Bento! #113: Omu Soba

As I mentioned earlier, this weekend if is Kougei-Sai, our school fair. There were a lot of food choices, the typical yakisoba, takoyaki, crepe (kureepu / クレープ), choco-banana, and so on. I got something that I haven't seen anywhere before. First, some photos at the school grounds.

"Kougei-Sai" sign and entrance gate

Kougei. Or Koogei. Or Kohgei. When Japanese romanize
some Nihongo words, they might spell 'em differently.

From the entrance leading to the main fair grounds.

No beer (actually it says nothing alcoholic),
no smoking, no pets, and no knives (or weapons). 

Ooh, they have a beauty pagent.

There was an ongoing show already, and not a very big audience.
Well, it's not a very big school. It's a private school, by the way.

There are rooms and halls here and there where there are some events.
I guess some of the people are in some of these rooms. I never know
what stuff happen here. It seems no one from my group are interested,
or well, to them (or us), work is more important than these things.
We are all, after all, at least 10 years older than most of these college kids.

This road leads to the cafeteria (which is closed as it is being used
for some event I don't know), and it is lined with food stalls on both sides.

Another view of that stage I showed you earlier.

And now, the main attraction. For me. Omu Soba
(オムそば). I guess, instead of rice in omu raisu (omelette
and rice), this one has soba instead. It was nice. It was 400 yen.
Yakisoba at the school fair is usually 300 yen, compared to
500 yen at public festivals or from street vendors. But I guess
I paid 100 yen for the egg. This also had cabbage, bean sprouts,
dried salty fish flakes, and mayo. This is supposedly my dinner,
but alas, I had to buy some onigiri from the konbini to supplement
this meal.

Bento! #112: New but Ordinary

430 yen from 3F for rice topped with nori and some salty fish flakes, fried potato wedges, weiners, chicken katsu with mayo, burger with ketchup, spaghetti, and half a hard-boiled egg.

Bento! #111: A snack

It's like a small oblong cake covered in a sweet powdery dip. I'll update this post once I find out what this is called. Yummy. As you know, though, this is not exactly tradional Japanese dish, and I say that because cake or bread (keeki / ケーキ, and pan / パン, respectively) are words that do not have a Nihongo equivalent. Of course, there's mochi, the Japanese rice cake, but by "cake," I meant cake as in cake, not as in rice cake. In the same way, in the Philippines, we have different kinds of rice cakes and rice-based desserts and snacks, but they are not cake as in cake.

Bento! #110: Buta Kimuchi Bentou

Like I said yesterday, this weekend is our school fair. The 45th one, if I'm not mistaken. By the main entrance, you might be able to read "工芸祭," our Kougei-Sai. The last kanji is, by itself, actually read as matsuri, or festival. Kougei means industrial arts, or crafts, or polytechnics - part of our school's full name which is Toukyou Kougei Daigaku, Tokyo Polytechnic University, or 東京工芸大学. Because it's our school fair, the cafeterias are closed so I had to go to the konbini (コンビニ / convenience store) to get my lunch.

Today I had this 498 yen Pork Kimchi Bento (豚キムチ弁当). The pork kimchi part actually has a lot of cabbage and bean sprouts. Not very spicy though. This also came with some nori topped rice, an egg (with soft-boiled yellow part inside), and a vermicelli, carrot, and bean sprout salad. The bean sprouts in the salad, FYI, which is from the more common mung bean type we have in the Philippines, is different from the bean sprouts in the pork kimchi, which is the more typical type of bean sprouts they have here in Japan. When I bought this bento, I didn't think it had enough veggies so I also bought the 158 yen salad that I usually get.

Chokoreeto #5 and #6: My favorite Lotte Macadamia Nut Chocolates and another popular one, Crunky

The Lotte Macadamia Chocolates are my usual hunger busters. Crunky is another one I like, and I usually bring some of these as gifts when visiting home. :) I thought Crunky is similar to Nestle Crunch - well, it is in the way it feels when you eat 'em, but I think Nestle Crunch uses "rice crisps" while Crunky uses malt puffs. It's a fine combination indeed.

