the other night and had completely forgotten that Tommy Lee Jones was in that film.

Right? Those kinds of ads are what this thread is all about. 

That and unagi.

Jones is like Jackson & Trejo. I’d watch them in just about anything. Which is good because they’re in just about everything.

[Drunk Monk]

We try a Ninja Kakigori shaved ice dessert in Japan and wash it down with Cheese Tapioca Tea

• Oona McGee2 days ago
  
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Castle setting is the perfect home for this shadow warrior’s Japanese dessert. 

From Hokkaido through to Tokyo, Nara, Kyoto and Kyushu, we’ve travelled throughout Japan over the years to bring you firsthand reviews of some of the greatest sweets in the country. This week, we’re taking you to Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture for a taste of the new Ninja Kakigori.

The shinobi-style shaved ice dessert is being served up on the grounds of Nagoya Castle in Aichi Prefecture, at Kinshachi Yokocho, a new commercial area that opened to the public in March last year.
▼ “Kinshachi Yokocho”, written in beautifully stylised calligraphy

The new area takes traditional Japanese elements and gives them a modern feel to create a “new-generation” castle town.

The Yoshinao Zone is where you’ll find a street lined with traditional Japanese stores…

…and the Muneharu Zone is where the eateries are located, including the one we’d come here for, which can be found just behind the entrance to the area.

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▼ Our destination: CAFE DINER POP★OVER

The cutely-named diner has a wide variety of good-looking offerings on the menu, including Tapioca Iced Teas containing brown sugar…

▼ …and a special Tapioca Cheese Tea containing rock salt.

When we arrived, it was just after 11 a.m., so we didn’t have to wait in line long to make our order. And with a cute ninja sign there to greet us, we decided to try the Strawberry Milk Ninja Kakigori for 950 yen (US$8.75) and one of the Cheese Teas for 550 yen.

We had no idea what a salty cheese-flavoured tea would taste like, so we timidly tried the cream portion of the drink first, and were surprised to find it wasn’t too salty at all — it was sweet, syrupy and delicious.
Delving further into the drink, we slurped up some of the tapioca along with the cream, and found that the tapioca balls had the texture of gummy lollies. We’ve tried a lot of tapioca in our time, but this was our first time to encounter such a unique and springy texture.

Then it was time to move onto the Ninja Kakigori shaved ice dessert, which was topped with a couple of adorable shinobi crafted out of two ice cream balls, wrapped in a thin layer of mochi pounded rice. We couldn’t spend too long admiring the gorgeous dessert, though, as it was quickly melting in the heat, so we dove in and sat back with a spoonful of ice and strawberry milk, letting the sweet combination dance on our taste buds.
 

We could barely bring ourselves to eat these beauties, but when we eventually did, they were soft, chewy and delightful. And the biscuit sword and shuriken throwing star were crumbly and delicious as well.

It was a generous serving, and the dessert went surprisingly well with the Cheese Tea. In fact, there’s nothing stopping you from adding some of the tea to the kakigori or vice versa, to create even more surprising taste sensations!
We loved both these sweet offerings, and highly recommend them to anyone visiting the area, especially when the Studio Ghibli theme park opens nearby in a few years’ time.
Shop information
CAFE DINER POP★OVER
Address: Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi, Naka-ku, Ninomaru 1-2
愛知県名古屋市中区二の丸1-2
Hours: 10:30 a.m.-Nagoya Castle close time
Website
Photos: © SoraNews24

[Greg]

Cheese tea? What the fuck, Japan?

[Drunk Monk]

Cheese tea? What the fuck, Japan?

omg i luv cheese tea.  

dm's first cheese tea gram (read the comments)

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Cheese tea? What the fuck, Japan?

Exactly! You gotta lotta splanin’ to do, Japan!

[Drunk Monk]

Cheese tea is actually a chinese thing - mostly from Taiwan & Malaysia. It’s the bastard child of boba and been trending for the last year or so.

I hate boba but I luv cheese tea.

[Drunk Monk]

Piranha Ramen is now a thing, and it’s coming to Japan for a limited time

• Oona McGee2 days ago
  
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Dubbed a world-first, this terrifying noodle dish is made with 100-percent piranha broth. 

Back on 1 April, Japanese event creators Holiday Jack sent out a press release announcing it would be creating the world’s first-ever Piranha Ramen. Sadly, the news turned out to be an April Fools’ Day prank, but noodle lovers around the country went crazy for the idea, responding with sadness, and even anger, that they weren’t going to be able to get their jaws around a toothy piranha.

