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Ministop

Second-tier Japanese convenience store’s “Drinkable Soft Serve Ice Cream” is a top-tier dessert

Minisof’s Super Milk is worth tracking down.

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A sad Oden Day in Japan as stores seem to be steadily stopping self-service pots

Where has all the oden gone? Long time passing…

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Japanese convenience store chain wows us with its hidden street food

This is one product that’s too good to be kept a secret.

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Japanese convenience store ice cream solves plastic-vs.-wooden-spoon dilemma with edible spoons

Japan’s favorite convenience store for ice cream may have just invented the best way to eat it.

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French fry war escalates with a 300-percent larger Bucket Potato from Ministop convenience stores

More salt in the very salty wounds of McDonald’s.

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Rice balls aplenty at the Ministop senbero, but with a special twist【Japan’s Best Home Senbero】

Mr. Sato eats seven onigiri without eating a single onigiri.

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Gyoza rice balls are here, and everyone agrees they look awesome, but are they? 【Taste Test】

We find out if gyoza onigiri is the match made in heaven everyone is expecting.

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Japan’s latest must-try ice cream is available from … the local convenience store!

This premium ice cream is designed to look like the vegetable from which it’s made, but that’s just one of its many attractive qualities.

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Ministop and Koikeya bring six new eats to a conbini near you, but can you handle the heat?

The Japanese are known for not being able to handle spicy food. While it is true that traditional Japanese cuisine tends to have rather mild flavors and limit the use of spices, and there are still many who don’t have the tongue to tough out a bit of heat, times are a-changin’. Now, many Japanese people are more than happy to sit down to a hot plate of Indian curry, a fiery bowl of Korean tteokbokki, or enjoy a kick from a spicy snack like Karamucho (カラムーチョ).

These popular hot chili-flavored chips have been around for years, but they’re now being revamped into six new, unique meal items, from bento to fiery chicken, to be sold at the Ministop convenience store chain throughout Japan. So fire up your taste buds, foodies, and come take a look at the hot, new lineup!

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  • Aug 3, 2014

In the mood for a little meat? We try “manga meat” chicken from Family Mart!【Taste Test】

One of the manga/anime items that has long caught the fancy of the Japanese public is, interestingly, a kind of meat that has come to be known as “manga meat” (manga niku), or sometimes also as “primeval meat” (genshi niku). From the mammoth meat that appeared in the 1970’s anime First Human Giatrus (yes, the story was set in the stone age and it was supposed to be actual mammoth meat!) to meats appearing in more recent anime such as Dragon Ball and One Piece,  the image of the manga niku has captivated us, making us fantasize about taking a chewy bite of the fictional fare.

Well, Japanese convenience chain Mini Stop is currently offering a product that to a certain degree lets you fulfill that fantasy. It’s the Hammer Chicken Primeval-style Meat with Bone  (Hone-tsuki Genshi Niku fu Hammer Chicken) which went on sale just this week, and as you might expect, we hurried over to a Mini Stop to get a taste.

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Ministop convenience stores to begin selling Pizza (America) Dogs

Japan has a somewhat confusing take on hotdogs compared to other countries. For example, you’d be hard pressed to find packs of hotdogs on sale at any supermarket let alone buns, and yet they’re readily available on the breakfast menu of every McDonald’s.

Also, people may envision a true American hotdog to have been boiled in murky water on the side of the busy street, slathered with ketchup, onions, and relish and all served on a bun that may or may not have been used as the vendor’s pillow a few minutes earlier. However, in Japan, an “American Dog” is the common lingo to a pancakey kind of corn dog.

Now, Japanese convenience store Ministop is taking the “America” out of American Dogs and replacing it with pizza for some junk food hybrid goodness.

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