Hmmm, and now I just realized I like the Lotte brand of chocolates. They're a little less sweeter than the Meiji brand chocolates. So if you're into sweet stuff, you might want the Meiji versions of these Lotte brand chocolates. But for dark chocolate, I like the Meiji ones. How about you guys?

Bento! #109: More Pizza Hut "Hatto Wan Bakusu" (Hut One Box)

Yum. Yum. The cafeteria was closed today because soon it will be our school's foundation day celebration. Wow, I should document all the food they will feature there. Anyways, so with the cafeteria closed, and as you can see here, we ordered pan pizzas this time instead of those "Italian crispy" thin crust pizzas we had last time. And this time around, 5 of us shared this carbohydrate feast that's why we got two one boxes. Confused? Well then, try to guess the flavors of pizza we got, based only on the photo above.

They are:

• Vegetarian (with tomatoes, mushrooms, corn, and I forgot what is that green thing - green bell peppers maybe?)
• Tuna Mayo with corn and strips of "bacon" that is more like ham
• Two-Cheese
• Teriyaki Chicken which comes with asparagus and corn

Told you guys: corn is popular here. And maybe fried potatoes as well. We didn't expect the Tuna Mayo pizza to have bacon though, as we intended not to have any pork or beef in our choices. Now, guess why. :D

Bento! #108: Hinai Djidori Tsukune Don

比内地鶏つくね丼. Hinai-style chicken meatball rice bowl. 441 yen for an "L" size. With just 5 small chicken balls, this is a little bit expensive if you ask me. I then ordered an additional 唐揚げ３こ / karaage san ko / 3 pieces of Japanese-style fried chicken bits, for 126 yen. The donburi came with eggs, nori (seaweed, same as that in sushi) shreds, carrots, and onions in a sweet-salty (maybe soy-sauce-based) sauce. With what is seemingly the dessert of the month (mango pudding / mangoo purin), my dinner was 672 yen in total. Takai! (Expensive!)  Hinai, by the way, is a town in Akita prefecture, more than 600 km away from Atsugi.

Nothing Jolli about this one! #Japan

Thanks to Okada-san for the photo!

On one hand, I love Atsugi because there's a lot of nature here. It's a "suburb of Tokyo," after all; i.e. it's far from being a mostly-concrete jungle. Lots of trees, not so much wide roads and consequently, not so much cars. And consequently, not so much pollution. Lots of fresh air. Plenty of stars are always visible and bright when it's a clear night sky. At Downtown Atsugi (Hon-Atsugi), there's enough variety of stores and restaurants and pubs/bars and entertainment if you're missing the city life. But even there, the buildings aren't even 10 floors high.

On the other hand, there really are plenty of bugs here. You know it's summer when they start to appear. Yes, mosquitoes, cockroaches, cicadas (which they call semi here), bees, flies, ants, spiders. Bats even. Well, spiders are probably around the whole year round. But anyways. Here's a bug that is really huge; its body is about 2 inches long. And it was hanging out just outside the restroom (toilet) doors on our floor. My friend took this photo about 2 meters away with a zoom lens. Meanwhile, I just use the restroom on the next floor. Around this time, people here are encouraged not to use air-conditioning, and so instead, we leave doors and windows open for natural ventilation. I only hope it doesn't fly to our office room!

There is nothing Jolli about this one.

Bento! #107: Miito Soosu

294 yen miito sauce / ミートソース / meat sauce (spaghetti) plus
144 yen of "buffet" food from the school cafeteria (consisting of a (pork)
burger patty, lettuce, and a cherry tomato) = 438 yen in total.

I was hoping the "buffet" cafeteria had Italian Dressing, but I had to settle for Thousand Island Dressing instead. The meat sauce didn't have so much meat, but it did have some small carrot cubes. As a meal, I would consider this as Japanese-style non-Japanese food; i.e. the Japanese wouldn't consider this as Japanese, but people from other countries might look at this as being distinctly Japanese in taste. Confusing? I've already told you about this, but I had this Italian friend who consider the "Italian" food in the US as being "American-style Italian food," and the "Italian" food in Japan as being "the Japanese version of American-style Italian food." Whoops, sorry if I confused you guys even more. :D But to tell you the truth, typical spaghetti dishes at non-Italian (or non-American-style-Italian) restaurants in the Philippines (e.g. Jollibee, McDonald's, KFC - yes, McDonald's and KFC in the Philippines have both spaghetti and fried chicken) and I'm sure in many other countries around Asia might taste the same. Oh, but here in Japan, most of the time, they refer to spaghetti simply as pasta (pasuta / パスター).