The response sent the Holiday Jack team into overdrive, as they attempted to win back the favour of ramen fans by finding a way to actually make this ramen dish a reality. So they went off and ordered a huge shipment of edible piranha from the Amazon River in South America, and when it arrived in Japan, the scale of the 300-kilogram (2,000 piranha) delivery came as a surprise to even customs officials at the airport.

As the largest delivery of edible piranha in Japan, this shipment marks a landmark moment in the history of the country’s rare cuisine. Why? Because it’s going to be used to create Piranha Ramen, in what Holiday Jack is calling a Japan-first, if not a world-first, for the ramen industry.
▼ “World’s First Piranha Ramen”

While we’ve taste piranha before, we’ve never had it in a bowl of noodles, and certainly never as a ramen broth, but this is exactly what’s going to be offered on the menu. Not only will the Piranha Ramen come with the option of being served with a large whole piranha, it will also contain a broth made from 100-percent piranha.

The “world’s first 100-percent piranha broth” is said to be a perfect partner for ramen noodles, but if you want to get a taste of the rare dish, you’ll have to get in quick as only 1,000 bowls will be made available over four days this September. The exclusive ramen will be served up to only 100 customers on day one of the event, with 300 servings available on each of the remaining days.

And if eating a fearsome predator fish with sharp teeth isn’t enough of a walk on the wild side for you, you’ll be happy to know that it’s being served up at the recently opened Ninja Cafe and Bar in Tokyo’s busy Asakusa tourist district.

That means you can follow your piranha meal with a shuriken ninja throwing star experience! In fact, there’s a whole array of ninja activities on offer at the Ninja Cafe and Bar, but if you want to try their Piranha Ramen, it will only be available for four days only, from 20-23 September inclusive.

The Piranha Ramen with 100-percent piranha broth will retail for 3,000 yen (US$28.20), with a whole piranha topping available separately for 2,500 yen. That means a complete set of noodles with a whole piranha will set you back 5,500 yen, but given that it’s not every day we get to taste such a fearsome looking fish, the steep price might just be worth it.
Restaurant Information
Ninja Cafe & Bar Asakusa
Address: Tokyo-to, Taito-ku, Nishi Asakusa 3-27-14
東京都台東区⻄浅草3-27-14
Piranha Ramen times: 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. (Sept 20); 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. (Sept 21, 22, 23)

[Drunk Monk]

this is more like it

Japanese samurai sword ice cream crafted by master swordsmith from famous katana town of Seki

• Oona McGee16 hours ago
  
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This mythical sword with non-melting abilities will kill your thirst and replenish your spirit. 

Japan is a country forged on tradition, and one of those traditions is the art of making swords. While the people of today don’t have much practical use for the sharp-edged katana blades of yore, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a great demand for them, particularly in the city of Seki, in Gifu Prefecture, which is renowned for its sword-making history.
Blades have been manufactured in Seki since the 13th century, and the town is so famous for its craft they have a Hamono Festival dedicated to edged tools every October. The skill of the master Japanese swordsmith remains strong here, and during a recent trip to the area, we were told about a legendary modern-day sword that was crafted by a 26th-generation craftsman. Locals promised us it would be a sword like no other we’ve ever seen, and they were happy to give us directions to the place where it could be found.
▼ The mysterious sword was housed here, inside a Seki Milk store.

Milk shops aren’t usually known for housing sword collections, but dutifully following the instructions we’d been given, we headed inside and asked the owner if they had a sword created by a master craftsman. They immediately knew what we were talking about, and after reaching into their freezer, they handed us this.
▼ The legendary sword was actually an icy sweet called “Katana Ice“.

Crafted under supervision from 26th-generation swordsmith Kanefusa Fujiwara, who belongs to a 600-year-plus lineage of Japanese swordsmiths, this is no ordinary ice cream. Not only has it been styled to perfectly resemble a genuine katana sword, the blade itself is resistant to heat, meaning it won’t melt, even on the hottest of summer days.
There were three flavours on offer when we visited – natsu mikan, mixed berries, and Seki Coffee – but we chose to go with the natsu mikan, or “summer mikan”, a bitter mandarin that we hoped would give us a flavour as sharp as a Japanese sword.
We took our sword out onto the street and held it aloft at the sun’s rays at 4:50 in the afternoon. It was a hot August day, and even though it was getting late, the temperature was a stifling 35.4 degrees Celsius (95.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
▼ After one minute, not much had changed.

After two minutes inside its bag in the sun, the sword remained firmly intact, holding up strong against the heat.

After three minutes, we took it out of the bag to inspect its condition, and, amazingly, it was still hard as steel!

We were beginning to sweat at that point, and it was becoming harder for us to resist devouring the katana in the summer heat. We persisted for another couple of minutes, and at the five-minute mark, we still couldn’t see the blade releasing a drip of moisture.
▼ A truly legendary sword crafted by a legendary craftsman.

