And Now For...

...more interesting Japanese foods! (Lee - that's the one exclamation point I'm allowing for this post. The rest will be edited out. Thank you.)

Today, we bring you Japanese Freeze-Pops, flavored (sometimes with real fruit juice) and sold in plastic containers. They recommend keeping them in the fridge for a quick drink, mixing them with soda (I think that's what the picture says) or freezing them for a frozen dessert. This batch is supposed to be apple, grape, and orange, but I think it's just apple and grape. I used some of the apple ones instead of ice for an orange juice/yogurt smoothie, and have had some others for dessert. Looks strange, but tastes exactly like the ones you'd get at any Little League field.

The other day, I made some pasta sauce for dinner. We've found a couple of really good bakeries around town, but this particular day was a Wednesday, the day the local one is closed. I was taking the bus to the foreign foods store in Nonoichi anyway, so decided to try out another one I'd heard good things about. I was able to get the baguette for dinner I was looking for, and just couldn't pass up these little rolls - if you can't tell, they're a koala and a penguin. They also had a panda. Upon biting into the roll, I found that the penguin has a caramel-like interior, and the koala had a chocolate filling. Knowing Japanese tastes, the panda probably was filled with red bean paste, so I was glad I went with the koala. These rolls were actually pretty good, and something I wouldn't mind going back for sometime. The bakery is right next to a Starbucks (yes, they really are everywhere) and a penguin with a chai sounds like a perfect snack while meeting some of the women here to hang out and knit. Must keep this in mind when school starts up again.

There really is no way to fully describe this next one. It's a very interesting item Lee got in his mailbox at work, which is normal since they put food there several times a week. It's got spots of gold leaf, jiggles in an odd fashion, and in color, it has bright pink spots with yellowish to greenish in between. It's also obviously covered in sugar. We haven't been sure what to make of it. The very small piece I ate tasted kind of like wax.