If you live in Japan but were not born here, which food or drink items do you miss most from your home country?

Easy. Going to a pub or supermarket and having other beer choices other than a generic lager beer.

Easy. Going to a pub or supermarket and having other beer choices other than a generic lager beer.

Yep. Add cheese to that.

Cadbury’s. And not the stuff made in Aus/NZ.

This time of year, eggnog. Various Mediterrean items, especially since it's the healthiest food in the world. Things containing barely, like beef barley soup. Wholewheat sliced sandwich bread, which is actually available in Tokyo but hard to find and often sells out.

I'm from the Philippines, and making good native dishes such as Sinigang (Tamarind Soup) can be difficult due to how rare and expensive those mixes are. Another is getting condiments such as Shrimp Paste is also rare. Another thing is getting Tablea chocolate. Japan makes good chocolate, but Philippine-made ones tastes earthier. Lastly and I think a lot can agree with me on this is fruit! Especially tropical ones such as bananas and mangoes. We can buy 20 bananas in my neighborhood in the Philippines for 100 yen or a kilogram of sweet mangoes for 150 yen.

Real Orangina soda as Japan version is simply horrible, few sparkling and orange inside...

list is long.

let me be quick.

good cheese selection at normal prices,normal bread and yes-normal sausages...

Though I have yet to still try it in Vietnam, I have to say pho may be on top of the list next to carne asada burritos. I can't find a good pho place anywhere here, or maybe I'm not looking hard enough?

Honest to goodness barbeque. Pulled pork, slow-smoked brisket, Brunswick stew, and ribs so tender the meat falls of the bone when you pick it up. Also, cornbread, black-eyed peas, collards and grits. Oh, and peach cobbler.

I was missing cheese until I found the Cheese Guy in Okinawa. Really good. And the only place in Japan I've seen Cheese Curds!

Mars chocolate bars, original Hungarian salami, Greek tsatsiki. Everything else, like good Netherland or Swiss cheese, sausage from Spain, France, Italy, several sweets and chocolates etc, can finally all be found somewhere with intense and difficult search efforts, but those three, no way and no idea where to buy here.

Real NYC pizza with pepperoni.

I'm British, so I'm legally obligated to say "marmite". In this case it happens to be true. Fortunately it's easy to get online, and even some of the bigger foreign food stores in Tokyo have it at times.

I miss nice, wholemeal bread, with a crusty crust. Same for bread rolls.

The crap that passes for bread in Japan is awful, and almost always too sweet.

it is very easy to make your bread. I will make two whole wheat loaves today. I miss British cheeses.

Good fish and chips.

Soul food! Cornbread, Collard greens, sweet potato pie, gumbo, key lime pie, ham hocks, catfish, pepper steak, stuffing, chicken pot pie, American cheeses and buttermilk biscuits.

Wallace....

Good fish and chips.

It is getting really difficult to find in the UK too.

bass4...

Soul food! Cornbread, Collard greens, sweet potato pie, gumbo, key lime pie, ham hocks, catfish, pepper steak, stuffing, chicken pot pie, American cheeses and buttermilk biscuits.

LOL, you forgot the grits!

Poutine, real poutine, from Quebec.

Not the strange stuff that passes for poutine here.

Shuddering....

Proper fish and chips.

Proper roast beef and yorkshire puddings with all the trimmings.

Licorice allsorts.

Decent sandwiches.

Rye bread, a good selection of cheeses and a good selection of beers. Especially darker beers is something I miss here.

PeaceWarrior

Check it out. Real, squeaky curds:

https://thecheeseguyinokinawa.com/products/cheesecurds

Good cheeses in big blocks, thick grass-fed steak, Greek yogurt at non-extortionate prices, decent sausages, lamb chops, chicken parma at the pub, smoked salmon in packages big enough not to insult the intelligence, decent bacon, decent spice mixes

Decent cheese and Branston

BertieWooster, you have made my year.

Thank you very much for that. I will get right on getting some.

Cheers,

Mirabelle (yellow plum) jam, hazelnut powder for baking, marzipan, ready made frozen fish fillet with toppings, Rollmops (rolled pickled herring in a glass), Eucalyptus candy.

Tops for me has always been a hamburger that tastes like a hamburger. And not a meat loaf sandwich.

Fresh Dill, nowhere to be found. Slabs of corned beef like we had on Saint Patrick's day. Whole filets of Atlantic Salmon. Where can I find Sour Cream?

I can find good imported cheeses and hard crust breads with a little effort in the high end depachikas though.

MrKipling:

Easy. Going to a pub or supermarket and having other beer choices other than a generic lager beer.

Don't you misss those exceedlingly good cakes?

Ossan:

Tops for me has always been a hamburger that tastes like a hamburger. And not a meat loaf sandwich.

In other words, the usual American junk food. How about lashings of fructose syrup to go with that?

JeffLee:

Wholewheat sliced sandwich bread, which is actually available in Tokyo but hard to find and often sells out.

Exactly. And granary bread with seeds. People here need to realize marshmallow is not bread.

For me, I also miss fresh affordable salads, real Indian food (especially southern). Not from India but large Indian community means authentic food readily available. Same with dim sum.

Decent wholemeal bread, a wider selection of ales and stouts, and mature cheese.

raspberries, back bacon, buttercream filling in cakes, real chorizo (while occasionally sold at Seijo Ishii in a small pack, thinly sliced, it is not a standard item at regular supermarkets) , Crispy duck +pancake+sauce sets, sausage rolls and like everyone else, proper cheese that won't bankrupt you

I must say my feelings on this have greatly weakened since Covid due to food prices skyrocketing in the UK. The cheese I missed used to be 1000 yen a kilo in the UK. Its easier to not miss it now its 2500 to 3000 yen a kilo there. The price in Japan has gone up too of course, but not as much.

Costco in Japan do very good sliced granary bread if you are desparate. Its quite cheap and in a double-pack but it freezes well. Its pretty easy to make it in the ol' Panasonic home bakery if you can't make it to Costco. Tomizawa sells all the ingredients you need online.

Bacon

BertieWooster

thank you for weblink.will try contact guys at evening as their emmental seems ok.

Cadbury’s. And not the stuff made in Aus/NZ.

The Asda chocolate you can buy at Seiyu tastes like UK Cadbury. The Fruit and Nut one I buy does. It actually has more cocoa and milk solids that Cadbury. Price in UK is 2.30 which is essentially the same as the 484 you now pay in Japan. It used to be under 300 yen not so long ago.

The killer for a lot of this is the super expensive postage rates post Covid. We bought 480 Yorkshire Tea tea bags at the start of Covid (April 2020) and I thought the postage was already expensive at 13 GBP. I was used to paying seven pounds for two kg of sweets. The tea bag postage in 2024 is around 30 pounds. Add in the weak yen and its a huge increase.

So many Germans here...! ;-)

LOL, you forgot the grits!

Yes! Grits and bacon!

Real pizza... real foreign food... the ingredients to make it.

Negative NancyDec. 3  04:04 pm JST

Proper fish and chips. 

Proper roast beef and yorkshire puddings with all the trimmings.

if you're in Tokyo, check out Good Heavens in Shimokitazawa..... vegetarian myself, but friends have told me it's the real deal. https://www.instagram.com/goodheavenstokyo/p/DAmSURZzNk4/

Bloody big T Bone steaks and anything cooked in an oven....plus gravy

Definitely my traditional country food, which is in Top 10 in the world.

Also the quality cheese, sausages, proper bbqs, but most importantly the sweets.

cheese and yoghurt