So, Japan loves details and if you haven't noticed I love details too!! So naturally I love traditional Japanese sweets called "wagashi" 和菓子. The three above I bought a few days ago from a woman who makes them in her home and sells them at a local market. The spongy one is like a folded pancake with "anko" (Japanese atsuki beans with sugar added) inside. The fat lady face, which I've been told is one of the 7 most special gods, has black sesame eyes, some kind of red gloss on the lips and anko inside. The outer layer tasted like some type of white bean mixed with sugar and maybe some type of flower or thickener to make it easier to mold. I've seen old wooden wagashi molds at markets, I'd really love to take a lesson in how to make these before I go. The little green one reminded me of PlayDough spagetti i used to make! Come to think of it a lot of wagashi does look like clay or PlayDough food because it's so cute and colorful! But the green one was the same, some kind of bean sugary paste outside and anko inside. The yellow part may have had some yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) extract in it cuz it had some extra zestiness!
I hate formatting pages on this stupid blog site!this layout is terrible!! I need to learn how to use Dreamweaver!
Anyways, the above right coffee photos are from a local cafe that draws pictures into the foam of your latte!! This is so awesome! It's around $7 for a cup of coffee but I don't care cuz it's too much fun to be drinking coffee with a tiny drawing of Elvis, Ryoma Sakamoto, sumo guy, dragon, pikachyu or whatever else you want staring back two inches from your nose. The guy takes requests, you really can get anything! I asked for a little Sumo guy... so cute and delicious.
The above strawberry dish on the green plate is my favorite Japanese dish of all time! It's called "ichigo daifuku" イチゴ大福. Ichigo = strawberry and daifuku = good luck, so it's a good luck strawberry ball of joy!! You can only get it in February and March usually. The inside is a full strawberry, the next layer is anko and the outer layer is mochi. Only in Kochi do they use white anko instead of red anko, so it's more beautiful because it's all white with just the red stawberry inside :)
To the left is all the beauty of wagashi!! love it!!!
