Aji Ichiban

I used to love their strawberry plums but when I went back recently the store was gone

This store reminds me of HK)=. Of course, this is a much smaller version of the stores in HK and has a much more limited selection but it’s still better than nothing. I’m glad they have one of these stores here. They carry yummy, interesting snacks. Some are not exactly «healthy «but it’s better than some of the snacks we have in the US. There used to be a bigger Aji Ichiban in SF with a bigger selection of snacks but they closed down)=.

I like sampling things. A nice selection of candy and dried fruits including some uncommon items. Small space feels a bit cramped.

this tiny shop is hidden around a corner that is under construction in the food court. I only even knew it was there from the signs posted all over the place.
it’s a little pricey, even the cheapest candies are about 10 $ a lb.
but they do have samples of most everything, at least the dried fruit and meats, which is nice. i mean, if any of it looked appealing enough to eat.
it’s pretty clean and neat inside.

i like their preserved sour plum w/​o seeds inside. it’s the one next to the icy plum, but i think the icy plum is sweeter. it’s more expensive, around $ 12/​lb, but it’s the sourest i found yet. everything else i’ve tried are too sweet for my taste.

This place makes me shudder. Granted they have the occasional good snack, everything here seems to be imported in from China… laden with chemicals. Just cause it’s hiding behind a Japanese sounding name, doesn’t make it ok to sell chemically laden food. For all I know there could be obscenely high levels of lead in the candy. It really bothers me that the candy and food they sell here are packaged like they’re not from China… but one look at the boxes and bags that the storekeepers were refilling from, you could see the bastardized Chinese characters… known as «Simplified.» Ugh… that means one thing… cheap cheap cheap and bad bad bad!
Stick with the stuff that actually says «made in Japan» on the wrappers.

Aji Ichiban if I am not mistaken, started off as a chain in Hong Kong that sold a combination of snacks and candies, a mix of Japanese, old school Chinese stuff, and fusionized Asian/​Chinese/​Japanese eats.
Jen l who gave this place 2 stars more or less summarized what’s wrong with this place. In addition here’s my take.
— This is the worst aji ichiban I’ve been into. It is not even offering a fraction of the variety that is seen in the AI’s in Hong Kong.
— The average Chinese, banana all the way down to the bone® or not, is typically not that tall (unless you’re Yao Ming or from the North where the female honeys are skysrappin’ tall). There were packaged/​bagged candies on a much higher shelf. What’s the point of putting something small so high that the consumer cannot see? Granted this store space is small but if you want maximum visibility, don’t maximize the space near the ceiling to display your warez.
— Varieties of candies/​snacks are not too well categorized. Only by reading the labels of the candies (sold by weight) could you tell what they were and whether it was «Japanese» or not. I put that in quotes because you really don’t know if that $ xx per lb dried squid was made with Hokkaido ika, it could be $ 3 bag of dried squid from China for all we know.
— TWENTY F**KING DOLLARS for a SMALL bag of the Japanese marinated dried scallop «candy» snack. I love this shizzle to bits although it sticks to one’s teeth like maggots to a steak. For the same price, the same bag is MUCH bigger (and a few bucks or low hundreds yen cheaper) even from Narita airport’s gift shop :-(
— Coke flavored coke bottle gummi’s! My this brings back memories.
I’m talking about Coca Cola of course…
There are really only two identifiable and worthwhile snacks that are good Aji Ichiban items.
1) The dried squid snack. Not the plain kind but it’s essentially three layers. Top and bottom are dried squid, and sandwiched inbetween is a black sesame paste thing. Very very nice
2) Dried salty sour plum candy with seed. But get this, they FUSIONIZE this mutha, by coating the bottom side with some solid honey/​sugary thing, so that once it’s in your mouth a while, you get a blast of salty, sour, and then a buttload of honey. Sounds like an ideal oral session doesn’t it?
Other than that, AI Cupertino’s remainder selection, after you wade through the sour gummy drops and not so interesting offerings that you could basically get elsewhere for cheaper, it’s seemingly all old school Chinese snacks and arguably herbal bites (where this stuff is easily found all over Chinatown), like «ba sien guo». It’s a spiced dried orange peel, great for surpressing coughs of any sort. For some reason they translated this as licorice which is not true.
Sigh…so much potential, yet came short on delivery. Not all chains are created and run equal.

So much dried squid, so little time.

Yay for dehydrated strawberries! Yummy and chewy and crunchy, this is the place for all sorts of dried fruit, cured plums and random Japanese/​Taiwanese candies. It’s the candy store but… Aji Ichiban-​ified.

I’d kill for one of those pickled green plums. But everytime I go to this location, they are sold out. so I make my colleagues buy them for me everytime they go back to HK since Aji Ichiban stores are a dime a dozen in Hong Kong.
They also carry marinated duck tongue, duck feet, small abalone, crabs, squid and all types of cute dried creatures.
Be forewarned — the pickled green plums are not to everyone’s liking.

Aji Ichiban stores can be found in just about every shopping mall, subway/​train station, and airport in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Beijing. I even saw one at the BMT Sukhumvit station in Bangkok last time I was there.
They feature a wide selection of dried and candied fish and fruits as well as chocolates, gummies, and other candies. These treats and stores selling them are ubiquitous throughout Southeast and East Asia, but what I really dig about Aji Ichiban is their stores are super clean, and the clerks allow you to chose and bag as much or as little as you want. In other shops you have to tell the clerk how many grams/​ounces of a particular item you desire, and I always end up with too much.
Aji Ichiban also has little sample dishes of nearly everything, so if you can’t remember which licorice orange peel or sweet ginger or spicy dried squid is your favorite, you can taste around until you find it.
They also have a decent selection of chocolates in novelty containers (pineapples, fire crackers, gourds, Chinese gods, turtles) which make adorable Asian-​inspired stocking stuffers, party favors, and impromptu gifts for little kids. They aren’t cheap, but they are cute.

This, my friends, is the best diet secret ever. If you can get over this place’s mildly raunchy smell — not to mention the charming concept of having a baggie of desiccated sea creatures in your purse — you will see that the path to the girlish figure of your dreams is laid with fish jerky and little dried plums.
Just think about it: dried seafood and preserved fruit, sold by the pound. Kiss those salt and sweet cravings goodbye! And so much variety: strawberry plums, «lover’s mango,» long strips of spicy cuttlefish, crispy squares of fried cod, and the mother of all snack foods, roasted preserved Japanese scallops at $ 60 a pound. Take that Kit Kat and shove it!

Candy stores where you pay by weight can be dangerous for me. Luckily I restrained myself when I visited this place yesterday. They have a pretty good supply of various candies, dried fruits and seeds, gummy candies, and pickled fruits. Unfortunately they didn’t have very many types of ginger which is what my friend and I were looking for. I think we only found one lemon flavored ginger. But I did purchase a small bag containing lychee and lime flavored gummy candies both of which I haven’t seen before.