obusedo

Obusedo is a tiny Japanese confection maker specializing in chestnuts sweets in Nagano.

They have been in business since 1923.

I am not sure how I learned about them, but wanted to try their mont blanc...650 yen (plus tax)

This was light and delicious.

There is a light sponge cake on the bottom, lots of whipped cream and the whole this is covered with chestnut paste...love!

If ever I get to this area of Nagano, I hope to try more of their chestnut sweets.

For now, I'm just glad that we got to try these.

Obusedo

Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi B1F

1-4-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi

Chuo, Tokyo

Hours: 10:00-19:00, closed when Mitsukoshi is

marron

chestnut in French is marron.

A lot of marron items are out since it is Autumn.

Bummer the weather is still warm and sometimes humid...

This marron cream pie from Vie de France was delicious
 

it had lots of marron paste as well as a whole chestnut in it.

I tried the marron pound cake from Starbucks, this was moist but I wished there were more chestnuts in it.

Today is gloomy and rainy, it was also kinda humid in the morning.

this and that

Sorry it's been quiet here...

Satoshi was off Tuesday and Wednesday.

Note to self: KFC's chicken pot pie was junk last year (no chicken) and teeny this year..waste of money.

Marco's marron marron is a fruit sandwich of sorts...chestnut whipped cream with chestnut paste.

So good!

so... when you notice that the "other person" forgets their cell at home, how you gonna tell 'um?! (not the first time either)

We received a package of teas and hawaiian salt from reader Ryan and S....we appreciate their kindness and thoughtfulness (thank you!)

Wednesday, I took out this teeny bouche de noel (a chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream and covered with dark chocolate) from Starbucks.

It didn't go with the Gingerbread Latte that I also took out, but since I don't get to Starbucks too often these days, I got the items I wanted all at once.

Glad I got to enjoy at least one gingerbread latte for the season.

Yesterday, I tried Moto's Kitchen's taco rice. 

You can choose your level of spiciness from 0 to 6.

I chose level 3...this felt hefty and had more cabbage than rice which was nice.

I would definitely get this again.

I thought we (Tokyo) were plateaued at 200 but Tokyo's case numbers have doubled over the past couple of days...sigh.

Hope you all are doing well.

Have a safe weekend.

Moto's Kitchen

1-11-3 Kamiikedai

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3726.6781

Closed Saturdays

Hours: 11:00-23:00
 

ryoheido

Ryoheido is another Gifu sweet shop from the Ena area that specializes in all things kuri (chestnut).

This particular sweet is called Kurifukukaki (literally chestnut lucky persimmon).

A dried persimmon filled with a slightly sweetened chestnut paste.

I'm glad we got to try this.

Ryoheido
kiosk inside the ticket gates of Tokyu Futakotamagawa station

enakawakamiya

Enakawakamiya is a Gifu Japanese sweet shop that specializes in all things kuri (chestnut).

Apparently there is an area called "Ena" in Gifu that has many chestnut trees.

I recently stumbled upon their kiosk at Futako Tamagawa and tried their Kurikomochi.

Chestnuts are blended with sugar to form a "soboro".

Soboro translates to minced, but this more like tiny "crumbs" of sweetened chestnut.

It is served with an unsweetened super soft mochi that you "dip" into the soboro.

So so good.

I'll be back to try other items from here.

Enakawakamiya
Futako Tamagawa Rise Shopping Center B1
Setagaya, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6805.6850
Hours: 10:00-21:00
Closed when Futako Tamagawa Rise Shopping is

kurisatsu

Came across a new type of sweet potato at Crazy Pantry called Kurisatsu.

In Japanese, "kuri" is chestnut and "satsu" is short for satsuma imo (sweet potato).

Apparently the aroma is supposed to resemble chestnuts while the texture is like sweet potato.

I cooked some with some rice, shoyu (soy sauce), mirin (sweet rice wine) and sake (rice wine).

It could've used more salt but this tasted just like kuri gohan. (chestnut rice).

I hope Maeshika still has some purple sweet potato next week, I want to make sweet potato salad...

kuri gohan

I bought a bag of chestnuts at the market...about 450 grams, for 498 yen plus tax.

