When I go back to Japan, eating sweets has the top priority, followed by taking a long hot bath. So I did this time!
My favorite sweet ingredient, chestnuts were in season!
Kurimaro by
Tsuruya Yoshinobu, "the specialty shop for the ancient Imperial Household and the head masters of tea ceremony in Kyoto since it was established in 1803" had a huge whole Japanese chestnut and sweeten red bean paste inside. This seasonal limited product has been one of my best Japanese chestnut sweets for years! I also had Sweeten rice cake,
Mochi with sweeten chestnut and red bean paste from
Kogetsu, a Japanese confectionery company founded in 1945. I love MOCHI.
I also enjoyed an European style chestnut cream "Mont Blanc" rolled cake from Angelina, a French old pastry store specialized in Mont Blanc. Apparently the store changed the design of the cake from
the last time I had. It was still amazingly decisions!
I also had
Kudzu Mochi with
Kinako or roasted soy bean powder and
Kuromitsu or brown sugar syrup made in
Okinawa. It was a free gift from a store that I bought dried
Shiitake mushrooms at. How generous!
This was Morozoff's
Uji-Matcha, green tea from Kyoto, pudding with milky sauce and sweeten red bean sauce made with special Hokkaidou
Azuki beans. Morozoff is "a confectionery and cake company headquartered in Kobe, Japan, founded in 1931 by Fedor Dmitrievich Morozoff, a white emigre from Russia. My grandmother liked Morozoff's wonderful desserts, including custard pudding, cheese cake, and yogurt pudding, and I have grown up with those.
I love figs. This fresh fig tart was fabulous. The inside was yogurt mousse and the bottom was almond crust. Plenty of fresh figs and pretty fig jelly on the top. I could have eaten two pieces at once easily.
I enjoyed local fresh figs, too. Figs are a specialty of the city where I have grown up. It was a little late season for figs, but I was so happy to find local figs still available. They were so sweet and juicy!
I also enjoyed fresh persimmon and grapes that were so sweet and juicy in season. Bravo, delicious Japan! I look forward to going back next year.
