The white rice thing, I think its because coconut milk isn't popular or native to Japan? In my country and neighbors in southeast asia, the rice used with sweets is as far as I know cooked with coconut milk. Or cooked with chocolate, a dead giveaway of where I'm from.
@@Exjapter We apparently do. Its basically a boiled dough made with glutinous rice flour then covered with sugar(unrefined sugar for authenticity if you want) and grated coconut and toasted sesame seeds. I just found out now that originally the glutinous rice was cooked first then pounded, so its a lot closer to mochi than I thought.
Interesting about chocolate and PB. It fits with some of what I have seen. When my oshi tours in the West her wota presents her with local snacks. It has become a tradition for her to do snack tastings. There are two things she has raved about. 1. Chocolate and PB. She just loves it. 2. Chocolate-covered pretzels. We have to make sure to include some in our "presento" because we know she loves it so much. As always thanks for the videos.
I've always been curious if natto is universally loved in Japan or just with certain groups? Also, I'm gonna heading to Japan very soon, any rec's for a place with excellent apple pie? Keep up the great work!
Natto is not universally loved in Japan by any means. For instance, Kansai people in general are less likely to eat it. As for pie recommendations, I don't have any particular one to be honest. They can be found almost anywhere - you just have to be careful because sometimes they will have custard or raisins in them as well. (I don't mind those additions, but my wife hates custard and the kid hates raisins.) One that we like and often buy is from a bakery in Hayama and Zushi called Ble Dore.
Fruit peeling is pretty common in Asia. I think the source is due to the skin been unclean and potentially contaminated by pesticides etc. I feel peanut butter and Chocolate combo is just not pleasing to Asian palette, and most Asian friends I had (that grew up in Asia) did not like that combo either. White rice in its normal cooked state should not be paired with sugar, I think most Asians would find that gross. But if you have rice porridge, I think sugar might be ok for the Japanese? At least in China for sick kids, you can mix some sugar into the rice porridge.
Any theories why the chocolate peanut butter doesn't work while chocolate peanuts does? That's what throws me - is it possibly a texture/mouthfeel thing?
@@Exjapter The proportions are wrong for a Reese cup. It's too much peanut butter. And peanut butter has too much salt in it, so the flavour seems harsh. Also the reese cup always had a chemical taste to me, because of how processed it is. A roasted peanut with chocolate coating has the correct proportion of sweet to salty, and the flavour of the peanut itself is much more pleasant than peanut butter.
Japanese peanut butter is too sweet for me. Good point on KFC. I would think extra cristy would be popular especially at Christmas. You could have a Merry Crispy Christmas😊
I think you are thinking about the peanut sweet cream. That has been a common thing in Japan forever but in the past 10 years you can find plenty of non-sweetened types. My local supermarkets sell Skippy. We buy unsweetened Smuckers brand from Kaldi.
The food mystery I'm wondering about is the Japanese obsession with white bread. You see bakeries that sell only one product--white bread and people are lined up as if it's the most gourmet delicacy you could ever wish for. Here in the States, white bread has been for at least several decades, looked down on as sort of cheap and low quality. What's with that?
Yes, there seems to be a strong aversion to other, 'stronger tasting', types of bread. At first I thought it might be due to it being most similar in (lack of) taste to white rice, except adding all sorts of mixtures to white rice (like brown rice, red beans, etc) is totally normal.
Your comment about not combining sweets with rice led me to think about how in “the West” we would react to pouring syrup or combining jam with our mashed potatoes… 🤔
@@Exjapter In Germany, potato pancakes are made with blended potates, flour, salt and onions, sauteed in oil and topped with apple sauce and sugar..... (yumm)
People put ketchup on fries here. Maybe that's your neck of the woods? What's strange is it doesn't come standard (or self serve) at McDonald's. And yes, mayo is way too popular here, although I must say Japanese mayo is better than US brands.
@@Exjapter Maybe… I’ve never been given any at a McDonald’s, Mos, KFC - not in any restaurant either. They have it, but it’s never offered. When you ask for it, you get a packet the size of a 1 yen coin 😂
