There is a place I end up seeing every single time I head to Nagoya airport. It is Mentai Park, run by Kanefuku, the brand famous for mentaiko, and there is actually a factory inside, so they make fresh mentaiko there and also sell food made with it.

A place like this

As you can see, there is a cute mentaiko mascot sitting on top of the building. Every time I drove past on this road I would wonder what on earth that place was and why it had something like that on it.

The entrance

Well.. it is not all that crowded.

There are even claw machines..

They seem to be for the little ones.

Mentai Park..

I am not really sure what this is.. it probably was not a busy day, so this side did not seem to be open..

Inside

There are a lot of stalls selling things.

Mentaiko sausages and so on

There is a whole range of products made with mentaiko, though the prices are not exactly cheap.

The line for mentai france

I did not really know about it either, but a line suddenly formed, so I joined in. It turned out to be the line for mentai france, a baguette with mentaiko inside, sold from 11:30 and limited to 50 a day. As you can see, the people ahead of me in line were seriously seasoned. They had deliberately made time to come, and were buying several at once..

The tasting corner

I took a photo of it. I did not actually taste anything, because I felt like I would have to buy some if I did..

Sales finally starting..

I only bought one.

Mentaiko soft serve

This was unexpectedly good; the sweetness of the soft serve with just the right saltiness from the mentaiko actually made it taste better. The mentaiko senbei was good too..

Mentai france

It is much bigger than I expected.

The inside

It is packed with mentaiko too. This one is a must buy. It really was delicious.

The food court

They have pasta and other things, and it all looked good. I thought it would be nice to stop by again next time. But it is so far away.. I have no idea when I will make it back..

Mentaiko onigiri

This rice ball was surprisingly good,

The inside

It was stuffed full of mentaiko.

Mentaiko

I bought one and tried it, and the taste really was great..

Mentai mayonnaise

If you spread this mayonnaise on ordinary sliced bread and toast it, you get something close to the taste of mentai france. It was so good.. If this place were a bit closer I think I would drop by all the time. I am not sure whether I will ever get another chance to go in this lifetime..

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