Purple Taste: [Japan-Tokyo] コンビニ Konbini foods, are they as good as what others say?

The term Konbini/Conbini/Combini コンビニ means convenience. Hence, konbini food simply means convenience store foods. Yes, food/snacks from stores such as 7-Eleven, Lawson and Family Mart, amongst others. Japan's combini culture is attractive as everything is so convenient. We all know that convenience stores in Japan has everything. Well, almost. But it does have things that most travellers would want/need in some point in time.

For me, that'll be foood~ and yeah, an umbrella too.

Family Mart @ Kinshicho

I bet you have heard about their fried chicken. And, you'd probably had eaten them too but pardon me for being late into the game. Haven't been visiting Japan for the longest time.

fried food counter at Family Mart

Nope, does not know what those words are but I knew what I wanted. A piece of that golden fried chicken square. Of course, I didn't know which was which because there were two that looked similar. So I just pointed to the one at the top tray.

Family Mart Chicken @ ¥180

Ate this baby as soon as I bought it. And, it was still piping hot! Of course, I was a tad famished by that time, which was close to 1pm. Oh boy, it was an amazing first bite. So juicy, tender and tasty! There were some fair amount of fats surrounding those meat, hence it could get oily. But so good eating it at 22 degrees celcius. Yums!

love at first bite

Also tried Lawson's version of the fried chicken (I got the spicy version) when I was in Nagoya but Famichiki was the better version, hands down. Reason being Lawson's version had slightly drier meat and slightly dough-y taste of the flour. Oily-ness level was almost the same for both.

Lawson's Spicy Fried Chicken @ ¥150

Having a Family Mart so close to the hotel (5 minutes walk) that I was staying in Kinshicho, meant I could do breakfast or a light dinner or midnight snack on a whim. Another combini food that got me intrigued, is the tamago sando (egg sandwich). I just got to try it myself.

I was at the store around 8am and bought an egg sandwich a cup of Family Mart's latte. The store has a small section where customers could sit and eat their food. The seats are facing the outside of the store, so one could watch the world go by while sipping coffee.

たまごサンドとコーヒー Egg sandwich and coffee

egg mayo sandwich on fluffy white bread

Lovely taste from the egg sandwich and loved the fluffy bread. Not too heavy but enough to fuel the first few hours of the day.

Another must-buy from the konbini would be the oden. Oden is a one-pot dish consisting of several ingredients, much like our yong tau foo. The oden in convenience store can be easily found at the front of the cashier counter. The styrofoam bowl (of two different sizes) and tongs to pickup the ingredients and ladle for the soup are all there. Self-service.

Let's take a look of what I had for dinner. It was my first time having oden so I think I was a tad excited to try. Went for 5 items and placed them all in the large bowl. Put in the soup and go to the counter to pay. They'd put on the cover for you and pack the sauce, if you need. There's hoisin sauce and yellow mustard in tiny packs.

Oden おでん

Had picked out daikon (because I heard that this is a must-have ingredient for oden), the tamago (hard boiled egg), two Nerimono (some kind of fish paste/meat paste item), and the Kinchaku (the one that looks like a fried beancurd pouch).

The daikon was expectantly soft and had absorbed the flavours of the dashi. Juicy and easy to eat. It was kind of hard to stop myself from drinking up all the dashi. It just tasted so flavourful.

I think I got a deep fried hanpen which is a type of fishcake but I was also confused because of the airy and fluffy texture that it has. It has seaweed in it, and everything about this piece was just so intriguing! Amazing. Oooh, the pockets of air in that piece was good to bring up more dashi with each bite. Just dip and bite. So goood!

半片 so good!

Here's a video of the oden feast.

Was kind of surprised when the weight of kinchaku was felt when I tried to pick it up with the chopsticks. Why was it so heavy? Took a bite and there was mochi in there! Wow. Unexpected but it was still a good combo, surprisingly.

Another surprise was the meatball piece. It had a cheesy center. So cool!

The only not surprising item was the egg. It was a regular hardboiled egg. I thought it was going to be a lava egg.

cheesy meatball

To end the meal, wash it off with with a Chu-Hi which is a shochu based cocktail. When drinking, might as well get a snack to go along with it. All in all, a very filling and satisfying meal, complete with an alcoholic drink and a 'dessert' of sorts. About $10 for dinner.