Enjoy the things you can afford
Brand: Family Mart Cost: 150 yen Found At: Family Mart There is nothing like an unidentifiable loaf of animal flesh on a bed of rice and mayonnaise to bring out your inner gourmand. It’s my own fault from straying from the path of tuna mayonnaise, salmon flakes, pickled plum and all the other old standbys... Continue Reading →
Brand: Famima Sweets Cost: 250 yen Found At: Family Mart What a summer it has been. First, there was an earthquake in Osaka, then a heat wave, then another earthquake in Hokkaido. Not to mention that, in the midst of all this, there have been more “super typhoons” and “unstoppable typhoons” than you could shake... Continue Reading →
Brand: Family Mart Cost: 120 yen Found At: Family Mart There are a lot of things to unpack here: First, it is remarkable how many things Family Mart will brand with the “Fami” prefix. Fami-chicken is the in-house fried chicken. Fami-shu is the family Mart cream-puff (Family mart + pate a choux). And... Continue Reading →
Brand: Family Mart (Famima Sweets) Cost: 140 yen Found At: Family Mart Fall is here! And just like America’s obsession with pumpkin spice, Japan celebrates the autumn with its own particular seasonal flavor –sweet potato. There are sweet potato cakes, sweet potato pies, sweet potato pastries, and this glorious creation – the sweet potato... Continue Reading →
Brand: Fujiya Cost: 115 Found At: Family Mart The image depicted on this box is that of the mont blanc, the single worst confection for sale here in Japan. It’s a tower of mediocre, dry frosting, dispensed in long threads to create a mountain of sweet string. It is as if someone dropped a... Continue Reading →
Brand: Fujiya Cost: 115 yen Found At: Family Mart I always appreciate when one thing is actually two things. I am, by nature, a bit of a scavenger, preferring to try little bits off everyone’s plates than to sit and eat my own. This has never gone over well. So, even though I was not... Continue Reading →
Brand: Meiji Cost: 100 yen Found At: Family Mart, Osaka The Meiji chocolate headquarters in the Tokyo area has the best building design I have ever seen. Move over Kanazawa art museum, there’s a new architectural innovator in town. The wall facing the Shinkansen is designed to look exactly like a giant Meiji chocolate bar.... Continue Reading →
Brand: Family Mart Cost: 100 yen Found At: Family Mart, Osaka Imagine you made caramel corn out of a potato – that is imo kempi. They are sticks of sweet potato, cut into the shape of french fries, that have been candied. In texture, they exist somewhere between a chip and a candy, with a... Continue Reading →
Brand: Family Mart Cost: DOESN’T MATTER but actually 108 yen Found At: Family Mart I’m not sniffy when it comes to chocolate. I can recognize good chocolate, but I will eat Hershey’s chocolate bars happily enough. I’ve heard the arguments against cheap chocolate - often from Europeans who are clearly working through some candy-based trauma.... Continue Reading →
The Little Food Blog 