Like a kid in a japanese sweet shop
While I was in Manhattan, I happened to wander past the window of Minamoto Kitchoan, a fancy boutique translation of a traditional japanese confectioners. I’m endlessly fascinated by japanese culture, especially the old-world; I have a pet theory that Japan and the UK are peculiar reflections of each other, there’s a lot of cultural resonance, but it’s all distorted into wonderfully strange shapes. Nevertheless, I was initially a little too intimidated to enter, as the store was devoid of customers, and the interior looked rather cold and formal. Luckily for me, Mrs S. egged me on enough to overcome my trepidation, and in I went.
I’m not really experienced enough to count myself as even an amateur aficionado of japanese food, but I’ve eaten a fair bit, and their sweets are a rum affair; they’re intended to please more than just a sweet tooth, designed as much to appeal to the eye, and offer textures to the palate. They tend not to be very sweet, and a large proportion of their construction would seem to be kidney beans. This does mean that they’re better for you than many western sweets, I’d have thought. Far less fat and sugar.
I wandered about the shop a little, it didn’t seem like the staff spoke any useful English (this could have been my British accent, of course), but I managed to communicate a request through the universal language of pointing and nodding. Every addition to my shopping list was met by the kimono clad shop-girl with a charming sequence bowing and nodding – and then the whole order was packaged up beautifully in a box to take away.
Here’s what I bought.
- Kohakukakanme (pickled plum in agar jelly, covered with flakes of real gold)
- Kabochamanjyu (bean cakes, both shaped and flavoured like pumpkin)
- Fukuwatashisenbei (a topographically curious biscuit)
- Hanatsubomi(bean jelly in preserved lemon)
I then ate them in installments, back at the hotel. They were all pretty good eating, probably the pickled plum made the most sense to my palate – not really too far away from a fruit cocktail. The Fukuwatashisenbei biscuit tasted almost exactly like a custard cream, but was rather awkward eating because of it’s shape. The bean pastes are a little bit of an acquired taste, but faintly addictive.
The store is part of a chain, apparently there is a London branch, somewhere in Piccadilly.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 22:02 in travels.
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I read the title as: Like a kid in a japanese sweatshop – seemed a little odd… but then it sounds like those sweets are indeed a little odd… at least to a non-Japanese.
Ha! I’ve no idea how I managed to publish that post without noticing that I’d run those two words together. I suppose I don’t really look at the title much when I’m writing, I always fill that in first and then forget about it.
I’d guess some British food might be odd to a Japanese person. Certainly japanese curry I’ve had is very different from English curry, which is about the only common reference I can think of of the top of my head.
I was hoping to visit Japan this year, but the state of currency exchange has conspired to make it look like poor timing.
Yes – but it would be a good time to visit Iceland.
On Japanese food – I adore wasabi – I once had some after a week on a yoga course where all the breathing exercises must have really cleared my nasal passages – it was like breathing fire! I’ve always fancied doing that again but somehow the whole week of yoga hasn’t happened and wasbi without it, though very yummy, doesn’t have quite the same effect.
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