Avoid Pink Cow Pat for Scientific Breakthrough

Given that we have gotten ourselves all excited over the discovery of Jitalian cuisine, surely there is no better time than now to look at an alternative way of getting into the same game from a different angle. This is a slightly similar strategy to worrying about overexcitement in oil futures, and taking a look at natural gas.

And by this, I mean checking out my favourite convenience provider's, Family Mart's, selection of fresh-looking, yet affordably-priced packaged pasta dishes. You can get seafood, meat, more meat, and very thick cream. Udon and cold noodles (I know, don't ask) are well-represented also. The very thick cream idea must have sounded great in the Family Mart boardroom (possibly a well-designed yet inexpensive room in a very good location), however, the cold temperature resulting from their very own refrigerators (they really should have thought this through), makes it look like a pink cow pat (not pictured).

So essentially, this comes down to the Meat Cream Volume Raw Pasta (Fettucine). $4.30. But is this the value play of a lifetime, or a value trap?



To complement the convenience meal, what better than ...

... some genuine Jitalian sweets.

This is the Tiramisu. One of the only foreign words in Japan pronouced anything like the original. Also, one of the only words which undergoes a decrease in the vowel-count upon Japanification("Tiramisu"->"Tiramis"). A promising sign already!


And here is a big tub of white cream.


Or you can have a W Cream Wafaru Sando (Waffle Sandwhich), which in fact just looks like a spongey creamy mess, possibly usable in children's TV programs where cakes are thrown in peoples' faces as punishment for not running around fast enough. Apart from raising the important question of what are we teaching our children, this also brings out the question of how much fun would it be to throw a soft pie into someone's unsuspecting face, in reality. Investigation pending.



So, basically, our hand is forced, and we essentially have no option but to go for the Tiramis.

Now, this being Japan, the convenience shop workers automatically ask whether we would like to have our noodles warmed up in the handy high-power microwave. No need to mess around with all those buttons at home!

And, here it is. Despite the picture of the fork and plate on the packaging above, be sure to use chopsticks for that authentic Jitalian experience.



And, in fact, the pasta was, incredibly, only very slightly overcooked! The sauce was spot on also. For $4.30, this is nothing short of a breakthrough in affordable food technology.

However, the tiramis was highly disappointing. It contained jelly. Not American ice-cream jelly, but gelatinous wobbly unidentified-substance tofu-like jelly. Fortunately, the gains in the pasta breakthrough outweighed the losses on the tiramis.

And this reminds me somewhat of the market. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.