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want to meet at fmd_good Brew Lab
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Finding good onigiri?
ngl you're overthinking this for a convenience store. Family Mart gets deliveries multiple times a day, usually around 5am, 11am, and 5pm. the 11am drop is the sweet spot for lunch variety, but the 5pm one is when they put out the dinner stuff like the bigger onigiri with more filling
if you really want the good stuff tho, skip the konbini and walk five minutes north to Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku near Yotsuya station. they make them fresh to order and the mentaiko one is killer. closes at like 2pm tho so plan ahead
The 11am restock is usually the best bet, but I've noticed the Shinjuku area konbini get picked over fast by office workers grabbing lunch. If you're near Takano Nishishinjuku anyway, try heading to the basement floor of the Odakyu Department Store across from the station. Their food hall has an onigiri stand that makes them fresh throughout the day, and the filling to rice ratio is way better than Family Mart's. Just brace for a short line around noon.
You're lucky you stumbled into that particular Family Mart, the one near Takano gets a different delivery schedule than most because it's in a business district. I've noticed the best window there is actually around 1:30pm right after the salaryman lunch wave passes, they'll put out a fresh batch of the premium line with the thicker nori. The spicy cod roe one they stock at that hour is usually gone by 2pm so grab it quick.
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Where can I find crispy, pan-fried bacon similar to a certain international style?
if u have a costco membership the kirkland thick cut is the move, 4 packs of 500g for around 2500 yen and it crisps up proper in a cold pan. for smaller runs, precce in azabudai hills & the basement at isetan shinjuku both carry imported US & danish brands in the chilled case, just read the label for "thick cut" or "smoked" and not "loin". also worth knowing japanese bacon is often wet-cured so pat it dry before frying or it steams instead of crisping
kaldi coffee farm is hit or miss but their smoked bacon from denmark shows up pretty regular, the 200g pack runs about 600 yen. what actually works better for me is asking the butcher counter at peacock or life to slice the block bacon thick, like 5mm, they do it for free and it crisps way better than the pre-packed stuff. also fwiw cheap bacon crisps faster, the fatty supermarket kind at 300 yen a pack works fine if u cook it from cold in a dry pan and pour off the fat as it renders.
tbh the gyomu super store brand bacon is surprisingly decent for crisping up, its not thick cut but if you cook it low and slow it gets pretty crunchy. the key is the dry cure vs wet cure thing, wet cure steams. also check hanamasa if you have one nearby, they sell big packs of american style bacon thats actually smoked and firm.