All about that Konbini life

When I went to Japan in 2014, I didn't have a lot of cash to sling around. We backpacked around the country, staying in hostels, and ate a lot of cheap food. I've spent more on room service in one day than I spent on food for an entire two weeks in Japan. It helped my family took us out to absolutely fabulous meals I hope to be able to repay in kind some day, but we were very price conscious about our dining habits in between these ultra-luxe meals. We visited the local grocery stores near our hostels in order to buy groceries, and visited konbini.

chocolate covered shrimp chips

Konbini (コンビニ), as Japanese convenience stores are referred to, have taken the American convenience store concept and perfected them. Think I'm over exaggerating? Put it this way: the parent company of 7-Eleven Japan bought the original United States' 7-Eleven. Lawsons, which died out in America, is one of the largest chains in Japan and the success in Japan led to the chain returning to the U.S. via Hawaii. Konbini are serious business, and the Japanese have mastered it.

And if you visit Japan, I guarantee you will end up going to a konbini. Why? 7-Eleven has ATMs that take our credit cards. Japan has their own credit card system and a surprising amount of places don't take Visa, Mastercard, Discover, etc, but JCB and others, and even more are cash-only. If you don't stay far from the beaten path and stay around Tokyo and Kyoto you'll be fine, but just finding an ATM was tough in Yawatahama, let along somewhere that took Visa!

Burger Boss

Mr. Mochi loves a good burger. He loves everything from cheap fast food burgers to Umami burgers, and everything that lies in between. We have had serious debates and conversations about the various burgers we've had together, tackling tough topics like "which is better: In-N-Out or Five Guys?" Our answer: they exist on two different price points both monetarily and calorically and therefore cannot truly be compared besides personal preference, however I like In-N-Out better and he like Five Guys better.

Burgers are honestly one of his favorite foods, so when we got invited to try Burger Boss of Lake Forest's menu in advance of their grand opening, I knew we had to take a break from blogging about my travels through Japan and go check them out.

Fruit Sando (フルーツサンド)

Today is the second anniversary of my very first blog post here at Miss Mochi's Adventures. I'm still wrapping my head around that fact. Do me a favor and don't look back too far, some of the pictures definitely need updating! I'm still not very confident in my photography skills, but anyone can see I've made a big improvement.

The very first recipe I posted for this blog was ichigo daifuku mochi, so in celebration I decided to post another recipe involving strawberries. This one garnered a lot of interest when I mentioned it in my katsu sando post, after all, who here in the states has heard of a fruit and cream-filled sandwich?

The Japanese definitely treat bread and sandwiches differently than we do. They don't balk at strange sweet sandwich fillings, because they don't have a long standing history of savory sandwiches like we do. Fruit and cream sandwiches as well as other sweet sandwiches like chestnut cream are on the convenience store shelf right along with ham and cheese. And if you think about it, we certainly have sweet sandwiches that are immensely popular: PB+J anyone? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are so ubiquitous that they have an acronym in popular use! No one would think twice if you made a peanut butter and banana sandwich, or a peanut butter sandwich with some strawberry slices thrown in.

Katsu Sando (カツサンド)

I know that Japanese cuisine is famous for it's use of unadulterated white rice. Donburi, onigiri, curry rice all use plain white rice. At nearly every meal, white rice is a star player.

However, the Japanese do eat bread, especially in modern times. They even make sandwiches very similar to ours, albeit with some Japanese flair, called "sando" (サンド). Some popular fillings include egg salad or ham, but you may be surprised to see even varieties like fruit sandwiches.

Marukai's Katsu Sando

The best bread for making a sando is shokupan (食パン), which is a soft pillowy bread that is slightly sweet, and manages to be soft while still having a very tight grain that has some stretch and spring to it. Honestly it's kinda like the mochi version of sandwich slices, soft but stretchy. I also like it because it's perfectly square, and you can get it cut thick. I used it in my Milk Toast post; I like it in this recipe because it doesn't compress down into nothingness like regular sliced bread here in America will, but if you don't have access to shokupan and don't feel like baking, I have some alternatives and suggestions for you down below.

