Four 'N Twenty pies

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    Big Red Bike Tour Stage 4: Costcollosal

    Following the previous day’s exertions, Stage 4 of the Big Red Bike Tour was closer to a rest day, albeit with little breathing space as I headed off to spend a collosal amount of money at the nearby Costco. Inflation is hitting Japan after more than three decades of price stability and its effects are compounded by a weaker yen in a country that imports most of its food. Therefore, our regular order from the supermarket now costs almost double what it used to (except Australian-made Four ‘N Twenty pies, which cost 1,248 yen for a six pack, which makes them considerably cheaper than what you’d pay for where they’re…

  • Sweetie Pies!

    Australia doesn’t really occupy a prime place in the mind of most Japanese people’s eyes, and the same goes for Australian cuisine. But for a short while, meat pies here were, well, the flavor of the month. オーストラリアは、多くの日本人の目から見ると、あまり重要な位置を占めておらず、オーストラリア料理も同様であった。しかし、一時期、ミートパイが流行ったことがありました。 Meat pies are, of course, probably the Australian national dish, or at least an iconic item on the everyday Aussie menu. ミートパイはもちろん、オーストラリアの国民食、あるいはオージーの日常的なメニューの象徴的な存在でしょう。 They’ve been pretty hard to come by down through the years, though. My first memory of Aussie pies in Japan came from watching a World of Sport segment on Channel 7 in the 1980s which showed Four ‘N Twenty pies being sold at a stall in Ginza. でも、昔から手に入りにくかったんですよ。僕が日本でミートパイを知ったのは、1980年代に豪ビクトリア州の７チャンネルで放送された「ワールド・オブ・スポーツ」で、銀座の屋台でフォーナントゥエンティパイが売られているのを見たのが最初です。 By the…