河井継之助
I have been researching various restaurants on Tabelog and Google Maps, but it's hard to determine if some of them are open or not, so I decided to wander around this area to check them out. Luckily, I didn't find any closed restaurants, so I headed to this place. I discovered this shop when I visited a Vietnamese restaurant called Tanzan before. I was intrigued by the mini Piago store, as I remember there used to be a large Piago store in the countryside. I arrived at 15:25. The store seemed to have a floor space and assortment of products somewhere between a supermarket and a convenience store. The selection of retort curries was a bit limited for a supermarket, but much better than a convenience store. Unfortunately, they didn't have omusubi. Oh, they have a 20% discount on onigiri! But they are still quite expensive. There were some onigiri priced at around 120 yen, but they were grilled onigiri. I purchased the "Delicious! Onigiri [Grilled Salmon with Sesame and Kombu]" for 159 yen, with a 20% discount, it cost 127 yen. I decided to eat it while walking. The first bite was a strong flavor of sesame and kombu. The seasoning wasn't too strong, but the generous amount of filling balanced it well. The second bite introduced the grilled salmon, which was moist and not flaky, more like a fillet. The saltiness of the grilled salmon was mild. The rice was moist and each grain was distinct. I finished it in 5 bites. The salmon was a bit lacking, though. Lately, convenience store onigiri has been shrinking in size, so this one didn't feel too expensive in comparison. Overall, I was satisfied with the generous amount of filling. The service had a warm, rural convenience store-like feeling. I remembered there used to be mini supermarkets like this in the countryside. As I thought about this, I headed towards the station. Oh, by the way, Piago and mini Piago are now completely separate companies. Originally, both were under the Uny group, which was later acquired by Don Quijote. In 2020, mini Piago left the group and is now under a company that operates Autobacs.