Samples and Food

Adrienne has been trying to argue that all foods should be tasted at least once.  This includes the many forms of Japanese candy, as well as the vast array of pickled things.  There are a shocking number of pickled foods, much more than the ginger you see in the states.  The challenge in this is that food, like most things in Japan, is really expensive.  What if you fork over the money to taste something and find that it’s disgusting?   

Sweets!  These can be great or terrible, depending on filling.

Here’s where the Japanese tendency to have samples saves you.   

We have tried a wide array of pickled things from items that appear to be some type of root vegetable to fruit.  We have also tried many forms of the Japanese sweets.  Including one today that had a thick, sweet, somewhat translucent wrapper filled with a red beans mixture (seriously).  The wrapper was good, the stuffing not so much.  Dina couldn’t do it. Adrienne's suggestion was to, "just swallow it."  

Adrienne couldn't even get these down.

We have also experimented with various forms of street food.  In Nishiki market, this did not go terribly well.  Items that we were told did not contain fish (we think - the language barrier is an adventure), certainly tasted like they did.  I suspect they would have tasted better if they were hot, but they were cold and pretty gross.  The next day in Arashiyama, we had 100 yen fried potato, onion things that were delicious, pork and veggies on a stick, and a noodle bowl.  All eaten while walking or sitting outside, a much better experience.  

This was delicious!

We also sampled the vending machine drinks... that will be saved for another post.