Tirol Chocolate Flavour #7: Asian Pear

#7.  Asian Pear (2019)

In Japan, when you say pear, or nashi, it's the asian pear you are talking about. The round, like an apple shaped fruit that has a crispness when you bite into it. The one that is called "La France", is the one you would typically see in North America; the fruit that is heavier on the bottom than the pointed top, and has a soft, slightly grainy texture. Although both are called pears, I find they have a very different flavour, the Asian pear being more sweet with a touch of apple flavour.

Tirol Chocolates had a new flavour based on the Asian pear!

Flavours: asian pear, white chocolate

The flavour profile shows exactly what this one tastes like, a strong pear flavour mimicking the real thing. Inside the jam filling are crystals of sugar that give it a 'shari-shari', or crispy, crunchy texture that you get when biting into the crisp fruit. Although sweet white chocolate is used here, the pear flavour is unmistakable.

Mike Popcorn: Red Bean Toast Flavour

Mike Popcorn is probably best known for their soy sauce butter flavour. However, like most Japanese snack brands, there are limited edition or seasonal flavours that come out every so often. One that caught my eye was the ogura toast flavour, probably because I live in the city who prides themselves on the red bean paste on toast culture (Nagoya). Ogura toast is usually sweet red bean paste spread atop of a well-buttered piece of white bread toast. Sometimes whipped cream is added or placed ontop of the red bean in place of butter, but Mike Popcorn uses the conventional butter and red bean combo.

The flavour of the red bean is quite prominent, slightly sweet and has a good adzuki  (red bean) aftertaste. Although it smelled like buttered popcorn, I didn't really get the sense of the butter flavour. I actually thought at one point that it almost tasted like the Corn Pops cereal!

Gisshiri Manzoku Choco-minto: Convenience Store Mint Chocolate Ice Cream

Lately I've had a craving for ice cream, particularly the sweet, but refreshing flavour of mint chocolate. Usually this flavour is found in to be in season at convenience stores around late autumn. You'll find not only mint chocolate ice cream, but also chocolates and other sweets made with this universal flavour.

Gisshiri Manzoku Choco-minto is one brand I found at Family Mart. Gisshiri, meaning packed, and manzoku, meaning satisfied, you can tell by the name that they try to fit as much chocolate in their ice cream as they can without loosing its ice cream feel. The little bits of crushed chocolate dispersed throughout the creaminess, make the texture have little crunch and ensures uniformity in every bite. It was a good balance of minty and sweet, leaving a refreshing aftertaste and coolness in the throat. I didn't get a sense of there being more chocolate than a conventional mint chocolate ice cream, but overall a nice mint chocolate.

Kitsune: A Great Casual Tempura Restaurant

A lot of tempura restaurants are fancy and it shows in the bill when you pay, however I recently visited a modern, casual tempura specialty restaurant and was very satisfied with the overall dining experience.

The "sign" outside Tampura Sakaba Kitsune restaurant

On a Friday night it might be best to make a reservation before you go, as I had to wait about 20 min to get a seat. Once seated, the menu was explained to us: there is an otoshi (an appetizer dish that acts a seating charge) of raw daikon and a miso meat dip of which both are all-you-can-eat, their signature item is the chicken breast tempura, there is a seasonal menu in addition to the main menu, and if you're a woman you can order one free alternative tempura dipping sauce flavour.

The first thing we ordered was a delicate tempura shiso leaf with an ikura (salmon fish roe) and grated daikon topping. It was wonderful and bursting with umami from the fish eggs and the aromatic crispy leaf. It definitely set the stage for what was to come.

Shiso tempura with ikura and grated daikon topping

We also ordered the signature chicken breast tempura which was unbelievably juicy, and the shrimp tempura which was so very plump. The dip that comes with it is the standard ten-tsuyu (dashi with soy sauce and mirin). This tempera was not oily at all, a good sign of a professional. What is interesting about this restaurant is that they also have tempura that is a bit unconventional such as uni sandwich (sea urchin tofu wrapped in seasoned Korean seaweed), pork negima (skewered pork and Japanese leek), seasoned soft-boiled egg, camembert cheese and honey (a bit dessert-like), and crab cream tempura (a tempura version of a cream croquette). All worked really well, I personally like the crab cream, with a soft and silky texture with a kani-miso (crab guts) sauce which accentuated the flavour of crab.