Bento! #106: Age Wantan Shio Raamen

Sorry for the blurry photo!

Age = fried, as in kara-age (fried chicken). Wantan = wonton / Chinese-style dumplings / pot stickers / gyooza! Shio = salt. Raamen = "Chinese-style" ramen noodles. It's just 346 yen, but for more soup and noodles, I paid an additional 63 yen more making this 409 yen in total. I was also a little bit generous with the sprinkling of crushed chilis and black (or white?) pepper. This ramen had spinach, bean sprouts, and carrots as well.

Additionally, I noticed that most people here use disposable wooden chopsticks when eating ramen, instead of their usual plastic-y, reusable types. "For more friction," a friends says. It is better indeed.

I had the same dessert again as last night, and you can see a glimpse of it to the right of the photo. But can you guess what's missing in the photo? :D

Mid-October

It's already the middle of October, and we're still able to wear T-shirts and shorts. We're more than 20 days away from summer already, which only means we're just about 70 days away from the official start of winter. I did sleep last night, for the first time this Autumn season, with a sweater on. While today was sunny and comfortable (with a high of about 25 degrees, mid-day), yesterday was cloudy and a little cold (with a high of only around 19 degrees).

Also, by the way, starting in September, the Yuyake Koyake song is now played here at 5pm, whereas during summer, it was played at 6pm. By November, it will be played at 4:30pm. Sunset now is at around 5 or 5:30pm. At the peak of summer, sunset is at around 7:45pm and sunrise at around 4am. Coming from a tropical country where temperatures and sunrise and sunset times are practically constant the whole year, I associate dusk with dinner time. By December, I would start feeling hungry at around 4pm already. But then, it might also just be because of the cold. :D

Bento! #105: Shin Sanma Shio Yaki + Mangoo Purin

新さんま塩やき. Shin = "new" = I guess because this is a new offering at the school cafeteria starting this week. Sanma = Pacific saury. Shio = salt. Yaki = grilled. The rough translation would be "grilled Pacific saury seasoned with salt." Only 189 yen!

I got it because, well, it's new, plus it resembled this fish we call locally in the Philippines as "galunggong" or "GG" for short. It turns out to be bigger than the usual sizes of "GG" we have back home, plus it has a pointed head. Well, most fish in the Philippines are small because fishermen tend to fish them younger than in other countries (i.e. there is no minimum size imposed before you can keep what you've caught). But it turned out to taste almost the same as "GG." With soy sauce, I actually liked it a lot! It did come with some crushed radish, which is distinctly Japanese. According to Wikipedia, "the flesh of Pacific saury contains good quality protein, which is easily digested, absorbed, and used by the human body. The flesh is rich in unsaturated fatty acids such as EPA and DHA, "good fats" that aid in the prevention of heart disease." I also felt that sanma had just a little bit more fishbones compared to GG, but I probably felt that way because this one is grilled whereas in the Philippines, we usually eat the fish fried. I think I'd like this better fried, too.

One more Wikipedia fact! Sanma can also be written as 秋刀魚, whose kanji individually mean autumn, knife, and fish, respectively, in reference to its shape and its peak season. Which reminds me; we are in the middle of October already.

For dessert: マンゴープリン. Mangoo = mango. Purin = pudding. 105 yen. As you can see, it's not even a half-filled bowl. Mango and tropical fruits are generally very expensive in Japan.

From the salad bar, I also had half a boiled egg and some corn kernels, plus two kinds of salad; a seaweed salad (with wakame? and a reddish kind of seaweed), plus one with small leafy greens, carrots, and lotus roots. With eru-saizu gohan ("L"-size rice), this was all just 520 yen. For lunch, I only had 360 yen for lunch. I think my stomach has shrunk. :D

Bento! #104: Premium Kuro Burger @BurgerKing - Finally!

