Second in my soy milk tasting adventure is Kikkoman’s purin (プリン) flavoured soy milk. “Purin” is basically the Japanese katakana word for “pudding” and usually refers to the custard variety. Purin is a pretty popular dessert, and the chiller section has many brands of purin available for one to purchase as at-home desserts.
My Opinion
I was a little surprised to see purin-flavoured soy milk and was excited to try it. I thought the package with the little cartoon illustration of a pudding looked pretty stinkin’ cute too. The back of the pack even had instructions on how to turn the soy milk into actual solid purin with the help of gelatin, though I didn’t do that, and just consumed the product in its original form for testing purposes.
The taste wasn’t bad at all. As was the case with the tea-flavoured version, this one didn’t really taste like soy milk. It kinda just tasted like how I’d imagine cheap pudding to taste. Like if I wanted to make actual pudding from a pack of generic pudding mix, but didn’t wait for the pudding to solidify and just drank the solution. Not terrible by any means, and definitely tasted like pudding as promised, but a little thin in flavour.
Overall, I think I’d give it a 6/10. It wasn’t bad, but I think eating real pudding would have been more satisfying.
There’s a saying that goes, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’. So, in the spirit of celebrating New Year’s in Japan, I decided to visit Kifune Shrine with B, since paying a shrine a visit during the first few days of the new year is a popular traditional practice here. This first visit of the year is known as Hatsumōde. During Hatsumōde season, shrines become exponentially busier with temple-goers seeking to offer their prayers.
The queue leading up to the prayer hall extended far beyond what was captured by my camera!
While not as crowded as some other shrines (possibly because it wasn’t the first anymore, but the third of January, or because it’s not exactly the most accessible shrine), there was still a surprising number of people. I didn’t expect there to be that many people who could be bothered to go all the way to Kifune Shrine since it’s in a mountainous area.
I did not join the queue for the prayer hall, but I did purchase a mizu uranai mikuji sheet for 200 yen on the premises. Basically, it’s a blank fortune-telling sheet that reveals your fortune when you dip it in water. Neat, right? I don’t actually genuinely believe in it, but it’s still good fun anyway. 🙂 The revealed message is in Japanese, but there’s a QR code that you can scan which will lead you to a page with some translated versions of it (English, Mandarin, Korean). That’s super cool and convenient, especially for tourists who may not know Japanese.
My mizu uranai mikuji sheet before being dipped in water.
My fortune, revealed!
Wishing everyone a happy new year, and an awesome 2019 to come. 🙂
Indian food holds a special place in my heart for two reasons: A) I associate it with time spent with my parents, especially my dad, as I love going for my weekly (okay, sometimes more than weekly) roti prata and teh tarik fix; B) My dorm mates and I used to love going to the Indian restaurant near our dorm, where we would enjoy delicious curries and gigantic naan bread in each other’s company.
Slightly over a week ago, when I went to Teramachi (yes, the day I had Red Rock), I stumbled upon Ellora, an Indian restaurant. Unfortunately, at the time I went, they had already closed for lunch, so I had to go away disappointed. Yesterday, I managed to make my way there at last to get my Indian food fix with B.
It’s easy to overlook Ellora. Unlike other cafes, restaurants and eateries along Teramachi and Shinkyogoku, which often have attractive shop fronts and plastic displays of their food, Ellora lacks such fanfare. There is a signboard with the name, and a display board with its menu next to a narrow staircase that leads down to the restaurant.
I was surprised by what I saw when I entered Ellora. Despite its location and it being past the regular lunch hour, there were a fair number of customers. With a seating capacity of 30, I guess I’d describe the atmosphere as cozy. I’m not sure if I would go there with a large group of people, but I think up to four people would be a good number, unless you are ok with dividing the group.
Five different sets to cater to various appetite sizes!
Ellora’s menu is reasonably extensive. The menu depicted above isn’t exhaustive, and merely includes the lunch sets available. The other pages show other Indian snacks, barbequed meats, desserts, and drinks.
