Where's the butter?!?

[Coligny]

(Most) Japanese just don't understand Western food.

Pretty much THIS...I guess without effort, it can't be helped...but frozen/processed/fast food versions they serve here can be pretty horrible. Look at what Take posted....butter rolls? Shitty bread stuffed with margarine?

Compared to the version stuffed with processed ham and mayo they might be considrered delicacies...

(I wuz hungry... Never again though...)

[matsuki]

(Most) Japanese just don't understand Western food.

Pretty much THIS...I guess without effort, it can't be helped...but frozen/processed/fast food versions they serve here can be pretty horrible. Look at what Take posted....butter rolls? Shitty bread stuffed with margarine?

Compared to the version stuffed with processed ham and mayo they might be considrered delicacies...

(I wuz hungry... Never again though...)

Don't forget the ones stuffed with stale yakisoba

[Coligny]

Hey... Those are not so bad...

[matsuki]

Hey... Those are not so bad...

Pasta sandwich...good for freaking out tourists, for eating, not so much... (this coming from someone who loves yakisoba)

[Samurai_Jerk]

Hey... Those are not so bad...

Pasta sandwich...good for freaking out tourists, for eating, not so much... (this coming from someone who loves yakisoba)

When I was a kid and my mom made spaghetti with meat sauce I loved to make sandwiches with the leftovers.

[Coligny]

Hey... Those are not so bad...

Pasta sandwich...good for freaking out tourists, for eating, not so much... (this coming from someone who loves yakisoba)

You want freakout... Try tonkatsu cutlets sandwich with its cabbage glory... That shit should be illegal...

[matsuki]

Hey... Those are not so bad...

Pasta sandwich...good for freaking out tourists, for eating, not so much... (this coming from someone who loves yakisoba)

When I was a kid and my mom made spaghetti with meat sauce I loved to make sandwiches with the leftovers.

So what you're suggesting is the Japanese take on western food has a child-like approach to it?

When I was a kid, we used to dip french fries in chocolate...



and...



The crustless sandwiches and the choko-wafer hoippu filling agree...

[Coligny]

Back home I knew 1 girl addicted to twix/baguette sandwiches:

image.jpg

(but it was a "Cather1ne" they are defacto classified as insane)

And another one thriving on nutella dipped camembert...

[Salty]

(Most) Japanese just don't understand Western food.

Pretty much THIS...I guess without effort, it can't be helped...but frozen/processed/fast food versions they serve here can be pretty horrible. Look at what Take posted....butter rolls? Shitty bread stuffed with margarine?

White poison.... I`d have to be starving before I would eat those rolls.......

[matsuki]

Back home I knew 1 girl addicted to twix/baguette sandwiches

And another one thriving on nutella dipped camembert...

Tasty...in moderation.

[Russell]

Hope fades TPP pact could end Japan's butter shortage

Hopes look set to be dashed that a regional trade pact could end a butter shortage in Japan which has left shelves in some supermarkets empty and prompted others to ration customers to one pack per visit.

The Transpacific Partnership (TPP) deal agreed last month between Japan and other Pacific Rim governments does not do enough to loosen curbs on butter imports, with Tokyo wary of upsetting farmers the controls were designed to protect, said industry officials and analysts.

The butter shortage, which typically intensifies towards year-end as people make cookies and cakes for Halloween and Christmas, has been fuelled by a chronic lack of dairy farmers as the population ages and younger people move away from the countryside.

“I came here to buy butter to make Halloween cupcakes as I couldn’t find any at another store,” Yumi Kano, a mother of two small children, said at a supermarket in central Tokyo. “Since last year, I’ve been trying to keep two packs of butter in our refrigerator.”

A prolonged butter shortage would be an embarrassment to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government which has been touting the benefits of TPP, saying it would allow consumers to buy diverse products from around the world at cheaper prices.

The latest butter deficit has already lasted around two years, with industry data showing consumers have been forking out roughly up to four times more than buyers abroad, while commercial users have been paying the highest prices in about three decades. A 200-gram pack cost about 450 yen this week in Tokyo.

And the shortage could prompt the government to repeat emergency imports, after it shipped in a total of around 20,000 tons of such supplies this year and last. That could be good news in the short term for key dairy exporters such as New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Japan, the United States and 10 other Pacific Rim countries reached the most ambitious trade pact in a generation earlier in October, aiming to liberalise commerce in 40% of the world’s economy.

The deal allows Japan to keeps its complex import quota system under which about 3,000 tons of butter have been shipped in annually over the past three years at a low-duty rate, but adds a new quota of up to about 3,700 tons at a lower tariff still.

However, the new quota only represents about 5% of local consumption. Outside the quotas, the duty is so hefty that butter typically becomes too expensive for private buyers to import.

“Given the small volume of the new quota, the butter shortage won’t go away completely and the price impact will be limited,” said an official at a major dairy firm, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.

An agriculture ministry official said Tokyo would adjust supply and demand of butter through emergency imports.

But many butter buyers say Japan must do more to secure stable supply and bring down prices.

“Even after the government’s emergency imports, small businesses like us can’t secure enough butter when needed,” said Hironobu Takemura, owner of a cafe in Tokyo that serves waffles. “We all know the state-controlled system doesn’t work. We want free trade.”

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I didn't have much hope to start with, so nothing "fading" here...

[matsuki]

In soviet Japan, butter eat you...

[Russell]

Butter prices may hit record levels this winter

Japanese retail butter prices are expected to reach all-time highs this winter, just in time for the Christmas cake season.

In Tokyo, a 200-gram package of salted butter sold for 434 yen ($3.50) with tax in October, a near-record. The price represented a 4% jump from a year earlier and was up 12% over three years. Unsalted butter is even more expensive, with a product made by Megmilk Snow Brand frequently priced at 480 yen.

Major dairy companies amended butter prices in the spring, and stores are increasingly raising prices to improve profitability. "We are procuring [butter] from several wholesalers, but shipments are not stable," according to a Tokyo supermarket.

The government decided Tuesday to waive safeguards against private butter imports this fiscal year, the first time since the first waiver in fiscal 2011. Higher tariffs are triggered when annual imports go above 11,155 tons, and that level appears to have been breached in October.

However, private imports will still face high tariffs. In May, the government decided to import 10,000 tons of butter as an emergency measure through October, but those imports are also pricier than their domestically made counterparts. A 160-gram pack of New Zealand butter can cost nearly 500 yen at a supermarket.

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[matsuki]

All this expensive imported butter being sold here and there is going to scare the old grannies in the countryside.

[Takechanpoo]

how about do you gaijin dudes become a dairy farmer in hokkaido, quitting an english instructor? eh?

[Coligny]

how about do you gaijin dudes become a dairy farmer in hokkaido, quitting an english instructor? eh?

that was super funny. you should quit your gig at the gaybar and setup a one man show or something.

[wagyl]

how about do you gaijin dudes become a dairy farmer in hokkaido, quitting an english instructor? eh?

I think you will find that tugging on the teats of the ESL industry provides richer cream than Daisy the Holstein.