Imagawayaki is very similar to a waffle and is filled with sweet azuki bean paste or other sweet and savory fillings. It’s a very Japanese junk food that started near Kanda Imagawabashi bridge during the An’ei years (1773-1782) in the Edo period. That is how this sweet pastry got its name.

The Imagawayaki has many names by areas around Japan. Obanyaki is the most common name used by most area but in Kansai and Kyushu, Kaitenyaki is also an acceptable term in referring to this sweet cake.

I have never tried imagawayaki but I suppose the closest thing I’ve eaten is dorayaki :)

Main manufacturer of Imagawaki sweet cakes: Gozasoro

Watermelon and salt? Kit Kat?

Things have swerved far from the usual cocoa bean materials. I love Kit Kats, especially their dark chocolate ones but I cannot fathom the flavor of watermelon and salt. Maybe the sweet and the savory works is the key element here. Or am I missing something.

Has anyone tried this?

Pic from Kyotofoodie.

I am sure many of your have eaten Castella as snacks during tea time in Japan. Or maybe if you haven’t been to Japan, I am sure many of you have eaten a sponge cake. It is essentially the same thing, a castella and a sponge cake. So, I am going to share with you a recipe on how to make sponge cake or, as the Japanese calls it, Castella, a beloved cake that came to the shores of Japan via the Portuguese. You will need to read up on the history of how castella became a favorite in Japan because I only know how to make it :P

Castella is a very light and fluffy cake, that is really delightful to eat. A true castella, do not use ANY baking powder or baking soda because it depends on the eggs as a leavening agent. You can use any flavoring to make your cake but I rather like the simple taste of vanilla and a nice strawberry filling in the middle.

Vanilla Sponge Cake:
8 eggs, separate the yolks and whites into two bowls
190gram/6.7 oz of sugar
95 grams/3.3 oz flour
55 grams/ 2 oz cornflour
45 grams/ 1.6 oz butter, melted
1 vanilla pod, beans scraped out

Method:
Preheat your oven to 350 F.

1. Beat your yolks with an electric beater for 1 minute and add 1/3 of the sugar and the vanilla beans in. Beat for another 4-5 minutes until the yolks double in size and looks a pale yellow. Set aside.

2. Wash your electric beater’s whisk properly. A drop of the yolk is all it takes to sabotage the whole cake because your egg whites would not be able to rise to stiff peaks, which is essential for your sponge cake. Once your whisks are washed, re-attach and start beating your egg whites for 30 seconds first to get them “warmed”up.

3. Add the remaining of the sugar bit by bit as you beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. It must be stiff peaks, as shown in the picture.

4. Now you can combine the yolks and the whites together. Pour the yolks into the egg whites and with a spatula, gently fold the mixture until well incorporated. Do not over mix, as soon as you see that both yolks and whites are combined, move on to the next step.

5. Add your corn flour and flour through a sift into the batter. Fold the mixture to combine again, very gently. Once that is done, add your melted butter in and combine again.

Pour the mixture into a 11 inch baking pan (I used a 9-inch spring form pan, so I filled it up 3/4 of the pan and pour the rest of the batter into little ramekins) and bake for 30 minutes. Test with skewers to check if the cake is done, if not, bake for another 5 minutes and check again.

Let the sponge cake cool before trying to get it out of the pan.

Meanwhile, make your strawberry jelly, which essentially strawberry jam. All you need is 250grams of fresh strawberries and 25 gram sugar. Put the two ingredients together in a pot and mash it up with your hands or with a potato masher. Cook for 30 minutes on medium heat until it becomes a thick red, gloopy jam. Wait for it to cool before using it to fill the cake.

To fill the cake, use a very sharp knife and cut the cake into halves horizontally. Spread the strawberry jelly on the bottom layer of the cake and place the top layer after. Chill for 30-45 minutes before serving with a sprinkle of icing sugar.

via A Series of Kitchen Experiments

Pocky has got to be my favorite junk food. Who doesn’t like biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate? It’s a very simple concept that is delicious and addictive. Pocky is a Japanese snack food that I could find in Malaysia. Funny thing is because Pocky sounds like a swear word in Malay, they changed the named to Rocky. The word Pocky sounds like “cunt” in Malay. Hahaha…

Anyway, I have eaten both Rocky and Pocky and for some reason, Rocky tastes like cheap chocolates tainted with too much butter fat while Pocky is chocolate-er…hmm. There are many Pocky flavors but the most common ones I’ve had are chocolate and strawberry. Not a big fan of strawberry flavored snacks because they always tastes like liquid antibiotics. I am not a fan of any berry flavored products, actually. I prefer the fresh flavors of real strawberries and berries to the processed food.

So what if you favorite Japanese snacks of all time?

Check out this pocky ad.

All that melodrama for chocolate sticks. ROFL

Dango (団子, Dango?) is a Japanese dumpling made from mochiko (rice flour), related to mochi. It is often served with green tea.

Dango are eaten year-round, but the different varieties are traditionally eaten in given seasons. Three to four dango are often served on a skewer. One variety of dango from Hokkaidō is made from potato flour and baked with shoyu (soy sauce).