And then I found a teeny chestnut when we went to Cosmos no Sato. (the one on the right came out of the bag of chestnuts that I bought)

I read somewhere that you should soak your chestnuts overnight so that they are easier to peel...so that is what I did.

Cut the "butt" off of the chestnut to start peeling the hard shell...if you are lucky, you'll find a "heart"...

With your knife, carefully peel the fuzzy skin and the skin closest to the chestnut.

It is very difficult to just peel off the skins, so just be prepared to lose some of the chestnut flesh while peeling.

When you are done peeling, soak the chestnuts in water, this helps get out the aku (bitter taste).

I ended up with 350 grams or so of chestnuts.

Wash 1.5 cups of white rice and 1/2 cup of mochi rice.

Add 2 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of sake (rice wine), mix well.

Turn your rice cooker on and let it do its job.

Enjoy!

NOTES: this turned out better than the Yaki Kuri Gohan I made back in 2006 and way better than the one I made back in 2012.

Even though I still managed to poke the softest part under my thumbnail while peeling the hard shell...ow! This was worth it.

yaki kuri gohan

The last time I made kuri gohan (chestnut rice) I used pre-peeled chestnuts (and it was 6 years ago too...yipes!).

This time around, I used the chestnuts I picked up at Hattori Ryokuchi Park.

I checked online and Martha had an "easy" method for roasting the chestnuts...well, nearing 5 minutes before the time was up in the oven, one of the chestnuts decided to explode!

Chestnut matter all over the oven. It wasn't pretty, not to mention it scared the bejeezus out of me as I was standing nearby.

What also wasn't pretty was the fact that the fuzzy skin closest to the chestnut did.not.come.off.easily....sigh.

So, it took me over an hour to peel these even getting some of the fuzzy skin in between my nail and the softest part under it (ow!) . (Thank goodness I didn't wait until right before I wanted to cook the rice to do the roasting!)

I started with about a cup of unpeeled chestnuts but by the time I was done "peeling" (read scraping and digging at) them, I had about a 1/2 a cup.

I ended up with more bits than whole pieces.

1/2 cup roasted and peeled chestnuts
1.5 cup rice
1/2 cup mochi rice
2 cups water
1 tablespoon sake (cooking rice wine)
1/2 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1/2 teaspoon shoyu (soy sauce)

I served this with sanma (saury) and kinpira. Can you believe that the market had sold this sanma with a packet of lemon juice?!

I couldn't see myself using the packet, so I used part of the fresh lemon I had on my table. (Actually this type of fish is usually served with sudachi (a type of lime) I had forgotten to buy some and thought my neighborhood co-op would have some, but sadly they didn't, so I used the fresh lemon that I had.)

Still, whether I bought it with or without the head it was the same price...198 yen each, so of course I went "without".

NOTES: The rice was good despite all the stress, you had a little chestnut in every bite. The flavors were light, and since Satoshi has to watch his sodium, I think it all balanced out because the fish was grilled with salt.

Note to self: find bigger chestnuts (maybe some that are already peeled or someone to peel them for you)...ahem.

All in all though, this was a good experience, and Satoshi enjoyed this.

Whoa?! it is Friday already...enjoy your weekend!

kuri kuri kuri ku-ri ku-ri

Somehow I had this song ("money money money") running through my head while posting this....

It is chestnut season here, we call them kuri and you can find them in almost anything, savory and sweet, but mostly in sweets.

They were the filling inside of these cinnamon mochi called yatsuhashi, a popular item from Kyoto.

The original yatsuhashi is not really my favorite, but this version is nice because the filling is sweet and balances out the spicy cinnamon mochi.

In anpan from Kokoroniamaianpanya, they were a delicious not too sweet filling also.

I recently tried this marron danoise from Abientot.

Danoise is apparently danish in French. This one was filled with chestnut and topped with a marron glace (candied chestnut)...yum!

And the kuri daifuku from Chikujian which I eat every year, the mochi is a little salty but balances out with the sweet bean paste and whole chestnut.

