afternoon tea

Ajisai / Hydrangea

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Ajisai gathered 2

It rains a lot here in London these days and it is ‘Tsuyu 梅雨’ the Rainy season in Japan now too. Japanese like associating things with each season and we have a special name ‘Kigo 季語’ for those words that describe seasons in songs and poems like ‘Haiku‘. For instance　they can be from weather (Snow), astronomy (Full Moon), event (Rice planting, ‘Hanami‘ Cherry Blossom viewing) or food (Clam, Wasbi). Of course plants and flowers are very seasonal and they are also Kigo.

So what kind of thing can be Kigo for this ‘Tsuyu‘ Rainy Season? There are several things that reminds me of Rainy days and one of the things I am very certain that most Japanese people would associate with must be ‘Ajisai / Hydrangea’ and a Snail. The plant grows and glorifies the flower during the Rainy season and the colour of the flower (OK, I know it is actually calyx and not petal) intensifies in rain and deepens. Strangely there is always a snail or two on a leaf. Ajisai and a Snail are inseparable in Japan.

Ajisai/ Hydrangea

During Tsuyu season it rains day in, day out, but you cannot just live in a life dark and dull. You need to brighten up your feeling as Hydrangea is getting more and more beautiful in rainy days.

Ajisai front - trimed

I tried creating several sweets in a theme of ‘Tsuyu’ for this month. ‘A leaf on a Puddle’ in my previous post was one of them and this ‘Ajisai/ Hydrangea’ was another.

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A Leaf on a Puddle on One Rainy Day

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A Leaf on a Puddle Centre 2

The weather has been a little crazy in England. We had a short heat wave about three weeks ago and then it became very cold for a week. It suddenly became much hotter again and the temperature jumped up about 10 degree. Then again it became rainy for the last few days. It was thundering with heavy rain the other day but now at this moment …

‘Tsuyu (Rainy Season)’ is coming

The weather in Japan seems also a little strange this year. In some northern part it snowed right after the temperature was 30℃. However, it is June now and the one thing we are sure is that the ‘Tsuyu‘ is coming to Japan soon most definitely. ‘Tsuyu‘ is the Rainy season written as ‘梅雨‘ in Japanese. The first character ‘梅‘ means Plum and the second one ‘雨‘ is Rain. So why could ‘Plum-Rain’ mean Rainy Season?

There are several theories regarding the word. [Theory 1] It is because it’s the season Plum fruits ripen. [Theory 2] The word ‘Baiu (黴雨)’ came from China meaning as Rainy Season a long time ago. The first character ‘黴’ means ‘Mould’. Because in high humidity things gets mouldy easily so then it was actually ‘Mouldy Season’. However, people in Japan did not like the sound of Mouldy Season so changed the character ‘黴’ to ‘梅’ which has the same sound ‘Bai’. Now the Rainy Season is written as ‘梅雨’ and read either ‘Baiu’ or ‘Tsuyu’.

A Leaf on a Puddle

I wanted to make a Japanese sweet in the theme of Rainy Season. I tried several ideas and then a Puddle image popped into my mind.

A Leaf on a puddle single 2

This sweet is created from an image of a puddle with a leaf floating on its surface. Rain has been stopping for a while but some droplets have just started falling onto the puddle to make a swirl and some bubbles.

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Shobu (菖蒲) / Iris

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Shobu front

‘Koinobori‘ on my previous post is the traditional decoration on the ‘Kodomo-no-Hi‘ (Children’s Day/Boy’s Day) on the 5th of May in Japan. Another tradition on the day is that we decorate out house with ‘Shobu (Iris)’. So what is the reason behind this custom?

‘Shobu (菖蒲)’ on ‘Kodomo-no-Hi’

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Hana-shobu (ja.wikipedia.org)

First of all there are two types of ‘Shobu‘. One of them is ‘Hana-Shobu‘. It is Iris which we enjoy the magnificent flower with a striking colour and shape. The other one is medicinal ‘Shobu’ with very scented leaves but with insignificant flowers. They are totally different plants.

It seems like that people started using Shobu for this ceremonial occasion because …

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Kodomo-no-Hi / Koinobori

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Koinobori

‘Koinobori’ sweet

Time passes fast. Very fast indeed! It’s already May. This week people in Japan are having the longest National Holiday break in a year called the Golden Week. One of the Bank Holidays during the Golden Week is the 5th of May, ‘Kodomo-no-Hi‘. It is a day to celebrate the growth & health of children, but it is more like the Boy’s Day. We have the Girl’s Day on the 3rd of March as I posted before.

