What I Purchased at Kitano Ace - Japan Haul

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

What I Purchased at Kitano Ace - Japan Haul

       As I mentioned in my previous entry, my husband and I enjoyed shopping at Kitano Ace (北野エース) located in Tokyo Solamachi, a huge shopping mall at the bottom of Tokyo Skytree. Kitano Ace has many branches in Japan. For instance, they have 15 branches in Tokyo.

      Kitano Ace sells a variety of groceries. If you are already an expert at Japanese foods and would like to find something you don't see at regular supermarkets in Japan, I think you will love this store. :)

      Their foods were so high quality and tasted so good! I should have purchased more products there. Today, I'm going to share what I purchased there with you.

Kitano Ace

1. Kyushu Sweet Potato Chips, Kyushu Satsuma Chips (九州さつまチップス)
378 yen

Kyushu Sweet Potato Chips

Japanese sweet potatoes are called satsuma imo. Satsuma (薩摩, さつま) is a former name of a district in Kagoshima prefecture. Imo (芋, いも) means a potato in Japanese. Kagoshima prefecture located on Kyushu island (九州) is the largest Japanese sweet potato producer in Japan. Did you know that Japanese sweet potatoes are sweeter than other sweet potatoes or yam? They look alike but taste very different. I sometimes buy Japanese sweet potatoes at a Japanese supermarket in the U.S. to make roasted sweet potato, yaki imo (焼き芋), because regular American supermarkets don't have Japanese ones usually.

Anyway, I really loved this one! The chips were sweet and so crunchy! I would like to purchase this one again if I have a chance to go to Kitano Ace in Japan. If you want to purchase Japanese sweet potato chips at regular supermarkets in Japan, you can find UHA Mikakuto Osatsu Doki (UHA味覚糖おさつどきっ), which I also love and used to eat in Japan. However, I love this Kitano Ace sweet potato chips more than UHA Mikakuto ones.

2. Nadaman Cream Cheese Rice Crackers, Nadaman Cream Cheese Okaki (なだ万クリームチーズおかき)
200 yen

Nadaman Cream Cheese Rice Crackers

Nadaman (なだ万) is a famous high-end Japanese restaurant established in 1830. They also sell some bento boxes and side dishes at depachika (デパ地下) in many department stores in Japan. (As I mentioned in my previous entry, depachika is delicatessen on underground floors of department stores.) When we found this rice cracker at Kitano Ace, we were surprised that Nadaman also has snacks! That's why we purchased ones.

Actually, we haven't had this one. We purchased some and gave them away to our Japanese friends and coworkers. They said this one tasted so good! Next time, we will buy one for ourselves. ;)

3. Japanese Mustard Leaf Pickles with Spicy Pollock Roe, Karashi Mentaiko Takana (からし明太子高菜)
369 yen

Japanese Mustard Leaf Pickles with Spicy Pollock Roe

Takana is Japanese mustard leaf pickles, which are perfect with freshly steamed rice. :) As I mentioned in my previous entry, How to Prepare Takanazuke, Japanese Mustard Leaf Pickles, Fukuoka, our hometown, is famous for takanazuke. My grandmother used to make homemade takanazuke. This pack of takanazuke with karashi mentaiko, spicy marinated pollock roe, is already finely cut to ready to eat. We really loved this takanazuke!

4. TBC Collagen 2000 + Vitamin C Grape Fruit Drink (TBC コラーゲン2000 + ビタミンC グレープフルーツ)
128 yen

TBC Collagen 2000 + Vitamin C Grape Fruit Drink

This is a beauty drink created by TBC, which is the most famous fancy Japanese beauty salon, and Morinaga, which is one of the largest Japanese food manufacturer companies. The drink has 2,000 mg of collagen and vitamin C. It tasted really good. It was grape fruit juice with aloe leave pulps. :) You can also purchase this one at some drugstores in Japan.