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Food For Thought | Nikuman | (Entered Dec. 18, 2006) |
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Passing through any convenient store in Japan, you'll notice a glass bin near the cashier. Usually you'll find a selection of very greasy, very fried 'stuff', that's been sitting under a heat lamp for what may seem like days. Usually to the left or the right of that bin is another bin full of what looks like doughy, white lumps. Look tempting? You've just discovered 'nikuman'. The curryman smelled kind of good, like real curry, so I went with it first. Upon breaking it open, you can see that nikuman are generally 80% bread and 20% filling if you're lucky. The bread is kind of cake-like, soft, spongy and kind of gooey, but not too bad I suppose. Inside we have small bits of stuff that could be meat, curry sauce, mushrooms and something that might have once been a carrot. Maybe I imagined a small piece of potato too but that's probably pushing it. Overall not bad though, I ate the whole thing and wanted another, but that might have been because I was hungry.
Next we have the jumbo nikuman which is the equivalent size of a hamburger. I had asked for the regular sized one at the convenient store, but the lady behind the counter kindly gave me the jumbo sized one for the same price as the regular. 'Service' she said. I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't want the jumbo size seeing how I was worried these things might end up being gross. Turns out I was right to be worried. Upon opening the big fella I was greeted by a most unpleasant smell. Looking into the depths of the puke-like mass in the middle, I wasn't encouraged at all. Nowhere could I see anything that resembled meat, much less food. Perhaps there were some onions but who could be sure? I steeled myself to take a bite and discovered some stringy gristle. Sickened, I only managed the one bite plus a few half-hearted nibbles. I thought about chucking it on the street for the birds and/or cats, but decided they'd probably be better off without.
I had lost my appetite, but I gamely gave the pizzaman a try. As you can see, the contents consist of what looks to be an orange stain around the edges with chunks of unidentifiable stuff in the middle. I recognized some corn and what might have been cabbage. Is this some kind of joke? Where's the pepperoni and mushrooms? Cheese was nonexistent and the tomato sauce would've embarrased a bottle of ketchup. It smelled funny too, but what could you expect from a pizza with corn and cabbage? I struggled to eat it, only because I felt bad about the waste, but it ended up decorating the garbage with the jumbo nikuman.
Another day, another couple nikuman to test. Here we have what I first thought was a cheeseman, but when I opened it up, it was brown. After a second of horror at the thought of brown cheese, I looked more carefully at the name and saw it was a demigura-cheese man, demigura meaning demi glace, a kind of gravy. Well it actually smelled ok although once again it was pretty hard to make out the contents except for the cheese, which definitely improved it. Some chewy things inside that might have been meat, but overall it was pretty tasty and I managed to finish it.
Dessert up next! I had my doubts about this one, but seeing how I searched 6 convenience stores and only AM PM had it, I wanted to give it a try. The idea is good, put chocolate into the man instead of meat. When I got it home it had wrinkled up on the outside from cooling off, and didn't look too appealing. When I broke it open though, it smelled good and you can see some nice chocolate sauce in the middle. The taste however, was fantastic! Just like eating a warm piece of chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Definitely the winner so far.
Like I said, I was planning to do a few more nikuman just for fun, but in the end I couldn't stomach the thought of eating another one even in the interests of science. There are more weird variations out there to try, but if you're really curious you're going to have to try them yourself. Have a blast! |
Pepsi Strong Shot
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