I apologize for posting it only now, but Ranko didn’t tweet this article until yesterday, so I missed it (tho, I discovered it on Sunday and started the translation on that day).
Anyway, for her monthly Daily Bibibi feature, she talks about her favorite food, umeboshi!
Hi there, Daily Bibibi readers. I’m Ranko, the vocalist of BUTAOTOME.
This is a series of articles in which I introduce things I like in the way I like them.
In the last two articles, I introduced some of my beloved heroes from when I was little.
This time, I’d like to change things up a bit and talk about my favorite food, “umeboshi” (salted Japanese plums).
This is a loose manga drawn by my sister, and it shows how much I love umeboshi. It really shocked me. It was about nine years ago, but I remember it… And really, I used to serve umeboshi to my friends. It was the highest level of hospitality for me.
When I was little, I loved the salty umeboshi that my grandma used to make every year. There were tons of them at my mother’s house. I literally ate them to death because there were so many that I couldn’t finish them. I think that was my first experience with umeboshi.
Also, I don’t know about now, but when I was in elementary school, four crunchy umeboshi were 100 yen each at the 100-yen shop. I used to buy 40 of them with my 1000 yen allowance and eat them all in a single day. Now that I think about it, it was really bad for my health. Very bad. How scary.
And now, I have gone to a store specializing in umeboshi. It’s called “Tachigui Umeboshi Ya. This store is located in Tokyo Solamachi.
As the name suggests, it’s a place where you can stop by and eat umeboshi, but I think this one is the most famous among the many that sell them.
You can buy all twelve kinds of umeboshi, one by one. As you can see in the picture, just select→ pack→ check out, and you’re done. It’s that easy.
I decided to buy all of them anyway.
It would be too much to review all twelve, so I’ll just pick the five that I particularly enjoyed. I’ll also include a note I wrote when I ate them.
☆No. 5☆
Kombu ume… Not too sour, but the sweetness and broth are delicious. Well-balanced taste.
☆No. 4☆
Karashi umetaiko… It’s quite spicy and has strong elements of karashi mentaiko. But it is umeboshi. Umeboshi is umeboshi. I ate it with udon, and it was perfect.
☆No. 3☆
Kimchi ume… It was delicious! Just the right amount of spiciness. I ate it with rice porridge and it was great.
☆No. 2☆
Sour ume… Very, very sour!!! So soft!! Delicious!!! It’s too sour, even a little bitter, but really delicious. It has a strange, luxurious feeling.
☆No. 1☆
Uguisu… ume~~~~!!!!! Fucking delicious~~~~!!! Top tier!! So good!!!! It was so good that I ate it in two bites even though I was trying to eat it slowly.
I… am not a good reviewer! I realized that when I wrote this!
No, but because all umeboshi are delicious …… there is no such thing in this world as an umeboshi that is not delicious… so all my reviews end up being just “delicious”…
When I say I like umeboshi, people often give me gifts of umeboshi, but I really like all kinds of things, so please don’t worry. I love sour, sweet, and plum-flavored sweets!
By the way, umeboshi are useful to replenish salt before a concert. I eat them often.
I’d like to end this article by introducing my favorite umeboshi shop.
It’s “Ousu no Sato” in Kyoto.
They have many different kinds of ume, and all of them are top tier and delicious. I recommend it.
Oh! My new album is out! Please give it a try!
https://tiramisucowboy.com/kochuuten/
I hope you will listen to it, because I sang it with a good feel.
See you next month! Ranko signing off!