Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

Food and Drink

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New Year nibbles

For those still feeling a little queasy after some overly exuberant end-of-year excess, indulging in the delicacy of Bizen, Okayama Prefecture, probably wouldn’t be the best of ideas. As quite bizarrely, the mollusc loving maniacs have mind-bogglingly decided to create kaki soft — a heady mix of an ice cream cone topped with two fried oysters.

oyster ice cream

Whether vanilla, strawberry or even the slightly more daring mint choc chip flavour goes best with the soy sauce drizzled oysters wasn’t disclosed, although on a good day around one hundred of the concoctions are apparently consumed.

Tempted?

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Food for thought

Extensive research involving quickly flicking through the freely available terrestrial channels, found that 99.8% of Japanese television programmes are food related — whether creating, consuming or simply going cock-a-hoop over the stuff.

A sorry state of affairs that leaves those not exactly obsessed with food somewhat starved of entertainment, although thankfully there is the odd exception.

sexy japanese tv

Cleverly combining cooking and scantily-clad young ladies, the far from comatose contestants have to try and keep track of how each tasty little dish is made, rather than greedily feasting their eyes on the far more fruitier offerings on display.

An approach that if embraced by all the channels would surely fail to go stale, the endless variations of recipes and raiment keeping customers more than happy.

sexy japanese tv

Such a bold move perhaps also causing cooking fans to conjure up very different images whenever the name of famed TV chef Fanny Cradock is banded about.

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Donut dementia

Despite several other outlets serving similarly sweet foodstuffs — and a few further factors facing the new franchise — the Japanese mantra of ‘if it’s new, we will come — en masse’ has once again been put into effect, with the first Krispy Kreme shop in Japan receiving the customary fad-based fanfare over the weekend.

And whilst the elderly security guard fortunately found the crowd sedate as well as sweet-toothed, the huge amount of people was reminiscent of the recent PlayStation 3 pandemonium.

Which in 6 months time could well have dwindled to a couple of foreigners and the odd donut devotee.

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Metabolic ministers

In a bid to promote healthy living and at the same time combat Japan’s growing obesity problems, two Japanese health ministers have started a website to document their fight against getting fatter.

Both Noritoshi Ishida and Keizo Takemi have been diagnosed with so-called metabolic syndrome, which in layman’s terms appears to mean the possession of a big belly – the pair’s relatively ample abdomens having been measured at the outset of the six-month experiment.

noritoshi ishida and keizo takemi

From their comments, the two men seem intent on succeeding, with Ishida-san (left) explaining, “I have given myself a challenge and decided to open up the diary of my struggle.” The 55-year-old boasting that he will now only use elevators as a last resort, drink just one beer a day, and last but not least, try to walk a whopping 10 minutes a day.

Tubby Takemi is equally gung-ho about getting rid of a bit of girth, although he is well aware of the coming difficulties. “I will be under pressure to make a very serious effort, as I love delicious food. But I want to send a message: ‘If Takemi can do it, everybody can’ ”. An assertion that was immediately backed up by the minister’s pledge to practically starve himself by limiting his dessert intake to a measly one helping a day.

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Beaujolais bath

Japan may well be the world’s largest importer of Beaujolais Nouveau — having overtaken the United States in 2004 — but it appears that many Japanese wine drinkers have begun to wake up to the fact that despite all the fanfare, the fruity tipple is more than a tad overrated.

So much so in fact, that a group of wealthy wine lovers in Hakone, near Tokyo, opted to rather wastefully have a wash in the stuff.

beaujolais japan

One off the group cheekily chirping, “At least it has a bit of body now.”

Or something along those lines.

Perhaps.

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Dolphin delicacy

Perhaps in a bid to make people think that Japanese ‘scientific’ whale hunting isn’t really that bad after all, fisherman in Wakayama Prefecture have been conscientiously continuing their regular cetacean cull; a busy day on the boats last Saturday alone resulting in around 128 dead dolphins.

Yet it may not be only the dolphins that suffer from such activities, as the potentially high levels of mercury in the resultant meat is far from healthy. A fact that prompted Health Sciences University Professor Tetsuya Endo to confess, “To be honest, I’m worried about people who eat too much of it. There is a range in the concentrations (of mercury in meat) and averages may be low, but a consumer may have bad luck and get a high-density serving. Japanese people have their choice of food. Why eat something dangerous?”

But despite such choice people still eat the stuff, with supermarkets preparing the product by balancing the amount of fat, meat and skin in each portion. A delicacy that may not look to be bad in its traditional setting of a miso-flavoured stew, but in its natural form, ‘appetising’ isn’t exactly the first word that springs to mind.

dolphin meat

Tempted?