Kibun Yakiimo-fuu Toufu (baked sweet potato-style tofu) – 紀文 焼きいも風とうふ

So my no-dairy Lent has begun and when scouring the supermarket for new things to try I came across this intriguing item made by Kibun, which although not technically a snack or dessert can be eaten as such, and is certainly sweet enough to warrant a place in this blog.

Firstly I should state that the name of this product is vastly misleading. As it calls itself  ‘baked sweet potato-style tofu’ I assumed it was real tofu with artificial flavourings, when in fact the opposite is true: it uses natural satsumaimo paste but is not a fermented soybean product, being made instead from vegetable fibre and kudzu starch. So what you actually have is ‘sweet potato, tofu-style’.

The ‘tofu’ is a largish 120g block which comes in a sealed plastic container with a tab on the base that you can snap off to release the contents and turn it neatly out on to a plate. In the case of my purchase, the custard coloured cube was virtually unblemished and the surface was smooth and gleaming. Some small-print on the back of the packet stated that any black fragments in the product would be pieces of potato skin, but my piece was a perfectly clean golden-yellow all the way through.
The subtle smell is closer to steamed sweet potato than the rich, sometimes chokingly sweet aroma of freshly baked satsumaimo. I caught a hint of an almondy scent too, reminiscent of annindoufu (a Chinese tofu dessert flavoured with apricot kernel). The consistency is fairly firm – there is no wobble – but it melts in the mouth, although not quite as smoothly as pudding as there is a little pulpiness to the texture. Warming the product for 40 seconds in the microwave is recommended on the packaging, but I opted against this as I didn’t want to risk turning it into a mushy, wet mass, as I prefer a firmer texture.

The flavour is sweet and mild with an almond note to it and no trace of fermentation like you would get with real tofu. Basically it resembles a solid egg custard in all aspects, with a faint satsumaimo flavour. Unfortunately the pleasant aftertaste fades away very quickly and leaves your mouth watering for the next bite.

I was pleasantly surprised by this, largely due to the fact that I initially thought this was real tofu and was thus anticipating a less sweet taste and the slicker, wetter texture of soft tofu that I personally don’t like. I wasn’t convinced by the sweet potato flavour and honestly just felt like I was eating the center of custard tart, but that was delicious in itself. Despite not being made from soybeans, this still has one of the benefits of tofu in that it is low-calorie, at just 83kcal for the whole block, as well as being fat-free. I wouldn’t save this as a special treat but for a quick everyday snack I think it’s great and I’ll no doubt be eating it many more times before Lent is over.

7/10

Kibun Yakiimo-fuu Toufu  120g  83kcal

Doutor White Café Mocha – ドトール 白いカフェモカ

Just a super-quick review of another product that I picked up in my recent ‘saying goodbye to dairy’ phase: Doutor White Café Mocha. This has been around for quite a while now and I’ve always been tempted by the yummy-looking illustration of white chocolate on the cup, but tended to end up choosing candy over coffee.

Given the creamy colour of the cup, I was expecting the drink itself to also be a pale off-white hue, so was surprised when it turned out to be closer to milk tea. Similarly, I imagined the flavour would be extremely sweet and sickly (but in a delicious, white-chocolatey way), yet there was actually a good distinctive roasted coffee flavour. In retrospect I think I had rather overlooked the fact that this is made by Doutor, one of the most popular coffeehouses in Japan, and therefore ought to at least vaguely resemble coffee.

As the name and product design promise, it does taste of white chocolate, with perhaps a hint of light caramel to it. In fact as I drank it I thought it tasted exactly as though a large spoonful of condensed milk had been mixed into an ordinary latte – with wonderful results. What I found most satisfying about this product was the consistency. It’s been quite a while since I drank any kind of iced coffee, but I felt at once as though this was unique. The drink is utterly silky and smooth, yet it has a curious feeling of substance to it. I came across gelatine in the ingredients and I suspect that may be what creates the intriguing balance of creamy viscosity and liquid silkiness.

This has definitely put Doutor on my radar and I’d strongly recommend looking out for this and any other of their products.

8/10

Doutor White Café Mocha    131kcals

7-eleven Shirokuma Ichigo (strawberry shirokuma) – セブンイレブン 白くまいちご

Lent started today, and this year I’ve set myself the rather tough challenge of forgoing all dairy products, so over the past few days I’ve been taking advantage of my final chances to eat chocolate and ice cream before Easter. One thing I got a particular craving for was shirokuma. Shirokuma, or ‘polar bear’, is a crushed ice dessert made with condensed milk, that is usually topped with colourful fruits such as orange and pineapple. While 7-eleven does stock traditional shirokuma, I opted for the strawberry version, as it has a more generous helping of fruit.

Although this is apparently ‘premium’, it comes in a relatively cheap-looking yet sturdy plastic cup adorned with pictures of a cheerful white bear. At 245ml, I’d say this is on the large side for frozen dessert servings, though it’s still well under parfait size.

The top layer consists of chunks of frozen strawberry nestling against a little igloo of ice cream, with two blueberries peering out like beady black eyes. I attempted to eat this straight from the freezer but found that the frozen fruit numbed my teeth and due to the high water content of the strawberry it was almost like trying to bite into ice cubes, so I’d advise giving it a few minutes to thaw a little. It’s difficult to taste anything through the cold at first, but as the fruity pieces began to defrost they taste sweet, refreshingly tart, juicy and as fresh as frozen food can.