Waiting for my burger and fries. The 黒バーガー (Kuro/black burger)
set meal comes with "M" sized fries and free "M" sized Coke Zero
 - which as you know comes with a label that is also mostly in black - for 790 yen.
The burger uses "bamboo charcoal" to make the bun black, plus a "black
ketchup," made from squid ink and garlic. You can probably see in the
illustration of the burger the black sauce.

My Kuro Burger arrives. I was surprised that it was just a small burger.
I thought it would be a special version of the Whopper. Writing this blog
article 4 hours later, I feel hungry already.

A first glimpse of the black bun burger.

After a few bites. There's lettuce, onions, tomatoes, mayonnaise and that
"black ketchup" thing.

The whole set (fries just arrived). I actually got an "L" set, that is totally 860
yen, if I remember correctly.

The verdict? It's not something I'd eat again - because charcoal is bad for you. Even if it's from bamboo. And I really would have wanted a Whopper version of this instead. Taste-wise, I almost didn't notice the difference between this and a regular BK burger like a Whopper Jr (which is essentially this burger minus the black buns and black sauce and mayo). But, I was probably just really hungry.

Useless fact: It's Burger King's 5th anniversary in Japan this weekend.

Interesting fact: This is not the very first black burger. Early this year there was The Darth Vader Burger. But, you can say that this only validates claims made by some that black buns are the new "in" thing in the fast food industry today.

Bento! #103: Yan-nyomu Chikin. Again!

But this time, instead of ordering it à la carte for 294 yen, I got almost the same exact dish as yesterday from the newer, "buffet" cafeteria plus a piece of sweet potato (just trying it out this time) - for only 240 yen. With not so much rice as usual, this meal was all just 365 yen. Yehey!

Chokoreeto! #4: Country Ma'am "Chocochip" Cookies

(カントリーマアム　チョコチップクッキー / kantorii maamu chokochippu kukkii) 

Two flavors: cocoa (ココア / kokoa) or vanilla (バニラ / banira)

Every morning, I have a pair of this for breakfast, one of each flavor. Yuh-uhm. I've also brought home a lot of these as gifts, and my friends and relatives all like 'em a lot.

Bento! #102: Yan-nyomu Chikin

Apparently there's this アジアンフェアー (ajian feaa / Asian Fair) at the cafeteria starting this week, that's why there was that Korean bulgogi dish I had earlier. And yep, you heard that right. In Japan, they refer to Asia as Ajia (pronounced ah-gee-ah), which I believe comes from the Dutch word Azië. For this "Asian Fair," they are featuring 4 dishes, two of which are Korean. Tonight, I had 今週のおすすめ / konshuu no osusume / this week's recommendation, Yannyomu Chikin (ヤンニョムチキン, or Yangnyeom Chicken) which apparently means "fried chicken" or "seasoned chicken" in Korean. But here, basically it's karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken bits) dipped in Yangnyeom sauce, and placed on a bed of lettuce. It's 294 yen, but with "L" size rice and my usual annin doufu (almond jelly) dessert, this was totally 525 yen.

Bento! #101: Purukogi Don

If you read the title out loud, and you know Korean cuisine, you know that it means Bulgogi Rice Bowl. Another more typical way to write it in Japanese is burukogi / ブルコギ. This "L" size one is 441 yen from the school cafeteria. It's yummy but I feel it comes with a poor amount of meat, hence maybe that is why it is called purukogi instead of burukogi. (Hint: I just told a joke.)

Bento! #100 - Yahoo, 100! And to celebrate - Pizza Hut! Not.

"Hatto One Box." "Hatto" because Pizza Hut is
Piza Hatto in Japan (ピザハット).

Almost on a weekly basis, we receive coupons and promos (i.e. promotional campaigns or just simply kyanpeen /キャンペーン/ campaign as they would call them here) for different pizza delivery services here. Yes, Pizza Hut included. This week, my colleague decided to avail of this "campaign" from Pizza Hut. Basically, for something normally around 2,740 yen, we could get the set below for just 2,180 yen under this "campaign." 

