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Seven Eleven Mystery
haha yeah that store is basically a testing ground for Seven's R&D. I live a few blocks away and I've seen some real headscratchers over the years. The one that still haunts me was a "ume and mentaiko" combo from maybe 2021. It sounded like it should work but the salty fish roe and the sour plum just fought each other. Another time they had a "sweet potato and butter" one that was more like a dessert, honestly just tasted like a warm buttered sweet potato which is fine but not what you want from a rice ball. The weirdest thing is they'll put something out on a tuesday and if it doesn't sell by thursday its gone forever, so you gotta act fast if you see something crazy.
honestly the weirdest one i ever saw was a mentaiko and cream cheese combo a couple years back at that exact same seven eleven. it was a limited run for like a week maybe. i tried it and it wasnt bad but it felt wrong, like eating a bagel without the bagel. the 5-chome kita location gets some weird test batches cause its near the big office towers, the lunch crowd there will buy anything once.
That specific Nishishinjuku location gets some wild test products because it's one of the company's own test stores. I remember seeing a "tuna and wasabi stem" onigiri there a couple years ago that was just aggressively spicy, not in a good way. The weirdest one I've actually seen anywhere in Tokyo was a limited "Japanese-style curry with chocolate" onigiri that tasted like someone dropped a curry bun into a dessert. It only lasted about two days on the shelf.
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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.