london foodie

Grape Mochi

/ Mutsumi / 2 Comments

This is one of the Mochi sweets I recently made. I used fresh red grapes as well as some sweet white bean paste as the centre filling. The size of the grapes was a little smaller side for using for this type of sweet but it was very juicy and tasty. In order to make biting easier the skin of the grape was removed before wrapped up in the Mochi layer.  So it got three thing – looks pretty, tasty and easy to eat.

Grape Mochi

This sweet is Vegan and Gluten free.

I would also like to announce to all Wagashi lovers in London. I am going to have a WAGASHI Making Workshop in the Halloween Theme soon.

October poster2

on: the 19th / October (Saturday), 11:30 – 13:30
at: The Havan (262 Kensington High Street, London W8 6ND)

This time the venue is in a wonderful shop in High Street Kensington which serves a bowl of beautifully thick and creamy Matcha tea and lovely vegan sweets.  They are also a kind of concept shop and have a lot of lovely things. They are offering 10% discount of any purchase on the day for all the participants. Isn’t that Great?

[The tickets] If you are interested in participation, please visit the detail page (←click here to the Link). The class is limited to a small group of people so book now not to be disappointed! Cheers!

Wagashi Making Workshop in October

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Oh, Nooooo, we are in October! It’s been raining every day and cold winter is coming soon! The sky is dark and miserable. I already miss summer. However, for the Japanese sweet lover who lives in or near London there is a great experience coming to you. I am going to have a ‘Wagashi’ Japanese sweet Making Experience Workshop this month. Because it will be held in October, the theme of the sweet we are going to make is Halloween. I love making Jack-O’-Lanterns and Ghosts but haven’t made them in a workshop yet. It will be a great fun making these cute & spooky sweets together.

 

Wagashi Making Workshop in London (19th/Oct)

I have been using different venues for the last few workshops and this coming workshop will be also in a new place. However, it is going back to a little closer to central London this time and also it will be held daytime on Saturday, so this will be much easier for some people who really wanted to participate but couldn’t before.

October poster2

on: the 19th / October (Saturday), 11:30 – 13:30
at: The Havan (262 Kensington High Street, London W8 6ND)

The venue Havan is a new type of café which is located in the High Street Kensington area. It is an Ethical Lifestyle Boutique and Matcha Tea Bar. The shop owners are great Halloween lovers and I am very excited to have a Wagashi Workshop in the Halloween theme at their shop. As well as great thick and creamy Matcha tea and lovely Vegan food they have many interesting products. Come and join me in the workshop and you will probably find something interesting to take home with you from the shop.

[The tickets] for this workshop are available now from here (←click here to the Link). The class is limited to a small group of people so don’t miss out on this great opportunity! See you there then!

Watermelon Mochi

/ Mutsumi / 2 Comments

I mentioned in my previous post of Cinnamon & Cream Mochi I created several types of Mochi this summer and this Watermelon Mochi is another one.

Watermelon Mochi

As you can tell from the name and the appearance of the sweet I used Watermelon as the flavour of filling inside. Two years ago I made similar (in the look and also the name) sweet which I named Mochi Watermelon but there is a minor difference between them. Basically the one two years ago was in a shape of the fruit as well as the flavour, and the one I made this summer was Mochi with the flavour packed inside.

Watermelon Mochi

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Cinnamon & Cream Mochi

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This summer I made Mochi in several flavours and this sweet is one of them.

 

Cinnamon & Cream Mochi

I named this sweet as Cinnamon & Cream Mochi but it is probably more suitable to call it ‘Yatsuhashi’ Cream Mochi.

Cinnamon Cream Mochi

People who have visited Japan, particularly in Kyoto, might have heard the name Yatsuhashi before. It’s a famous sweet from Kyoto that Mochi flavoured with cinnamon and Kinako (roasted Soybean powder) wrapping up sweet Adzuki (Red) bean paste filling.

My Cinnamon and Cream Mochi is a Mochi sweet coated with the same mixed powder as Yatsuhashi sweet. I used Sweet Adzuki (Red) bean paste and whipped cream as the central filling. The cream inside has been softly whipped and if you have this sweet half frozen, the cream part becomes almost like Ice cream. Basically it is a fusion of Japanese and western sweets and it’s great to have as a dessert after a dinner.

It’s Gluten free.

Wagashi Workshop in London in July

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I have been thinking to have a ‘Wagashi’ Japanese Sweet Making Workshop in London with a summer theme for a long time. Although I was trying to make a plan, there were several obstacles in front of me and it took quite a while to set up an event. I wanted to do my Workshop in July which is the school holiday time so that children can join the activity with their parents.

So, I have finally fixed the day and the venue of my next Workshop. Because I wasted so much time for sorting out the problems, the time I have until the actual day became much shorter than I wanted it to be. I’ve got just TWO WEEKS from today. I hope many people find this workshop attractive and want to join me.

