What's Missing?...

Recently I've found a type of bread I like sold in the pastry section at the local Onuma department store. This particular type of bread is white bread with a bit of rye grain mixed in. So it's not as sweet as most of the usual white bread I've experienced here. Plus, it's sold in an unsliced loaf form which is not square! That's utter heresy! Virtually all bread loaves in Japan are box shaped with a square or rectangular cross sectional shape. I suppose the idea of a slice of bread with only two 90˚ angle corners would befuddle most Japanese who haven't traveled abroad.

The other thing which I haven't found yet is good old brown bread. Never mind whole wheat or 60% whole wheat bread. I thought I once located brown bread at my local Yo-ku Benimaru supermarket. On closer inspection I found I had been deceived. It was chocolate bread. Given that I'm allergic to chocolate I can safely say I won't be trying that product.

So I found myself with bread, milk and eggs. It took a while but I realized I had pretty well everything I needed to make French toast. My latest trip to Yo-ku Benimaru found me happily in possession of a spice jar of ground cinnamon and pure Canadian maple syrup. The maple syrup I chose was the less expensive of the two brands they had on sale. Both were in 250ml bottles but one cost at least ¥500 less. Nonetheless, this morning I was able to enjoy French toast for breakfast. But there was one thing missing.

I realize not everyone does this: I like to spread peanut butter on pancakes and French toast and then top off the mess with maple syrup. Yes, some of my friends back in Canada thought that was odd. So there I was enjoying my breakfast and thinking "There's something missing here...". Yup. I wanted peanut butter. French toast with real maple syrup is good. But I like mine with a bit more oomph.

Amongst the expats I work with we've come upon the topic of peanut butter at least once. I don't remember if I've been told that it's sold at Yamaya. Yamaya is a liquor supermarket store which sells import foods on the side. I think it's the only place in town you can buy cheddar cheese in a form other than cracker sized slices for ¥198. I recall buying a brick of US cheddar cheese there for about ¥498. The problem is that Yamaya is quite a distance away from where I live and I don't have a car yet.

So I did a quick search online for "peanut butter". Aside from the usual suspects (Wikipedia, et al) I came across this blog entry which talks about different spreadable peanut products available in Japan: http://www.rockinginhakata.com/2009/02/16/936/. Frankly speaking I wouldn't touch Skippy peanut butter with a ten foot pole back home. But I guess asking for Adam's natural unsalted peanut butter (http://www.adamspeanutbutter.com/) is just plain out of the question. So I may have to compromise. The alternative is make your own but I don't own a food processor (never did own one back home either) so I don't think this recipe will be one I'll try: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_75311_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html.

Anyways, enough about food...I'm getting hungry again!