EAT: HARERUYA PANTRY, CARLTON
Hallelujah for the recent opening of Hareruya Pantry, the new kid on the block serving up ice cream, bentos, fried chicken and other goodies that will transport your taste buds to Japan. And it seems that much of Melbourne are ecstatic about Hareruya Pantry’s opening going by the long queues outside the door as soon as they open. Myself included! The bentos and snacks tend to sell out quite quickly before lunch time but ice cream appears to be limitless abundance. Which is a good thing as the ice cream is the standout of Hareruya Pantry. If you do want to try their bentos, your best bet is to visit before lunchtime. Well before lunchtime.
Ice cream comes with bells and whistles in many forms: delicately thin and stretchy mochi, rice wafer crisps, and mochi pearls to name a few. Flavours beautifully capture Japan and visits number one and two left us umm’ing and err’ing between several flavours like genmaicha, houji chocolate and calpico+yuzu. Edamame is an interesting one, but one that many people (who’ve tried it either overseas or at Hareruya Pantry) swear by it. On visit number one, I chose the genmaicha. On visit number two, I ended up choosing the genmaicha again.. because it was THAT good. I will just have to return to try the other flavours, and I’m 100% okay with that…