Tasting Notes 7

[steepholm]

Today's first snack is very much what it looks like - a bar of "melting in the mouth smooth" ("口どけなめらか") milk chocolate, purportedly from "Ghana Mountain" (which, as you can see, bears a striking resemblance to Mt. Fuji). "Let's take Ghana to the mountain!" the pack seems to be suggesting, but I think that must be a slight mistranslation, since it's an even less practical suggestion than taking the mountain to Ghana. Anyway, the chocolate is good and (as promised) smooth, reminding me of the kind they make Easter eggs out of. Yum.





I must admit I didn't know what this was before I ate it. I could see (and even read) that it was some kind of jerky - and after all, I like jerky. The approval of the pumped-up space man (Biker? Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger?) was another welcome sign of quality. I assumed "surume" ("するめ") was some way of preparing beef. So when I opened it and was hit by a fishy smell evocative of my local pet shop I was surprised, and only partly reassured by the notice intended to give me "anshin" (peace of mind - 安心). Having said that, it tasted pretty good! Only afterwards did I look up "surume" and discover it means dried cuttlefish - which gave me a Proustian moment in which I remembered keeping a cuttlefish in my school desk for several weeks at the age of 8, until it started to stink. This is however an idiosyncratic reaction, and certainly wouldn't want it to put you off trying cuttlefish jerky for yourself. In fact, I warmly urge you to do so.