Umaimono Fair, Isetan Scotts

It is over, and I wouldn't be sorry if you didn't get your chance to be there to jostle with the ill behaved aunties camping in their positions an inch from the food counters waiting for the next batch of food samples.

If you missed this, you can probably wait for the next one. These Japanese food fairs like the Hokkaido Food Fair happens with some regularity. Main attractions of these food fairs are the display of their unique food items. Japanese quality food items that is. I managed to snap at some of the sights.

Taiyaki. I wanted to talk about this. I've had these little fish shaped Japanese pancakes for almost as long as I can remember. I recall as a child standing behind the glass and watching these pancakes being made at Daimaru, just outside the payment counter of the supermarket. It was then uncomprehendingly fascinating, watching the maker behind the glass brushing oil onto the fish moulds, scraping out the excess flour from the spills, squeezing the batter mix into the moulds and cutting pieces of red bean paste onto the half baked pancakes before flipping the hot iron press over to make the fish complete. My mom use to buy them for me. Today these pancakes are still easily found, but they come in a larger variety of flavours. It used to be simply just red bean. Now we have cheese, peanut, creamed corn, kaya and whatever it is they deem appropriate.

The ones found in this fair however had a distinctive difference. The amount of the filling was much more generous. Something which I have noticed with food done by Japanese. In stead of the small glob of red bean at the middle of the fish, one gets a bar of that sweet bean-y paste that extends from the lips to the tail.

The fillings that were available here were red bean and custard. The red bean being the traditional one was pretty much how I expected it to taste. The custard filling however, I found more appealing. It was similar to the cream cheese options...except that it's custard. Fresh from the press with the crispy edges and soft hot insides.

There were bento sets at the fair. I've always wondered how it was to have takeaways in these little wooden boxes, and so I found out today. These sets came with fish roe, shredded meat of crab leg, spiced seaweed and sea urchin. There is another option which came with smaller portions of seafood but included scallop, small abalone, a cube of tamago and if I do not remember wrongly, a cockle?

Here's a look at the other offerings of the fair...

Preserved and spiced fish. These have texture like ba kua and were quite tasty.

Seasoned squid. Didn't get to sample these.

More squid. These come in some sweet teriyaki-ish sauce and tasted fabulous.

Fish roe that was bursting with briny sweet flavour.

Fried scallops. Tasty!

Fried squid (left) and fish (right).

Small barbequed fishes in sweet brown sauce.

One of the items sold in the fair I want to bring up was the rice stuffed squid. These were tiny squids (baby ones?) that were stewed in some reddish sauce, then stuffed with rice and then sealed. I managed to get to sample this but found it below my expectations. I've had something similar once at the Hokkaido Food Fair in Takashimaya. Then, the squids used were regular full sized ones and they tasted great. The rice in these mini stuffed squid tasted undercooked and hard. We managed to leave with some choice grabs before heading outside to enjoy in relative discomfort. On the picture at the right, you can see the fried shrimps. We didn't manage to get a larger photo of it, but it was also available in the fair. Here's a closer look at the bento box. I also noticed that I neglected to mention the piece of raw salmon which was seared. Look at the little fish shaped soy sauce squeeze things it came with.

If anyone was wondering how much this little box of packed seafood and rice costed......