Nissin’s Shinpuku Saikan yakimeshi

Not bad at all.

And this one is the ramen

Well… perfectly recreating the flavour of the original shop is a tall order, but you do get a rough sense of “ah, so this is roughly what it tastes like.”

Meiji’s pistachio chocolate

Around this time a flood of pistachio desserts hit the shelves. This was my favourite of the lot — the pistachios are a touch small, but they use real pistachios, so it tastes really good. The fact that you can buy something like this at a convenience store is pretty impressive.

Raisin sand

This is the raisin sand from Lawson, and it’s rather good.

Fried broad beans

Nutty and moreish — the kind of snack you keep reaching for.

Potato chips, nori shio

After trying all sorts of potato chips, I think you always end up settling on plain or nori shio.

Macadamia

This sort of thing is tasty too.

Black Thunder Hazelnut

Black Thunder is cheap chocolate, sure, but this one is perfectly decent.

Ebi soba

The shrimp flavour is quite good.

Cheese Dessert Orange Chocolat

It tastes like chocolate with orange in it, and for the price it’s well worth eating.

Bourbon Petit Prime

A nice little thing to have as a snack, and the price is really cheap.

Shiruko Sand

Shiruko means sweet red bean soup, and this is a biscuit with red bean paste in it. It’s a traditional Japanese sweet that has been sold for a very long time, and it still tastes good today.

Jagabee Inka no Mezame

Inka no Mezame is a very special potato variety grown in Hokkaido, and it tastes less like potato and more like sweet potato or chestnut. It’s good, but since it’s quite different from an ordinary potato I suspect opinions will be divided.

Almond dragee

I never expected to find dragees at the supermarket… they were pretty good.

New Zealand JAZZ apple

A small apple, but nice and tart and refreshing. I thought an apple like this would be worth importing.

A cable I bought on Amazon

Canele jelly (Cannelette)

The size is tiny, but it recreates the flavour of a canele surprisingly well.

Hibally

A low-alcohol drink that tastes like a highball — quite drinkable.

Custard cake officially endorsed by the Hawaii Tourism Authority

Apparently it has tropical fruit sauce and maple syrup in it… Around this time several desserts officially endorsed by the Hawaii Tourism Authority showed up in convenience stores, so it looks like a collaboration. In any case, it tasted better than it looked, which surprised me. I guess the Hawaii Tourism Authority checks the flavour too…

Meiji M’s Bar Rum au Lait

Maybe it’s because I like rum, but I always end up buying desserts like this. According to the description it uses rum powder rather than actual rum. Even so, once it’s turned into a confection the resemblance is very close. Using proper rum might taste better, but the fact that a dessert you can casually pick up at a convenience store carries the taste and aroma of rum strikes me as quite remarkable. And it satisfies on price as well as on taste. I’d guess that canele jelly probably uses rum powder too…

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