3rd St. Series: Famima!!

Today I bought lunch from Famima!!, a super cute little convenience store located along the 3^rd st. promenade in Santa Monica. Now, I must let you know that this isn’t your run of the mill convenience store. Famima!! is run by a Japanese company and, as their website states, is “based on the extremely successful Japanese model, enhanced with upscale delicatessen and premium foods and tailored for the savvy American consumer.” The style is very modern and fresh looking. They offer a selection of prepared foods, baked goods, chips, Japanese snacks, an interesting selection of magazines, and stationary. There are currently 4 locations in the LA area including the one along the 3rd st Promenade in Santa Monica. You really must check out their website to really get a feel for how this place is. Unfortunately, as much as I want to absolutely love Famima!!, it really is just so-so. The prepared food selection is quite small and includes prepackaged sushi and other Japanese style foods along with just a few sandwiches and other dim sum like dishes that would need to be heated in the microwave. If you are in to that style of food then you probably find something that you would enjoy, if not you might find yourself just wondering around looking for something to eat.

I would definitely recommend the Inari and buckwheat Inari combo which I had for my lunch today. Its three pieces of inari filled with soba noodles and three pieces of inari filled with a rice mixture. This is one of my favorite dishes from Famima!! I love the sweat taste of the inari along with the sour vinegary flavors of the rice and soba. I also love the sticky texture of the rice and the way the soft soba noodles combine with the slightly chewy texture of the inari. The dish also came with a small amount of pickled ginger which tastes delicious with the soba inari. I also couldn’t resist getting a box of pocky for a little dessert. It was the perfect ending to this yummy lunch.