how i liked japanese food last april.

(taken with nikon f on rdplll, same for all 6 photos below)

hi.
do you still remember that i told you on the past weekend that i would publish a long post sometime this week?
here's the one.
as i completed writing and saved it last week, the expression is kind of old now.
but i don't dare to amend that.
and i'm sorry that recent my post's topics fly here to there in the world.
yesterday from italy, and today from japan!


hi. (this was supposed to be said to you last friday.)
i've just come across a bunch of slide films i took when i was in japan last april.
i went back to japan by myself and stayed there for roughly 3 weeks to take care of my mom who got an operation with one of her knee.
because of the nature of the body part, i didn't have to be much nervous about that (i didn't think a bad knee would kill my mom), and that made me enjoy food life in japan!
lucky me. :))

as i've been proud of myself as a food fanatic (is this really honorable?), i seriously thought about the possibility of what, when and how much i could eat during the stay.
then, one day something merciless hit me badly, and i lost such my ambition for food.
well, i won't tell you about the incident which honorably overcame my appetite here.
anyway i enjoyed my food life in japan at least until then.

and today, i want to introduce 7 of my favorite food which i ate and took a pic of to you with some episode.

1 (top): hukashi-imo/ steamed japanese yum potatoes

this is a kind of snack or treat which we can easily prepare.
they are just steamed and cut into a bite size and sprinkled with pinch of sea salt ant roast and ground sesame.
i've loved this so much since a child.
on the day when i reached my home in japan, the thoughtful neighbor lady who my mom keeps in touch so close with brought these yum potatoes and something more to welcome me back.
the yum in the pic was the kind called as "naruto-kintoki", and this kind is famous for its golden color flesh and the sweetness as "kintoki" part of the name suggests.
another part "naruto" suggests its cropped area. (naruto is one part of tokushima prefecture.)
i love the simpleness and tastefulness of this food.



2: ann (anko)-toast/ a toast spread with sweet red been paste (the right one of the two)

i'm not sure if this is popular, but this formula is surely adopted from the sweet bread usually sold in convenience stores or supermarkets.
some people would like to have this with smearing a margarine before spreading red bean paste, or topping with whipped cream.
the red bean paste in this pic is not much paste like, and it has a lot of solid red beans in it.
it depends on how you cook your red bean paste or what brand's can of red bean paste you choose if you don't have time to prepare by yourself.
the one in the pic was canned, and i'm not sure the brand name as i incidentally found that lying in a pantry.
when i was about to spread the paste directly from the can, my mom warned me that it might not be sweet enough as she always simmer that with adding some more sugar.
but actually it was deadly sweet by itself and i doubted if my mom's taste bud really works!



3: ichigo/ strawberries

you don't need an explanation for this, do you?
yeah, simply strawberries.
but i want to say out loud, japanese strawberries are totally different from those of the u.s.!!
they are much smaller, juicier and sweeter!
to my surprise, every time i go back to japan, i find some new kinds of strawberries newly produced recently as a result of farmer's eager effort of hybridization.
sometimes they are enormously big, but still surprisingly sweet.
i guess that japanese strawberry makers are all mad at experiment. ;)



4: ichigo-daifuku/ japanese style cake with a strawberry
so you need an explanation this time, don't you?
"daifuku" (the last part of the name) tells the style of this cake.
as most of japanese traditional style cakes are so, this one is consist of the skin part and the filling part unexceptionally.
the skin, which is made from rice flour, is very elastic and stretchy.
the filling is usually red bean paste or white bean paste, either smooth or rough type.
this ichigo-daifuku is the seasonal special version of daifuku, and has a strawberry in its very center.
the ones in the pic was given to my mom and me from one of her friends when my mom was hospitalized.
i liked the combination of the sweetness of smooth white bean paste and the tartness of a strawberry.
the one thing we had to worry about was that this cake didn't last long.

oh, sorry for the ugly yellow line in this pic.
i don't know why i got that.
also i remember that my mom explanatorily put the red paper which the name of this cake is written right next to the cakes.
thanks mom, she's always cooperative to my photography!



5: hanami/ the party under cherry blossoms

it's not really the name of food, but of the event.
this is one of the traditional japanese event to cerebrate the arrival of spring and the beauty of cherry blossoms.
most japanese like this, and sometimes this event are made most of as an excuse for eating and drinking outside.
this event is not necessarily held in the daytime but at night also.

my mom and i found something prepared at a supermarket's deli corner, and had the event just after we visited the temple where my father's bone is held.
as the park we had the event in is next to the temple, we felt and talked as if my dad had been participating in the event though he is actually not in this world but in the heaven.
we were so glad to be able to do that, because my father used to love this pretty event when he was alive and we used to do this a lot.



6: sakura-mochi/ a japanese style cake with a pickled cherry blossom leaf

of all japanese traditional cakes, i like this one the most.
basically the formula of the cake is same as daifuku (4).
as for this one, skin part is more thick and have a texture of sticky rice as the recipe for this calls sticky rice or an expensive version of sticky rice (called as "domyoji-ko").
filling is either of smooth or rough style of red bean paste.
the most remarkable character of this cake is that the pickled cherry leaf wrapped the cake part up.
you can either eat or leave the leaf.
i do both depending on the toughness of the leaf. ( if it's softly edible enough, i eat it.)
the subtle balance of the saltiness of the leaves and the sweetness of the cake is so irresistible!!

oh, don't you think this is in a similar theory of the "dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves; one of famous greek food)" ?



7: soramame/ broad beans or fava beans

i ilke this very much!!
of all the pea and bean families, i love this the most.
so did my dad.
whenever i eat this, i can't help remember how he loved this.
i'd like to eat this with very light flavor of salt or soy sauce.
though i was simmering broad beans with slightly sweet soy sauce flavor soup in the pic, i also love to have this boiled lightly in salted hot water.


oh, it's a long post.
sorry for the kind readers who have been with me recently, and i so appreciate you all.
i didn't expect to write this long today, but i did after all.
because the topic is related to japan, i must have been excited.
and though i didn't mean to be nostalgic with my dad's remembrance, i utterly was.
as i live in the u.s. for ten years, most of japanese food are in the taste of memory...


hi, again :)
see, this is a too long post!
probably the first longest or so ever.
thank you for being with me!