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food

Summer limited-edition dishes and food

3 Comments
By cinnamonellie, grape Japan

I think that one of Japan’s charms is represented by the seasonal changes that occur every year. In the changes that take place every year, we can also talk about seasonal food.

Everyone knows that spring is characterized by sakura, cherry blossoms, and everything pink.

In autumn, we have chestnuts, browns, while winter has nabe, white chocolate, and hot cocoa.

How about summer, then?

For me, the first thing that comes to mind is ice-cream and shaved ice (kakigori).

Ice cream and shaved ice are indeed very popular during this season and a lot of seasonal fruits, such as watermelons, melons, blueberries are often included in the ingredients of seasonal dishes on the restaurants’ menus.

However, besides ice-cream and shaved ice, we also have corn and cold noodles during summertime in Japan.

Many people love eating cold noodles such as soba, somen and tsukemen during summer and some parents even put it in their children’s’ lunch boxes/bento as it is so easy to make and it also tastes delicious.

Needless to say, many restaurants start their summer limited edition menu around June and offer many discounts during this time of the year. Stores, too, have quite a few seasonal ingredients we should pay attention to.

Here I will introduce you some of these for reference if you plan on coming to Japan during summer:

Nodogoshi wa Somen: SoRamen

Screen Shot 2020-06-30 at 13.36.46.png

Somen and ramen in one product?!

An innovative concept for this summer is the Soramen dry noodles you can buy for only 265 yen (excluding tax).

These noodles offer the richness of ramen, but with the freshness of somen. You will understand what I am saying after trying it. The product is indeed unique and tastes like nothing I tried before. One thing I know for sure, it is delicious, quick, and perfect for the hot summers in Japan.

Official Website

Watermelon Baumkuchen/Suika Baumkuchen

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Looking exactly like a watermelon, this Baumkuchen is super adorable, tasty and I love the idea.

It looks cute and also contains watermelon and melon juice as ingredients; it is very filling and goes perfect with an ice-coffee in the morning.

You can also find it on Rakuten.

Seven Colors Somen/Nana Iro Somen

The seven-colored somen not only comes in seven beautiful colors but also has seven different flavors: plain, yuzu, pumpkin, pickled plum (ume), spinach, murasaki sweet potato (purple sweet potato) and gobo (burdock).

Available on Rakuten.

Furano Melon

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Hokkaido is well-known for its delicious and sweet melons and fortunately, it can also be delivered online. You can buy one for just 2,980 yen.

Eating out:

Takakura Machi Coffee Summer Menu

Takakura Machi Coffee offers a summer limited menu and sweets such as ricotta pancakes with fresh blueberries and framboise cream, sweet and sour, starting from June 11th.

They also have new dishes perfect for this season such as Salmon Pasta Tsukemen Style, Cold Pasta with plenty of veggies, Grilled Iberico Pork plate with Mexican Pilaf, Doria with scallops, and many others.

I love the fresh salads, the shaved ice, and the fact that they also sell Dalgona coffee.

Official Website

Kappa Sushi Take-out Summer Limited Menu: Mega Unagi Ikura Chirashi.

Kappa Sushi has now a limited take-out menu for summer where you can order a mega menu consisting of 3.5 kg of tasty eel for 8,000 yen.

Official Website

Hakone’s Soba Summer Limited Menu

Starting from July 1st, Hakone Soba has two new items on their menu. The new menu consists of fresh ginger tempura and soba/ udon or if you are hungry, you can go for the stamina bowl set (with garlic sprouts on top, soba/udon included).

Official Website

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3 Comments
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“You can buy one for just 2,980 yen.”

It is apparent that the article writer has not been exposed to the wider world....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Deja vu.

overpriced gimmick of the year.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The same fruit is $2.50 AUD each here = 186.58 yen. Surprising difference.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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