Next time I’m tempted to be lazy about reading the Japanese descriptions of seasonal specialties, I’ll remember today’s “Creamy Cheese” doughnut experience.
I was stuck doing errands around Ikebukuro Station way past lunchtime, and that powdered sugar-dusted doughnut with cream cheese filling looked too good to pass up. I bit into it and thought hmm, not quite what I expected.
I looked up the description later and discovered why: “Gouda cheese is added to mascarpone cheese for a rich filling with deep flavor. It is finished with cream cheese powder and parmesan cheese.” Eek.
Whaha! That sounds like cheese overload!
I had the same, in China they sell tea with cheese in it. Tried to be openminded about it but EW!
Cheese tea??? Now there’s a combo made not-in-heaven. Did you know before you took that first sip? Or was it one of those “what IS this?” moments?
I knew. There’s this chain in China that’s called Happy Lemon and they’ve got some strange teas! Like coffee with grapefruit juice or tea with oreo cookies in it. Or tea with pudding.
So I wanted to try them all!
I didn’t of course but I did try a lot. And now I miss the tea they served there.
So…was the coffee with grapefruit juice/tea with oreos good? Dying to know about those combos, which they don’t even have in Japan.
Oddly, even the weird flavors in Japan are usurprisingly delish. Sometimes they don’t taste that much like what they say they are, though. For example, I had some “Salt” flavored gelato the other day, but it pretty much tasted like sweet cream ice cream.
The coffee was great! Normally I don’t really like coffee but then I did. It was an interesting combo. First you’d taste coffee and then the juice, ridding you of that bitter aftertaste!
But the oreo tea I do not recommend. It’s just tea with crumbled cookies inside it. Nothing special and not my cup of tea
What”s the strangest flavor combination you’ve had in Japan? I heard that every year several candy brands(kitkat) bring out seasonal flavors and they tend to be rather unusual for western people. Did you try some?
> But the oreo tea I do not recommend. It’s just tea with crumbled cookies inside it.
Like oreo sludge at the bottom of the tea? Eww! I give them points for trying something outrageous, though. It kind of sounds like the experiments I did when I was six: If chocolate milk is good, how about peanut butter milk? Or jelly milk?
As for interestingly flavored food here in Japan, I haven’t had the seasonal KitKats yet, but since I’ve been here this time I did try seaweed-flavored potato chips, shiso soda (shiso is that plant with serrated, heart-shaped leaves sometimes used as garnish with sashimi), and taco CupNoodles!.This time I arrived sort of between seasons, so the summer offerings were pretty much gone and the fall ones hadn’t been introduced yet. I’m looking forward to spotting those, starting this month!
Yeah exactly like that!
Peanutbutter milk exists?!?! I wanna try it…
I’ve never had shiso before. I don’t think it’s available here.
When you try the new stuff will you post them here? I’m so curious to know your opinion on them.
Maybe next summer I can try them myself
The peanut butter milk experiment resulted in rather unpleasant globs of peanut butter at the bottom of the glass, but if someone found a way to blend it better than my six-year-old self, I’d try it too!
Are you coming to Japan next summer? I’ll definitely post about noteworthy weird foods here as I discover them in the meantime…
I’m not sure, maybe! But I’m sure I will travel somewhere, preferebaly Asia so I can always try them there.
And I found a link but I’m not sure if it really is PBmilk, http://ytrecipes.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/peanut-butter-cup-milk
That sounds kind of good!
Yeah, but I’m thinking of leaving the choco syrup. I mean, I want PEANUTBUTTER milk, not chocomilk
But I’m still a bit sceptical….guess that means I’ll just have to try it out sometime soon!