Here’s another round.
Puré gummies
This one’s a slightly different flavor from the usual, but it’s still pretty good.
Kin-chan Noodle
At 105 yen, that’s a really good price for the quality.
Cheese Dessert, mango flavor
The mango flavor is nice and rich. Tasty.
CHOYA Natsu Ume
It’s been hot out, and this ume drink really hit the spot. Plum is just right when it’s hot.
Otaru Ironai Fromage
A treat from LeTAO in Otaru. Delicious.
Panda bread
The panda’s cute, but the taste was nothing special…
Mikkabi mikan honey
This honey is a rare find, and the aroma was amazing. Bright and floral, almost like perfume. Apparently that’s the scent of mandarin blossoms.
Singapore laksa Cup Noodles
Nicely punchy and tasty for a cup noodle.
Kin-chan Noodle, curry
Tastes almost the same as Nissin’s Cup Noodle Curry. There turned out to be more Kin-chan flavors than I expected, so I picked up a bunch.
Kin-chan Noodle, garlic
Salt base with a seriously huge amount of garlic. If you love garlic, it’s worth a try.
Kin-chan Noodle, shio
A lighter take: basically the original minus the soy sauce.
Kin-chan Noodle, tomato & cheese
The tomato & cheese one didn’t really taste much of tomato, so it was my least favorite of the series.
Mala tang Cup Noodles
A little spicy, but being spicy didn’t make it especially good.
Whiskies at Don Quijote
Even here they’re now getting Hakushu and Hibiki, and supply of the no-age-statement (NAS) bottles seems more or less fine now. The whisky boom kicked off around 2016, and the distilleries that expanded back then will hit ten years of production between the end of this year and next year. So I’d guess 10-year-olds will start coming out properly this year or next, 12-year-olds about two years after that, and by around 2034 the 18-year-olds should be showing up normally too. Wait three or four years and both supply and prices should settle down, and you’ll be able to buy the core range cheaply, so is there really anything worth rushing to buy right now?.. It’s still nice to spot one after a long time, though. I think it’s fine to just take it easy. Nikka’s Frontier, for example, tastes good for the price, but I suspect things like that are really just laying the groundwork before the 10-year-olds arrive..
Looks spicy but isn’t, slightly spicy chili oil
Funny name, but it was a huge hit in Japan. They say the idea came from Korean-style sauces, garlic included, and since it isn’t that spicy, I think that’s why Japanese people love it. I tried it too, and it’s perfect for mixing into rice. Fun fact: the company president came up with the name. Yep, names are something the boss should come up with.. if an ordinary employee pitched an idea like this, it’d never get picked.
Basil crackers
I bought these because they’re Bourbon, and they’re good for a light snack. They taste like Cham Crackers (a classic Korean cracker).
Sylveine, pear tart flavor
A famous Bourbon cake. It’s pretty moist and tastes close to a real cake, and I think a whole box was around 300 yen. Unbeatable value. Bourbon’s packaging is a bit dated-looking, but the taste is reliable. Half the fun is the different seasonal flavors they keep putting out.
Mengzhilan M6+
I brought this back and tried it, and there’s a bit of a soy-sauce-aroma (jiangxiang) note at the end? Why, when it’s a strong-aroma (nongxiang) style? It definitely tastes different from Haizhilan or Tianzhilan, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I’d probably pick Tianzhilan.. They say it changes once you go up to M9, so I’ll look forward to that.
Lawson flame-grilled harami
Lawson puts out a lot of fun stuff. I enjoyed this one too.
Lawson big shrimp in mayo sauce
Lawson’s three-star line seems similar to Seven-Eleven’s Gold line. Basically, if it has this mark, the taste is guaranteed.. It was a bit mushy in places, but the flavor itself was good. For this portion and this taste, I thought it might beat a lot of Chinese restaurants.
Mala peanuts
Every now and then I get a craving for mala peanuts like these. The taste was just so-so..
Pocky Choco Mint
Pocky came out with a choco mint version. It’s fine, I guess..
Puré Gummy Premium, pineapple
A summer-only release, and the pineapple flavor and aroma came through really strong..
Puré Gummy Premium, lychee
In Japan it’s “raichi” and in Korea it’s “richi”, but anyway, this one’s tasty too. Like all gummies of this kind, though, some flavors just work and some don’t. If the pineapple was a home run, this one’s more of a solid single.
Green lentils
These are the lentils I’ve been eating a lot lately for my diet. But they’re a hassle to store, and with all that protein they’re hard to eat as a rice substitute. If I eat them, I have to cut protein from my other side dishes, and then there isn’t much left worth eating.. So these days I mostly end up eating rye bread..
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