Ikea--Swedish Food in Japan

[helenjp]

Teachers come to your house?

Yes, they make an annual visit. One awful day, I upset a cask of stinky pickle juice in the front hall while cleaning for the annual visit, and spent the whole day cleaning that up instead of the rest of the house, which was bedlam after a month of heavy translation work. Turned out we were the last house on the route, so when my boys INSISTED that the teacher come inside while they fixed her a snack with their own fair hands, she foolishly agreed. I'm surprised she had the courage to eat the proffered Seven-year-old's Special Yogurt and Icecream Parfait in such unhygienic surroundings!

(As you can tell, that happened a while back. Last visit, the now-12 year old gave his teacher home-made red shiso drink, and told her it was very good for fatigue...)

Swedish meatballs - this I have to see! I have a nostalgic fondness for them. A Swedish woman who ran a cafe back in Auckland, NZ, used to serve them. Her meatballs were much better than her constant attempts to matchmake her clientele!

[prasantrin]

Ikea in Kobe has finally opened, and I'm still in Japan to see it!

I went to Ikea this morning. It just opened on the 14th, but I figured if I went first thing in the morning, I'd be OK. When I arrived at 9:30 (they don't open till 10), there were already about 150 people in line in front of me, and by the time they opened at 10, there were about 150 more people in line behind me! There were probably as many people (if not more) at the parking lot entrance, too.

It seemed most people were going to the restaurant, or at least stopping there while shopping, so it wasn't such a bad experience. I didn't get to try any of the food (sadly, no Daim cake, just the plain Almondy cake and a princess cake), but the only things that really interested me were the salmon bagel, and the marinated salmon. IIRC, I don't like their meatballs (too mystery-meat-like for me), and their roast beef the last time I had it was dry.

After checking out, I browsed through the grocery store. They have cheap bleu cheese, so I picked some up. How exciting! And more importantly, they have dill potato chips! I thought they were dill pickle chips, actually, so I was very very excited, but upon trying them, I realized they were just dill-flavoured. The bag says they have chives, too, and they taste a little like sour cream & onion with dill. Not bad, but not great.

I'll have to go back one day for cookies (I love their cookies, though I really don't need the temptation to eat an entire box). When I left at 11, though, there were about 300+ people in line at the main entrance, who knows how many at the parking lot entrance, so I might wait a few months longer...

[brokentelephone]

I cannot fathom any amount of excitement over Ikea or any foodstuffs contained within it.

[prasantrin]

I cannot fathom any amount of excitement over Ikea or any foodstuffs contained within it.

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In Japan, everything new is exciting. The phrase "My Boom" hasn't been created for nothing...