Snack Attack: A Photo Essay
Welcome to my random musings about the world, on a weekly-to-occasional basis.
Where we are: We’re hanging out in a village at the north end of Lake Como. It is very relaxing, but that might be because we’ve done absolutely nothing thus far except hide from the heat and have lunch with friends.
Snack Attack: A Photo Essay
We had some fantastic snacks in Japan. To be clear, when I say ‘snack,’ I generally mean dessert—I rarely eat savory snacks (other than cheese, which is not a snack in my life, it’s a protein source and the foundation of my personal food pyramid). And I almost never order dessert in a restaurant, so having a little sweet ‘snack’ later in the day is basically the point of life. In my humble, sweet-toothed opinion.
Forthwith: a few of my favorite Japanese sweet nibbles.
I bought this from a vending machine—it was basically trifle: sponge cake, strawberry jam, cream, with fresh strawberries in the middle. From a vending machine.
These were red bean buns, specially branded for the G7 meeting in Hiroshima. They were only fine, as red bean buns go, but how often do you get to have dessert with a prime minister’s face on it?
This is a particularly pretty version of strawberry daifuku, which is one of my favorite things to eat in the world—a ball of lightly sweetened mochi (which is made of pounded rice), filled with red bean paste, and topped with a perfect, in-season local strawberry.
I have no idea what these were, but I loved them. The filling was more fragrant or floral than red bean paste—maybe lychee, or jasmine? No clue. Yum.
Chocolate soft-serve in a chocolate cone. People seek out this particular brand, called Cremia. Also, how pretty is that?
This is a donut made with rice flour, which made it a little chewy. I could’ve happily eaten several. I didn’t.
More soft-serve: lavender-flavored. At a lavender farm. Note: I was wearing a shirt that had a lavender pattern, with light purple shorts, and carrying a purple-flowered umbrella. I fit right in.
A sandwich cookie, which seems to be the gift of choice in Japan. This was two butter cookies with a chocolate ganache filling.
Another sandwich cookie—this one was a double-decker, corn-flavored. With little kernels of dried corn added to the filling. It was my least favorite of all the (many, many) sandwich cookies we tried. It wasn’t … corny enough.
More mochi—strawberry and tangerine, both with a layer of sweet cream. These were particularly amazing—the quality of the fruit, the delicacy of that thin mochi wrapper.
I have no idea what these are called, but we ate a lot of them in Kyoto. They’re soft like mochi, but folded like a ravioli, rather than a round ball. This particular example (my favorite), is a thick black sesame filling, with more black sesame in the wrapper. That’s a dusting of soy flour, to keep them from sticking together.
This is spouse’s contribution, purchased at a convenience store when we were hungry and a long drive from wherever we were headed. It’s a sandwich made of fluffy white bread and stuffed with basically chocolate pudding. They come two to a pack, which is perfect for sharing on the road while hurtling along Hokkaido roads at the heart-thumping top speed of …. 31 mph. Gourmet? No. Infinitely edible? Absolutely.
Coffee jelly, which is a staple across Japan. Perfect for summer. It’s like KnoxBlox, but caffeinated. Whipped cream is a personal choice, but if you don’t want whipped cream on your caffeine, who are you?
And finally, some fruit, because my diet is not completely unbalanced. Pink and white strawberries, gently coddled in their package. Yes, the pink ones are ripe—they taste like strawberries wearing the faintest spritz of perfume.
Take care,
Lisa
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