food

Convenience store food getting tastier

28 Comments
By Karen Masuda

Has anyone living in Japan noticed an upgrade in quality of convenience store food lately?

One of our Japanese reporters frequents his local convenience stores twice daily and, as an avid fan of their food, tells us that he has been pleasantly surprised by the recent rise in quality of convenience store food.

Lawson’s tasty “Pasta Restaurant” spaghetti series has caught his attention in particular. Apparently, this pasta is so delicious that it warrants a photo contest in collaboration with LINE Camera, with adorable LINE Camera character plushies and Lawson’s 3,000 yen pre-paid cards at stake as prizes.

Some of Lawson’s recommended Pasta Restaurant dishes include “Fried Lasagna Bolognaise” and “Seafood Tomato with Cream Sauce”, but our reporter’s favorite is the “Clam-Packed Spaghetti Alle Vongole.”

“The linguine absorbs the flavor of the clams, giving it just the right chewy texture. Combined with the rich sauce and ocean smell, this is one amazing pasta dish!” he raves.

How many convenient store dishes can you say that about?

The Pasta Restaurant promotional site gives the dish only a little space, but that shouldn’t keep you from trying it the next time you’re looking for a quick meal from Lawson.

Another tasty piece of information which you might be interested in: in addition to mastering amazing pre-made pasta, the team behind Lawson’s Pasta Restaurant have also achieved the Guinness World Record for longest pasta in the world (3776 meters), breaking the standing record of 3,333-meter-long pasta. Needless to say, they used Pasta Restaurant noodles.

A Japanese convenience store holds the record for longest pasta in the world. You should be ashamed of yourselves, Italians.

Next time you find yourself in Lawson’s you’ll want to look for this superb brand of pasta. You won’t be disappointed

© RocketNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


28 Comments
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Twice DAILY?! Good grief...

Your Japanese reporter needs to get himself for a health check up I think.

Maybe the food is getting tastier, however It certainly is not getting healthier. You could make exactly the same dish at home, shave a couple of hundred calories off, and not have to eat all the chemicals and preservatives the convini chains put in their food.

But ... that would not be as convenient!

8 ( +10 / -2 )

The only people who love conbini food are those who have never tried real, authentic home-cooked food!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Best to avoid food that goes on display on shelves for hours on end. They need to pump it full of chemicals so that it continues to look shiny and colorful. No thanks.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Has anyone living in Japan noticed an upgrade in quality of convenience store food lately?

Yes, because they know sell lots of ingredients like veggies, fruits, eggs, pasta you can boil yourself, nuts without salt, meat and frozen seafood are not top quality but much better than some years ago. But your reheated pasta were, are and will be gross.

How many convenient store dishes can you say that about?

Type any text, print labels, stick on as many dishes as you want. You still have reheated pasta in a plastic box.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The food contains additives and taste enhancers.

You'll notice that convenience store food always has a different taste than if you would have made the same item at home with natural ingredients.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Convenience store food getting tastier

More MSG?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

One of our Japanese reporters frequents his local convenience stores twice daily and, as an avid fan of their food, tells us that he has been pleasantly surprised by the recent rise in quality of convenience store food.

Oh, I'm sure he's a real connoisseur of fine food... I bet he's a slob who's idea of cooking is turning on the kettle for another cup noodle.

“The linguine absorbs the flavor of the clams, giving it just the right chewy texture. Combined with the rich sauce and ocean smell, this is one amazing pasta dish!” he raves.

He can rave all he wants about his pasta of poverty. The "chewy texture" probably comes from the way the starch in the pasta becomes rubbery from the microwaves.

A Japanese convenience store holds the record for longest pasta in the world. You should be ashamed of yourselves, Italians.

Oh, I bet they're crying into their interesting food culture. When someone from overseas wins the longest maki-sushi competition, maybe Japan will be crying into their bland and dull food culture.

Apparently, this pasta is so delicious that it warrants a photo contest

Yeah, it's called "Faces of Death".

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

S'true, the pasta isn't bad once in a while.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The pasta is the only thing that is okay, the bento's taste like the box they came in.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Is convenience store food getting tastier?

In a word,

No.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

i just see it as a relatively cheap but unhealthy substitute when i cant get my hands on real food.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I don't know how pasta that has steeped for half a day in lukewarm sauce and then been reheated could get any tastier.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

This stuff literally never goes mouldy....no matter how long you let it sit. Conbini onigiri just keep on keepin' on too, you could probably build a house with them!! The amount of preservatives in conbini food is scary.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

y3chome-san,

i just see it as a relatively cheap but unhealthy substitute

I wonder what you see it as relatively cheap to?