The ice cream has a lovely light, almost fluffiness to it, though no distinctive flavour besides the inherent creamy taste; I didn’t catch any hint of vanilla. Beneath the fruit is a layer of gooey condensed milk, with that perfect tang of intense sweetness that you expect.

The ice cream igloo is surrounded by a glistening moat of strawberry syrup (is this metaphor getting too convoluted?) which is extremely sugary in contrast to the slight sourness of the real fruit, but thankfully used sparingly. Hiding underneath all the various toppings is the finely crushed, milk-flavoured ice that forms the main bulk of this treat. A few flecks of freeze-dried berry look decorative against the white, but they are mostly too small to have any noticeable flavour.

The milk ice is delicious: it’s sweet but not overly so and is actually quite refreshing. The consistency is fairly grainy, meaning that it doesn’t start melting into a slush after five minutes – an important point for someone like me who likes to devote at least half an hour to consuming dessert. One of the best things I noted about this product is that the flavouring is consistent right down to the base, so you aren’t left with a disappointingly bland layer of unflavoured ice crystals at the bottom, as you might be with a slushie.

At the heart of the shirokuma is another reservoir of condensed milk, at least a good couple of tablespoonfuls, which intensifies the sweet milky flavour of the ice and creates an interesting contrast between the crisp frozen fragments and thick, sticky liquid.

Finally, in the very bottom of the cup, is bubblegum-pink strawberry sherbert. Unlike the denser ice cream atop the dessert, this pastel concoction is very wet and frothy, and apt to melt rapidly once exposed to room temperature. Personally I don’t enjoy foaminess, but I can appreciate that the sherbert contributes to giving this sweet a great range of textures, and it does go well with the condensed milk.

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: I’m always delighted with 7-eleven desserts because there are so many different ingredients, layers, flavours and textures in play, and Shirokuma Ichigo was no exception. The amount of condensed milk was just right and overall it was perfectly filling without being at all sickly. I only wish I hadn’t left it so close to Lent to review this, because I could really go for another one right now…

9/10

7-eleven Premium Shirokuma Ichigo 245ml  271kcals

Kabaya Puchi Pastel – カバヤ プチパステル （カラフルチョコスナック）

I’ve been wanting to try these since the first time I spotted them in the supermarket, not long after I moved to Hakodate, but for some reason it’s taken me over a year to make the purchase. I’d say it’s because they’re for children but in a country where every second thing has Hello Kitty on it, there’s no shame in buying cutesy candy, especially as someone who still looks like a high school student.

Puchi Pastel consists of two small packets of pastel-coloured biscuit balls partially embedded in cute chocolate shapes.

The cheerful colours and variety of designs was enough to appeal to me, so I was surprised upon opening the box to find an extra level of entertainment, in the form of a fortune wheel displaying a prediction for each of the chocolate forms.

Here are the items that were in my selection, and the corresponding readings:

Ice cream – You might stumble and fall 😦

Fluted cup – You could get a present

(back) Rocket – You may have a good dream   Heart – You may be able to talk to the person you like

(front) Blob monster – You might meet a monster   Pumpkin – Someone may get angry at you   Whale – A dog may bark at you

Others: Candy – Your wish may come true   Shuttle bus(?) – You may find the thing you’re looking for   Train(?) – You may be able to make up with someone you fell out with (sorry, these were very difficult to photograph…)

The fortune-telling element is a novel idea, I can see that this would be a lot of fun to share with friends, blindly picking candies one by one and finding out each other’s fates. Even without this added entertainment, not knowing what assortment of the fifteen shapes you’ll get keeps things fresh. With fifteen designs and five different colours of biscuit center the total number of possible combinations is pretty big.

But cute gimmicks aside, what about the actual product? Well…the chocolate is not good. The ingredients include a shining agent to bring lustre to the surface, but due to the simple packaging the pieces rub together, leaving them tarnished and dull. They have a pleasant hot chocolate aroma but fail to deliver on taste – the chocolate is oily and, despite an initial cocoa tang, overly sweet, to the extent that even just sucking one tiny piece was enough to induce a slight burn in the back of my throat, the way very sugary, low-grade chocolate is apt to do.

The little biscuit ball is slightly better. Its outer surface, probably also made using the shining addiditive, has no flavour, so it’s best to bite into the cookie as sucking it means working through the waxy layer before you can taste chocolate. The colourful chocolate is blandly sweet and milky, while the crunchy center has notes of vanilla and malted milk, which is quite nice overall. Fortunately there is not too much air in the biscuit, which creates a good crisp bite.

I had fun with Puchi Pastel, it’s cute, colourful and original. However, a large part of the appeal for me lay in the fortune-telling element, which wouldn’t be so fresh and entertaining if I were to buy this product a second time. Add to this the disappointing appearance of the candy itself and the sub-par quality of the chocolate and you’re left with something that’s average at best. Puchi Pastel could be fun to share and would make a nice gift for friends abroad who are into typical Japanese novelty confections, but as a whole package it didn’t impress me.

5/10

Kabaya Puchi Pastel  2 packs (22.5g x 2)  121kcal/pack