Caviar is one of the most expensive foods in the world. There's a good reason for that: the Caspian sturgeon that the eggs come from are rare and getting even more so as the demand for caviar grows. One way to to alleviate the strain on those giant fish is to create an imitation caviar, and that's what one Japanese company has done.
According to Inventor Spot, the Hokuyu Company makes an imitation called Cavianne that looks very similar to the original. They say that it is also lower in calories than black caviar (which I had no idea was high in calories), in addition to being a way to stop the poaching and pollution that go into obtaining the real thing.
Cavianne has been around for a few years, now, but it's mainly sold wholesale to restaurants and hotels in Japan. Apparently the taste isn't quite up to snuff, but its inventor, Susumu Mikami, says that if he can get the taste of Cavianne closer to the real thing then his company will try to export it globally.
I think I've heard of mangosteens before, at least I've heard the name. Apparently, though, the tropical fruit is all the rage in Japan.
According to this post from InventorSpot, mangosteens, or juice drinks made from them, are very popular in Japan right now because they're supposed to be high in antioxidants and ward off cancer in mice (though that hasn't been tested in humans).
Mangosteens are originally from Thailand, but they're difficult to export from the region because they are so preishable. Also, the tree can only be grown in tropical climates. Those factors make even pureés made from Mangosteens pretty expensive anywhere outside of Southeast Asia.
Now that I know a little more about the fruit I'm curious about it. Have any of you had mangosteen? What do you think about it?
Apparently that's how some people do things in Japan. One gift that you can give a new mother is a bag of rice with the new baby's image on it. Oh, and the bag of rice weighs the same amount that the new baby does.
There are some funny gifts out there. As the writer of this InventorSpot post asks: what do you do with the bag? I hope that you're not meant to eat something that represents your new baby. Big yuck factor there.
A black watermelon fetched $6,100 at a Japanese auction on Friday, making it one of the most expensive melons ever sold.
The 17-pound black-skinned "Densuke" watermelon drew the unusually high price or its rare color. It is said to have an extraordinarily delicate taste and perfume. The purchase came on the heels of another record fruit auction - a pair of cantaloupes went for $23,500 last month.
In Japan, where specially cultivated "gift fruits" are given as presents and tokens of respect, melons usually retail for upwards of $100. These special fruits are grown in air-conditioned greenhouses lined with rich soil. Growers only allow three melons to grow on each plant, and when the baby melons are the size of a fist, two are chopped off to allow the best one to suck all the nourishment from the vine. The "perfect" melon is then wrapped in fine tissue papers and sold in a carved wooden box. A gift pear can cost $40, 10 ounces of cultivated winter cherries might sell for $400.
Yes, there are regular fruits too. A conventionally grown melon might retail for $5.
Even though it's been sold in Japan for more than 50 years, Coca-Cola has only just received trademark recognition for its iconic bottle. The elongated hourglass bottle became a registered U.S. trademark in 1960 and is honored by Russia and China, among other nations.
Coca-Cola began fighting for Japanese trademark registration of its "contour bottle" back in 2003. Other shapes associated with pop culture and American food, notably Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders, have won Japanese trademarks. What made the Coke case different is the fact that its bottle has no lettering whatsoever. In fact, it's the first bottle sans lettering to receive a trademark in that country.
For some reason this case begs the question: Is Sapporo's silver 22-ounce can a registered Japanese trademark? If not, it should be, I find the tapered can as evocative and iconic as Coca-Cola's classic bottle.
In Japan, the "flavor of the month" isn't barbecue, or citrus, or licorice, it's...citrulline.
Sound strange? It's an amino acid found in large amounts in watermelon, and it's being touted as a performance enhancer to the Olympic athletes in Beijing, China. It widens blood vessels, allowing for improved circulation, as well as increasing levels of nitric oxide, as well as breaking down lactic acid, (which, as our readers have gently reminded me, is not the scary substance we once thought it to be).
L-Citrulline has long been available in supplement form, but the Japanese are seeing how far they can market it, putting it into sports drinks, sports bars and even gum.
But mainly, it's just another excuse to eat a huge, juicy slice of watermelon.
I just came across a new blog (for me) called What Japan Thinks. As I am a lover of all things Japanese, this could be an invaluable resource. Of particular interest to me, on this visit to the blog, was an article on chop stick etiquette.
The blog post is really a vehicle to share the opinions offered in two surveys about using chop sticks. One deals with bad habits that you can't break, and the other is about bad habits that you can't help but notice other people doing.
I thought I was sure to have bad chop stick etiquette, as I have never had any pointers from anyone beyond the very basics of how to use them, but I actually did pretty well based on the habits mentioned in the two surveys. I am really bad about laying the utensils across the top of the plate, but I definitely don't stick them straight up in a bowl of rice. Check it out, and see how your chop stick manners compare.
Fugu, or pufferfish, is a Japanese delicacy whose intrigue has to do as much with its potential hazards as with its actual taste. Fugu liver contains a potent neurotoxin with no known antidote, so licensed fugu chefs must undergo years of rigorous training to seperate the toxic bits from the rest of the flesh. Consuming the liver is completely forbidden. Still, several people die every year from eating improprly prepared fugu - victims remain conscious while becoming completely paralyzed.
