Ume plum blossoms for an early Spring tea (via Gourmande in Osaka)

Ume (Japanese sour plum) trees are blossoming in Osaka. Their fragrance is like in a dream. Old style yatsuhashi sweets (from a shop, not home-made). They are a specialty tea cake of Kyoto, whose production started in Yatsuhashi (8 bridge street) in 17th Century. The oldest ones were yaki yatsuhashi that are cookies, shape in half cylinder, like the bridge that gave the name. Today, it's nama yatsuhashi (fresh time), a more recent type. My green … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Strawberry daifuku mochi

My grand-parents produced strawberries for a living, so I know the beast well enough to be sure it is not a Winter fruit in the Northern hemisphere. But in Japan… they heard there was Christmas in other countries and that seemed fun. So they all wanted to Santa and dress in red. And eat read fruits… like strawberry. Now it’s part of the totally kitsch Japanese kurisumasu…

If you want to see where they come from, and discover those I’ll eat next year probably, visit the Shizuoka Gourmet.

So I know it’s bad, not ecological… and they are not really good. They are sour… Well, I’ve bought a few, a handful.

The trick is to hide them in ball of anko (azuki bean sweet paste).

Prepare mochi.

Wagashi Saga : Photo-menu of all Japanese sweet posts, and recipe posts.

And make ichigo daifuku mochi. OK, the shape is… artistic today. They were delicious anyway.

They go well with a bowl of foamy matcha ceremony green tea… unceremonially served.

1 daifuku :
Cal 137 F0.4g C30.2g P3.3g