Here's a hearty sando using tonkatsu, one which is a snap to make if you make a whole bunch of tonkatsu at once and freeze the extras. This is also good for those of you who don't have a rice cooker, or you too have your own version of Mr. Mochi breathing down your neck while you edit a blog post. (Hence the less than stellar photography, and I actually only had some pretty wimpy cheap white bread around.)

Caprese Sandwich

Like I mentioned in my caprese skewers post, I am wild about caprese. Insalata Caprese is my  favorite Italian dish, and I especially love the versions with balsamic vinegar. Actually, I'm really just a rabid cheese fan (a Wallace-style obsession) as well as a lover of vinegar and fresh tomatoes. I'm prone to eating any of the key ingredients plain by themselves, so this dish that combines them all was made for a person like me.

I have to say that the success of this dish hinges on having fantastic tomatoes. And since right now the farmer's markets have the end of season's tomatoes, I recommend you start assembling this sandwich before summer's end.

Bruxie

Everyone who eats with me, chiefly Mr. Mochi and the Bro-chi, knows I am a bit obsessed with finding Hapa food. Nothing makes me happier than getting to try some hole-in-the-wall Hawaiian place, or trying the crazy Japanese curry hot dog at the food truck (review coming soon, it was totally delish). Sometimes silly, sometimes glorious, I'm totally there. It's my passion; I love seeing how cultures adapt cuisine into a giant melting pot of influences and flavors.

So when I heard about the Ogura Bruxie, I already had my flip-flops on and purse in hand.

I mean seriously, I had to try this! A Japanese ingredient, azuki bean paste, in a restaurant that serves patty melts on waffles?

Ogura Bruxie!!!

Bruxie is a small chain here in Southern California that offers sandwiches exclusively on waffles. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, there is a waffle sandwich for you. Not only do they offer unique waffle sandwich creations, waffle fries and salads, they also have some unique floats and shakes made with frozen custard.

They also are interesting because they are a chain that is focusing on using more organic ingredients, as well as things like compostable drink containers, real maple syrup, and sodas without high-frustose corn syrup.

I did indeed try the Ogura Bruxie ($4.95), but also was delighted that there were tons more tasty treats to be found.

Smoked Salmon Crostini

I don't do a lot of entertaining, but when I do, it usually consists of finger foods and tea sandwiches. I love tea parties. Even more than tea parties, I love salmon.

My mother has always championed the healthiness of sustainably farmed salmon, and she served it so much my brother and I would complain as teenagers. Yes, we were spoiled brats. Now, being a terribly poor early-20's girl with her own place, I dream of salmon yet rarely buy it. So when I threw my party recently as mentioned in the previous post, I used it as an excuse to gorge on smoked salmon.

Like my caprese skewers, this is more about assembly than any other cooking skill. I've made these before, but this time I worked a little more on presentation and made roses out of the cucumber. It's a really quick step, but obviously they taste great either way.

As an alternative to crostini, you could even just take plain white bread, cut into squares without the crust, lightly butter to keep them from getting soggy, and make attractive open-faced tea sandwiches instead!

Braunschweiger Sandwich

Certainly I love Japanese American food. Most of my blog is a testament to that. It is a food that ties me to my mother's side of the family, that never fails to bring me comfort, from the simple crunch of my favorite tsukemono to the gentle puff of the rice cooker it is warm and familiar.

But my mother's side is also German American, through my grandfather's family. Through this, I grew up loving the cuisine, although a lot of it I didn't even realize was German American, like potatoes pan-fried with onions. At dinner, we would be served an ungodly amount of sauerkraut with bratwurst, my mother boasting about its health benefits and vitamin C content. Even her favorite cookbook is largely German American, The Joy of Cooking. And I've already blogged about Pennsylvania Dutch pickled beet eggs, where German Americans added beets to pickled eggs for glorious pink color and flavor.

I even look more German American than anything and inherited his family's light coloring, compared to the Japanese and American Indian that allows my brother to tan. I would look more the part in a dirndl than a kimono.