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Japanese foods--Wagashi


torakris

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There is a new shop popping up in depachikas( department store basements) here in Japan, it is called MOCHICREAM. (their homepage is currently under construction)

The only thing they sell are daifuku, but in a semi-frozen state. they have 24 flavors and are 158 yen a piece.

A couple weeks ago Whitegold and I shared 2 of them, sweet plum and black sesame, they were both wonderful! I can't wait to try all the flavors.

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We had them at Matsuya in Ginza and another store is located in Ebisu's Mitsukoshi. I am unsure currently of other Tokyo area locations.

Since their site is under construction, I found this site that has a picture of their menu.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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There is a new shop popping up in depachikas( department store basements) here in Japan, it is called MOCHICREAM. (their homepage is currently under construction)

The only thing they sell are daifuku, but in a semi-frozen state. they have 24 flavors and are 158 yen a piece.

Those look great. "Yukimi daifuku for adults" as posted on the link you gave. What a great idea to update a classic dessert.

Baker of "impaired" cakes...
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  • 4 weeks later...

In Niigata, domyoji ko (道明寺粉) is used to make sakura mochi whereas in Tokyo, joshin ko (上新粉) is used. I learned this only today. Now I know why salted cherry leaves and domyoji ko are sold side by side at the local supermarket.

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Domyoji ko is made by steaming mochi rice, drying it, and then coasely grinding it.

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A little while ago at a friend's house I was served these wonderful yatsuhashi. They were the hard type and half coated with chocolate in three flavors: strawberry, macha and regular chocolate.

They were wonderful! I definitely recommend them if you can get your hands on them. :biggrin:

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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Karukan manju, a meibutsu from Kagoshima, Kyushu. I loved these!! They're made out of yamaimo, roughly powdered non-glutinous rice, sugar and are filled with azuki. They aren't too sweet and are very light. I thought that they would be really chewy because the outside looks like mochigome that hasn't been pounded smooth, but now that I know that they're made out of non-glutinous rice, the light, non-chewy texture makes sense. Too bad the shelf life of these is fairly short or else I would have stocked up! :biggrin: Next time I see any department store with any kind of Kyushu Products Fair, I'll be on the lookout for these.

This recipe uses only joshinko (rice flour), so I think that it won't be as granular looking. But maybe the flavor will be similar.

Karukan manju recipe

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Sakura mochi with strawberries. :biggrin:

I don't think I will ever get enough of that taste of the briny leaf with the sweet an...

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I think that "briny leaf" was the first Japanese food I ever tried that I wanted to spit out!!! :blink: The flavor was such a shock, I thought that something went horribly wrong during the construction of the little treat! That was a few years ago, but just as I developed a love for shiso, I thought that maybe I should try this again. I ate a sakura ohagi a few days ago with this exact leaf and I actually kind of liked it. I liked it enough that I just may try another sakura wagashi before the season is over. Those sakura mochi are beautiful, in an understated kind of way. I love how they look like hina-sama!

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  • 1 month later...
The other day I happened to come across some photographs of wagashi which I've been totally mesmerized by.

They are simply too beautiful to not share. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  :smile:

Same photographer has a youtube video of him making nadeshikoshaped cakes. I also noticed the same nerikiri being made on this

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've never tried Sakura Mochi before -- that is until today!

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Found them in the freezer case of the local Asian Grocery store. I haven't tried to make these simply because I can't find the pickled cherry leaves and (after having tasted them) can't make bean jam as tasty as this one.

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These won't last through the day :wub:

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  • 1 month later...
I've got a little take-out container of warabimochi--one of my favourite Japanese treats!

Can anyone tell me the basic nutritional information on warabimochi?  Just the usual..calorie, protein, carb, and fat content.

Unfortunately, no information about warabimochi here.

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Unfortunately, no information about warabimochi here.

What a great website! My computer doesn't type Japanese characters (kana or kanji), but it was interesting browsing through the different categories. I'll definitely be using that site again, so thanks for the pointer!

