Octopus Balls and Curry Flavoured Fizz

Following on from yesterday's post, this one is dedicated to the food I bought at Hyper Japan Christmas Market on Saturday! Amongst other things, I tried a curry-flavoured soft drink, warm sake, and battered octopus balls...

Our first stop was the Tofu Cute stand, where I picked up more randomly flavoured mini KitKats (which I'll write about in another chocolate post!), curry flavoured Ramune (a soft drink brand), and melon milk.

I forgot to take a photo of the melon milk, but it was great! The combination of melon and milk might sound a little unusual, but the flavour was really refreshing.

The curry Ramune was a curiosity purchase!

Ramune is sometimes fiddly to open, because the bottles are sealed by a little glass ball. You have to use part of the lid to pop the ball into the bottle.

This drink smells more of curry than it tastes. The drink is slightly sweet, with such a faint curry taste that it might be more scent than flavour!

I first saw this at Kitacon earlier in the year, but didn't dare try it. This time around, I dared. It's nice, but I like original flavour Ramune better!

I get hungry every time I look at this picture. Such tasty food!

The 'Vault' area of the Tobacco Dock had loads of hot food stands. I bought a 'mixed set' from Peko Peko, comprising pumpkin kurokke (croquette), age-gyouza (fried dumplings filled with chicken) and takoyaki (battered octopus balls). 

The age-gyouza were really nice; I bought mine at the right time because they had just finished preparing a new batch! Though I've tried 'gyouza' before, it was a microwaved (therefore steamed) version, rather than fried, and it was also vegetarian. So I'm counting this as a 'new' food.

I liked the pumpkin kurokke best out of the three. They're very simple but also very tasty! I could have eaten them all day!

Finally, I sated my curiosity with the takoyaki. This was my first ever opportunity to try takoyaki!
It turns out that I'm rather indifferent to the taste of takoyaki, but at least I know what it tastes like now!

Amongst another group of food stands, Wagashi Japanese Bakery were selling Dorayaki. These are made from two griddle-cooked pancakes that have filling in the middle.

The packaging says 'keep refrigerated', so I popped them in the fridge when I returned home, though this may have been a bad idea as it made the pancake taste a bit soggy!

Filled with chocolate ganache, the Chocolate Dorayaki was quite sweet. The ganache is made from milk and plain chocolate, along with cream, so it had a really rich, chocolatey flavour. Delicious, but I needed a drink of water afterwards!

The Strawberries and Cream Dorayaki is pretty self-explanatory; the filling is made from a blend of strawberries, cream, and mascarpone cheese. I didn't find this one very sweet, but it was still nice.

Heading into more unusual territory, I tried the Green Tea, Mascarpone and Red Bean Dorayaki. I wasn't as keen on this one; it wasn't terrible but I wouldn't eat it again.

When it came to the Red Bean Dorayaki, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. This one was only a little sweet, and due to the beans had quite a dry texture.

The last one I tried was Sesame Cream and Red Bean Dorayaki. I liked the creaminess but the dryness of the beans was off-putting. I guess I'm just not a fan of red beans. Still, if there was dorayaki with just sesame cream, I'd probably try it!

Whilst still at Hyper Japan, we stopped to get bubble tea from Milk Tea & Pearl. I forgot to take a picture (again, I know!) but my milk bubble tea was refreshing and delicious, and I enjoyed sucking all the tapioca pearls through the straw!

Another drink I didn't take a picture of was the warm sake, though it was a clear liquid in a shot glass (I tried a free sample) so the picture wouldn't have been too exciting! Needless to say, it was really tasty and warming.

With the trip and all this food, I managed to complete or work on several food-related goals from The List, yay!

008. Eat Japanese Food - Done!

036. Eat/drink in 30 new places - Peko Peki and Milk Tea & Pearl added to the list!

044. Try 10 foods/drink that I've never tried before - most of the above added to the list (the exception is the bubble tea!)

If this and the previous post wasn't filled with enough Japanese culture, here's a teaser for my next one, which will be about the entertainment at Hyper Japan Christmas Market.