Hey I’m from France and I’ve been living in Japan for almost 4 months now and I used to cook a lot of things with butter back in my country but here the butter tastes very different and weird and it’s changing the taste of everything I’m cooking.
So I was wondering if someone knows where to find “classic” butter ? Am I crazy ? Does it take normal ?
6 comments
You might be used to ‘cultured butter’ which has a much stronger buttery flavor. If so, you can try [Tomiz](https://tomiz.com/item/00217501) (either online or in their shops). Alternately, if you’re looking for a milder, smoother taste, then Calpis butter is quite good, but pricey. You can find it at a lot of grocery stores, and again, at Tomiz.
Edit: I’m not sure how the butter you’re used to differs from what you’ve found, so I included both ends of the spectrum.
Edit 2: I’m from the US, and I find the butter here (from Hokkaido dairies) quite good.
Try Echire since it’s also from France? [https://www.kataoka.com/online-shop/#online-shop_anc06](https://www.kataoka.com/online-shop/#online-shop_anc06)
The only butter which tastes for me is 雪印北海道バター.
It is a bit pricey compared to others.
You can always try to make your own. Worked in a French restaurant in Tokyo that made their butter.
Making your own butter is easy and you control how much salt goes into it.
The milk here tastes different than other countries so you will have to experiment to see which brand makes the best butter.
I recommend trying Calpis butter. It’s pricey but it’s the best I found in Japan. They sell it at big grocery stores. There are salted and unsalted versions. I usually get unsalted for cooking (so that it is easier to adjust saltiness level of the dish).