Mont Thabor Hot dog bread with cabbage: I ate this for my last lunch in Azabu Juban, purchased at the neighborhood bakery Mont Thabor. For some reason, a lot of asian pastry shops feature hot dogs in their savory breads. This hot dog bread had sour cabbage on top along with a drizzle of ketchup. It pretty much tasted exactly as it looks: salty from the hot dog, bitter from the cabbage, and sweet from the tomato ketchup. 3.0/5.0
azabujuban japanese bread montthabor hot dog cabbage 3.0Mont Thabor Chocolate Croissant: The best and most popular baked item from this shop is their Hokkaido milk bread, a pastry that can easily serve 2/3 people and consists of a fluffy baked bread with a sweet crumble coating. I had purchased it once but seemingly didn't photograph it, so here's a another item I purchased from the bakery instead. This is a chocolate croissant, shaped like a cornucopia, that has both a chocolate sandwich cookie at its end plugging a very rich and substantial chocolate filling. The entire pas... (read more) 3.0/5.0
pastry azabujuban dessert japanese montthabor chocolate croissant 3.0Lotte とろ~りれん乳三昧 苺れん乳 Strawberry Kakigori Popsicle: These are unique popsicles that could only be manufactured through modern food science. They consist of a milky outer coating, made with Hokkaido milk, that encapsulates multiple layers. At the top is a viscous syrup, which has a slight tropical pineapple flavor to me though perhaps it's just a type of acidic milk – with my first popiscle, the liquid layer came as a surprise when it came pouring out. Underneath the syrup is a strawberry popsicle, somewhere between a freeze pop and fruit b... (read more) 3.0/5.0
japanese naniwaya dessert frozen lotte とろ~りれん乳三昧 苺れん乳 strawberry kakigori popsicle 3.0Calbee Takumi Sendai Beef & Black Pepper Chips: I'm pretty fascinated by meat-flavored snacks, which are very popular in Asia. These are chips you can purchase at 7-11 in Japan that are flavored like peppered steak. They have a smoky flavor that do taste of black pepper, but they also have a meaty sweetness as if the beef were marinated in a sweet glaze. The chips are thin and crispy - similar to Lay's and a bit better than the other potato chips I've had here, many of which are translucent with oil. Overall, though, the pepper flavor... (read more) 3.0/5.0
chips 711 japanese calbee takumi sendai beef black pepper 3.0Gilca Cheeze Camembert Crackers: These crackers are made from a mix of cheddar and Camembert, producing a sharply flavored crisp with just a bit of funk. The wedge-shaped crackers have holes in them, like a cuter version of the Swiss Cheese Flavor Original crackers (from Nabisco). Comes in a very small pack with just a couple servings. 3.0/5.0
cheese japanese gilca cheeze camembert crackers 3.0Coca-Cola Frozen Coke : This Coca-Cola comes in a pouch that you're meant to freeze to enjoy a frozen Coke treat. There are other snacks in Japan that have this type of packaging, like the Coolish soft serve ice cream I reviewed a few weeks ago. You're supposed to completely freeze the package and then let it thaw for about 15-20 minutes before consuming, but I bought it in the refrigerated section at the grocery store, let it freeze at home until it was like soft slushie-like consistency, and then took it out of... (read more) 3.0/5.0
japanese coke packaging Daiei cocacola frozen 3.0