What I really liked about the lunch sets is that they gave you different combinations depending on how much you wanted to eat or were willing to shell out. As someone who doesn’t have the biggest stomach, there’s nothing I can’t stand more than being forced to pay a higher price for more food than I can handle when I’d much rather pay less for food I can finish.
Another thing I appreciated about their lunch set was the wide array of different curries I could choose from — twelve, to be exact. In general, most places with set meals don’t even give you half as many options to choose from, restricting you to a measly few. That might appeal to people who prefer to have the ease of fewer choices, I like being spoilt for choice. 😉
On to my order.
I ordered the Mumbai Set, which cost 890 yen, and comprised 2 small bowls of curry, salad, soup, a drink, and UNLIMITED RICE OR NAAN. I’m not sure what kind of rice is served, but I chose the plain naan. I think you can upgrade a slice of naan to say, cheese or garlic naan for extra. For my curries, I went with Butter Chicken and Spinach Mutton.
My Mumbai set with the naan, spinach mutton curry and butter chicken.
The size of the naan was impressive and was fluffy and easy to chew. The butter chicken was a good mix of spice and sweetness, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I was slightly disappointed by the spinach mutton curry. The mutton was tough, and while there was a decent spice level, that’s all you could really detect; there wasn’t a distinct flavour so after awhile I couldn’t quite tell what I was eating. Maybe it’s just a case of choosing the wrong curry, or just an off day in the kitchen.
Was Ellora the best Indian restaurant around, and would I tell my friends and families that it’s a must-go? Probably not. Would I make special effort to visit again after this? With all the other stiff competition, it is unlikely, or at least unlikely to be anytime in the near future. However, if you happen to be in the area, and are craving value-for-money Indian food, I think it’s worth paying a visit.
My dad used to tell me that being hairy was a “sign of passion”. I didn’t believe it as a child, and my opinion remains unchanged. Growing up, I noticed that yes, I did have fairly hairy arms for a girl (I even had a female Mandarin tuition teacher who actually stroked my arm and commented on its fuzziness, which was all sorts of creepy), and pretty noticeable hair on my legs. Nevertheless, I never particularly minded. I don’t recall being teased badly about it, and had other matters on my mind that did not revolve around the quantity of hair I had on my body. I think other people also had other better things to do with their lives than notice someone else’s body hair.
It was only after I went to Australia to study at university that I started to notice that practically every girl had smooth legs, a result of regular meticulousness. It seemed that the rare few who didn’t shave their legs at least had the appearance of having smooth legs due to incredibly fine or fair leg hair. Meanwhile, I roamed the campus donning shorts in all my hairy glory. I wouldn’t be surprised if people noticed or were irked by it, but frankly, I wouldn’t have given a damn.
I’m not going to delve into whether people should or shouldn’t remove their body hair, because honestly, it’s no one’s business but theirs. As long as they aren’t hurting anyone, I think people with body hairs of all lengths can get along without either side insulting the other. People who don’t shave aren’t automatically slobs who don’t care about personal hygiene, and people who do shave aren’t always sheep who are “adhering to the unrealistic beauty standards set by the mass media”. Different strokes for different folks. Whatever floats your boat, I always say.
So why am I reviewing wax strips then, if I don’t care about having smooth legs? The answer is quite simple: I was curious and bored. I had seen these wax strips in Daiso for a long time, and always wondered about their effectiveness. Plus, I had never waxed my legs before. Since my afternoon was free, I decided to give them a shot to see if they’d really work, instead of occupy my time with Netflix like a normal person would.
The Product: Daiso Wax Strips
One box costs 108 yen after tax, and comprises the following:
10 wax strips (3 large pairs, 2 small pairs). The large strip is about 15 x 6 cm, while the small strip is about 8 x 3 cm in size.
