Supermarkets of mystery - Japanese granola sprinkle

A two for one special at Tokyo Mart got our ears up. Japanese granola sprinkles for rice seemed like a good idea and worth a bash. Sugar, pineapple, barley, oats and MSG for taste, mixed with rice or sprinkled on top, what could possibly be bad about that?

Recently we had been reading about the rise of granola in Japan, replacing the traditional rice and fish breakfasts that are more labor intensive to prepare. We love those breakfasts, even with natto. Finding a couple of packets of Japanese granola at the Tokyo Mart in Northbridge gave us an opportunity to try it out for ourselves.

The first packet we opened was 'Gohan ni Granola' , from the packet shot it looked like this version you sprinkled on top to flavour the rice.

The granola was super colourful, packed with all sorts of flavour additions like sugar, salt, sesame, dried fruits and msg. There were small bits of oats, flour and dried fruits and veg that made up the bilk of the sprinkle.

The finished breakfast bowl. The taste was startlingly salty, with all the fruits indicated on the pack the old taste buds weren't expecting something so savoury. There were still bits of sugar in there, giving it the classic salty/sweet combo that can really work at times. Here, it was just too unbalanced and frankly, we didn't finish it.

Also recommended on the pack as a toast sprinkle, which might have worked a little better.

The second pack, 'Gohan ni mazeru granola' looked like a mix that you worked through therice, flavouring it thoughout.

Not so much fruit in this version, the little black spots are small dried red beans. 

The first three ingredients on the pack were oats, sugar and MSG, so there was fair warning this was going to have a salty flick to it but for our tastes it was way too much. We don't care about MSG and the health arguments against it, we do care though when it is overused and it damages the overall flavour of a dish. Mixed through the rice, there was still that overwhelming salty flavour here, the mixed through granola just didn't add a pleasant flavour to the rice.

Japanese Granola sprinkle is from Tokyo Mart in Northbridge. Try it if you think the flavours might appeal, otherwise we would rather just have some furikake sprinkled on the rice and a big blob of natto.