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

halloween eats

What did you do on Halloween? Satoshi had plans, so I partied alone...

I "made" myself some scary sushi...I got the idea from a commercial for sushi vinegar. Their version was jack o'lanterns.

I bought the sushi from the market and just added the "scary" eyes and mouths. I made jack o'lanterns with salmon and ghosts with ika (squid).

I made some guacamole. I didn't have jalapenos so I just sprinkled some of that habanero salt that Kirk gave us...so good!

I munched on some Pop popcorn in their Rogue Blue (cheese) flavor...really cheesy and quite piquant.

For dessert I had a mont blanc which had purple sweet potato and pumpkin puree in place of the chestnut topping.

And for something to drink, this white beer by Baladin, an Italian maker. Super citrusy.

Hope you had a nice, safe Halloween.

trying new recipes

Well, the weather is....still warm (I guess I did jinx myself). The weather people have compared it to mid-August temps during the day...blah. I learned something new the other night, the weather guy said that the wispy clouds are autumn clouds and the fluffy ones are summer clouds. So as you can see from the photo, even the sky is confused as to what season it is...sigh. Oh, and if you see a jet stream and it stays in the sky for a long time, this means it will rain and if it fades quickly the weather will stay sunny....

Yesterday, I was in a procrastinating kind of mood with my bead project, so I decided to eat all day and tried some new recipes.

There was banh mi for lunch. The post on Tamarind and Thyme led me to Viet World Kitchen which gave a recipe for the veggies that go inside of a banh mi. This sandwich reminded me of the sandwiches I've had at Ba-le in Hawaii. I think if I had some fish sauce it would have tasted a little more authentic.

And then these petit mont blancs from one of my cookbooks for a mid-afternoon tea. The topping which is usually a chestnut mixture, is made from sweet potatoes instead. The bottom was a cookie, not the usual cake. The only problem I had was piping (as you can probably tell). Using my tiny food processor, the sweet potato didn't get as smooth as I would have liked it, so when I was piping, bits got stuck in the frosting tip and would blast itself out...I'm lucky it wasn't more messy. These were super easy (aside from the piping) to make and a very nice snack. (the two in the background are for Satoshi)

And then there was Amy's penne alla vodka for dinner. I didn't have vodka in the house, only shochu (which is like sake but made from potatoes or barley and stronger than sake), so I guess mine should be called penne alla shochu. I liked this recipe, it tasted like something I've had in a restaurant before. Too bad I didn't buy more baguettes, so I could mop up the sauce!

I love the internet! All the exchanging of information at my fingertips.

Hope you have a nice weekend, we have ANOTHER 3-day weekend (although Satoshi has to work today)....I guess I better get beading.

UPDATE: I switch out cream with skim milk in the Penne alla Vodka sauce to cut back a little of the calories and sometimes just make the sauce so we can dip bread into it.

angelina (part 2) & beads stitch

Today was my beads stitch class. I missed the first class because we climbed Mt. Fuji. 

Not to worry though, I'm kind of separated from my other class mates because of missing a month (when I went home to Hawaii in April). 

Here's my project, a daisy chain bracelet. My teacher was surprised because no one ever finished it in the two hours!

Today, I also received my certificate which verifies that I passed the sterling silver crochet classes and certifies me to teach classes.

Since I was in Umeda, I stopped in to get a mont blanc from Angelina. 

This version was a little different from the ones I've tasted though, there was a meringue-like bottom, cream center and the standard chestnut "frosting". 

When I bought it, they put in a little ice packet, to keep the contents cool, but it was so hot and HUMID today that the mont blanc kind of melted. 

Still, it was really good and not really sweet.

One more day until the weekend, we're having Satoshi's department over for heavy pupus...gotta start cleaning up....