Weird Food Roundup 2014

Maybe it dates back to the ancient Japanese aesthetic idea that true beauty can only be fleeting. Maybe it's a nod to this country's all important four separate and completely different seasons. Or maybe it's simply a byproduct of a consumer-driven economy obsessed with fads. Whatever the reason(s), Japan loves special edition and limited-time-only food products.
And weirder is always better.
Here are some of the best and weirdest foods I tried in 2014.

Let's start things off in the traditional arena of sushi. The export of this most iconic of Japanese foods has led to some very non-Japanese versions of sushi in other countries. I'm sure most people are aware that the "California Roll," "Philadelphia Roll," and any sushi roll that has been deep-fried was not invented in Japan. But did you know that Japan does, in fact, have weird sushi of their own? At one kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant chain in particular, called Uobei, there are all sorts of non-aquatic and not raw ingredients topping the rice. Examples include their standard hamburger patty sushi as well as these two delicious, seasonal gems:

Butakakuni nigiri, braised pork belly sushi.

Chijimi nigiri, Korean pancake sushi.

Meanwhile in the snack food arena... Potato and tortilla chips are so often updated with special flavors, pretty much any taste you could think of has or will soon be a chip flavor in Japan.

Eggs Benedict potato chips.

Brunch is finally catching on in Tokyo, so I get where they were coming from, but these were pretty gross tasting.

Corn Cream Stew Doritos

Not only are these Doritos "Corn Cream Stew" flavored, they are also shaped like Christmas Trees. Because everyone knows you eat corn stew on Christmas...(?) These may be the weirdest chips I have ever seen, but they were shockingly not as bad as you'd expect. Also, in case you can't see it in the picture, it says "Doritos Rock'n' White" on the top of the bag. (???)









Now on to the drink category:

Pink Pepsi?
Oh, like, for Breast Cancer awareness month?
No, it came out in December...
???

In Japan, Pepsi is known for producing limited-time-only flavors. (I've tasted many weirdos in the past including Salty Watermelon and Baobab Tree, though I never had the opportunity to sip the infamously disgusting Ice Cucumber flavor.) 2014 was surprisingly slow for strange Pepsi flavors, however, but they did manage to put this "pink COLA" out in December. CLEARLY marketed toward the Ladies, it tasted of strawberries and perfume...bleh.

Gari Gari Kun Sour

I came across a Gari Gari Kun Sour at an odd izakaya that specializes in weird meats (think camel, raw goat, and crocodile tongue). That in and of itself isn't so special, but the popsicle in the drink is one that is famous for coming up with crazy flavors for all the kiddies to try. Past Gari Gari's have included Corn Potage Soup and Neapolitan Pasta, in addition to lots of lovely normal flavors like Mikan with actual chunks of fruit.








And finally, we come to the hamburgers. In September, the Burger King Black Burger was big news all around the world. After (and, I assume, thanks to) that, there were black-bunned burgers coming out from all the major burger players! Here's the rundown.

BK Black Burger

Contestant #1

The first of the black burgers, came out in September on the same weekend as Tokyo Game Show (so all the foreign games journalists were able to have awesome "unwrapping" videos...Ugh, is that still a thing? I only just found out that that was a thing when I saw three different games journalists who were not in my party, which included two games journalists, doing it at Burger King when I was there and I am already over it...). Anyway, they had two versions, "Pearl," which was just the black bun and black cheese (dyed with bamboo charcoal), and black garlic sauce (dyed with squid ink), as well as the "Diamond," which was all that plus tomatoes and lettuce. I thought the latter would taste better, and turned out I was right (I guess?). All in all it tasted like a normal, fast food burger.

Black Witch Burger and White Ghost Chiken Sandwich.
Ooooooohhhh, Halloweeeeeeny

Contestant #2

Following BK's burger smash hit, MacDonald's came out with both a black AND white burger for Halloween. The black burger, meant to be reminiscent of witches, you see, was a cheeseburger with spicy sauce and fried onions. The white ghost burger was a fried chicken fillet with camembert cheese sauce. Both were indescribably delicious (though that may have had something to do with the fact that they were consumed on the afternoon following a housewarming party where MUCH alcohol was consumed...). Also, please note that these were cut in half and split between two people, so only one MacDonald's sandwich was consumed per person. But anyway, ooooohhhh, spoooooky!

