Trying a Japanese Raindrop Cake

Several months ago my Dad got my Mom and I a combined birthday gift: A year getting Bokksu boxes. A Japanese snack box.  We share them, and a lot of snacks come in pairs so they're easy to split. Our first box was the April Sakura box, which was so much fun. And each box that has followed have had a variety of really nice snacks, both sweet and savory.  

When starting I thought the sweet snacks would go first, but it's been the savory snacks! The black sesame snacks are so good, as are miso snacks. Suddenly my mind is forgetting flavor terminologies! The fishy snacks haven't been so good, apart from those Osaka octopus snacks which are delicious.

The latest box has a Raindrop Mochi Cake. According to the description these snacks have become very popular.  Honestly, I hadn't a clue what to expect.

The mochi cake really does look like a raindrop!! Looking like water.

The mochi jelly was sweet. And when putting on the soybean powder or the syrup the taste... I haven't a clue how to describe it. Sweetly soyish. There's a reason I'm not a food commentator. Eating this snack was fun. I liked picking it up with a fork and making it jiggle. The taste wasn't one of my favorites, but it was still really nice trying such a unique snack.

Have a great day!! :D

Sarah

(Japan, I miss you!)

Walking the Streets of Ginza, Tokyo Japan

(April, 2019).  One of the main places I wanted to visit with my Mom and brothers was Itoya in Ginza.  What's that?  Well, it's a Japanese stationary store split between two buildings, about 10 levels between the two, or so.  It's a nerds dream, and I wanted to experience this dream.  Itoya is about a 9 minutes walk from Tokyo Station, if you don't get distracted, at about 700 meters. 

There are many things in this area I wanted to see.  There's a Kabuki theater.  The Imperial Palace is about a mile walk from Itoya, which was our plan.  Visit Itoya, maybe visit other stores, and then walk to the Imperial Palace.  We got distracted.  Didn't follow the plan.  We went on a Sunday, and on Sunday's the major shopping street in Ginza is closed to vehicles and completely opened for pedestrians.  It was so much fun that we ended up spending our whole time here.  And I loved geeking over Japanese stationary, and later music stuff at the Yamaha store.

 

Pictures by Sarah, Robin, Steven, and Ty

Making Doughnuts "Donuts" from a Japanese DIY Candy Kit

Last week I was grocery shopping at Walmart when I found this DIY candy kit by Kracie from Tokyo Japan.  These DIY candy kits have shown up on shows I've seen, and I've always been curious about them.  For a few bucks I thought it was worth the whirl to try it out once.  These mini doughnuts look so cute!  It was worth a try.

 The back of the box has clear directions in English with pictures.

 There were so many scissor cut marks I wasn't sure if I was doing it right.

 Powder packs for the dough and sauce with sprinkles and crumbles.

 Separating the plastic tray.

 So I probably made a mistake on this step by using cold water from the water filter.  I didn't want to use tap water, but the purified water comes out quite cold.  Mixing it together was so weird!  It was a powdery, cold, dough like sensation in my hands as I kneaded and rolled this substance, which wasn't the least bit appetizing.  I was questioning life choices by this point.  Did I really want to eat it?

 Putting it in the mold.

 Now for the sauce.

 There was a little bag I could have used to pipe the sauce with, but just didn't bother using, because by this point I wanted to throw it all together before I lost my will to try them.

The mini doughnuts turned out looking cute!

I'm clearly not good at decorating said doughnuts.  What a mess. :P

Final verdict:

I'm glad I tried this once.  They didn't taste great.  The texture was really weird.  But kids would probably love doing this, as it is a fun process.  A messy, fun process.  Telling myself I was doing an experiment made it more enjoyable.  So, yeah.  Fun once.  Definitely more for kids.  I'll stick with full size warm doughnuts.  And if you want to try this, use warmer water!  It might have made a difference, I don't know.  What was I thinking?