From C3, we had their Dolce di marrone con mallo e budino (chestnut cream & pudding)...made to look like an unpeeled chestnut.

The bottom layer is custard, a thin layer of cake then topped with chestnut custard cream...delicious.

The other dessert was Delizia della uva (a cookie crust with grape gelee & mousse, topped with fresh grapes).

This was delicious, fresh and not too sweet, but we both agreed that the chestnut dessert was better.

Here is a look when it was sliced in half.

From Burdigala, a boule type bread with bits of chestnut and citrus peel throughout. The outside had lots of white poppy seeds.

It's Autumn, what are you enjoying?

odds & ends

Cleaning out some photos from my computer...there are just not enough days in a month to blog about everything...

Soy milk cheesecake by Yamaki in Ikeda. The patissier studied under Gerard Mulot. This was fluffy, light...delicious.

A stroopwafel covered with milk chocolate by Cake Box Cafe...ooey gooey goodness.

The rice flour donut from Mister Donut. Covered with arare (rice cracker) bits. The bits were stale and the donut very chewy, like mochi (rice cake), I think I'll stick to the regular donuts.

Goulibeur's Broye du Poitou Gallete, a rich butter cookie.

Berry's pudding roll. A slice of flan inside of a swiss roll...very different, Satoshi said it was delicious.

Sushi party platter from Carrefour...the rice was a bit dry but the fish was good. And for 1380 yen (about US$13.80) it was a great buy. I think there were 12 pieces or 14 pieces.

Prunotto's Italian chestnuts with strawberries and some yogurt. I put some yogurt onto a paper towel to take out some of the moisture then spooned some of the chestnuts which were soaked in lemon and honey, and added some sliced strawberries. It was a nice dessert.

Tofu chige, using the kim chee chige recipe substituting the meat with tofu..I used a grilled tofu. It was spicy and delicious.

Loacker, an Italian brand, Noir tortina, a hazelnut cookie covered with gianduja & dark chocolate.

Haagen Dazs' newest flavor, blueberry cheesecake...blueberry compote, vanilla ice cream, cream cheese and cookie...I was hoping it would taste more like cheesecake but it was more vanilla ice cream with a hint of cream cheese.

Earl grey croissant. I loved the earl grey flavor, it wasn't bitter and there was a sweet glaze.

Byron Bay's fig and pecan cookies. These are addicting and reduced fat too.

Kobutaman by Four-rue. Kobuta means piglet and butaman is a type of pork bun. The butaman that I usually find at the convenience stores use a lot of dried shiitake in their filling. But I really liked this version. It used a lot of kikurage (wood ear) and 5 spice. Plus it was really cute. The eyes were black beans.

Boba tea by Azumi. It said naicha on the side but it also said it was an autumnal darjeeling assam blend. I liked the tapioca too, nice and chewy.

little treasure

As I was walking to the train station on Saturday, I passed by a house in our neighborhood that has several kuri (chestnut) trees. Most times when I pass by, the kuri are either not ready and fall off the tree as green "sea urchins", or they are dried brown "sea urchins" and the birds have already taken whatever chestnuts were inside.

On this day though, I didn't see any "sea urchins", just this.

A perfect chestnut. Just lying there.

I looked around to see if anyone had dropped it or was watching me, then I picked it up and put it into my bag and went on my way.

When I came home, I thought, "now what do I do with my treasure?"

I looked in a basic cooking book and it said to peel the chestnut, soak it in water then add them to be cooked with rice. Another method was to just leave the shell on and boil in water.

I didn't have enough to make a rice dish with and I couldn't see boiling water just for this one chestnut, so instead, I peeled the chestnut up until the furry skin, then threw it into a steamer basket with some sweet potato and steamed them for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minutes, I gingerly peeled the fuzzy skin from the chestnut, the chestnut fell apart...but it was really sweet and delicious.

It was definitely a delicious little treasure.

food...nature...blast of heat...repeat

Sunday had to be most sauna-like day to date...this year. Still, we didn't want to stay at home, so we decided to check out the falls in Minoo Park.

From the Hankyu Minoo station to the falls it is 2.8 kilometers. Of course we couldn't just go straight to the falls, on the way we stopped into Hashimoto-tei for lunch.

