Hopefully, this is just a mini stop on Ministop’s road to success.

The convenience store ecosystem in Japan is dominated by three apex predators: Family Mart, 7-Eleven, and Lawson. Then, there exists a secondary tier of stores like Daily Yamazaki and Ministop, the latter of which has been dealing with some money troubles as of late. It was recently reported that Ministop experienced their third straight year of net losses.

One of the causes is said to be a scandal involving falsified best-before dates on bento and rice balls, but despite that, the chain still has its legions of fans who are willing to look past it and hope for Ministop’s survival. You can even find the hashtag #SaveMinistop (#ミニストップを救いたい) on social media, and one supporter of this movement is our very own Mr. Sato.

▼ Ministop was one of the establishments worthy to be a part of his Japan’s Best Home Senbero series.

Convenience stores are magical beings that seem to feed primarily on money in order to survive. So, our writer figured the best way to help Ministop is not only to buy some stuff there, but to encourage others to do the same. And, to accomplish this, Mr. Sato is going to share with us a special combination he discovered that not only tastes addictively divine, but can only be done at Ministop.

What makes Ministop unique for this is a range of items that you can’t find in other chains, made at a surprisingly high quality. The centerpiece of these is their soft-serve ice cream that has become so popular it evolved into a separate spin-off brand, Minisof. It’s a feat even the big three chains haven’t accomplished.

Minisof is a crucial element to Mr. Sato’s secret delight, but since the beginning of April, they changed the main flavor from vanilla to Hokkaido milk for 348 yen (US$2.19). This will be our writer’s first time making the snack with the new flavor, but he has little doubt that it will be fantastic. That day, he also went with his colleague, Go Hatori, who ordered a special chocolate banana Minisof for 500 yen.

For what it’s worth, he described it as very “banana-y,” but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today. Also not relevant to the snack but neat and worth mentioning is that Ministop now offers edible spoons made out of ice cream cone wafer. It’s hard to resist not just eating the spoon right away, though.

The other component to Mr. Sato’s surprise is Ministop’s Hokkaido Wave Potato Happy Butter for 348 yen. As its pleasantly strange name sort of suggests, these are fried crinkle slices of potato. They’re a bit like a cross between potato chips and french fries.

The “Butter” aspect requires you to put them into a separate bag, add the butter-flavored powder seasoning, and shake it all up.

Once the potato is adequately covered, just take one out and dip it into the ice cream. That’s it!

It sounds simple, but the extreme contrasts between sweet and salty as well as hot and cold set Mr. Sato’s taste buds to the Moon each time. There’s also an exquisite marriage of textures between the creamy frozen treat, tender potato, and powdery butter seasoning. It has all the elements of a finely crafted luxury desert.

Of course, these snacks are already great when eaten on their own, but putting them together creates a highly addictive treat that goes beyond the sum of its parts. Mr. Sato especially loves it when he gets a thickly coated potato. It brings out the sweetness of the ice cream even more.

Even though Ministop may not be an alpha-grade convenience store in Japan, it is a very important part of the landscape. It’s unique strengths such as this that made Mr. Sato and its many other fans begin the #SaveMinistop movement. If you too would like to join the cause, you now know what to buy.

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[ Read in Japanese ]