Edamame beans

I think edamame beans are Japanese stuff, but surprisingly they have been seen many places such as Japanese restaurants and grocery stores.
In Japanese "eda" means a blanch of a plant and "mame " means beans.

Edamame reminds people of beer in summer season. It is like peanuts, buffalo chicken wing, or nachos. Something good with beer.

What I heard the reason edamame is famous in US is its high protein and low calory.

I found the package of the edamame in the picture at a Korean grocery store.
It costs $ 1.39. It's inexpensive so I often buy this one.
Since it's sold at a Korean store, maybe Korean and Chinese people eat this beans too.
The letter on the package is not in Japanese so this stuff is for Chinese, I guess.

Once I brought one bag of edamame to a party, but a Taiwanese friend did not know about this beans. It might not be consumed in Taiwan though we had a fun with eating edamame and drinking beer.



Edamame beans

Koshihikari, King of the Japanese rice

Not only in Rochester, but several kinds of Japanese rice whose shape is more round than jasmin rice have been sold in the entire U.S. Some of the rice brand are Nishiki, Kagayaki, and Tamaki.

There are no asian grocery store run by japanese in Rochester, I think. Most of the Japanese stuff are sold in Korian or Chinese grocery stores. I often go to a Korian store to buy a bag of Japanese rice, some vegetables, frozen foods.
Natto(beans, let's just say here) is not frozen foods, but here it is kept in the freezer.
I tried a couple of times and the taste is OK. It costs a little higher than that sold in Japan.

Last weekend I went to the Korian store and found a bag of Koshihikari (picture), which I never saw before. "Koshihikari" is very famous as delicious rice in Japan. As it is known, the price is a little more expensive than other rice brands.
Here a bag of japanese rice(20lb) costs around 12-15 dollers, but this Koshihikari weigh 15lb and costs 13 dollers. Honestly, the taste is the same as other Japanese rices....



koshihikari

Starbucks in Japan

I had gone back to Japan in the middle of Februrary even thought the school was in session.
It was my long vacation combining Thanksgiving, Christmas and New year.

It has been one year since I came back to Japan January 2004. Nothing changed much, but one thing that I noticed was a number of Starbucks coffee shops.
They keep opening stores in a city like Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Fukuoka,...,but
there are few Starbucks in rural regions such as Shikoku island and Sanin region.
This makes people living in those regions think that having a coffee at a Starbucks indicates higher status of life. Well, I think Japan needs more Starbucks....

The picture here was taken at a Starbucks in Yokohama.
My breakfast was a tall coffee and ham and egg sandwich, which
this type of sandwiches cannot be seen at Starbucks in the U.S.
When I came to the US, I was confused that people call a cheese burger as a "sandwich".
That is because people in Japan call this bread and some ingredients like tomato in the picture a "sandwich".
There is usually no peanuts butter and no musterd, but slices of breads are very soft.
This sandwich is not only at Starbucks.

If you have a chance to visit to Japan, try this sandwich.



starbucks in Japan