GHOSTBUSTERS BURGER!!!!

Contestant #3

J.S. Burgers Cafe (owned and operated by Japanese clothing brand Journal Standard) and Ghostbusters collaborated (for some unclear reason) on a "Black Buns Mozzarella Burger."
Now, the Journal Standard clothing shops don't offer anything I'm interested in, but for some reason I have yet to discover, both their pancake restaurants and hamburger restaurants are top notch. (Yes, I know that seems weird that a clothing store has two separate restaurant chains devoted to pancakes and hamburgers respectively, but the food is really good, so who am I to complain?)
Anyway, this burger was up to their normal, much better than fast food (journal) standard, but not neccesarily better than anything else they serve.
I suppose that means that this burger should win the 'most delicious black-bunned burger' award, but that's not a real award anyway and I'll be damned if anything tastes better than junk food on a hungover afternoon...

That just about sums up the weird foods of 2014 that I ate, though there were many more that I didn't have the chance to try. Here's hoping that 2015 will be just as ridiculous and delicious.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

No, I am NOT engaged...

Every year, Pepsi comes out with one or two limited-time-only flavors throughout the year. Others in the past have included Pepsi Azuki (red bean), Pepsi Shiso, and Pepsi Ice Cucumber. The new one for this summer has arrived and, I think, blows all of the competition out of the water in terms of bizarre flavor ideas:
Yes, Pepsi Baobab, inventive indeed. According to the label, they "Used the baobab trees that tower over the African plains as a motif to create a refreshing cola brimming with a sense of openness!" Based on that description, it's not really clear if they actually used the flavor of the baobab fruit, but it has an earthy-herby taste that is pretty good (and tastes even better mixed with Malibu, heh-heh).

In non-beverage related news, I recently went to a talk by a professor who did anthropological research on the host industry in Japan. It was a really interesting presentation that offered some great insights into the reasoning behind both the hosts and their clients. The event took place in an informal setting with exchange students and normal students as well as other professors and a few non-students like me. A home-cooked dinner was served before the presentation, and it was then that I had the following, not quite as interesting, but much more ridiculous, conversation with a Japanese girl:

Japanese Girl: What year are you in school?
Me: I'm not a student anymore, I'm already working.
JG: Oh, what do you do in Japan?
Me: I'm a translator.
JG: Oh, wow, neat.
Me: Yeah, I like it.
(a few minutes later)
JG: Ooo, can I see your engagement ring?
Me: (while showing her the ring I'm wearing on my right hand) Um, sure, here's my ring, but it isn't an engagement ring...see, people wear those on their left hands.
JG: So, is your fiance Japanese?
Me: Uh...I don't have a fiance...like I said, this is not an engagement ring.
(a few minutes later)
JG: So is the wedding going to be in Japan?
Me: Um, OK, like I said, I am not engaged...I don't even have a boyfriend...
JG: But you said you were engaged!
Me: No, I said I was not engaged...
JG: Yes you did!
Me: Uh...when?
JG: At the beginning of our conversation.
Me: Yeah, I don't remember saying that... I am not engaged, so you must have misheard me or something...

And then I just kinda stopped talking to her.
Later, I realized that she had misheard when I said "I am a translator" (honyakusha) and thought I had said "I am a fiance" (konyakusha).
So through this conversation, I learned:

1. The response I get from a Japanese person if I tell them I am engaged, is the exact same response I always get when I tell them I am a translator, "Oh, wow, neat." (Which is why I did not realize right away that she had made a mistake...because I probably would have realized something was amiss if she had said, you know, "congratulations" or something.) So, is getting engaged not really that big of a deal? Or is being a translator really, really exciting?

2. Answering "I am a fiance." in response to her question "What do you do in Japan?" really doesn't make much sense grammatically. Yet rather than think it was strange and ask me again to make sure she had heard me properly, she just assumed I had terrible Japanese (as I suppose a foreign mail-order bride who really is in Japan to "be a fiance" might have). So terrible in fact that, no matter how many times I told her, "I am not engaged" she refused to believe it. So, now I know that if someone mishears a foreigner in the same way they might mishear a Japanese person, they will just assume that it is the foreign speaker's fault and go along with whatever implausible thing they thought the person said... (I know that I did not mispronounce the name of my profession, since someone else misheard it in the same way when a Japanese professor said the same word...)