10 aftercare wipes
Even for a newbie like me, the strips were pretty easy to use. Not that it’s rocket science or anything though. There were clear instructions on the back of the package, though they were kind of vague about how long to leave the strips on before peeling. They instructed to leave the strips on for “a few seconds”, and to me, that means like…10-15 seconds or so, but I think I garnered better results when I left it long for longer. Like…maybe 1 minute or slightly less? More than “a few”, anyway.
In terms of the pain factor, I guess it would depend on your tolerance. I don’t consider myself to have an exceptionally high tolerance, but I think that the pain is definitely more than bearable. It’s about what you’d be expect from ripping hair off your legs with an adhesive strip. Just rip the strips off quickly as instructed and you’ll be good.
Verdict
Now, for the most important bit we’ve all been waiting for:
Did they work?
More or less. They did indeed succeed in removing my leg hair, but I wouldn’t say that each strip perfectly removed each patch they covered. I don’t know if it’s the same for most waxing products, or if it’s due to my lack of proper skill, but I had to go over the same patch more than once, at times. Even then, a few stubborn strands would refuse to budge. Nevertheless, my legs are definitely a lot smoother than before!
Here are some ‘before’ and ‘after’ images of my nasty legs. :^)
First round of used wax strips.
Used wax strips from the second round.
Before
After. Red patches are NOT from product.
Before
After
To get the above results, I basically had to use two boxes, and will probably need even more to do a more thorough job. However, I’ll probably let this experiment end here and let my legs return to their former glory. I doubt I’ll do it again in the near future, but for anyone who just wants to test out waxing, I think it’s a very cheap but decent product.
I think that when non-Japanese people think of a quintessential Japanese flavour for confections, they usual think of matcha. Matcha cakes, matcha ice cream, matcha cookies, and so on. Personally, I never got on the matcha wagon, and much prefer kinako instead.
What is kinako, you might ask?
Kinako is a golden-brown roasted soybean flour that is subtly sweet, with a nutty flavour. In Japan, it’s a highly popular ingredient used in many sweet treats like wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets), other confections, or milk! Kinako is affordable and highly accessible, and you can easily find it in a Japanese supermarket.
I’ve had kinako-powdered rice crackers that I’ve highly enjoyed before, so I was stoked when I stumbled upon kinako cookies from the brand, Furuta. Not just plain kinako cookies though, but kinako cookies stuffed with mochi (Japanese rice cake) bits, so it seemed like a dream cookie since they complement each other well.
Unopened pack
The cookie makes my hand look ginormous, but my palm is only about 9cm long.
I’m not sure if there are bigger packs, but the pack I got contained 6 individually wrapped cookies. What struck me instantly when I opened a pack was how tiny the cookie was! I couldn’t help but chuckle at the size. Texture-wise, this is more of a soft-chewy cookie than a crisp one, so it’s not for you if you like your cookies with more of a snap. Taste-wise, I wasn’t too impressed. There was a bit of kinako flavour, but I feel like perhaps the use of additional in the cookie sugar (sugar is second on the ingredient list) overpowered the nuttiness of the kinako, throwing the nutty-sweet balance off.
What about the mochi?
It could be that my expectations were a tad too high, but I felt let down by the lack of mochi. The picture on the packaging showed very distinct mochi bits, but I honestly couldn’t tell it was there at all while I ate it. Even when I bit the cookie in half to inspect the cross-section, I had to struggle to detect the mochi, only finding very minuscule bits upon very close inspection.
Overall, I find the cookie quite unremarkable. It’s neither delicious as a kinako cookie, or just as a cookie in general. If I were to search for a plus point, I guess it’s pretty convenient that they’re individually wrapped and pathetically tiny, so it aids in portion control I guess? Though you might be able to say that the taste itself aids in portion control because personally, I wouldn’t really gobble all of them in one shot since they’re not that great. I’ll finish the pack because it’s a waste to throw them away, but I don’t think I’ll repurchase them or recommend them to someone else.
The Adventures of Miss Teh Tarik 