Wednesday, May 14, 2003

NyanNyanNyanko [e link - j link]
brought to you by San-X

I adore Nyanko. Let's start by quoting the charmingly Japlish-English website, shall we?

What's NyanNyanNyanko?

On first sight, it is just a standard kitty. But Nyanko is good with "mimic" something (especially food)
Remember it's not edible.

A lot of curiosity and cute but
Get tired of things quickly.

Yes, it's a cat that loves to pretend to be food. This tickles every stupid love of Japanese culture that I could possibly harbour. If you haven't seen the dizzy heights that plush food can hit, there are a crapload of goods to drool at just over there.

Unfortunately the general quality of San-X goods means that everything to do with Nyanko is hella expensive, but I can wait. (You have no idea how close I was to buying the Nyanko tempura with my last J-list order...) I dearly want the party set, the dumpling set and the desserts. Aiiieeee.

Nyanko is also a major inspiration for SBM's Tabeshounen, which you may hear more about soon enough!

Posted by Pirotess @ 09:48 PM AEST [Entry and Comments]

Monday, May 5, 2003

Nissin Donbei Kitsune Udon

First of all, I can't begin to describe how much fun it is to find a new Asian grocery with cool stuff in it. (More on that later.) This instant udon pack is a very handy little work lunch, if a little on the pricey side. It makes up for the pricey by beating the absolute crap out of anything I could possibly be having for lunch instead. :D

The package contains dry udon noodles and vegetables, a soup base sachet, a fishcake and a freeze-dried piece of inari (sweet deep-fried tofu). You empty the sachet into the bowl, peel back the lid, pour in hot water up to the line, then pop the lid back on and wait for five minutes. When you open it up again - ta-dah! A magical wonderful kitsune udon bowl!

Of course, being dried instant, the noodles will never have quite the beautiful chewy quality that I normally get when I make udon using instant fresh noodles. If you're fairly used to restaurant udon, you probably cop this type of noodle all the time anyway. The soup is quite nice, as is the fishcake; however, the nicest bit has got to be the inari. I don't know exactly what they've done to it, but that five minutes of steaming just has it reverting back to sweet, tofu-ey perfection. It was a freezing day outside today, but this noodle bowl kept me plenty nice and warm! I just wish I could afford it for lunch more often...

Posted by Pirotess @ 11:51 PM AEST [Entry and Comments]