Looking at the packaging, we found the reason for the blade’s impressive unmeltability. It had been crafted with kuzu, (written on the packaging as “kudzu”), a traditional starch extracted from the roots of the kuzu plant. The kuzu plant is native to Japan and China, where it’s prized for its medicinal properties, and often used in confectionery as a jelling agent.

The idea for the melt-resistant Katana Ice was actually born from the mind of a local high school student, with the frozen confection becoming a new signature product for the town, sold in long-established stores in and around the area.
While its non-melting abilities could’ve held up against the summer heat much longer, we were ready for a taste, so we put the blade in our mouth and took a taste. It was sharp, bold and, most importantly, delicious! Plus, the tsuba, or guard, was a chocolate-coated soft cookie that added even more flavour to the iced confection.

The kuzu starch gave the sweet an interesting, elastic texture that was surprising at first, but it soon became quickly addictive. The inside of the blade was more frozen than the outer layer as well, which added more textural layers to create a really premium product.
The Katana Ice is a tasty treat that’s well worth trying, and at 1,000 yen (US$9.45) a pop, it’s a much more affordable alternative to other sword-themed souvenirs like these Evangelion sword dolls.
Store information
Seki Milk / 関牛乳 株式会社
Address: Gifu-ken, Seki-shi, Kannonmae 41
岐阜県関市観音前41番地
Hours: 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. (weekdays); 9:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. (weekends and public holidays)
Katana Ice website
Katana Ice Stockist List
Photos ©SoraNews24

[Drunk Monk]

Japan’s new mayonnaise ice cream doesn’t taste like you’d expect【Taste test】

• Casey Baseel4 days ago
  
• 0
  
  
  
  
  

A different surprise than the one we’d braced ourselves for.

Here at SoraNews24, we’re not sticklers for tradition when it comes to ice cream. Heck, in the past we’ve tried two different kinds of ramen ice cream, and only really regretted half of one of them.
But even we weren’t sure if Japan’s latest unusual ice cream flavor, Creamy Mayonnaise, was such a good idea. Of course, bad ideas are kind of our area of expertise, and so we quickly snatched up a 140-yen (US$1.30) bar as soon as they went on sale.
We felt just a tiny twinge of confidence in the idea when we remembered that the product, officially the Calorie Monster Cherio Creamy Mayonnaise Flavor, is made by Morinaga, which produces some of Japan’s best-tasting non-crazy frozen treats too. Morinaga proudly boasts that it’s created “Japan’s first” mayonnaise ice cream, though we’re not sure how much pride it should take in that since the previous lack of such a dessert might not be because no one else thought of it, but because everyone else did think of it and then immediately decided it was too weird to even try to sell.

Morinaga had the necessary abundance of courage and/or lack of common sense to bring the concept to market, though, and so here we are. As shown in the diagram above, the Creamy Mayonnaise follows the lead of the rest of the Cherio line by having an identically flavored core and coating with a second flavor in between. However, unlike the chocolate/vanilla of the standard Cherio, this one has white chocolate in the center and cookie-crumb-enhanced outside edge, with the majority of the space taken up by mayonnaise ice cream.
▼ Our dissection got pretty messy, but you can see the white chocolate circled in blue and the mayonnaise circled in red.

We braced ourselves for a shock as we took a bite, and we were definitely surprised…by how normal it tastes! Really, the strongest impression was still white chocolate, so much so that at first, you might not even be able to discern the presence of the Creamy Mayonnaise’s marque ingredient. On subsequent bites, we started to notice a bit of saltiness along with a rich, slightly oily element, but for the most part, the white chocolate steals the show.
On the plus side, this means the Calorie Monster Cherio Creamy Mayonnaise Flavor tastes great, and even when you do notice the mayo, the fact that Japanese mayo has a thicker consistency and less sourness than Wester varieties means it’s not really a problem, but it doesn’t really deliver on the craziness we’d been anticipating with a mix of excitement and fear. Naturally, when life doesn’t give you quite enough craziness, you have to figure out ways to add some craziness to life, so we grabbed a pair of chopsticks, scraped a large dollop of mayonnaise ice cream away from the white chocolate…

…and plopped it onto a salad.
▼ PLOP!

Unfortunately, the bar’s filling is, as we mentioned before, mayonnaise ice cream, and not just straight-up mayo. Because of that, it was a little too cold, and also too sweet, to really work as a salad accompaniment.

In the end, you’re better off sticking to just enjoying the Creamy Mayonnaise Cherio as-is, and while it might not blow your mind like the name might make you expect, this is definitely a superior choice to fish or snake ice cream.

I love mayo but....ew.