Additionally, if you ordered via the web, you get an additional 5% off. So that brought the total price down to just around 2,070 yen. Hooray for the web!

For the type of pizza, we chose this "four flavor" pizza which they call "Natural 4" (ナチュラル / nachuraru 4). The four flavors are: sausage and mushroom (ソーセージ＆マッシュルーム / sooseeji to masshuruumu), pepperoni and corn (ペパロニ＆コーン / peparoni to koon), bacon and asparagus (ベーコン＆アスパラ / beekon to asupara), and tomato and basil (トマト＆バジル / tomato to bajiru). An "M" size of this and others like it, is supposedly 10 inches in diameter, and 2,000 yen. Remember what I told you about the 250-yen pizza I eat here in Japan? They are really cheap. An "L" size, by the way, is a 12-incher:

Back to the story. We also had a choice between 4 crust types: Pan Crust (the typical Pizza Hut one / ふっくらパンピザ / fukkura pan piza), "Italian Crispy" (イタリアンクリスピー / itarian kurisupii), and for only 200 yen more, a "Cheese Crust" (こんがりチーズクラスト / kongari chiizu kurasuto) or a "Sausage Crust" (ソーセージクラスト / sooseeji kurasuto). If you've eaten more than once at Pizza Hut, you know what these last two are. We chose Italian Crispy. I don't like Pizza Hut's pan pizzas.

I opened the box, and this is what we got. Surprisingly, it's a square pizza! Apparently if you get the Italian Crispy type of crust, instead of a 10-inch-diameter typically circular pizza pie, you get a 10-inch by 10-inch square one instead. If you know math, you would know that area-wise, this is slightly bigger than a 10-inch-diameter one. Not surprisingly, the photo seems to have larger chicken pieces, and longer but thinner potato wedges, and more of them herbs, than what we actually got:

It could be better. But thank God nonetheless for
feeding me well tonight!

My colleague and I split the bill on this one, so likewise evenly split the loot. ;-D

I finished mine in about 10 minutes and my colleague was so surprised. We've been in the same department for about 2 years and she is still surprised? Haha. Anyway, after about an hour, my colleague still had two "slices" left but she couldn't finish them anymore. So naturally, she gave them to me. And naturally, I finished them in a minute. So, I had two small pieces of chicken, a few potato wedges, and 10 "slices"/mini-squares of pizza all for around 1,000 yen. Not bad, no? Beats all the bad vibes I got from that Croquette Dog I had earlier. :D

Bento! #99: Soosu Tappuri Korokke Doggu

115 yen from 3F.

Or ソースたっぷりコロッケドッグ in Japanese, that roughly translates to Croquette Dog with a lot of Sauce. At 115 yen, and compared to the companion Weiner Roll at 130 yen I ate together with this, I'm never buying this again.

Firstly, it all but confirms what I don't like about "croquettes" (at least those that I've seen here): it's mostly a bunch of fillers, mostly potatoes maybe, with practically no meat or anything else. I don't like croquettes / korokke! A man needs his protein fix. And secondly, this kind of fooled me. No, I understand now how all that sauce might have disappeared in the croquette since it had plenty of super-absorbent potatoes. But "Croquette Dog"? That made me think the croquettes had hotdogs in them! Where's the dog here? It's not even a hotdog sandwich at all! It's a croquette sandwich! It just supposedly comes with the same buns typically used for hotdog sandwiches. And that's it. Oh well, what could I do. Every place has their own brand of English. And there's nothing wrong with that. This is Japan, this is their language. This is their culture. Back to Japan 101 for me. :D

Bento! #97 + #98: Biggu Chikin Katsu Bento + Okura to Enoki no Okaka Ae

Big Chicken Cutlets Bento

Okra and Enoki Mushroom Okaka sauce

The bento is 498 yen, but I had to eat some more rice to match the large chicken katsu. Enoki mushrooms are small white mushrooms with long necks/stalks. Okaka, a.k.a. katsuobushi, is dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna. I've previously referred to this simply as dried fish flakes. They're also used to top okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and even yakisoba. Okaka ae is translated by Google as Okaka sauce, but I think it is not referring to the okaka as the sauce; i.e. the whole thing is like an Okaka sauce. There are other types of okaka ae, like one made primarily using cabbage (i.e. kyabetsu no okaka ae), and so on. I didn't do it that way, but I guess I should have topped my rice (or my chicken?) with this, treating it as like a sauce.