 

Wagashi Making Workshop in London

  • on: The 25th July (Thursday) 2:00-4:00pm
  • at : The Crouch End Cellars (55 The Broadway, Crouch End, London N8 8DT)

Workshop summer1

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‘Mochi Heaven’ Stall Ended!

/ Mutsumi / 7 Comments

The Food Market that I had suddenly decided to have a stall has ended three days ago. In the last three years since I started making Japanese sweet for Kimono shop I have heard that so many people saying ‘I looove Mochi!’. As I said in my posts in the past I had believed that Western people didn’t like Mochi and I was wondering ‘is it really true that these people love Mochi?’ So, my mission was finding out ‘How much do people looove Mochi’!

It is always hard work to prepare food for selling but Making Japanese sweets is very time consuming work and I wasn’t sure I how could be ready until the actual Market day. When I have a stall in a food market I normally prepare all kinds of Japanese sweets but this time I could concentrate on creating different flavours for Mochi and that was a good thing for me.

 

‘Mochi Heaven’ Stall in a Food Market

These sweets in the photo were the main line-ups on my stall.

CE Market2-2

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Mochi Stall in a Market

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I have an announcement. This became rather short notice but I have just decided to have a stall in a local Market this Sunday.

 

Never Too ‘Mochi’ Stall in Crouch End

My stall will be in the Food Market as a part of the Crouch End Festival. The Crouch End Festival is actually the biggest community festival in the whole Britain which lasts over a week in this villege-like community of North London. It consists of all sorts of entertainment such as music, open air films, art and even a Zombie walk as well as all kinds of food. This year we are going to have a performance of the world famous Crouch End Festival Chorus too. The Food Market is normally held in the Green square in front of the ‘secretly famous’ Hornsey Town Hall (this special building has been used as a film/TV location for such as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘Killing Eve’) which is the central part of this community, but this year the venue will be set in a nearby ‘Stationers Park’ due to the building development work.

I had a stall in this festival several years ago serving all sorts of Japanese sweets. However, this time I wanted to try serving mainly ‘Mochi’ as it has recently became one of the most favourite Japanese sweets for British people lately. I hear so many people saying ‘I love Mochi!’ but I don’t know how much they love it. Although I am a little anxious whether many Mochi lovers would turn up to my stall, I am going to bet it will be great.

Mochi1

 

Heavenly Mochi Stall in the Food Market

  • at : Stationers Park, Mayfield Rd, London N8 9LP
  • on: the 9th of June (Sun), 11:30 –

I know the venue is not the easiest location to reach if you are not from this area but if you love Mochi, please come to try mine at my stall.

I have been planning to make Mochi in several different flavours and this Polar Bear below is one of the Mochi which is likely to be on the Mochi Stall. If you readers can tell me what your favourite flavour for Mochi is it will be a great help to me!

Mochi2

Hope to see many people turn up there on the 9th of June. See you on Sunday!😊

Early Spring Field – Crocus

/ Mutsumi / 4 Comments

van-zyverden-flower-bulbs-21430-64_1000‘Spring has come!’ This is the phrase my late father, who was eager to learn English but could not complete his desire, liked to say whenever the weather was becoming warm. Even before the end of February now the weather is so mild in London, unlike the usual dark grey English weather this time of year it is very sunny with beautiful blue sky. So I go out for a walk and find some bulbous plants flowering.

Crocus

The scene with yellow and purple dots in the field made me smile. They are the flower buds of Crocus just about to open.

Spring Field Crocus 1

So this is my interpretation of the cheerful early spring field as a Japanese sweet.

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Cosmos, Japanese Sweets

/ Mutsumi / 2 Comments

Before the year 2018 finished I received an order of my sweets from a Tea shop My Cup of Tea (Piccadilly Circus, London). I was asked to make two types of sweets for their Tea & Sweet Tasting event. I have already introduced one of the sweets that I had created for them. That is Gingko, here on my blog. It was a ‘Mochi’ type sweet with the soft and sweet Mochi outer layer wrapping up sweet white bean paste filling inside created into a shape of Ginkgo leaf in yellow autumn colour.

So I wanted make another sweet with a different type of material. I also wanted it to have a little more colourful design and then I chose a sweet in a pretty flower shape of Cosmos.

Cosmos

cosmos2-1

SFCOS114-2_mediumThis is one of the designs I selected as ‘Nerikiri’ sweets. Nerikiri is one of the most traditional Japanese sweets that is used to serving at a tea ceremony. Because it was still Autumn time I created it into a Cosmos flower. It is actually quite a nostalgic flower for me from my childhood. It comes in a shade of white to striking dark pink colour on very soft and delicate looking leaves. Continue reading →