We were always on the constant lookout for vending machines that sold ‘unconventional’ foods and other strange miscellanous items. By unconventional I mean items that you wouldn’t really expect to purchase from a vending machine on a day-to-day basis.

So when we came across this vending machine at the Mount Fuji lookout that sold dumpling soup, American hot dogs, Takoyaki balls, stir-fried Soba noodles, deep fried rice balls and french fries, out came the spare change!

Out of all 6 items, I’m not really sure why we picked the most ordinary food item on the menu – French fries (Or potato fries – whatever you call them) – but hey, it was novelty enough buying anything from that machine! It was interesting to see how this apparently simple technology worked.

So in went Naomi’s 380yen (around $4.50) – Or rather, a large bill (yes, it returns your change). It took just one press of a button on the item of your choice, and a 3 minute wait for the fries to be heated up before we heard a tumbling sound followed by the appearance of a fancy box of french fries in the opening of the machine:

It was hot alright, and when we opened the box my sunglasses fogged up from the steam! The fries were well, fries. They looked and tasted like the real thing and even had the ‘burnt edges’ taste. The only thing I didn’t like was that the fries were soggy. Looks like the Japanese still need to work on their crisping technology! Some ketchup would have gone down well though.

Yet another bizarre find – this time from a vending machine. I had some spare yens so I gave this little beast a try – Sweet black coffee jelly in a bottle. The stangest thing was that I had to shake the bottle to ‘activate’ the jelly so it turned into a thick  fluid. It tasted like coffee alright, so that was a plus. But the texture was an assault on the senses. Cold. Jelly. Sludge.

Needless to say I was left feeling slightly queasy..

This kept me awake for a few hours as it was nearly midnight when I ate/drank this. The drink was surprisingly high in caffeine! At least I got my 200yen’s worth for trying something new…

It was over 35 degrees, humid and hot as hell. These factors were hard to avoid while walking down a street in Kyoto in the middle of a Japanese summer, but as the below photo demonstrates, the sheer joy of one finding the ultimate in edible coolants:

We came across a stall outside a tea shop selling green tea ice cream floats – With a Japanese twist of course! Soft green tea ice cream dunked in a cup of chilled green tea! It was the perfect summer coolant. Yet another brilliant idea by the Japanese!

Forget energy drinks – Collagen-enhancing drinks are all the rage, only in Japan! And I thought I’d seen my share of the bizzarro. I was wrong. All the pharmacies in Japan have a ‘health drinks’ section – and that’s where I found this Collagen beverage.

In fact, I have even seen this particular bottle for sale at some everyday convenience stores like 7-11. I would give you more detail, but I can’t for the life of me read Japanese. From what the bottle says, one of my assumptions would have to be that it contains 1000mg of Vitamin C. Who knows what the other 3000mg is!

I am assuming that this product would somehow  increase one’s collagen intake? Improve skin texture? Decrease wrinkles? Improve your overall wellbeing? I didn’t want to risk having a trout pout during my trip, so unfortunately I didn’t sample this! It was still an intriguing find though, I must say!

I wasn’t really sure what to call it, but that’s exactly what it was – Soba Noodles in a bun!

We found this interesting combination of carbohydrates at a cafe in Tokyo. It was pretty much a white bread bun sliced open and slathered in thick mayonnaise, then topped with Bolognaise-flavoured Soba noodles and some pickled ginger!

As the noodles were dark brown, we thought it would have been flavoured with soy sauce or something. But strangely enough, it tasted like Bolognaise, albeit artificial.

My friend Josh didn’t like it, so I snatched the bun off him and wolfed it down. I enjoyed it – I figured I wouldn’t see or taste anything like this often so what the heck – I couldn’t let it go to waste!

The Japanese are full of quirky ideas when it comes to, well, everything. Especially pre-packaged food. One of my favourite convenience store purchases in Japan was none other than a quick fix of ‘pocket’ sandwiches! Each time I stepped foot into a convenience store, I just HAD to get a bag or two – sometimes even sneaking them into my bag quickly after I paid for them. It was getting embarrasing that I had some sort of fetish for these and had to hide it from the group!

At 200yen a pop (around $2.50), these cute little bags of fresh and fluffy white crustless sandwiches are just simply a genius idea. They are widely available at various Japanese convenience stores like Family Mart and 7-11, and come with different fillings – Egg mayo, tuna mayo, peanut butter, strawberry, blueberry, chocolate (gasp!), and custard (double gasp!). They were always fresh when I bought them – even after leaving them in my bag for a day or two! Japanese technology…

I nicknamed them ‘pocket’ sandwiches because of the way the fillings are ’sealed’ shut between two slices of bread, sans the crusts. I never like crusts, so the discovery of this sandwich ‘niche’ changed my life forever. The white bread they use is very soft and fluffy – my favourite pocket sandwich has to be the egg mayo, while the tuna mayo comes a close second! The perfect sandwich, satisfying in so many ways…

I tried a really good Macedonian restaurant recently. I’ve never really tried cuisine from that part of the world before and needless to say I was really impressed! We went to Europe Grill in Newtown twice – the first time for the pre-planning of a friend’s daughter’s christening lunch, and then the lunch itself! So I was really lucky to get a chance to eat there not once, but twice!

Europe Grill is located on the quieter end of King Street heading away from the city at number 506. When I went there for dinner the first time, it was a Monday night and was very quiet. There was only another family in the restaurant and the staff were obviously very attentive! It’s family-run from what I could tell and very traditional.

I can’t really compare the food to any other European cuisine as it is really quite unique! I really enjoyed the food at Europe Grill immensely but I actually preferred the entrees to the mains. I initially had written down all the Macedonian names for the dishes but I have lost the piece of paper so plain English descriptions will have to suffice!

These are the entrees we had:

They also serve Macedonian and Croatian Beers:

Now on to the main course!

As Europe Grill specialises mainly in barbeque and grilled food, they have an open grill where you can watch the chefs cook. The mains we had were very straightforward – we basically ordered a whole bunch of different meats from the menu and they brought it all out on one giant platter for everyone to share.

I had a huge shock when the platter came out – it was HUGE!

We were completely and utterly stuffed by the end of the feast, we didn’t even think about having any dessert!