Japanese Confections, Snacks and othersuch gastronomic oddiites.

I had a chance a few weeks a go to try Daifuku, or as I've found from searching, Mochi balls stuff with red bean paste. They were simultaneously nasty and addictive. Like, Red bean paste filled Turkish delight.

Since I live in Rhode Island It's slightly easier to get Japanese confections here than in say the mid west. But my Pool is not full of Pepsi Energy cola.

I haven't seen a thread for Japanese snackage here, for a while so I figured I'd open the floor up. First person to mention "that cardboard stick dipped in chocolate that rhymes with Hoppy" gets a ball removed.

 

You mean, Pocky? But seriously, I love all kinds of Japanese candy, especially chocolate. Some of my favorites include: Marble, Crunky, and Macadamia. Lately I've been eating these panda-shaped cookies called "Sakusaku Panda". They're pretty delicious.

 

I can finally mentally replace all that crap in your location description by the actual truth.

 

I'm really not a fan of anything red bean based (I think it's the texture) but I do like mochi. Pocky is good, I ate much Pocky during my time in Japan. Also like Hello Koala, which I was often given on account of being Australian

What I find really funny is that Japan is such an industrialized nation, yet when you buy Japanese snacks, even the really cheap ones, there's parts from the thing the snack is flavored like. I remember buying a kiwi fruit chew that had seeds in it, and there was a blueberry drink I was fond of that I would get from the vending machine at the high school I want to. It had the skins of the blueberries in it and everything!

There's one Japanese snack thing I can't abide by: their default flavor for Fanta is grape. Fanta is suppose to be orange dammit! With special edition flavors like grape and raspberry. Crazy Nippon-jin.

 

Natto.
Went to Japan and tried it. My god, I don't even. It's atrocious.

I also found it odd that finding real chocolate (at least where I was) was a hard thing to find.

Absolutely adore all sorts of mochi, stuffed or not. Red bean makes it a delicious combo. Paired up with a cup of cold buckwheat tea... ah.

Oh and I'm indifferent about that fake yogurt stuff.

 

Natto was birthed by an unforgiving elder god as punishment for mankind's hubris.

 

Pussies. Natto is child's play next to Tonkotsu Ramen. Shops that prepare this type of Ramen literally reek of rotting corpses for at least a block.

 

Natto is one of the 3 best things ever invented. It's included into my daily nutrition since 15 years.

 

I only know of Natto from Classic Iron chef where it was used every so often and judges would eat it without batting an eye.

There is a Japanese Restaurant near the airport here which is so authentic Japanese business men that come here to do business with Hasbro go there. It was at this particular restaurant that I got my taste of Japanese Curry. Odd flavor that is. I only go there now when it's chilly out and order a Sukiyaki.

But that Japanese Curry, somewhere between real Indian curry and Thanksgiving Gravy.

 

But if prepared well the taste is amazing though.

 

I'm lucky to have lived within driving distance of Benkyo-do in San Francisco, their mochi and manju is absolutely amazing. In Sacramento Osakya is pretty good and I've heard of a place in San Jose and LA that are also pretty amazing but I can't speak for them personally.

Beyond that I'm unaware of anymore confectioneries I should try. I've had the oddball Kit-kat flavors but kit-kats are decidedly not a Japanese creation.

 

I need to hit up Japantown in LA someday.

 

if you can find the place try the Korean version of shaved ice on top of condensed milk and big dollop of red bean paste on top...
it's so yummy~~~ especially when there's No crap like canned fruits or other stuff...

 

Meiji Apollo and Ramune Puccho are favorites of mine, haven't had any in quite a while though, should order some.

 

It's pronounced Poh-key



Basic Japanese phonetics would tell you that.

 

Speaking of which, has anyone else noticed the spelling is all kinds of messed up? The "cky" is the problem, since you can't write that in Hiragana. Shouldn't it be more like "poki"?

 

The only reason I was discoraging Pocy from this conversation is 1. It's mainstream now you can freakin get both regular and Strawberry at Wal mart. and 2. It's not that good, Strawberry is horrible, and while the chocolate is richer than most American chocolates there is still a waxy plastic like texture to it and the stick it self has absolutely no flavor.

There are much better Japanese confections we don't even know about here in the west.

 

.... try Korean version called Pepero(?). They have Almond coated chocolate and it's far better. ^ ^

 

You're such a snack hipster I too liked Pocky before it was cool!

 

I've only had Pocky once. It was actually in Toronto, which a person had imported it from Japan. It was before retailers brought it in themselves and we saw it in store in the US. Since that happened I had no interested in them anymore.