Here’s a bit of everything.

Kaldi’s coconut ice cream

It’s fairly well known, and the coconut flavor really comes through, so it’s tasty. Being ice cream, it’s great for summer.

Setouchi lemon shio ramen

Since it’s summer, I picked up a lemon cup ramen. It’s true to the concept, but it wasn’t especially good.

Hokkaido fair at the department store

Every so often the department store holds a Hokkaido fair, and each time famous shops set up pop-ups. LeTAO, for example…

Santouka

This is a famous place too, but it’s a nationwide chain, so there’s really no reason to eat it at an event like this. It’d be great if somewhere like Saimi came instead.

Hanabatake Ranch

Being a ranch, they were selling dairy products and all sorts of other things.

Dairy products

Stuff like burrata is actually so well known that you can find it at an ordinary supermarket…

Yoichi and Miyagikyo

Bic Camera has them in stock now too. Honestly, I’m not sure the NAS (no age statement) bottles are worth going out of your way for. Like I’ve said before, if you just wait two or three years, things should get better.

Hanabatake Ranch Hokkaido Tokachi corn bread

It’s frozen, with five small rolls in a box. They’re packed with corn and actually taste pretty good. If you like corn bread, they’re worth a try.

Rokkatei Marusei Butter Sand

It’s a kind of raisin sandwich, and the thing that sets it apart seems to be that you keep it refrigerated. Maybe because of that, the cookie part isn’t crisp, but the way the butter cream melts is superb, and the well-soaked rum raisins melt in your mouth right along with it… It’s so good. The only problem is that eating stuff like this spoils your palate… Something like Rummy just doesn’t stand a chance after this… It’s a shame the duty-free shop at the airport I use most doesn’t carry it… When I get the chance, I’d like to bring some to Korea.

Zeitaku Shibori Premium Lychee

Just ordinary.

Straw-seared bonito

It doesn’t look like much… but it’s bonito seared over a straw fire, and it was so good. I knew they cook it like this in places like Kagoshima and Kochi, but apparently there’s a factory in Shizuoka that does it too. Well, bonito is caught all over Japan, so I guess that makes sense. Anyway, the smoky flavor was fantastic. It’s a different taste from tataki, too.

Stanley water bottle

I went to Tokyu Hands to buy a water bottle, and while looking for something simple, durable and easy to use, this turned out to be the best. It’s sturdy, so I think it’ll last a long time. Sure, there are tumblers with straws and all sorts of other options, but if all you want is to keep water cold, something like this is easy to wash and has no parts that can break, so it should last. I hope I can use it for about ten years.

Haizhilan, 52%, 480ml

Haizhilan is the youngest sibling in Yanghe’s premium line, and you can get it at duty-free in Korea for around 25,000 won. It’s not super high-end, but the case is huge and heavy, and the bottle design isn’t bad at all. Baijiu fans call it unbeatable value for money, so I bought one… Honestly, there aren’t many decent bottles you can buy anywhere for 25,000 won, so when people said this one stands out among them, I couldn’t help being curious.

So I drank it, and it made me wonder if it might even be better than Mengzhilan… The estery pineapple notes are a textbook example of strong-aroma baijiu… Sure, it’s clearly lacking in refinement and has some off-notes, but with food I didn’t mind at all… Whether it’s lamb skewers or sweet and sour pork, it felt like it would go with just about anything…

That said, I drank half, left the rest, and when I came back to it a week later the flavor had faded quite a bit. It’s not undrinkable, more like some of the aroma has flown off… That’s not a Haizhilan problem; it seems to be true of all baijiu. The real problem is that in Japan there aren’t many snacks that go with Chinese liquor like Haizhilan… So it’s really hard to drink it with Japanese friends. Hardly anyone here is used to strong spirits like this… So I end up drinking it alone, and it’s hard to enjoy it all the way to the last drop… What a pity…

Meiji Noumitsuka

It’s a pretty rich dessert, but the problem is how tiny the portion is for 365 yen…

Black Thunder

Black Thunder has its factory in Toyohashi, Aichi. That’s why, when you go to Toyohashi, there’s Black Thunder absolutely everywhere.

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