'Lette macarons

Flavors of these macarons are: Almond, caramel, pistachio, and raspberry. Yum!

桜葉あん どら焼: Sakura ha an dorayaki

Dorayaki [どら焼き] is a Japanese dessert that resembles a pancake, but filled with some kind of bean paste inside. The dough is actually sponge cake, so it has a light and fluffy consistency! Very delicious. This one is a little different from what I usually buy. As part of the kanji reads, "Sakura" and "an"...so I was guessing it had some kind of a Sakura filling! Sakura is a cherry blossom, very beautiful and an experience in itself to see a tree up close! Especially during flower viewing or Hanami (花見). Sakura is also used in Japanese cuisine. The taste is...indescribable really. I don't know how to formulate a description. It's sweet but there's also a salty component...particularly when eating Sakura mochi. It's a very interesting flavor. When I opened the package I immediately get a waft of really strong sakura aroma! (Which is great)

Now that's the inside and the filling is a lot more translucent than how red bean looks. It also has some kind of seeds in the paste. 

 I really do enjoy the taste of it...maybe even more than the usual azuki red bean paste. I often find myself being overwhelmed by how sweet it is, but the sakura filling has a nice balanced flavor, very clean. It was delicious and fresh despite the dorayaki being in a plastic bag. Yum! 

たこ焼き: ｿーｽ付 PRETZ

Here's another Japanese snack called "Pretz". It's not necessarily pretzel tasting but more like mini bread sticks. Or those crunchy toppings you can put on top of your salad! Pretz has an original flavor which is just plain biscuit...kinda like a plain pocky stick. I'd often find tomato flavored, but never takoyaki!

Now, what is takoyaki?

Tako(octopus) Yaki (grilled) [たこ焼き] is boiled octopus pieces battered into a ball accompanied with pickled ginger, tempura scraps, and green onion. The consistency is like a wet pancake, the middle doesn't really get cooked all the way so you have this gooey texture. Takoyaki is a very popular snack in Japan and particularly plentiful in Osaka. (After all, it was invented there!) It's then brushed with okonomiyaki sauce and laden with Japanese mayo. Afterwards, it's  usually garnished with aonori  and katsuobushi (or bonito flakes). I was really excited for this snack because I love takoyaki. I'll definitely make a future post.

Anyway, this is how it looks like when I open it:

Came with two packets, the white one being the sauce pack.

The aroma smells very similar to okonomiyaki sauce. It's kind of ...an equivalence to BBQ sauce. It's savory but also has a sweetness to it.The strong smell surprised me a lot!

There's the naked stick. It seems to be coated with seasonings like salt and...bits of aonori! (see the green specks?) This also surprised me as it smelled very good. 

So what's the verdict?...

It does have a similar taste to takoyaki don't get me wrong. However, it's very subtle and not how I expected it. I was kind of disappointed because I wanted it to taste how it smelled! The biscuit itself still had a sweetness to it, not too savory...and the sauce was really weak. A little too sweet for my taste anyway!

 More or less, this Takoyaki Pretz was something very interesting and I thank my friend Kinako for sending it to me all the way from Japan! 

きのこの山(紫いも): Kinoko No Yama (Murasaki Imo)

(picture taken from Amazon)

Kinoko no yama, or mountain of mushrooms (loose translation) is a Japanese sweet snack that is very similar to Pocky. Pocky is a crisp biscuit stick covered in chocolate (original flavor) but not limited to JUST chocolate!  Around the 70's new flavors such as almond and strawberry arrived. So, if you're  familiar with this snack, Kinoko no yama won't come as surprise in terms of flavor. In the end, it's a pretty straight forward concept and snack.

I have a Penpal overseas and she was kind enough to send me this one: 

The taste of it is essentially chocolate (white) of course, but most distinctly milky! (as I'm guessing it says 'Milk' in katakana) 

Just like the original, the little chocolate mushrooms are all in this little bag. Nothing really new with the packaging. The white is not really my favorite taste, but maybe others out there will dig it! 

I went to Marukai in Azusa and cruised along the various snack isles when I found this interesting one: 

Purple potato or ube (shout out to Filipino readers!) This one was SO wacky! (in a good  way of course, but I never tasted it in this form!)

They're cute and individually wrapped, it was something that was unexpected for me, and to top it off...

It's gigantic!! I mean, look at the size comparison to the original size. That thing is massive!

The white strip tastes like white chocolate. But if you can see, there are little black specks. Those are black sesame seeds! the purple part tastes so much like a steamed purple potato, and the combination of chocolate and sesame really pulls the whole thing together. The toasted seeds trick your taste buds into thinking it's cooked and, well, roasted almost! It's really clever and delicious. I'd buy this over the original flavor ANY day. Way to go Meiji! 

Hello!!

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog!
I'll be posting some pictures of different dishes and interesting snacks provided with a personal description of it's tastes, presentation or packaging! This will definitely be a lot of fun, so please stay tuned!