Do you think kuzu manju is similar to warabimochi? I've never had kuzu manju, so I don't even know what it looks like.

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Unfortunately, no information about warabimochi here.

What a great website! My computer doesn't type Japanese characters (kana or kanji), but it was interesting browsing through the different categories. I'll definitely be using that site again, so thanks for the pointer!

Do you think kuzu manju is similar to warabimochi? I've never had kuzu manju, so I don't even know what it looks like.

Hmm... Probably similar in that both warabimochi-ko and kuzu-ko are usually potato starch with no real warabi-ko and kuzu-ko or just a small amount of them, respectively, but they are different in that warabimochi is eaten with a mixture (usually 1:1) of kinako and sugar and kuzu-manzu has anko in it.

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Unfortunately, no information about warabimochi here.

What a great website! My computer doesn't type Japanese characters (kana or kanji), but it was interesting browsing through the different categories. I'll definitely be using that site again, so thanks for the pointer!

Do you think kuzu manju is similar to warabimochi? I've never had kuzu manju, so I don't even know what it looks like.

Hi Rona - since it's not easy to find warabimochi in US, I often make my own. I've never thought too much about where warabiko comes from, but after reading some sites it looks like many places are using potato flour, tapioca or kuzuko for warabiko. Apparently warabiko is very expensive.

I have a package of Shirakiku warabimochiko with kinako. This set makes 8-10 servings. The package says it's sweet potato flour (warabimochi set) and shows nutritional facts per serving as 3g total fat (5%), 1 g sat. fat (5%), cholest 0, sodium 20 mg (1%), total carb 53 g (18%), fiber 2 g (8%), sugar 36 g, protein 7 g, iron 10%, calcium 8%, vitamin C 4%, vitamin A less than 2%. Serving size is 2.64 oz.

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I have a package of Shirakiku warabimochiko with kinako.  This set makes 8-10 servings.  The package says it's sweet potato flour (warabimochi set) and shows nutritional facts per serving as 3g total fat (5%), 1 g sat. fat (5%), cholest 0, sodium 20 mg (1%), total carb 53 g (18%), fiber 2 g (8%), sugar 36 g, protein 7 g, iron 10%, calcium 8%, vitamin C 4%, vitamin A less than 2%.  Serving size is 2.64 oz.

Thanks so much! I never even thought to look for a mix at the store. I'm a wee bit slow these days...

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  • 1 month later...

My friend gave me a Japanese mizu-ame jelly called "Goro awase" (ŒÜ˜Z‚ ‚킹). The jelly comes with three different toppings - kurozato (brown sugar), maccha, or nanko ume (“ì‚”~).

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We forgot to chill the jelly in the fridge first, so we squeezed it out of a plastic tube into a bowl of ice-cubes.

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We then added some sugar syrup and maccha powder. It was delicious and very refreshing.

Is goro awase a traditional summer wagashi?

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Is goro awase a traditional summer wagashi?

I'm not familiar with goro awase. I googled and confirmed it was tokoroten-like jelly.

Tokoroten is a traditional summer wagashi.

Images of tokroten can be found here.

I must confess that I'm not very fond of it, but my mother and sister like it.

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  • 4 months later...

does anyone have experience with making shiratama from scratch? What I have been told and what I am doing is soaking sticky rice overnight and pureeing it in a blender with ice water being careful not to generate too much heat and then letting it rest while the water separtates from the sctarch (ok my grammer sucks). Sometime it separates, sometimes it doensn't. I then pour out the separated water and work with the goop. Iprefer this method as opposed to the bagged stuff that just requires adding water but I'm hoping to hear other peoples experiences.

adrian

www.adrianvasquez.net

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  • 2 weeks later...

So what did you like about this method, rather than using dried and powdered starch? Texture, flavor?

I'm curious to know how it turned out, though don't think I would do it from scratch myself - because sweet/sticky rice is quite expensive, while the powdered starch is easy for me to buy.

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