Whenever we think of the season ''summer'', and what kind of food we eat during summer, most of us immediately think of ice cream. Last week I went to Mitsuwa with my family after a stuffy, no ventilation, three hour studio painting class, I did not go inside the supermarket to purchase a bottle of water or any other kind of soft drink. But rather, I went straight for the Hokkaido Festival the market is hosting near the entrance door. I guess the main reason I didn't go straight off to buy a drink was because the Hokkaido Festival only comes once a year, and their vanilla ice cream is imported straight from Japan. So the supply is very limited.
After paying, I received my cup of the ice cream labeled as :Hokkaido Ice Cream, to me it looked just like any regular vanilla ice cream, but perhaps a little whiter on its color. Unlike how in America, where we would always add toppings, it was simply plain ice cream. Looking back at the festival set up area, even though there were other imported foods from Hokkaido for everyone to purchase, there was a huge, long line and everyone were just standing there and waiting to get their hands on the ice cream. I was glad I came early.
Still, I wondered why with the huge line. The ice cream either sits on a cone, or a small cup. Perhaps it is the exotic, milk-like creamy taste of it? Or because it simply looked cute in a small cup; the Japanese always make anything and everything delicate-- food wrappers designed in gold and metallic purple flowers, a simple soft drink bottle design that looked way too adorable to recycle. In America, we have Cold Stone, where the ice cream is tossed together with toppings that you want to add; from chocolate chips to M&M's. Sprinkles to crumbled Oreo cookies, and so on. We even have frozen yogurt; the other, more healthier sweet treat to ice cream, also topped with diced fruits, mochi, chocolate chips, etc. We also have Italian gelato stores in America. And all three of them, when combined together, have perhaps over a million different flavors ranging from chocolate, strawberry, coffee, chocolate mint, hazelnut, etc.
Before I leave Mitsuwa there was still this long line of people waiting to get their hands on the Hokkaido ice cream. And I overheard the manager coming up and apologizing to everyone that the ice cream sold out completely for the day. Taking a closer inspection, I noticed that there were not only the Japanese lining up, but also people from other different countries. As I came to realize, maybe some never tried Japanese ice cream before. And for the people that are Japanese-- they want to get a taste on something they could not easily get in America-- that taste of ''home''-- in Hokkaido. Maybe it reminded them of their childhood days during the summer, while other customers were simply going for that exotic, creamy taste that one cannot really describe is as a ''vanilla ice cream''.
After paying, I received my cup of the ice cream labeled as :Hokkaido Ice Cream, to me it looked just like any regular vanilla ice cream, but perhaps a little whiter on its color. Unlike how in America, where we would always add toppings, it was simply plain ice cream. Looking back at the festival set up area, even though there were other imported foods from Hokkaido for everyone to purchase, there was a huge, long line and everyone were just standing there and waiting to get their hands on the ice cream. I was glad I came early.
Still, I wondered why with the huge line. The ice cream either sits on a cone, or a small cup. Perhaps it is the exotic, milk-like creamy taste of it? Or because it simply looked cute in a small cup; the Japanese always make anything and everything delicate-- food wrappers designed in gold and metallic purple flowers, a simple soft drink bottle design that looked way too adorable to recycle. In America, we have Cold Stone, where the ice cream is tossed together with toppings that you want to add; from chocolate chips to M&M's. Sprinkles to crumbled Oreo cookies, and so on. We even have frozen yogurt; the other, more healthier sweet treat to ice cream, also topped with diced fruits, mochi, chocolate chips, etc. We also have Italian gelato stores in America. And all three of them, when combined together, have perhaps over a million different flavors ranging from chocolate, strawberry, coffee, chocolate mint, hazelnut, etc.
Before I leave Mitsuwa there was still this long line of people waiting to get their hands on the Hokkaido ice cream. And I overheard the manager coming up and apologizing to everyone that the ice cream sold out completely for the day. Taking a closer inspection, I noticed that there were not only the Japanese lining up, but also people from other different countries. As I came to realize, maybe some never tried Japanese ice cream before. And for the people that are Japanese-- they want to get a taste on something they could not easily get in America-- that taste of ''home''-- in Hokkaido. Maybe it reminded them of their childhood days during the summer, while other customers were simply going for that exotic, creamy taste that one cannot really describe is as a ''vanilla ice cream''.
MITSUWA MARKET PLACE
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ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how you pointed out that Japanese ice-creams tend to have lesser toppings and focused more on the flavor of the ice-cream itself; whereas, American ice-creams are usually bombarded with tons of toppings. From this, I believe that the aspects of simplicity, functionality and tradition have always been incorporated into whatever that the Japanese manufactures. A fine example would be to look at Japanese car manufacturers: Honda, Nissan and Toyota. All these companies consistently deliver cars of the year, year after year, with their practical and economical cars. They are good at what they do simply because they sell cars that are meant to be cars; not cars that are advertised to be rockets (like the GM advertisement of the new Cadillac CTS) and huge loud rumbling machines like the infamous American muscle cars or gargantuan Hummer tanks that probably has a 8-15 MPG fuel consumption!
ReplyDeleteThe main point I am trying to make here is: no matter how much "toppings" you masquerade your "ice-cream" with, if it tastes bad initially, it will remain bad.