Also, okaka ae is written as おかか和え where the a is the same as the wa (和) in wagyuu (the expensive beef famously from Kobe) and wafuu (our/Japanese style). I don't know why yet. Do you guys know?

Anyway, guess why I had to have all of this for dinner... Well, it's because I just had that very light "cheap" pizza for lunch. :D

Bento! #96: Another one of them inexpensive pizzas in Japan

Another one of them 250 yen pizzas from the supermarket. This time it says "Arutobaierun" - apparently the Japanese romanization for "Alt Bayern," or "Old Bavaria." Alt Bayern is presently in Germany near the Czech Republic and Austria. I'm just guessing but it might be referring to the sausages? I am also reading that it is Napori Fuu - Napolitan Style, plus it has 3 kinds of cheese: chedaa, gouda, and mottsarera (cheddar, gouda, and mozzarella). As usual, I sprinkled parmesan, crushed black pepper, and Tabasco (タバスコ/tabasuko) on it and ate it, sandwich-style, with some Pepsi and half of a 50 yen bunch of shredded cabbage with parmesan, crushed black pepper, and Caesar salad dressing. Yeah, I don't like cabbage too much as a salad, too, but hey, this is a pretty good lunch all for only around 300 yen.

If you're looking for stuff like this at your local supermarket here in Japan, the brand name apparently is "La Pizza," or ラ ピッツァ, or ra pittsa. In many cases though, note that the Japanese would pronounce pizza as piiza or ピーザ, as in the Leaning Tower of Pisa with the 's' as 'z'; not as pittsa. Oh and by the way, these pizza pies are approximately 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter. 十 or 10-インチ, or 二十五 or 25-センチ.

Chokoreeto! #3: Choko Baamu

I guess this is a Bourbon brand snack. The Japanese characters read "funwari choko baamu." Funwari, I believe, means fluffy. Choko is short for chokoreeto, chocolate, of course. Baamu is short for baamukuuhen / バームクーヘン, which is the Japanese form of baumkuchen (pronounced baum-coo-hen), a German word (and probably now also an English word) for the type of layered cake similar to the one in the photo above, except it's usually made in a donut-like shape that is then cut to pieces such that they become almost square/cube-like in shape and become easier to eat without having to use a knife and a fork. This type of cake is actually quite popular here in Japan. I even saw some being sold at the Narita departure area. I guess it's for the Japanese who might miss their dose of baum as they visit other countries. I am not sure though how baumkuchen tastes in other countries - like in Germany. But all the baumkuchen I've tasted here are quite yummy, this included. This one actually comes with two flavors; "choko" (chocolate, obviously) and "howaito" (white - white chocolate, I guess). I have two of these, one of each flavor, for breakfast together with coffee and a banana. Actually, I usually have chocolate chip cookies, but since there weren't any the last time I went to the grocery, I had to settle for this. But, like I said, they're yummy.

If you're staying in one place in Japan for more than a week, you should probably try their baumkuchen here. If not, I suggest you just try the more traditional Japanese fare.

Bento! #95: Cheapest (ham+"soft salami") pizza in Japan

I love pizza. A typical 12" pizza here though would run me around at least 1500 yen. And that probably wouldn't be the typical pizza I'd eat elsewhere; it would probably be more suited to the Japanese palate. I do know of this place near Meguro which serves Sunday lunch buffet for just 1000 yen (or at least, two years ago when I last went there, they were doing that), and their pizza is quite good. Meguro though is like a 2-hour commute from home so I don't go there often. Only when I go to the church there. I do have friends who are members of CostCo, the popular American members-only store. At CostCo, a very delicious 16" real pizza is only around 1000 yen. While there's one that's just about an hour from my place, I don't get to go there that often because I am not a CostCo member. So, how do I satisfy my craving for pizza? Well, I settle for this:

