I half expected going into this one to immediately have to shout, “Uuhhh~! What the hell is this krapp!” I was thankfully surprised. The flavors were subtle and the strawberry flavor did not taste artificial. The cream cheese filling was only slightly sweetened. Biting into the taiyaki, it appeared to be somewhat deflated and borderline hollow and underfilled, but I guess that’s the consequence of a softer filling – a firmer filling like anko would resist being squeezed down and the batter would instead be displaced out of the finite mold space. Although a little volumetrically challenged, the taste was very good. I’ll get another next week if I go by the mall. Continue reading ‘Akimune-an Strawberry Cream Cheese Taiyaki’
Archive for the 'Culture' Category
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The rotating seasonal flavor last week was purple (Satsuma-imo) sweet potato flavor. In fact it had been the “two weeks only” special flavor for over three weeks now, much to my disappointment. I didn’t really rush posting this because it was so underwhelming. I’d easily go for the standard anko over the sweet potato any day. It was better than the chocolate crème though! Continue reading ‘Akimune-an Sweet Potato Taiyaki’
Saw a block-and-long-U-bolt lifted F250 pickup with four super-expensive external-reservoir Fox Racing Shox dampers across the back axle. Too bad the outer two were at the inboard 1/3rd distance stock Ford locations where they do little to moderate roll, and the other two were installed on either side of the differential housing. WTF?!?! The money would have been better spent on a real off-road coil-and-4-bar rear suspension and TWO Fox dampers.
(0)I loaded the cooler in the boot of my car with ice packs just in case there was still some Hokke left at Shirokiya’s Hokkaido Fair. Score! An older lady and me got the last ones. 20% off to boot! Got some prepared sardines too. Tomorrow’s dinner is going to rock!
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I needed a mortar and pestle to grind up spices for masala chai, and I just so happened to see one in the knife display case at McBike, so I picked one up. The price was right at $29.98 USD plus sales tax, which is pretty much what it goes for online (MSRP is $50). The mortar body is made from a white glazed ceramic and measures about 10cm in diameter and about 6cm high. The glaze is absent from the foot of the bowl as is normal with ceramic ware. It would be nice if there was a ring of silicone there to keep it stable on a countertop, but the size and shape make it perfect to hold in the hand while using. The inside of the mortar is ridged like a traditional Japanese suribachi, but the ridges are glazed over to provide a slightly less aggressive surface. The nihongo labeling on the box identifies this as a “mini-suribachi”, but the overall shape is more hemispherical rather than the conical shape of typical suribachi. Continue reading ‘Kai Select 100 Mortar and Pestle’
Man, am I turning into the tea snob? I just bought $20 of “sipping teas” (not kranky teas for masala chai) and a mortar and pestle specifically for use to grind my masala chai spices! I’m going to have to find some piece of tactical nylon to store all my tea-related things in now… (I’m actually drinking jasmine dragon pearl tea as I post this)
(0)Ooo! I saw some lightly dried, lightly salted Hokke at Shirokiya’s Hokkaido Fair yesterday. It wasn’t cheap ($25 USD), but it isn’t common to see outside of Japan. I would have bought some if it weren’t for the fact that I wasn’t going to be home for several hours, and I didn’t want it to go bad (it was refrigerated). Root might be interested that they also had Matsumae-zuke (which can be expediently made into Matsutaka-zuke). I didn’t taste any (either) nor buy any when I was in Matsumae in 2008.
(0)The new limited filling flavor for the Akimune-an taiyaki is chocolate custard creme. I don’t want! Aaa…
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Dammit! The dude at Akimune-an has to get his ears checked. I don’t know how I can say, “two Oreo and two anko taiyaki, please,” and it gets misconstrued as, “two custard crème and two anko taiyaki, please.” It sounds nothing alike – not even close. And it wasn’t like he didn’t hear me because it was too noisy or I wasn’t speaking loud enough or clear enough since he didn’t ask, “what?” or even throw a quizzical eyebrow. Krapp! It would be the filling that I object to the most on intuitive levels and had absolutely no intention whatsoever of trying that I end up with. Since the special flavors rotate on a bi-weekly basis and I saw Oreo advertised last week, with my luck if I go back on Thursday, the flavor will have changed. If I say that I wasn’t really all that excited about Oreo flavor, someone will call sour grapes. Truthfully, I wasn’t dying to get some, otherwise I’d have ordered them last week. It’s being denied them and getting the shitty flavor instead that bothers me more than not actually getting to taste Oreo. Now I’m sad.
As I watched the honolulu festival parade, I couldn’t help but listen to the asinine banter of the high school/early college aged girl. We’re we that stupid when we were kids?! It wasn’t even a cute kind of ditzy. Stupid with attitude. Yes, she was hot (but awful shoes) but that doesn’t make up for the stupid factor. Makes u worry about the worlds future. Damn I’m a crotchety old fart!
Kiko, at least I know not all kids are like that, your boys are fine. There is still hope!