Planet Rinda

Snack Attack

     Yesterday’s post has gotten me thinking about food, particularly snack food (one of my personal favorites!).  So today, I want to talk about anime food.  Now, if you’re a fan of anime then you know what I mean.  If not, allow me to enlighten you.

     Basically anime food is Japanese snack foods.  Many of which are frequently seen in different animes or have become part of the Otaku community as favorite snacks to be eaten while watching anime. There are many different kinds of Japanese snack foods/anime snacks but I’m going to focus on my personal favorites or at least the ones that I’ve tried so far!

      Pocky! I love Pocky!  It’s crunchy.  It’s sweet.  And you can eat it with your hands!  The first time I tried Pocky was a couple years ago.  My boyfriend and I stumbled upon it in WalMart.  He, of course, knew what it was and was very excited with our discovery.  I was thinking, ‘It’s chocolate.  You can’t go wrong with chocolate.’ I soon discovered that regular Pocky was a chocolate dipped cookie stick.  It was tasty.  Not as sweet as most of the chocolate candy and cookies you can buy these days.  The chocolate was a touch sweeter than semi-sweet and a touch darker than milk chocolate.  An interesting experience overall.  And quite delicious with tea and coffee (or so I’m told.  I’m not a coffee drinker myself).  I liked it a lot.

     My next brush with Japanese snack food was at DragonCon that year.  DragonCon is a huge scifi/fantasy/insert favorite genre here convention.  In the dealer’s room, we found several different kinds of Pocky, tomato Pretz and Kasugi Gummy candy.  It was a monumentous day for me!  I absolutely adore tomato Pretz!  They’re similar to Pocky but Pretz generally aren’t sweet.  They’re savory, salty, little cracker/pretzel like sticks.  Tomato Pretz taste like an incredibly delicious Italian flavored bread stick.  They remain my favorite.  But there are several different flavors out there on my list to try soon.

     Kasugi Gummy candies are bite-sized bursts of fruit juice packed gummy candy.  They are also very delicious.  The orange, my favorite so far, tastes as if you’ve just bitten into a sweet, fresh orange.  It’s an amazing rush of flavor!  I’m sure the use of real fruit juice rather that the artificial stuff makes all the difference.

    Pocky itself comes in an amazing variety of flavors.  And they’re constantly bringing out new ones, especially the seasonal flavors.  It’s really popular in Japan and often shown being munched on in animes, for example Lucky Star.  It’s hard to pick one flavor of Pocky as my favorite.  I like the green tea mousse, which is hard to describe.  It’s not overly sweet but very creamy with a strong, distinct flavor of green tea.  The black sesame is delicious.  Again, not so sweet but more savory. It has a rich, dark taste that’s unique.  And it looks remarkably like a sparkler firework! 

     Then there’s the drinks.  Ramune, of course, is the star.  Ramune (also called lamune) is a lemonade-like soft drink that’s been around forever!  The bottle is a true challenge to open.  The first time I tried, I ended up wearing the ramune.  It’s available in a variety of flavors.  They’re lighter than what we’re used to drinking here in the US.  Not quite as sweet but very refreshing.  Pocari Sweat is a sports drink that’s light and sweet.  Don’t let the name put you off.  It’s a lot like Gatorade.  Tea is the most popular drink in Japan.  And you can get it bottled or canned in a variety of flavors from the American standard black tea to green tea to oolong tea or even Chrysanthemum tea.  It’s generally not sweetened and can come with or without milk.  And again, that’s just scratching the surface of what’s available!

      Wow!  There’s just so much out there.  So much that I haven’t tried yet.  So much to share with you.  I think I’ll save more for later.  Consider this dipping your toes in the anime snack pool.  Next time, we’ll go deeper.  Until then, go buy some!  If you can’t find it locally, there are several reputable online venues to explore.  My personal favorite is Asian Food Grocer.  The selection is good as are the prices but also the packages arrive safe and intact.  Something that’s really important if you’re ordering bottles of Ramune.  Some other places I can recommend are JBox, Anime Castle and Anime Nation.

Technorati Tags: anime, food, anime food, snacks, Japanese snacks, Otaku, Pocky, Green Tea Pocky, Black Sesame Pocky, Pretz, Tomato Pretz, Ramune, Pocari Sweat, Kasugai Gummy Candy, Kasugai, Gummy, Asian Food Grocer, Anime Nation, Anime Castle, JBox, DragonCon, Dragon Con