Souvenir Suggestion for Restricted Diet

I'm planning to bring home a selection of omiyage style bits and pieces home with me but one of my friends is on a no sugar no carb diet due to her medications. I would really like to bring her some food items because she doesn't get to eat a lot of stuff unless she makes it herself.

Is there anything anyone would be able to suggest I could bring home?

Can your friend eat fruits? If so, how about dried persimmons (hoshigaki, Š±‚µŠ`)? Japanese dried persimmons are not 100% dry, it still has a little moisture inside (outside is very dry). Some well made ones are so tender you cannot believe it's a dried fruit, those can be very expensive. They are in season now.

What about dried fish? There are small ones being sold as snacks. I'd guess fish is fine with such a diet. or there is pickeled vegetables.

@DP She can eat some fruits like strawberries which are low in sugar. I'll have to check about persimmons, because the sugar coming to the surface when dried I'm guessing maybe not. Thanks :)

@LikeBike She can definitely eat fish but I'll have to check if I can bring it into the country. We have very strict customs regulations around meat and seafood. Pickled vegetables is a definite possibility though. I'm going through Nishiki Market while I'm in Kyoto so there would quite a bit to choose from. Thanks :)

Have you thought about spices and such? I recently purchased some "Spicy Yuzu Sauce" recently in Fukuoka which I use as a Japanese version of Hot Sauce. You use so little for a kick that sugar amount is negligible. Plus Yuzu absolutely rules!! Yuzu is a type of citrus which has a very unknown to the west taste.

Oh yes, that Yuzu sauce is excellent.

I actually think yuzu is on the rise at least in the US. Over the past year or two Ifve been seeing a lot more yuzu products and more usage on Food Network shows. Even Trader Joefs carries yuzu hot sauce now and I donft have to go to an Asian market for ponzu anymore. I wouldnft be surprised if it became the next big ingredient any time now.

On the topic of spices, that reminds me: in Asakusa therefs a very good shichimi togarashi place where you can customize your own blend: https://matcha-jp.com/en/2139 And the ingredients they use (like hemp seeds) are not commonly found in the store bought togarashi blends on western store shelves.

I hadn't thought of spices. I'll check out the yuzu hot sauce and the Asakusa shop :)

That also reminded me I hadn't checked tea and it looks like both matcha and hojicha are ok (genmaicha not so much).

Thanks everyone. I should be able to find some nice stuff for her now :)

There are dozens of seaweed goods available for people trying to eat healthy food.

Seaweed is calorie-free but contains lots of minerals, so apart from the traditional seaweed foods, there are lots of meals created for people on a diet, such as seaweed ramen and seaweed rice which are typically made from a seaweed product called kanten.

I'm not on a special diet, but for snacks I love to chew plain dried konbu (which are to be used for soup stock and is sold at any supermarket). I've seen European girls who simply love plain "nori" (seaweed paper). Nori is not sweet or salty, but it has a nice flavor, lots of minerals and no calories.

Either visit a dried-foods (kanbutsu) section at a store, or better, visit an organic foods store such as F&F, Kodawariya or Natural House and discuss it with the clerk. Note that many seaweed snacks contain sugar. Choose the ones that don't.