‘Kodomo-no-Hi’

There are several things people do on the Kodomo-no-Hi. The most famous thing is that we place fish shaped flags outside called ‘Koinobori‘ (‘Koi’ means carp and ‘Nobori’ is a kind of Flag). We have a song about it for children.

🎶 Yane yori takai Koinobori 🎶

It means “Koinobori swimming higher than the roof …”

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Koinobori swimming high in the blue sky

Yes, it is placed traditionally higher than a roof, and some of them are bigger than a house. However, because many people live in a small apartment these days the size of Koinobori became much smaller in the last 50 years. From a week or two earlier towards the 5th of May you can see Koinobori swimming in the blue sky. It is a magnificent sight with a bit of wind, as they look like swimming in the sky. (However, I just saw somebody’s comment on social media that there is no Koinobori seen around where he lives…)

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Other Sweets in the Final!

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I made various versions of sweets with a ‘Spring’ theme for Wasoukan Cafe. Some of them were good and some were a little experimental and challenging. There were two particular ones that went to the final selection but did not go through to the Cafe menu. I feel they deserve to be introduced here.

Yoshino (Cherry Tree Mountain), Ukishima

Cherry Tree Mountain 2

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Sakura Junction’s Sweets in April at Wasoukan

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As I mentioned in my previous post I have started supplying Japanese sweets to a Kimono shop Wasoukan in London. Each month I am going to develop and make 2-3 different types of Japanese sweets for them according to the seasonal theme.

For April the theme was ‘Spring’. With this theme there was only one particular thing in my mind for the sweet and that was ‘Sakura (Cherry Blossom)’ of course. However, there were many ways to use Sakura design in sweets so that I created many different versions and decided on one design finally.

Sweets in Wasoukan

My sweets at Wasoukan Cafe

Sakura (Nerikiri)

Sakura sideB

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Sakura Junction’s Sweet Served in a Special Space

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This is an announcement, particularly to the people who live in London.

From this April you can enjoy Sakura Junction’s sweet served with tasty Japanese tea in a beautifully Japanese surrounding. This special venue is a Japanese Kimono shop Wasoukan which is located in the Notting Hill area just off Portobello Road. It is a continuation of the Portobello Market that is very popular to many tourists especially on Saturday.

Wasoukan front

The entrance of Wasoukan

Kimono Display

Beautiful Kimono display

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Financiers in Springtime🌸

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Strawberry Financier P

I was eagerly waiting for Sping to arrive for so long. I felt winter lasted forever but now it is spring. I see lots of posts of Sakura🌸 Cherry blossoms on Social Media Network particularly from Japan. In London Cherry blossom has started to open too. Some has flowered even in March by being confused with the strange weather this year. It is the season I like the most.

Although it is supposed to be a cheerful season it started to be rainy this week in England. When I see a grey sky I need some sweet that reassures me it is spring. The Colour scheme of the sweet came into my mind first – Pink! Then I thought of Strawberry Jam. I know Strawberry is a summer fruit in England but the Strawberry in my mind is light pink not that vivid red of summer Strawberry.

Strawberry Financiers

Strawberry Financier 2-2 P

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Matcha Hot Cross Buns

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Matcha Hot Cross Buns with tea 2

I know the Easter has gone, but never mind.

I like making bread. My love in bread making started from making Hot Cross Buns several years ago. Since then I always make some Hot Cross Buns during Easter time. Although I said that I did not have enough time to make any special sweet for the Easter in my previous post I managed to make Hot Cross Buns. Without Hot Cross Buns Spring never comes to my kitchen.

In normal Hot Cross Buns I like to add several spices and orange zest. I love the smell when you toast it. However, this time I did it differently. I made “Matcha Hot Cross Buns”.

Matcha Hot Cross Buns

Matcha Hot Cross Buns on plate2

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Happy Easter!

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I was planning to make some sweets in the Easter theme. Yes, I tried but unfortunately I did not have enough time. You wonder why I have been so busy these days? I promise to tell you about it soon.

However, I have some photos of Japanese sweets in the Easter theme that I made in 2014. Because not many people have seen them I decided to take this opportunity and re-introduce my creation to you.

Easter Chicks & Eggs, Japanese Sweet

Easter Chicks

These are “Easter Chicks & Eggs” made of Japanese sweet, ‘Nerikiri‘ which are free from Gluten, Dairy and Egg. Yes, it’s Egg free!

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