I buy this pizza from the supermarket. Guess how much this sells for. It's just 250 yen. Or well, it's fluctuated between 238 yen and 258 yen. It's not yet exactly ready-to-eat, though. So I use my microwave/oven-toaster (many microwave ovens here are microwave and oven toasters in one), and have it toast for about 7 minutes (there's just one temperature setting, typical of small oven toasters). I leave it in the oven for about a minute to let the heat cook it just a little bit more, and then voila. I sprinkle some parmesan cheese, black pepper, and Tabasco sauce, and I have me a pretty heavy breakfast or a light, quick lunch. It has a very thin crust, and what I usually do is fold it in half and eat it like a sandwich or a taco. If it's for lunch, I usually eat it with Coke or Pepsi so that I can feel full sooner. In this case, I ate it for lunch with some lettuce and bell pepper salad with Caesar dressing (and parmesan and black pepper). Totally, that's a pretty good meal for under 400 yen. Yum.

The toppings on this pizza I got is "ham and soft salami." Next time, I'll show you the sausage/weiner version, and the four-cheese and "margherita" versions. I forgot the exact brand name of this thing, but it seems that at every supermarket I've been to, there's always something like this that is between 240 to 260 yen in price. Before buying, make sure you have a microwave+toaster thing first, though!

Lastly, I should warn you. So I have one (or two) of these at least once a week. When I went back to the Philippines (or went to visit CostCo) and was able to taste "real" pizza, you really get to feel the difference. But yeah, at 250 yen, and out of my love for pizza, that's reason enough for me to buy this thing at least once a week. It makes for a very cheap, quick meal, too!

Bento! #94: Ebi Chiri Don

「えびチリ丼」

Ebi = shrimp. Chiri = chili (in this case, as in like using a Chinese/Asian-style sweet chili sauce). Don = you should know what this is by now ;-)

I guess this roughly translates to chili shrimp rice bowl. It's 398 yen from LOPIA, our local grocery store. But if you noticed there's a sticker with a red outline on top of the original label - it actually says it's half off. I guess they prepared this in the morning, no one has bought them yet (at around 5pm), and so they had to sell it soon so that it still tastes great. They also have 20% up to 70% off on all bento and other freshly made food items at around 15 minutes before closing time (i.e. at around 7:45pm). It went through a little bit of tumbling while it was riding home on the bicycle with me. There're also scrambled eggs in there and some negi / spring onions. There are 5 pieces of shrimps in some tempura-like coating. It was yummy, and for under 200 yen, this was quite good. If I got this at 398 yen, I'd say it's just fine, or maybe a little bit overpriced (as most things are). Obviously this isn't sufficient as a full meal for me; I had some reruns of stuff I've already previously blogged about.

Bagels on your forehead, anyone? #Japan

First saw this on LikeCool. Thanks to MC for sharing this link!

Bento! #93: Some chicken bento

398 yen from Lawson.

Delicious fatty chicken with some sweet sauce and tartar sauce, some nori shreds, rice, and scrambled eggs.

Bento! #92: Cafeteria food - Kuriimu Chiizu Menchi

Two pieces of cream cheese and minced meat croquettes with fries is 294 yen. You can probably guess now what is Kuriimu Chiizu and Menchi. I got too much rice and oranges (and some broccoli) from the salad bar, and this was all around 578 yen.

I've tried this before and well, it was fine, but it wasn't something I really look forward to trying again. But so that I can blog about it and you guys can learn about it, well here I am. :D  I like cream cheese, and that's what makes this thing surprisingly taste better than it looks, but well, it's far from being one of my favorites. Oh and guess what sauce they put on those things - yup, it's デミソース / demi soosu / demi-glaze sauce.

I also previously thought that menchi meant minced/ground beef, but looking at the meat in this thing, it felt more like pork than beef. But I'm still not sure. I also feel like there's a lot of other fillers in there, like potatoes maybe, but again, I'm not sure. That all said, it's something interesting enough to try at least once; I recommend you try it when you get the chance and you haven't yet.