Japanese Foods of the Week: Eggs, Waffles, Banana Flips, and Strawberry Shortcake

When I came to Japan, I expected rice and sushi. I never expected eggs everywhere. Every Japanese restaurant has some version of the plain, old egg. You will find a soft boiled egg on a salad, a raw egg in a bowl to pour over your hot rice or noodles, or an over-easy fried egg plopped down on top of almost anything. At first I was a little afraid to eat them. Sometimes they are not refrigerated and the yolks are a bright orange. What I have discovered is that they are absolutely delicious. I'm assuming these are what farm-fresh eggs really taste like. In the grocery stores there are also various eggs besides chicken eggs to choose from - there are tiny spotted eggs, bright red eggs, pre-cooked eggs, and so forth. The pre-cooked eggs were a surprise for me. I thought I had a regular egg. I tried to crack one open and an entire soft-boiled egg fell out.

Waffles were another surprise. You can go into any grocery store or 7/11 and find waffles where we have the Twinkies and bakery goods. There are various flavors - chocolate waffles, waffles with a sticky honey glaze and so forth. Move over Twinkies!

The talk of Twinkies brings us to our next vintage food...the Banana Flip. I don't know whether we got the Banana Flip from the Japanese or whether they got it from the American GI's after WWII. All I can say is this. Their Banana Flip wins, hands down. The Banana Flip in the USA used to sit right next to the above mentioned Twinkies in our grocery stores. The Japanese Banana Flip sits in the refrigerated case with all sorts of rich pastries. Their Banana Flip is made of a round slice of sponge cake which is rolled around an actual banana - sort of like a banana in a tortilla made of cake. The cake and the banana are held together with real whipped cream. No cool whip here. Time to bring back the original Banana Flip...

And last, but not least, this has to be the favorite dessert in all of Japan...the strawberry shortcake. These beautiful little cakes are everywhere...and once again, they all have the rich taste of a dessert that has been made with love from the finest ingredients...no hydrogenated fats here and the strawberries in Japan are famous for their flavor.

When I get tired of eating unknown food, I just order dessert...Yum, yum, yum.