Baby Food Exposé

 

Back when I was pregnant, I did some recon on the jarred baby food sold here.  At the time I was flabbergasted (and a little sickened) to discover some of the flavors that are sold:

 

 

Rice Porridge with Flatfish & Vegetables

Codfish, Tuna & Vegetable Risotto

Tuna & Vegetable Curry

But, I guess if fish is going to be a integral part of a baby's diet, best to get them started early.  These photos were at a Baby's R Us a couple of towns over.  They also had applesauce, peas, carrots and some other more "normal" stuff. 

Now that I'm close to the point where I'll have to actually use baby food I went back to my local Baby's R Us for a second round of recon.  And not only did I not find any normal stuff this time, I found the pièce de résistance of Japanese baby food:

Vegetables & Horse Meat in Cream Sauce

I nearly fell over.  Fortunately I have the time and inclination to make most of Cora's baby food and was just going to use the jars as backups.  But now that I know they'll put horse meat in it I'm not giving her any of it and will just order backup jars off the Internet.  I mean....horse meat.  Horse meat.

Gag. 

Hope it's not mealtime for you.
 

And the Adventures Continue....

We've been back in Japan for almost two weeks and for various reasons I am just now getting back to blogging. I promise to do better - I got so many great comments about the blog when we were back home. I appreciate all my loyal readers!

And I've got some posts planned for the new year, including the long-awaited bombshell about Japanese baby food (how's that for a teaser?). We've got a trip to Osaka planned for next month so be on the lookout for that. Also, I am officially soliciting for blog topics. If there is anything specific you would like to know about Japan please put it in the comments and I'll attempt to answer. I've had several people tell me they had trouble commenting (specifically the part where you indicate who you are) so here's some tips on how to do it:

1. Under the "comment as" dropdown box choose "name/URL". A white box will pop up.
2. Type your name in the name box and leave the URL box blank.
3. Click "Continue".
4. Click the "Publish" button.

Also, as I write this, it's snowing here! Which is nice...if it's got to be ridiculously cold, it should at least be pretty!

Happy New Year everyone!

Happy Christmas, Japan-Style!

Some of you know that as you read this, we are back in the US celebrating Christmas with family.  I scheduled this post to go out back in early November because that's when the Christmas catalogs started appearing.  No, I don't mean toy catalogs.  I'm referring to the catalogs that supermarkets and convenience stores put out with all the food you can order for the holidays.  I didn't do this post last year because I wanted to wait until we actually had some experience with ordering the holiday food, but at the rate we're going we'll never actually be here at Christmas.  So here it is.

You may have heard about how Japanese people go to Kentucky Fried Chicken for their Christmas dinner.  It's true, many years ago KFC was the closest you could get to an American holiday-type meal here and the KFC advertisers took diabolical advantage of it by convincing the Japanese that everyone in the US eats restaurant fried chicken at Christmas.  And since Christmas is only celebrated as a fun, secular, western holiday here, they believed it.   So as it nears Christmas you'll see a sign-up sheet outside KFC where people sign up for their holiday meal.  When you try to explain to a Japanese person the reality of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce they just get kinda confused.  As far as I can tell turkey isn't a very popular meat here although you can find a few Butterballs at Costco and you can order them online through the Foreign Buyer's Club.

last year's KFC sign-up sheet and advertising

The other food you have to have at Christmas is cake.  Most supermarkets and bakeries do a booming business selling elaborate cakes that you pre-order and then pick up at Christmas.  They have catalogs that you can get in November with all the cake options listed. 

By far the most fun is the 7-Eleven catalog.  Now, this seems like a pretty ghetto place to get your Christmas food, but I'm not sure if that holds true for the Japanese people.  It does seem like more people go to the supermarket and do their ordering, based on the crowds.  Anyway, we always pick up a 7-11 catalog for sheer entertainment value.

I particularly like this year's catalog cover because it depicts a little scene of Christmas houses.  Notice that the houses are western (including a church), the little people are Japanese, there are dudes running across the roofs and a half-dressed lady is hanging out an upper window.    And, of course, a 7-11 is prominently featured.

The hugely famous pop group AKB48 is prominently featured in the 7-11 catalogs. 

I particularly like their exclamations over the chocolate fountain. (BTW, wouldn't a chocolate fountain be awesome at Christmas dinner?  Who needs pie?)

Here's your roast chicken, sandwich tray and wine options....

 And your cake, which can run anywhere from $20 - $70.  I'm not sure how much the cakes are at supermarkets and bakeries but I'm betting they're more.

So if you're sitting around with your family over the holidays, trying to figure out what to eat, pretend you're in Japan and get some KFC and cake! :)  Happy Holidays!!