September
29
Not Your Mom’s PB&J
No, that’s not a peanut butter sandwich that was abandoned in the fridge last winter behind the eggplant pickles and the half dozen half-empty packets of various kinds of miso. The black stuff is kurogoma butter, made from toasted black sesame seeds.
Of course you can get peanut butter in Japan, but the shelves are filled with so many more exotic options: kinako butter (made with roasted soybean powder), melon butter, choco butter and three kinds of sugar toast butter: plain, maple and cinnamon.
Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.
That looks disgusting, but it sounds delicious!
LikeLike
So is it any good? We love black sesame “anything” — at least what we’ve had so far. May have to look for this in the market while we are there —
LikeLike
It IS good, although I like it better by itself without the strawberry jam on sandwiches. And if you love black sesame, the ice cream is to die for. Looks really weird, but is super tasty! There’s a place in Ikebukuro where they sell about twelve different flavors of soft serve (including wasabi!) and black sesame is always among the offerings. Directions to get there are on my travel website here: http://www.jonellepatrick.com/guide/Ikebukuro.html
LikeLike