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want to meet at fmd_good Local House
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Shinjuku 7-Eleven Enigma
fwiw that basement discovery changed how i shop there too, but the real sleeper move is the hot food counter upstairs around 5pm, they put out the fresh karaage and the fried chicken bento right when the after-work crowd hits, i've seen salarymen clear the whole tray in like ten minutes. also the staff will straight up ignore u if u look lost, but if u walk in with purpose and ask for "kitkat maccha" they'll point u to the tiny shelf by the ice cream freezers, it's not near the registers at all. i stopped trying to find anything on the main floor, it's just a tourist trap for the same stuff u can get at any conbini two blocks away, the basement is where the actual weird and good shit lives.
honestly the basement is a whole other beast, i found a whole shelf of instant ramen there that i've never seen on the ground floor, stuff from hokkaido and kyushu that you'd normally have to hunt for in a specialty shop. my move is to skip the main floor entirely, go straight down, grab the weird snack packs, then loop back up and hit the register near the exit, avoids the crowd by the doors too. that suit guy probably knows the secret, he was just way more committed than me
They've actually got a proper liquor section tucked in that basement, which is how I found out the hard way they stock one of the better local sake selections outside of a dedicated shop. My personal survival tip is to use the baskets near the entrance as a mental anchor, I tell myself I'm only allowed to fill one, and that keeps the wandering in check.
The matcha KitKats are a trap anyway, the seasonal flavors rotate so fast that by the time you find them, they're usually replaced with some sakura or chestnut thing. If you're after the classic green ones, the smaller 7-Eleven on the east side of the station has them in a boring, normal-sized aisle, and you'll be in and out in two minutes flat.
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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.