Japan Strange Food I – The Okayama Noodle Bonbons

I am absolutely sure that every person who has ever been in Japan should know about ramen (ラーメン) and udon (うどん) noodles or okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) for example. As a matter of fact these are my favorite dishes. That is why I was really happy to see some of them at the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) station of Okayama (岡山市) under the form of… bonbons:

Needless to say that without any hesitation I bought them to try them out.

I became suspicious already when I saw the drops out of the box:

I don’t know what I was expecting (may be a small bundles of meat, cabbage, rice and sauce) but they were suspiciously resembling some sort of medical pills. Here they are on bigger magnification:

Even worse – they were smelling like medicine.

And finally (after I was brave enough to put them in my mouth) – they were tasting like a medicine. Even if there was some flavor of “demi-katsu-don” (a dish particular for Okayama) it was barely detectable. They were definitely uneatable.

Several other members of the chottomatte’s team (convinced that 320 yen (the price of the demi-katsu-don bonbons) were too much to be trashed) made brave efforts to eat them but as far as I remember it was not completely successful attempt.

The moral of the story – if you ever go to Okayama shinkansen station under no circumstances try the noodle (or any other main Japanese dish) drops/bonbons, unless you are drug addict. They look, smell and taste like a medicine. If you really want to buy some omiyage (Japanese word for souvenir) better try Okayama peaches. They are famous and tasty  (but expensive too).