Enjoy the things you can afford
Brand: Bourbon Found at: Lawsons My father’s favorite aphorisms is “gilding the lily,” declaimed at such wonton excesses as eating bacon on a burger, putting chocolate sauce on ice-cream, and wearing earrings and makeup to the same event. It’s one of a long line of fatherly one-liners that later turn out to be references... Continue Reading →
Brand: Yamazaki Cost: ~100 yen Found at: Lawson’s Cherry Blossom (Sakura) season is HERE! And the world has gone pink. Cars have slowed down to admire the buds, shops have exploded with pink decorations, and outcroppings of semi-sober family picnics have sprung up on every lawn in every park with sufficient amounts of the iconic... Continue Reading →
Brand: Family Mart Cost: 410 yen Found at: Family Mart I’ve always loved strawberry shortcake. I know it’s not a particularly bold statement to make – I’ve only ever met a handful of people who don’t like strawberry shortcake and they have largely been aberrations against the natural order of things. There’s just nothing... Continue Reading →
Brand: Izusu Cost: 179 yen Found at: Yamadai The great lesson of my time studying abroad was realizing the benefits of being mistaken for a tourist. There are certain downsides. Every time I look at a subway map, for example, I find myself fighting off helpful grandfathers like I’m in an infrastructure-themed apocalypse film... Continue Reading →
Brand: Yamandai Cost: 110 yen Found At: Yamadai I once listened to a great courses lecture on the history of food and learned significantly less than I should have. There were a lot of names and empires and discussions of roux – whatever that is. The only useful bit of information that my memory grabbed... Continue Reading →
Brand: Yamazaki Cost: 129 yen Found At: Family Mart THE STRAWBERRIES ARE BACK! The hardest part of the long, hot summer and the short, temperamental autumn was the absence of one of my favorite desserts in Japan: the strawberry mochi. Much like the chestnut mochi, this is just a regular mochi (red bean paste in... Continue Reading →
Brand: Tomidaya Cost: 198 yen Found At: Yamadai Today, I discovered that I am the Julia Child of pre-packaged food. Let me set the scene: I have just returned from the grocery store, having impulse bought a three-pack of fried, black bean mochi. But, I am horrified to discover, the grill marks are... Continue Reading →
Brand: Owashima Temple Price: 238 yen Found At: AEON Autumn tea sweets, I’ve been waiting for you. I just cannot get enough of sweet bean paste or pounded sweet rice in an autumn shape. I’m crazy for tea sweets anyway, but dye them red and shape them into an autumn leaf and I am in... Continue Reading →
Brand: Yamazaki Cost: 129 yen Found At: Mini Stop How do you “autumn up” an old classic? You stick a chestnut in it. And that’s it. They have stuck a cooked chestnut into the middle of a regular mochi and charged me extra for the privilege of feeling “seasonal.” Points for... Continue Reading →
