On a recent trip to my favourite food shop Fuji Mart, I discovered some scallop and crab “creamy croquettes” in their freezer section. I’m a big fan of Japanese style croquettes, and I have previously made them from scratch at home. It’s a pretty long and involved process though. Frozen products aren’t exactly my favourite thing in the world, but on occasion they can come in handy. Especially when you are craving a Japanese croquette. I thought I would give them a go. I couldn’t decided between the scallop type or the crab, so I bought one of each.

It was a very hot day, and it wasn’t really cooling down in the evening, so I decided to pack us a Bento each and go eat our dinner down by the river.

First step, to cook the croquettes. I couldn’t understand the ambiguous (and written in Japanese) instructions on the back of the packet, so I just shallow fried them in sunflower oil.

I made some tofu, greens and a few other bits and pieces and packed them into our bentos.

Then we enjoyed them down by the river.

And the verdict on the croquettes? Not bad at all. Although, neither of us could really tell the difference between the crab and the scallop types. But they were rather tasty – would definitely have again!