Supermarket items (1)

As mentioned in this post, I thought I'd post about the items I bought from the supermarket that day. Note that prices are just what I happened to pay that day, and the actual price varies depending on store and area. ^_^

This apple juice is the long-life kind. I can't drink fresh juice fast enough. However, fresh juice is cheaper than in Australia, you can easily get 1L for about 120 yen ($1.50). This ?800g bottle was 300 yen ($3.50). Hmm... I didn't realise it was only 800g. That seems overpriced to me. I should switch back to fresh!

When buying juice, the key kanji are 果汁 (kajuu, it means 'fruit juice'). If you see 果汁100% it means 100% fruit juice.

Chu-hi. This is like a soft drink with alcohol. It's similar in taste to a Vodka Cruiser or a Smirnoff lemon drink, I guess. The alcohol in chu-his is usually shochu. You can also get 'STRONG' chu-his which have 8% alcohol. Regular chu-his can be anywhere from 4-7% alcohol. This one here is 6%, which I think is a good balance. The STRONG ones are really good, I must admit, if you want to get drunk quickly. Not that I would advocate such a thing, obviously. Drink responsibly.

This grapefruit chu-hi (果汁 3%), also, is labelled 'zero'. Usually that is in reference to calories, but this drink does not have 0 calories, so I don't really understand... I have a wee bit of a weakness for chu-his. At my supermarket they're only 98 yen ($1.20) for a 350ml can. Japanese alcohol is generally *much* cheaper than Australian.

Gouda cheese. I mentioned in my supermarket post that decent cheese is hard to come by. According to this post on the Japanese Snack Reviews blog, Japanese people eat far more processed cheese (relative to natural cheese) than any other country. I am not at all surprised to hear that.

Neither of the supermarkets I frequent sell nice cheese, so when was in an unfamiliar supermarket and saw this gouda cheese - an old favourite from Yokohama days - I snatched it up. It tastes good. ^_^ Similar to what we'd call 'tasty cheese' in Australia.

It was about 180 yen ($2.10) for 50g. For point of comparison, Coles (in Australia) is currently selling a 750g block of Tasty Cheese for $7. If you bought 750g of this gouda, it'd cost over $30.

Karubi-don. This was from the ready-made meal section of the supermarket. Basically it's gyuudon, but with karubi (a type of beef, popular in yakiniku ^_^) - beef on rice. Yummy. You can probably see in this picture that there's bright pink stuff in the corner. This is beni shouga, a pickled ginger that is a popular condiment in yakisoba, curry rice and various other dishes. It tastes very sour. Happily, I managed to eat all of this karubi-don without getting any beni shouga in my mouth. ^_^

Meiji chocolate. Recently I've been enjoying Japanese Snack Reviews. Since reading it, I've felt inspired to try the odd snack and sweet that I wouldn't usually buy. I have a bad habit of finding something I like and then buying it again and again. And despite living in Japan, I'm constantly eating Tim Tams.

This was about 100 yen ($1.20). After trying this chocolate, I would say: I like Tim Tams better. Hahaha. This chocolate is slightly bitter for my taste. More bitter than I would imagine 'milk' chocolate to be. I do like the packaging though. Japanese chocolate bars look really cool and stylish, I think. They make me think of the chocolate bars in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I bought other items today, and shall post about them in due course. ^_^