Cookies from Moominvalley in Japan

What a coincidence! Yesterday I wrote about tea and mentioned my trip to Finland and Sweden. And today, I got a packet from my friend in Saitama Prefecture who had visited Moominvalley recently. Moomintroll (abbreviated as Moomin) is a character in a series of books written by a Swedish-speaking Finnish writer Tove Jansson. In 1969, the first animation series of Mumin was made in Japan. Since then, his family and friends have been loved by many people, and Japan Post has issued sets of Moomin stamps. This is the one issued four years ago.

Moominvalley Park in Saitama was opened in March 16. If you search with “Moominvalley Park Japan”, you can find many articles in Finnish and English. According to them, it is the first Moomin theme park outside Finland. My friend said that the park was spacious and refreshing. She sent me a card, a clear file,

and a box. What’s this?

The character on the box is Stinky. If I remember correctly, he is a nuisance in Moominvalley. Inside the box were cocoa cookies, which seemed to be delicious. However, I still wondered what the red and white things on top were.

At first, the cookie tasted as any other cocoa cookies. I felt the rich flavor of cocoa and egg. But as I ate the center of the cookie, I noticed an unexpected flavor of spice and saltiness. According to the label on the box, it contained pink pepper and sun-dried salt. Then I learned what were on top of the cookie. I heard of pink pepper for the first time. I thought this combination of flavors very interesting and ate three cookies, wondering how my friend liked them if she ate them herself.

Tea bags as little gifts

Hamamatsu is in Shizuoka Prefecture that is famous for its tea cultivation. You can drink good green tea in many restaurants and the basement of Entetsu Department Store. In addition to permanent tea leaf shops in the basement, Ishida Chaya (いしだ茶屋) from Mori-machi located north east of Hamamatsu was selling their tea leaves today. This was an spring event to be held until tomorrow.

There were several kinds of tea leaves sold by measure, and you could taste some green tea. But I was more interested in tea bags sold in little packs. There were four kinds, and this is “Rich green tea.” Some of the packs have Japanese paintings, and other have messages like “Thank you (ありがとう(arigato))” and “Congratulations (おめでとう(omedeto)).” They may be intended for souvenirs or gifts. Each pack contains five tea bags and costs just 150 yen, which I think reasonable.

There were also packs of “High quality green tea.” As it is high-quality tea, each pack contains three tea bags and cost 200 yen.

The other two were “Roasted green tea (hojicha)” and “Japanese black tea.” In fact, I prefer roasted green tea to ordinary green tea that is not roasted, so I bought one pack home. This one is high-quality tea, but it costed 150 yen for five tea bags.

I thought this tea was a little bitterer than other roasted green tea I had at home, but it was still milder than ordinary green tea. According to their website, it is good to drink after eating Chinese dishes. It may be also suitable to drink after eating tempura.

Last autumn, I traveled to Finland and Sweden. In both countries, I noticed green tea had become quite popular because there were many kinds available in supermarkets. I saw even green tea flavored with mint, lemon, etc., however, roasted green tea still seemed to be unknown. It was a pity, because roasted green tea warms you up while ordinary green tea is said to cool your body. I thought roasted green tea was more suitable for the cold weather they had in Northern Europe.

   

In addition, roasted green tea contains less caffeine compared ordinary green tea. I surely recommend high-quality green tea from Mori-machi, Hamamatsu, or other areas in Shizuoka Prefecture because it has excellent flavor, but if you have a low tolerance for caffeine like me, it may be better to have roasted green tea instead.

The Museum of Fragrance, Iwata (2) - Learning world history and cultures through fragrance

After the exhibition of Doll’s Festival, I looked the permanent exhibition of the museum. It was prohibited to take pictures there. I wasn’t disappointed because you could not capture the fragrances by a camera anyway. In the first exhibition room, there are five cabins: Wisteria Cabin, Musk-Melon Cabin, Jinsuikoh Incense Aloeswood (Kyara) Cabin, Ice-Cream Cabin, and Ancient Egypt Cabin. Each of them has a screen inside showing a balloon. When you reach for the balloon, it breaks, and the scent of the cabin comes out. Then, you can hear the explanation of the scent.

For me, the most impressive cabin was Musk-Melon Cabin. Musk melons are a specialty fruit of Iwata and grown in green houses in Toyoda-cho. Since they are very expensive, I can’t remember if I have had any chance to taste them before. But I could enjoy the sweet smell in the cabin. Wisteria Cabin was also interesting. In Iwata, there is a temple Gyokyoji that is famous for its long wisteria that are in bloom in the end of April (search with “yuya no nagafuji” if you are interested in it).