I don't know where you are in Japan, but almost everywhere I've been there are plenty of options for a few hundred yen.

Tachigui soba?

Curry rice?

Onigiri at a supermarket?

Nikuman?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I have had a couple of these Lawson pasta meals lately when i had no time to cook. They are much better than a few years ago that is for sure, They are however not like homemade and the sauces are rather stodgy. I would say you could do worse, you get what you pay really, you can't expect gourmet grub for under 500Yen.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Central Tokyo Recently the conbinis "meals" are around 400yen ; granted the amount isnt great but it is just that, convenient.... for when I cant be away from the desk for long. If given ample time and choice yes i wud choose real food- the only real option there is tachigui soba, but not EVERY day

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Maybe the food is getting tastier, however It certainly is not getting healthier. You could make exactly the same dish at home, shave a couple of hundred calories off, and not have to eat all the chemicals and preservatives the convini chains put in their food.

Cooking, it's not typically popular with singles who work a 10 hour day and commutes back and forth from..somewhere not Tokyo.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Has anyone living in Japan noticed an upgrade in quality of convenience store food lately?

Nope! Fresh food, home cooked yes! I mean how hard is it to cook pasta...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Six mentions of Lawsons in this article and no other combinis mentioned. Hmm.. Hopefully Lawsons paid the author enough so she can enjoy a properly prepared meal soon...

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Yes it has improved. I love Lawson's metaiko pasta. Very yummy and rich with Omega 3. Lawson is way healthier than MacDonalds. I love cooking and I have a passion for it, but when time is limited, I buy at lawsons or familymart. Their bentos are really OISHI, especially the "Goya Champuru" and "Fuu Chanpuru" bentos. I love them! I love anything with GOYA and I heared its good as an anti Diabetes too. Great job combinis.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Well at least you can eat some of the food from the combinis in Tokyo. I cannot think of a single food I would buy at a convenience store in North America. As for the pasta at combini's in Tokyo, I don't mind it the odd time.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

In a word, No.

You must eat there fairly often in order to form such a concise opinion. Someone like me, who never eats convini food, would have no idea if it was getting better or not.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The linguine absorbs the flavor of the clams, giving it just the right chewy texture

The food scientists' jiggery pokery even makes the taste affect the texture. Wow!

Never mind the processed junk at the konbinis. Does anyone swallow this excuse for journalism?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

If the Japanese reporter visits the Conbini twice daily for his food then he won't live to see 50, and might end up with a major coronary or stroke long before that. Convenience store food, while it does in a pinch, should never substitute healthy food you can make at home, but I'll admit it is better than it used to be and does in a pinch. The problem with convenience store foods in general is that they are chalk FULL of MSG, preservatives, and additives, not to mention the levels of sodium in most of these 'ready to eat' products (never mind cup noodles or the like!) is off the charts! And that's only for the ready meals -- if you are one of the people who eat the 'hamburgers' who sit along with the sliced and other snack breads for up to a few days, unrefrigerated, you're done.

I can dump food enhancers into the food I cook at home to make me and my family say, "Oishiiiii!" a little more, but it's better to be healthier.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

What's wrong with the normal Japanese food they are healthier.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Ooh I love the food at convenience stores and thought they're really good quality already, can they get any tastier than what they already are? ;)

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Redcliff: "What's wrong with the normal Japanese food they are healthier."

I think that needs to be qualified by saying normal 'traditional' Japanese food. The modern day stuff isn't a lot healthier than junk food anywhere else.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Kakukakushikajika: "Nope! Fresh food, home cooked yes! I mean how hard is it to cook pasta..."

Just because something is cooked at home doesn't necessarily mean it's healthier. Boiling some cheap pasta noodles and covering it with canned pasta sauce isn't barely a step above convenience store pasta, for example, since the canned (or bagged, in many cases here) ready to go sauce is full of a lot of the same garbage convenience store food is. Now, if you used some simple puree and spiced it up, or better yet made the sauce yourself from tomatoes, olive oil, and spices then I agree.

chuichi: "Ooh I love the food at convenience stores and thought they're really good quality already"

Good variety, yes, absolutely. Good quality, not at all. I'm willing to bet the meat used in most convenience store dishes is the same quality or worse than the meat served in prisons (I say this because in many nations companies that serve school lunches, many low-grade restaurants, and make ready-made meals often use the same grade meat or worse than that prisoners are given to cook and serve).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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