Little bits and pieces of my 3 favourite things in Fukuoka
The sun is out, its hot and beautiful and time for sasa mochi・笹餅. Sasa is the word for the bamboo leaf that the light, chewy mochi filled with red bean paste is wrapped in. This mochi is more moist and less dense than usual and kind, and they are best served nice and cool.
It’s been a very, very rainy season over here and I haven’t been making snack runs as often as I would like but I did manage to get this amazing strawberry milk daifuku from the grocery store. It’s so big! Nice and not too sweet and chewy.
My wonderful, kind and supportive friend went to pick this up for me when I was busy with work. It was a 2 day only, limited edition for Wagashi (Japanese sweets) Day from Kanou Shōjan・叶 匠壽庵 and it is a special kind of daifuku. It’s called a ni-azuki-ni-mochi・煮小豆に餅, with slightly sweet boiled red beans covered with the lightest, spongiest, fluffiest mochi I’ve ever had. A really beautiful sweet that I am so grateful I got to try, I’m such a sucker for limited edition sweets.
A nice sunny flavour to match the day! I got this lemon and white bean filled daifuku from a department store downtown. As soon as I ate it I immediately regretted not buying more. It was so fresh and tangy and bright! The department stores have a few different lemons sweets now so I may have to go back this weekend…
A funny little peach paste filled mochi! This was a department store find. The mochi was much more sticky and chewy, and the filling was also a lot more dense. Fun to try and a nice reminder that summer fruits are right around the corner!
This week has been the Golden Week holidays, a time when several national holidays fall closely together so most people get about a week off. A friend came to visit and we explored around outdoors as much as we could. Yesterday was really the first day back home so I had 2 little treats from Kichi Zoh. A beautiful purple iris namagashi and purple 団子・dango with red bean, white bean and purple sweet potato wrapped around soft mochi.
I got some really beautiful flowers that I cannot name at the florist. The blues and purples are a fun departure from my usual palette. Imagine my surprise coming home and finding I am growing raspberries! My giant branch is a raspberry bush! At the florist where I bought it, the shop owner told me the flowers would quickly wilt but the branch would last several months. She didn’t mention anything about bearing fruit! I can’t wait for my little harvest.
Another day, another daifuku! This time a juicy preserved kumquat with white bean and a beautiful, chewy, orange mochi casing. This one was a bit sturdier than the last few daifukus this week. A nice treat!
Halfway through the month I had a craving for some sweet chewy mochi, gazing at my sweets calendar all day during work is equal parts challenging/inspiring. I took a quick break and ran over to Rabbit Moon to get this extremely classic Japanese sweet. There are zillions of kinds of dango・団子, popular for different seasons or festivals. They can be barbecued, drizzled with sauce, sweet, salty, anything. Usually just little mochi balls on sticks! Hard to go wrong.
It’s a rainy day after a bright sunny weekend. I added a touch of sunshine to my day with a pineapple white bean daifuku from Kichi Zoh. Plus an added side of fresh pineapple because why not? A nice way to brighten up the day a little. Also, if anyone know what these flowers are called, please let me know in the comments! I would love to try to find more. It’s wisteria season now so I was thinking maybe some variety of that but who knows!
Tea, Sweets and Trails 