Who would have thought that Rowan College at Gloucester County moonlighted as an anime convention during winter break?
Yup, in case you didn’t know, RCGC’s anime club has been hosting its own anime convention, KotoriCon, every winter for the past seven years. The anime club members work together with RCGC staff to book musicians, vendors, and more for the event, and proceeds go to various charities, hence why the convention has been dubbed “the little anime convention with a big heart.” Each year, the con has a specific theme, and this year’s theme was food, so of course, we Rowan Spoon-ers had to check it out. Here’s some of the different foods we found at KotoriCon.
Snacks
Photo by Jade McDonnough
From one booth, we snagged some different flavored Pocky, including strawberry (very good), almond (very very good), and banana chocolate (very okay). They had just about every flavor available, and if you want to try out some different Pocky flavors yourself, check out what options are available.
Photo by Jade McDonnough
They also had a lot of Ramune soda, which is a unique Japanese soda brand. You might know them as “marble sodas,” since you have to use a plunger to pop out a marble seal before you can start drinking (peep this video to see what I’m talking about). Ramune sodas are nice because they have a more subdued, less syrupy taste than American brands like Coca-Cola. They come in flavors ranging from melon and peach to wasabi and some other wild flavors.
Photo by Jade McDonnough
There were also plenty of Japan-exclusive candies like green tea and cheesecake flavored Kit-Kats (!!!), Lychee gummy candies, and mochi, which are sweet rice cakes filled with things like red bean paste or ice cream. Even if you missed buying mochi in January, you can find out how to make your own here.
Dump N’ Roll
Photo by Jade McDonnough
The Philly based food truck Dump N’ Roll was also at KotoriCon, serving up dumplings and different spring rolls.
We grabbed ourselves a sampler of everything. With the sampler, we got vegetable steamed dumplings and pork and chive stuffed dumplings. It also came with four different spring roll flavors – philly cheesesteak, margherita pizza, pulled pork and crab mac-n-cheese. The mac-n-cheese one was very cheesy and rich, and was pretty much the best spring roll I’ve ever tasted.
Photo by Jade McDonnough
They also had truffle fries topped with asiago cheese which were, in the words of Jean-Ralphio, “straight up deloicious.”
If you want a taste of KotoriCon, keep your eye out for KotoriCon 2017!