2022.11.17 (Thu) First visit【Late Autumn Hokkaido Trip 2022 Day 5-2】After moving from Obihiro, I arrived in Chitose City. I wanted to do some shopping, so I searched for a local supermarket and found "Lucky Chitose Nishiki-cho store". I arrived a little after 11 am. Despite it being a weekday, the parking lot was almost full. The store was bustling with many customers inside. When I went to pay, I found out that it was a lucky day (special sale day) that day. After paying, I wanted to pack my bags, but it was so crowded that there was hardly any space. As I hesitated with a basket in hand, a local lady kindly spoke to me. It's a rare opportunity to have such encounters while traveling. That's why I can't stop exploring local supermarkets.

This is a review of the bag noodles from the Nissin Food's Raoh series, in soy sauce and miso flavors. I used to eat a lot of Maruchan noodles from Toyo Suisan, but lately I've been enjoying Raoh more. I buy them at the Lucky Chitose Nishiki-cho store, which is one of the supermarkets I frequent. They have a good selection of bag noodles, including Raoh with whole grain noodles. Raoh also offers flavors like tonkotsu, tantanmen, and yuzu salt. I like to add vegetables, sausages, and eggs when I make it at home. The whole grain noodles from Raoh are delicious. I hope the COVID-19 situation improves soon.

In October 2021, I visited a store of the medium-sized supermarket chain "Hokuyo Lucky" which mainly operates in the Hokkaido region. I used to frequent this store when I first moved to this town over a decade ago. Back then, convenience store bento boxes were popular, and traditional bento shops were losing their shine. Supermarkets mainly focused on prepared foods, with a decent selection of packed sushi, but not as many bento options as today. However, for some reason, "Lucky" had a wide variety of bento boxes, making it enjoyable to choose from. Nowadays, most supermarkets offer a wide range of bento options, leveraging their large floor space to compete with convenience stores, but Lucky was considered innovative in terms of bento variety back then. To be honest, it had been a while since I last bought a bento from Lucky. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, indoor dining options have been reduced significantly, so I decided to buy a bento after a long time. I purchased the "Western-style value-packed nori bento" and the "tender young chicken thigh karaage" along with some other items. The nori bento included mini hamburgers, ketchup spaghetti, shrimp fry, potato salad, and white fish fry with plenty of tartar sauce on the fried items. Unfortunately, the rice under the seaweed was plain white, and I wished there was some bonito flakes on top. As for the karaage, it seemed to be made from well-shaped thigh meat, fried quite crisply. Personally, I think this type of dish would suit chicken breast meat better. Once the pandemic is over, the opportunity to buy bento boxes will decrease significantly, but I hope that medium-sized supermarkets like Lucky will continue to thrive, following in the footsteps of "Food D" and other similar chains under the Aeon and Arks groups. ============================== ◇ 553 yen (Western-style value-packed nori bento 321 yen / tender young chicken thigh karaage 232 yen) ------------------------------ ◆ Food/Taste 3.0 / Service 3.0 / Atmosphere 3.0 / Value for Money 3.0