![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Interesting Foods
Sep. 7th, 2007 01:12 pmjust a quick note about some interesting foods.
First, last evening there was a knocking at our door. My little friend from downstairs -- about six? -- had come upstairs with her father to give me a present. I thought at first they were green doughnuts, but reading the label we found out that they were bagels from a local bakery. Fresh, not aged. The green color came from yomogi (mugwort) having been added to the dough and baked into them. We thanked her, and this morning I toasted them and had one half with a little butter and one half with honey. both ways were very tasty. I may have to try them again :-)
The other one I have not tasted, but it was on a TV show yesterday. Apparently a modern recreation of an Edo period treat. Call it French toast castella? Take the popular castella cake (Portuguese sponge cake), cut off the edges, and cut the cake into small blocks -- looked like two or 3 cm square and maybe 10 long? Two bites if you are being polite. Now take the sponge cake blocks and dip them in egg. Next they dropped the egg-coated blocks into a pan where I thought they were doing deep frying -- except the "oil" turned out to be sugar water. Quite hot, and it foamed up when the blocks were put in, but basically a syrup coating, and I guess hot enough to cook the egg. Stir them around a bit, then dip out with a wire strainer, and . . . roll them in granulated sugar. Kind of rough sugar, not fine, so there were crystals on the outside. That's it -- the baker recommended eating them hot. The news people said they were pretty sweet. Since this is basically sponge cake coated in syrup and then rolled in sugar, I would expect it to be very sweet.
He showed us a large scroll of treats from that era which he is reproducing. He was also showing some sort of fruit Jell-O with a pancake wrapped around it, but the news people got in a hurry and didn't explain that one.
Recreations of Edo period treats and fusion foods such as yomogi bagels - Japanese cuisine certainly isn't just sushi.
First, last evening there was a knocking at our door. My little friend from downstairs -- about six? -- had come upstairs with her father to give me a present. I thought at first they were green doughnuts, but reading the label we found out that they were bagels from a local bakery. Fresh, not aged. The green color came from yomogi (mugwort) having been added to the dough and baked into them. We thanked her, and this morning I toasted them and had one half with a little butter and one half with honey. both ways were very tasty. I may have to try them again :-)
The other one I have not tasted, but it was on a TV show yesterday. Apparently a modern recreation of an Edo period treat. Call it French toast castella? Take the popular castella cake (Portuguese sponge cake), cut off the edges, and cut the cake into small blocks -- looked like two or 3 cm square and maybe 10 long? Two bites if you are being polite. Now take the sponge cake blocks and dip them in egg. Next they dropped the egg-coated blocks into a pan where I thought they were doing deep frying -- except the "oil" turned out to be sugar water. Quite hot, and it foamed up when the blocks were put in, but basically a syrup coating, and I guess hot enough to cook the egg. Stir them around a bit, then dip out with a wire strainer, and . . . roll them in granulated sugar. Kind of rough sugar, not fine, so there were crystals on the outside. That's it -- the baker recommended eating them hot. The news people said they were pretty sweet. Since this is basically sponge cake coated in syrup and then rolled in sugar, I would expect it to be very sweet.
He showed us a large scroll of treats from that era which he is reproducing. He was also showing some sort of fruit Jell-O with a pancake wrapped around it, but the news people got in a hurry and didn't explain that one.
Recreations of Edo period treats and fusion foods such as yomogi bagels - Japanese cuisine certainly isn't just sushi.
