Little bits and pieces of my 3 favourite things in Fukuoka
I have such fond memories of trying this one for the first time last year at Rabbit Moon・兎月. A little pancake sandwich hugging sakura & white bean paste: sakura dorayaki・桜どら焼き. It’s super nice and fluffy and just a little sweet.
I love the ends of flowers when you are left with the odds & ends of the remaining stems.
I’ve been working at a really cute cafe quite often recently that has the added bonus of being 5 minutes away from TUGI. This one is peach flavoured and it reminds me of a magical under-sea treasure (?). It’s so pretty and delicate, and was nicely perfumed with soft peach.
I remain in love with my evolving tulips.
We are going through a little cold snap here and while I love living in Japan and my apartment, one of the hardest things to get used to is the lack of insulation in Japanese housing. Even if outside isn’t as cold as I’ve experienced elsewhere, it’s so cold inside! (15 degrees in my apartment). My office is the easiest to heat so I had lunch and snack in front of my computer like everyone tells you not to do. But! I had a delicious, warming zenzai・ぜんざい, a sweet red bean paste soup with toasted chewy mochi. Chilly as it was today, it was kind of fun to camp out in my office one time.
This morning I woke, Disney princess style, to birds singing and chirping away on my balcony. They were the uguisu・ウグイス, the tiny, green birds are a sign of early spring and I have such fond memories of seeing them for the first time in Fukuoka last spring. Seems fate was pointing me to go to Kichi Zoh and get their absolutely beautiful red bean paste filled bird.
Pinks & flowers & getting ready for spring.
I just love love love my moody tulips in the morning.
A bit different for matcha set, but I enjoyed this butter cookie, caramel paste and nuts sandwich. It’s from a really popular store and is pretty unlike anything else they have.
It’s ume・梅 (plum) season now in Fukuoka. I took a walk around the park and got to see some of the new blooms.
I received these from a friend the other day didn’t immediately recognize the brand as the font is a little difficult for me. But as soon as I opened it I knew. I love this because even though I’m a huge fan of the store, its not something I would have thought to get, truffles! 2 matcha flavoured, hōjicha (roasted green tea) and my favourite, kinako. It was just incomprehensible how rich and creamy these were, I absolutely adored them.
Back to Tugi for their limited time Valentine’s day wagashi. Everything about that place is a joy so I thought I would show the packaging. The green one is pistachio with salted caramel paste and the brown one is called tama tama and is red bean, chocolate (already my favourite combo) and cream cheese paste. They were both amazing but the tama tama did win out for me.
I finally learned how to whisk the matcha to get a nice froth with my new matcha powder, it took a while of experimenting with water temperatures but in the end I just needed to increase the powder to water ratio. Fun to learn!
I’ve had this one sitting in my cupboard for a little while and since the seasons change quickly here I figured it was time. This sweet is really interesting, it’s jellied chestnut paste wrapped around preserved chestnuts. The textures of the sweet paste and the chestnuts was really pleasant and different.
I found this one while grocery shopping and even if it was well past tea-time, I couldn’t pass it up, it’s just too beautiful. Inside was light sakura and white bean paste and the preserved shiso lead was nice and salty. It was really as delicious as it was beautiful.
Tea, Sweets and Trails 