Chicken tempura on lower half

They do have an extensive list of non-fried items in case you need a break from tempura. For example we had aji ponzu (a type of fish sashimi with a ponzu sauce) which in my opinion needed a bit more ponzu. We also tried the garlic broccoli and squid saute, pickled cucumber (a bit too salty) and clams simmered in sake (a simple dish but the clams make the broth just perfect for a warm ending to the meal).

Area: a 1-minute walk from Iwatsuka station 岩塚駅  Higashiyama Line  東山線
Restaurant: Tempura Sakaba Kitsune 天ぷら酒場キツネ
Map: https://r.gnavi.co.jp/sr6nm5sr0000/map/
Hours: Weekdays 5-12pm (LO 11pm), Weekends and Holidays 3-12pm (LO 11pm)

Moomin Stand: A Part of the Newest Bubble Tea Trend

I finally got to a tapioca tea stand in the midst of this strongly going trend. It was a good rest after a long day of Christmas shopping.

When I first came to Japan and tried the bubble tea here, I thought it wasn’t very good, the bubbles were like Japanese jello or kanten that just breaks up in the mouth when you bite into them, or similar to another comparable Japanese food, konnyaku.

Hojicha milk tea

So let me tell you what I think of the new bubble tea trend. I tried the hojicha milk tea, which is still a Japanese flavoured drink. Had there been purple taro milk tea, I would have jumped at that, but perhaps that's a flavour seen more with the Taiwanese shops. The drink itself was sweet but not too sweet; I think a lot of the sweetness came naturally from the milk itself. It was a bit powdery but that may be because they use a fine powder of tea leaves much like matcha. There were no clumps of powder or anything though, it was pretty uniform. But then again, I remember the taro to be kind of powdery too...maybe that’s just how some bubble tea is supposed to be. The tapioca was more like the real Taiwanese bubble tea texture, soft but chewy. One of the newest trends of bubble tea now seems to be tapioca flavoured with kurozato (a dark brown sugar). They were mildy sweet with a hint of the dark sugar flavour coming through in the end, a good flavour changer that went well with hojicha. I’m thinking it goes well in this instance but sometimes the unflavoured pearls would be good in other variations. It’s a combination of sweet and sweet so sometimes I would want plain tapioca to mellow out the sweet, and be more of a just a textural addition. They also had a berry flavoured tapioca but the recommended flavour was the caramel kurozato.

Mozo Wondercity Mall Christmas Decor

Area: Kami Otai station (Tsurumai subway line) 上小田井駅, Mozo Wondercity Mall 1F
Shop: Moomin Stand ムーミンスタンド
Website: https://www.mozo-wondercity.com/shop/detail.php?shop_id=4687
Hours: 10am-10pm (LO 9:45pm)

Farm Banana Ice Cream

Banana juice seems to be a trend gaining in popularity these days. It's most often made by sticking a banana in a blender with some milk, or my mixing a banana flavoured syrup with milk. Especially with the version that uses a real banana, it is recommended to drink immediately before it starts to separate or change colour. Recently I've been craving a banana juice, but without owning a blender haven't been able to get my hands on one. This is where banana ice cream comes into the picture.

At a Family Mart convenience store I found a cup of Bokujo (Farm) Banana Ice Cream. I'm guessing they call Bokujo because perhaps it is made on a farm or using fresh milk. I thought it might satisfy my banana juice craving, and I was not wrong. The top layer consists of a plain soft ice cream. Underneath that is the banana part. If you take a look at the ingredients, real banana 'juice' was used!  Makes it feel like a healthy dessert with only 167 kcal in the whole cup. The banana layer is a bit more icy in texture compared to the top creamy layer, but that's expected if it's made mostly from the real fruit. It is sweet with a big banana punch that mixes perfectly well with the milk ice cream. They actually label this dessert as ice milk, not ice cream. A great cup of dairy and banana that doesn't have to be eaten right away.

Tirol Chocolate Flavour #6: Komeda Kissaten's Shiro Noir

6. Shiro Noir (2019)

I've only ever seen this flavour sold in packs like this

Komeda Kissaten is a cafe chain started in the city of Nagoya which is known all over Japan for their coffee culture. Their signature dessert is called the Shiro Noir, named for the contrast between the hot danish pastry and the cold soft ice cream topping. Tirol collaborated with Komeda to make this limited edition chocolate with all the flavours of the famous Shiro Noir.

Flavours: White chocolate, maple syrup, butter, ice cream

The white chocolate and maple syrup make this a very sweet Tirol. It has a nice crunch in the middle reflecting the flakiness of the buttery danish. The vanilla and white chocolate captures the flavour of soft ice cream well.