But I would like to focus on the Mitarashi Dango, which is Japanese dumpling soaked in soya sauce, sugar and salt syrup. It’s like a perfect marriage of sweet and savory and I can see why it’s loved so much. However, to the western palate, it might take a bit of a getting used to. If a taste for salty-sweet is acquired, you’ll find Mitarashi Dango to be an excellent dessert.

I found an excellent recipe for dango from one of my favorite food blogs of all time: Just Hungry.

If you wanna know how to make Mitarashi Dango at home, follow this link: Mitarashi Dango, rice dough dumpling with sweet salty sauce.

One of the most monumental scene in Memoirs of a Geisha was when Chiyo met the Chairman for the first time. It was also the first time she tasted cherry flavored shaved ice. The picture of her savoring that ball of snow flavored red is sweetness. Kakigōri is a Japanese ice dessert that’s popular during hot summer days. We can anticipate eating Kakigōri really soon, that is if the weather would stop acting unpredictably cold again.

Popular flavors include: strawberry, cherry,lemon, green tea, grape, melon, “blue-hawaii” sweet plum, and colorless syrup. Some shops provide colorful varieties by using two or more different syrups. To sweeten Kakigōri, condensed milk is often poured on top of it. It is nearly identical to a snow cone but can have a slightly rougher consistency and a spoon is almost always used. The traditional way of making kakigori involves using a hand cranked machine to spin a block of ice over an ice shaving blade. However, electric ice shavers are most often used; though street vendors can still be seen hand-shaving ice blocks in the summer.

Make your own shaved ice: Kakigori with poached apricot
In addition to the streets, Kakigori is also sold in festivals, convenience stores, coffee shops, restaurants; during the hot summer months Kakigōri is sold virtually everywhere in Japan. Some coffee shops serve it with ice cream and sweet bean paste. Convenience stores may also sell it already flavored and packaged similar to ice cream.

The most common Japanese pickle we know off are Umeboshi which is a plum pickle often served with rice and gari, pickled ginger used as palate cleansers to accompany sushis and sashimis. Japanese pickles are different from the western pickles which uses vinegar as a preservative agent. Also, ingredients used in picking in the west seems a little more palatable than the ingredients used in Japanese pickles.

In Japan, pickling does not stop at fruits and vegetables, pickling goes way out to rice bran, soybean to even fish. The purpose of tsukemonos is to offer color, texture and aroma to meals in Japan. It is even a good appetizer to start the meal with. The most common ingredient used for pickling in Japan are soy sauce, miso, vinegar, rice bran (nuka), salt, brines and sake lees (sake kasu).

Read here for more info about Tsukemono

I found a really nice website that offers some good recipes to start you off with making your own Japanese pickles. There are three recipes (all vegetarian) of pickling used in the site and they are Salt pickling, rice bran pickling and miso pickling that you can use.

Here’s one of the recipes to check out:

KYABETSU TO NINJIN NO ASAZUKE (pickled cabbage and carrot)

1 small head of regular cabbage (3/4 pound),
the leaves cut into pieces about an inch square
1 medium sized carrot, cut into matchstick slices about an inch long
1 Japanese cucumber, unpeeled and cut into matchstick
slices about an inch long
4 tablespoons of salt

Method:
Place vegetable slices into the pickle press (or jar) and add one teaspoon of salt, mix well by stirring with your hands. Add the second teaspoon of salt and mix again. Add the final tablespoon of salt and mix well. Clamp on the top of the pickle press and screw down the lid until it pushes down tightly on the top layer of vegetables. Leave under pressure overnight or for at least 10 hours. Remove the pickles from the press and place them in a colander, wash them well to remove salt, pat them dry and serve.

I’ve only had the opportunity to eat Daifuku once and I must say, I prefer this to plain mochi because the filling always gives a wonderful surprise when you take a bite. I found this really useful video on how to make daifuku:

Do you like tamagos? The sweet savory Japanese omelette is no stranger to sushi or eaten as it is. I sometimes find tamagos to be a tad too sweet for my liking but I don’t mind them in general. This video teaches you how to make them just like in the restaurants:

Ok ok, it’s just pancakes when i meant “western style”. Why the hassle of making elaborate dorayakis or okonomiyakis when you can have simple pancakes made in your own kitchen? You can get all the ingredients from a Japanese store except maybe blueberries whcih can be a bit expensive. But feel free to use bananas if you like or any other berries you can get your hands on.

This pancake recipe is a no fail recipe that will always give you fluffy pancakes :)

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
a pinch of salt
1 egg
1 cups of milk

Optional: blueberries.

Method:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add milk and eggs. Whisk until batter is smooth.
2. Heat pan under medium heat and add a bit of butter.
3. Take 1/4 measure cup to scoop up the batter and pour into the heated pan.
4. Add your blueberries (frozen is fine too) now and cook the pancake for 2 minutes on each side. Or until it is brown around the edges.
5. Serve with butter and syrup.