hara donuts

Recently, Tamakikat posted about Hara Donuts.

These donuts started from a shop in Kobe that makes tofu (soy bean curd). After looking at the address for the tofu shop, I figured out that it is located near my host family's home.

On the website, I saw that they have a shop in Osaka, so I went to check them out after French class yesterday. (I didn't know it at the time, but it was "Fat Tuesday".)

I really wanted to try their ko-cha (earl grey) donut, but they didn't have this flavor on this day, so I chose 4 different ones for Satoshi and I to try.

Hara Donut--the original, made from tonyu(soy milk) and okara(soy lees).

Tamba Kuromame Kinako--Tamba is an area in Kyoto that is famous for their black beans. This donut is sprinkled with roasted kuromame (black bean) and kinako (soy bean powder), this one had a nice nuttiness flavor to it.

Satsumaimo--sweet potato, there were crunchy bits of sweet potato in the donut.

Ponkan--this donut was frosted with a citrus icing. (by the way, ponkan is a type of citrus.)

Hara Donuts : this shop is no longer at this address
2-1-38 Dojima
Kita-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6341.0826
Open from 11:00-21:00 or until their donuts sell out

I liked them all since they were not heavy like cake donuts. They reminded me of those soy milk donuts in Kyoto's Nishiki market. I want to try their rolled cake at their sister store, Hara Roll, but that will have to wait for another time.

local foodie kind of weekend

Saturday, we checked out the Farmer's Market at KCC (Kapiolani Community College). There were all sorts of food items as well as potted plants and cut flowers. One item which I purchased was made by a local company called Honolulu Fudge Sauce Company. They have several different flavors mostly made with Guittard chocolates, but the one that caught my eye was their Premium Hawaiian made from 100% Hawaiian chocolate grown on the Big Island. With a name like "Spoonalicious" you know it has to be good!

Another item which I picked up was locally made honey. There is a co-op (which I didn't know about) called the Hawaiian Honeybee Co-op which makes different kinds of honeys in different parts of the islands. This particular honey was made in Enchanted Lakes (Kailua, Oahu) from a variety of flowers.

Sunday was the start of the Chinese New Year, to which you should greet others saying "Kung Hee Fat Choy" or "Happy New Year". It is the year of the Boar and a Golden Boar at that, which supposedly only comes around every 600 years! It is supposed to be a very lucky year, but also one for many natural disasters, so please be careful everyone!

I also got together with BFF and S for some shopping and noshing. It was a great time. At one of the shopping malls we went to, I searched for the Sahale Snacks, but still haven't found any :( Oh well, I guess I'll just enjoy the one flavor (Sing Buri) that I did find.

Next year or maybe at the end of this year, Whole Foods Market will be opening here, so I'm looking forward to more foodie finds on my next trip back home.

Monday was President's Day--a State & Federal holiday here. We got together with some of my relatives for dinner and a kanikapila (playing the ukelele (hawaiian musical instrument) and singing). It was great!

And lastly, today is Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras--the day before Lent in which rich ingredients such as flour, eggs and milk are supposed to be used up.

Even though my religion does not observe Lent, it gave me a good excuse to get some of my favorite--Champion Malasadas.

Hope you have a great week!