Now, Japanese fish farmers have bred a non-poisonous fugu and are trying to get the right to serve its liver, which is said to be even tastier than foie gras. But they're meeting resistance from government officials, who claim it may not be safe, and angering traditional fugu aficionados who say without a risk of death, eating fugu is just no fun. Which frankly, seems like a dumb argument to me. My father and brother ate at a renowned fugu restaurant on a recent trip to Japan, and reported that, while delicious, it was nothing extraordinary. As in, nothing worth dying over. So why not allow toxin-free fugu and get your kicks skydiving, or disarming land mines, or wrangling crocodiles?
The shelves in Japanese supermarkets that normally hold butter are turning up bare these days. There is currently a shortage of milk in Japan, which has resulted in dearth of butter (since butter obviously comes from milk). Prices of imported butter are also rising, which means that the butter that does arrive in the country is very expensive.
There are a variety of factors that are playing a part in the butter scarcity in Japan. As shifts in global eating patterns occur, the demand for butter increases, so exports that used to arrive in Japan are now landing in Russia, China and India. Also, milk has gotten a bad rap in Japan over the past few years, leading to declining consumption and the slaughter of dairy herds.
To read more about the butter shortage, go here and here.
If my boyfriend hadn't been the one to send this to me, I swear I would have to buy this for him for his birthday. Yes, that would be the iPod Nano case designed to look like raw meat. And what marbled, fatty meat it is.
Unfortunately, from this link, it appears as though the company selling this case is not based in America (according to this blog post, it's Japanese), but you can read more about it here on Apple Gazette. I think the best part about it is the case, which totally completes the meat look. Who wants this?
In case you didn't know (I sure didn't), there is a Japanese ban on beef imports from Britain. That seems pretty straightforward, but it ended up causing some problems for an art exhibit traveling to Japan recently.
It seems that part of a retrospective of the British Turner Prize are works by artist Damien Hirst. Here's where it gets tricky. Hirst's art consists of preserved cows, as in whole dead cows stored in a formaldehyde solution. When presented with these preserved cows at customs, officials had to be convinced that these were not cows for consumption. Officials also had a problem with the possible fumes from the formaldehyde, but they were finally convinced that no one would be harmed.
I am all for art, but preserved cows? I also have to wonder what kind of bureaucrat would be so worried that someone would consider this stuff edible that they thought about denying it entry into the country. I guess a ban is a ban to some people.
There is a new product out in Japan that I would love to get a hold of. It's an instant, fresh matcha tea, two words that usually aren't paired together when talking about tea, especially the bottled kind. The unique bottle design allows the tea to be both.
The design makes it so that when you twist the air tight cap a portion of matcha tea is released into mineral water. All you have to do is shake it up. Matcha is a traditional Kyoto (Japan) green tea that is very green and is usually the go-to flavoring for anything "green tea". It's made from leaves that have been covered so that it grows more slowly, which makes it a little sweeter.
As a big fan of tea, I would really like to be able to try an instant, fresh matcha tea. Does anyone know if this is available in the US?
It's a well-known fact that everything tastes better on a stick -- corn, hotdogs, even apples. So it's hardly surprising that an American following has developed for yakitori, a Japanese dish consisting of chicken on a stick.
Since my family supports a sexist coming-of-age tradition in which the grandsons accompany my grandfather to Japan for their 13th birthdays, I've been hearing about the glory of yakitori for years from my two younger brothers. Now, yakitori houses have cropped up across the east coast, offering sweet variations on this traditionally grilled chicken delight. Try hit restaurant Yakitori Totto's in NYC for chicken gizzard or newly-opened Yakitori Boy in Philadelphia for chicken meatballs.
Or, stick some meat on a stick with a scallion and fire up the grill. Check out the recipe after the jump from Japanese Lifestyle to get started.
OK, I admit it. I like some Nestle products. I know I shouldn't. I am a pretty big chocolate snob. But I, like a lot of people, grew up with these candy bars. It's hard to get over that. I still enjoy the occasional KitKat bar. I'd like it even more if I were in Japan. There, Nestle Japan has come out with a new variety of the wafer bar, and they are just my style.
The new variety is called KitKat Lucky Little's. They are bite sized versions of the original and they are pink! Well,pink and white. Pink just happens to be my favorite color and I pretty much can get drawn in by anything that color. Apparently the color is meant to represent blooming cherry blossoms.
Not only are the snacks completely adorable, Nestle Japan has created a cute game to go with them. You just buy a bag of the candy (of course) and count how many pieces of each color you got. Then you go to their website, and have your fortune told based on those numbers.
Though I suppose this would be an ok snack for the super bowl, the pink and white coloring of the candies might not be the best fit. Maybe they'd be better for the next big holiday coming up. But I guess that point is moot if you're in the U.S. I want to go to Japan!
A black 
Even though it's been sold in Japan for more than 50 years, Coca-Cola has only just received trademark recognition for its iconic bottle. The elongated hourglass bottle became a registered U.S. trademark in 1960 and is honored by Russia and China, among other nations.
I just came across a new blog (for me) called 
In case you didn't know (I sure didn't), there is a Japanese ban on beef imports from Britain. That seems pretty straightforward, but it ended up causing some problems for an art exhibit traveling to Japan recently.
It's a well-known fact that everything tastes better on a stick -- corn, hotdogs, even apples. So it's hardly surprising that an American following has developed for 
DIY Foods: Making homemade sausage
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
