Moving from sweet to savory : Vegetable Ice Cream from Haagen-Dazs

Haagen-Dazs is about two launch two new flavors in Japan in its "Spoon Vege" range : Carrot and Tomato.

Some might say there was already some veggies ice cream in restaurant or ice cream parlor (like rosmarin sorbet), but we do believe this is the first industrial launch of vegetable ice cream.  After the savoury yogurt, is this a kind of trend to take an indulgent food, and to put some "healthy" ingredients in it ? Or the other way round, to make a treat out of non attractive food ?

Design your own plastic food in Japan

 

In Japan, almost every restaurant displays a replicate of their food in front of the entrance, so people can get an idea of what they could get (which can be useful if you don't fully master Japanese ... ). Although it is not always appetizing, it is certainly quite funny, and some of them are actually really well made. But restaurants need to buy those plastic food, and to try to spot the source, we went to Kappabashi Market, where the quest can start : you can buy all the component of any dishes and combine them. Or, if you are at an upper level in the plastic food skills, you can go to Sample'n Cooking (http://www.ganso-sample.com/). Here, you can buy kits to do yourself your piece of art, with different difficulty level. You can also ask a master to do the food you want for you. 

Would not this be the perfect tool to use in branstorming or new product development session, when everybody try to explain what he has in mind?

 

Japanese Bread spread to grill

As we have seen in this product in Japan, we had no idea what it was, but we loved the design. And back in Europe, it turned out we loved the product...
Spread it on a bread, put the bread under the grill for some minutes, and by some wonder mixing Maillard reaction and secret japanese formulation, you ll get a kind of French Toast (Pain Perdu) with different flavor. Left to right, we find Honey and lemon, Sugar (they are at least honest on the major ingredient), Melon, French Toast and Caramel Toast.

It sold by Kewpie, and you can find more here : http://www.kewpie.co.jp/

Mini Spark : Japanese Fast Food...

Some pictures made in Japan. You can try to spot Mc Donald, Mos Burger, Freshness Burger, Subway and Calbee. This last one is actually chips producer, and then sells chips in his restaurants...

The bill in Japanese restaurant

In Japan, many small restaurants / street food parlors have adopted this payment system : before to go in, or in before to seat, you choose your dish via the button, then immediatly pay it. You then receive your bill which is also your order bon that you will hand out to the waiter. There is then no more money exchange in the restaurant, no issues with clients not paying and a gain of time. But you rather don't want to ask question about the menu before to choose.

The Fork Cake

After the cupcake, after the popcake, after the mugcake, here is a new variation : the forkcake. Those are sold in Cuisine Habits, a shop located in the Tokyo station.