Convenience Dining

They started out in the U.S. selling milk and bread from the wee hours of the morning to the wee hours of night but, today in Japan, the convenience store has taken expediency to another level. Sure they’ve got you covered for soda, smokes and a bag o’ chips, but then there are the other unexpected services. You can print photos, pick up a bottle of Wolf Blass, pay your gas bill, get concert tickets, buy a cabbage… 24 hours of service on every other corner. I love it.

I’ll tell you what else I love—convenience store meals, or “conbini bentos.” Here you won’t find a plastic tray with cardboard chips and orange nacho sauce, but you will find sandwiches, salads, pasta, sushi, hamburger steaks, gratin—the selection is impressive. A lot of the stuff is horrible, granted, but it’s the love that goes into the preparation that counts. I know somewhere in a factory kitchen as somebody’s pumping preservatives into my “conbini carbonara” they’re thinking, “Today this meal is going to make a difference.”

Now, my favorite “conbini” food is oden. A big hot pot that looks like a crate sits on the front counter between the canned coffee and Chinese steamed buns, and all day, every day, it simmers. It simmers, bleaders, on a very low heat that permeates the contents of the crate with a wonderful, perfectly balanced, shoyu-dashi broth. And what will you find in said crate, you ask? Hard-boiled eggs, thick rounds of daikon, deep-fried tofu wedges, chicken meatballs, fish paste, konnyaku, little tofu sacks filled with mochi rice cakes.

In winter, about once a week, I get a hankering for oden. It’s gotten to the point where the convenience store staff greets me with Styrofoam container and chopsticks in hand as soon as I approach the counter.  That, in case we in North America have forgotten, is service.

Oden will be the last winter dish before I move on to spring recipes. Will it live up to convenience store standards? It’s hard to say, but I will do my best to make Mini-Stop proud.