It’s time to treat yourself to a new experience point with some extra-adorable Slime and She-slime kamaboko.

By its very linguistic nature, “slime” is supposed to be sort of gross and repulsive. After all, if it were something nice, we’d call it “gel” or “gelatin” instead.

A rare but important exception is made, though, for the Dragon Quest Slime, the starter-tier monster that’s been greeting new adventurers in each and every installment in the role-playing video game series since the original in 1986. As proof of how inarguable capital-S Slime’s “cute” status is in Japanese pop culture, it’s considered not only adorable, but appetizing too, and today’s taste test features an especially apt medium in which to render the Dragon Quest muse: kamaboko, traditional Japanese fish cake.

A fantasy creature with a professional resume as long as Slime’s naturally requires a partner with a similarly certified reputation, and the Slime Kamaboko is thus made in the town of Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture by kamaboko maker Suzuhiro. Though Odawara in general is famous for its kamaboko, Suzuhiro is particularly prestigious, having been in business for over 150 years (and which wowed us a while back with its beautiful hydrangea kamaboko).

Despite its exalted pedigree, though, you can actually get the Slime Kamaboko for free by heading to Odawara Castle, firing up the Dragon Quest Walk mobile game, and completing a quest which makes you eligible to win a box. However, since we’re much more likely to be described as lazy than heroic, we instead logged on to Suzuhiro’s online shop, where you can order the Slime Kamaboko for 880 yen (US$8.30). We weren’t the only ones with that plan, though, and there were so many people accessing Suzuhiro’s site following the Slime’s release that it took us a solid week of checking back until we could place our order, making the purchase process feel a little like grinding for experience points.

Eventually our persistence was rewarded, though, and after a few days our Slime arrived. Well, actually our Slimes arrived. Opening the box (which bears a Japanese-style illustration of the creatures), we discovered that it contained not only the orthodox blue Slime, but also a bright orange She-slime too.

While the regular Slime and She-slimes have slightly different stats in the Dragon Quest games, their kamaboko versions’ only difference is their color (Suzuhiro uses only natural colorings, by the way). And while they’re definitely longer and narrower in shape than the semi-spherical form we’re used to seeing Slimes in, no mater where you slice the kamaboko, a Slime face appears, similar to what happens with Japan’s old-school Kintaro Ame candies.

Kamaboko has a slightly squishy texture, and while it’s firm enough to hold its shape, it’s also soft enough that the shape will wiggle and jiggle, which really helps make it look like an actual Slime crawled out of your TV and has crossed from the video game world into ours.

Now, if you’ve never eaten fish cake before, the idea of eating Slime kamaboko might not sound much more appealing than eating any other sort of random slime. Rest assured, though, that kamaboko is fairly mild in flavor, and not especially intimidating as far as foodstuffs go. As a matter of fact, if you’ve eaten much ramen, odds are you’ve already come across kamaboko in the form of the naruto disc that’s often floating in the broth.

Since kamaboko is more of a side dish or accent to the main course, we decided to insert ours into a bento boxed lunch, with two Slimes lying in wait like they’re a random RPG encounter.

▼ We got the bento at the convenience store, which once again proves to be a source of photogenic food in Japan.

And since we could enjoy the company of as many slimes as we could slice, later on we tossed a few into a bowl of udon noodles.

We give the Slime Kamaboko full marks in both looks and taste, and if you’d like it to draw near to your next meal, Suzuhiro’s order page can be found here.

Images ©SoraNews24
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