#8 Representative Japanese Sweet

Then, let's introduce a groop of sweets called The main sweet. The main sweet is very wet food.


kneeded yokan

  For example, yokan is very famous. Yokan, commomly, is made by jellifying been jam, mainly made from azuki beans, with Japanese agar. The name changes with quantity of Japanese agar, the one with much quantity of agar called kneeded yokan and the one with little quantity of agar called water yokan. In the tea ceremony, kneeded yokan is used better than water yokan. Because quantity of the water of the kneeded yokan is suitable for Japanese tea. And yokan is eaten in the everyday life. To tell the truth, I am one of the yokan lover. 
If you want to eat a yokan, you shoul buy it at the famous Japanese sweet maker Toraya. A yokan made by this maker is very delicious.

Sei-o-bo

  The sweet which is often used in the Japanese tea ceremony is Sei-o-bo. This sweet is a kind of rice cake. And its peoccess of making  is very similar. Sei-o-bo is written 西王母 in kanji. The origin of the name is a Chinese harmit. Her peach is said to give the one who eat the peach  perpetual youth and longevity. So this sweet is treated as a bringer of good luck. Its taste is far from a peach in spite of its appearance. The texture of bean jam wrapped in a rice cake is very nice. It is sold in every Japanese sweets shop, please eat it.

Yatuhashi

  The sweet which I introduce you is a kind of the special sweet called Kyo-gashi. Kyo-gashi means that the sweet which made in Kyoto. The characteristics of Kyo-gashi are its beauty and delicacy. There are so many kinds of Kyo-gashi, but my recommendation is Yatuhashi. Yatuhashi is representative of Kyo-gashi. Its characteristic is the dough which is made from the mixture of rice, sugar and cinnamon. Therefore the Yatuhashi has the unique flavor that other Japanese sweets do not have. In ganeral, the Yatuhashi which contain been jam is more famous than the one which doesn't contain. Origin of its name is not clear, but i is said that the origin is MIkawakuni-Yatuhashi where the stage of the Ise story which is very old story. This sweet matches the Japanese tea well. If you want to eat it, you should go to Kyoto. You do not the loss. 

This is my introuction of the Japanese sweets. At next article, I introduce the tools of the tea ceremony.