Eating at EarthBound Shops #3

April 9th, 2009 | Food, Images, Itoi, MOTHER 3, Uncommon Knowledge

Continuing with this and this, we’ll take a look at another real-life foodatorium that’s played a part in the EarthBound series in some way.

This time, Izumi visited the Antendo bakery in Kichijoji. If you’re unfamiliar with this and how it’s connected to the EarthBound series, read this and also see these pics from MOTHER 3:

Also, in the chance you don’t know what a croquette is, see here. They’re absolutely awesome, and I’d never had any before I went to Japan, but they instantly became one of my all-time favorite foods too. Itoi is to croquettes like the Trix rabbit is to Trix. He even has an entire section on his site dedicated to mapping out especially delicious croquette places in Japan 😛 A croquette roll seems to simply be a croquette in a fresh roll.

Anyway, like I said, Izumi decided to visit this bakery when she was recently in the Tokyo area. Here is her quick report, complete with camera pics:

Recently I went to Tokyo for a few weeks and made a point of visiting Itoi’s favourite place to buy croquette rolls, Antendo bakery in Kichijoji. I took a few photos to share with you all. ^^ They were delicious, though I prefer sweet breads, and thus I enjoyed the chocolate cornet and melon cream bread slightly more. But these were definitely the best croquette rolls I’d ever eaten.

There are two Antendo shops near Kichijoji; one in the LonLon department store (2F I think, in the “fresh foods” section) which is the one Itoi mentions in the Nindori interview on the site, and also one just outside the station; they both carried the same products, though the outside one had DOUBLE rolls, a longer bun with two croquettes inside. o_o

For those who may happen to find themselves in Japan but unwilling to go to Kichijoji, Antendo also has a branch in Seibu Ikebukuro Station, right on the platform. Highly, highly recommended.

Besides that pig with the secret message about this croquette roll shop, Itoi included several more references to croquette rolls in MOTHER 3. Two that I can think of off the top of my head are the people in the cleaning supply closet in the hotel and even one of the default favorite food names was “croquette rolls”, though of course that was too long for the English translation (8 letters was the max, not even “croquette” would fit) and had to be changed.

Anyway, all this talk is making me hungry. Gimme food!

Oh, I should also mention that Izumi also visited one other place, and we’ll take a look at that later. For now, if you’ve never had croquettes before, try to find a place that sells them or try to make them on your own, they’re not hard at all. Mr. Saturn croquettes, mmm.