Satoshi had the loco moco (900 yen about US$9), he knew when he ordered it that he may be disappointed, but ordered it anyway. When his plate arrived, he knew from the aroma that it would be different. He says that Kaka'ako Kitchen's is still his favorite.

I ordered the black curry (900 yen about US$9). This spicy concoction was delicious and had a lot of punch. It may look like a lot of rice, but with the amount of spiciness, you need it.

After re-fueling and cooling off a bit, we checked out the Konchukan (insectarium). The admission was 270 yen (about US$2.70) per person. Can you believe, that for all the years we have lived here, we had never stepped inside this place? We were glad we did though, there were lots of yucky bugs on display as well as a live butterfly area. I was amazed at how some of the butterflies had numbers written on their left wing--I think this is how they keep track of them.

From the insectarium, we continued walking toward the falls. There was another museum of sorts, but I can't tell you what it was (Satoshi didn't know what it was either)--at least there was no admission.

Right across the unknown museum, we stopped into yet another cafe (Yamamoto Coffee) along the way to keep cool. Satoshi had some coffee and I had an iced coffee (600 yen a piece--about US $6 each).

Just as we came out of the cafe and started to make our way up a slight incline, there was a man giving out samples of yamaguri (mountain chestnuts). It turns out that these are from Shiga prefecture, so they weren't local. But they were really easy to peel and delicious. We bought a bag to take home (600 yen or about US$6).

Finally, after 2 hours, we made it to the falls. There were many people in the waters below the falls. After re-energizing in front of the waterfall's spray and seeing a sign that said "beware of snakes" (eww), we started to head back.

You could hear tons of semi (cicada) in the trees and every so often a slight warm breeze would blow.

There were bursts of komorebi (sunbeams) which came through the trees.

Halfway out of the park, we were hungry again. So, this time, we stopped into Per Caffe Bianco. This cafe is right across the street from the train station.

I ordered the zuccotto (850 yen about US$8.50 comes with a drink) and Satoshi had a margherita pizza (1100 yen about US$11). Satoshi said that the pizza was really good, with lots of garlic in it.

The zuccotto had slices of grapefruit, lots of nuts and lots of cream inside. It went nicely with my cute cappuccino.

I think in the U.S. this is called latte art, but since this was a cappuccino...I love cappuccino art!

Not wanting to go out again to find dinner, we bought some ingredients to try a recipe which I saw on Deb's blog. (One thing you should know about us, no matter how much we eat during the day, we almost never skip a meal!)

Deb's ahi avocado towers with sesame-cilantro emulsion were delicious! I adapted the recipe and added diced tomatoes to 1/4 of a chopped red onion, diced 5 ounces (150 grams) of maguro (tuna), sprinkled some red alaea salt, put 1 tablespoon of shoyu, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and a pinch of black sesame seeds.









For the avocado layer, I used 2 small avocadoes. I couldn't find lime, so I used lemon juice from half a lemon without the zest.

As for the emulsion, I didn't have much cilantro, so we just used the few stalks that were on our lanai, and I added 1 tablespoon of EVOO and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil. I didn't do the crab layer. On top of that, we couldn't find won ton wrappers or tortilla chips, so we ate our towers with okara (soy lees) chips. The chips were too small to layer onto, so we just ate them on the side. I've crushed and sprinkled these okara chips onto Chinese Chicken Salad as they have the same flavor as won ton pi chips.

I was so happy to be able to use my ring molds. Since I don't have 2 ring molds the same size, Satoshi's tower was bigger than mine and he was impressed as to how the tower was put together. The "leftovers" I put into a bowl, but that was eaten up too.

Boy, we sure ate a lot today! At least we bonded with nature while doing so.

Hope you enjoyed today as much as we did, have a great week!

Yamamoto Coffee
2-28 Minoo-koen
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.722.3477
Open 9:00-18:00

Per Caffe Bianco
1-8-1 Minoo
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.725.7111
Open 9:00-21:00
Closed on Mondays (UPDATE: hours have changed to 11:00-21:00)