In the next room, you can learn the cultural history of fragrance. There are panels of explanation about the four great civilizations of the world, and you can see some objects such as perfume oil bottles from ancient Syria and Arabia. I was especially interested in the one from Syria that looked very precious. I spent a long time in this room because I watched all 16 videos on TV monitors there. There I learned how to make a mummy, Cleopatra’s perfume, Buddha’s life, Yang Guifei’s body odor, history of the Silk Road, Queens of Hungary’s Water, how CHANEL No.5 was invented, etc. The episodes were very interesting to hear as they handled well-known people in the world history. I heard for the first time that Napoleon was a heavy user of eau de cologne!

The exhibitions in the museum were quite satisfactory. After that I went to the tea room because I was interested in rose juice they had in the menu. It had a beautiful color.

It had a real flavor of roses, and I liked it very much. No wonder it was the most popular drink among visitors, especially women. I wondered if it had anti-aging effects. According to the staff member of the museum, the rose juice is made from damask rose in Bulgaria. It is available also in the museum shop that has many kinds of herb tea, coffee, sweets, and so on.

They have a variety of Japanese scent bags, too.

These are reed diffusers and CT catalyst arranged flowers.

Finally, I bought a pack of rose candies and a pack of herb coffee. The rose candies contain jam made from chemical-free roses called Willian Shakespeare. The coffee is made from carob, roots of chicory, roots of dandelion, and cinnamon cassia.

I tried one of the candies. The flavor of the rose was as distinctive as that of rose juice. I wanted to give out candies to many people so that they could taste. The herb coffee tasted totally different from ordinary coffee. I felt as if I drank some kind of medicine. That may be because I wasn’t used to drink such coffee.

The Museum of Fragrance, Iwata will have a new exhibition “Choix Des Plus Belles Fleurs (The Most Beautiful Flowers) by Redouté and Fragrance of Roses“ from April 6. It seems to be an exhibition of botanical art.

The Museum of Fragrance, Iwata
Address: 2019-15 Tateno, Iwata-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 0538-36-8891
Admission fee: Adults 300 yen
                         High school students and students of higher education 200 yen
                         Elementary school and junior high school students 100 yen
Open hours: 9:30 - 17:30 (entry until 17:00)
Closed: Monday, the day after a public holiday, year-end and Ney Year holidays
Access: 5-minute walk from JR Toyoda-cho Station

The Museum of Fragrance, Iwata (1) - Hina Dolls and Fragrance of Spring

On March 3, we have Hinamatsuri or Doll’s Festival in Japan. As I had no longer my dolls, I didn’t do anything special on that day. But many sightseeing spots still have an exhibition of Doll’s Festival even after March 3. Last Sunday, I felt like seeing such an exhibition, so I went to the Museum of Fragrance, Iwata, which was the nearest spot from Hamamatsu. Iwata is a city located east of Hamamatsu, beyond the Tenryu River. The museum is only 5-minute walk from Toyoda-cho, which is the second station from JR Hamamatsu Station. It takes just 8 minutes to get there by local train.

The title of the exhibition was “Hina Dolls and Fragrance of Spring.” I entered the museum a little over 9:30. There weren’t many people, so I could see the exhibition at leisure. This set of dolls is a typical type, representing the imperial palace. It consists of the imperial pair, three court ladies, five musicians, two guardians, three servants, furniture, etc. When the first daughter is born in a family, this set of dolls is often given to her by her grandparents. Doll’s Festival is intended to pray for healthy growth of girls.

On both sides of the set of dolls, there were tsurushibina or hanging dolls or lucky motifs that had been originally made at home in some regions in Japan. In Shizuoka Prefecture, Inatori in Izu Peninsula is famous for their tsurushibina. Though we didn’t have such a tradition in Hamamatsu, it has been winning popularity. In fact, tsurushibina were cuter than the dolls between them and seemed to be soft and suitable for little girls. They were made of kimono scraps. As an example of such a handicraft, there were also animals of the Chinese zodiac. They were made of silk crepe.

The exhibition had many things to see. There were two more sets of dolls and a variety of tsurushibina. In the next room, I saw a beautiful pair with a delicate expression.

Apart from the imperial palace, there were other kinds of dolls and introduction of sweets eaten in the festival. These are hina-arare (rice crackers), kusamochi (rice-flour dumpling mixed with mugwort), and hishimochi (diamond-shaped rice cakes). Hina-arare have four colors that represent four seasons. Mugwort in kusamochi is said to drive away evil spirits. And the three colors of hishimochi, pink, white, and green, represent a peach blossom, remaining snow, and earth respectively. Like the dolls, all these sweets are intended for healthy growth of girls (Boys have their festival in May).

The exhibition had a corner to introduce fragrance of spring flowers as well. I took off the lids of bottles one by one to enjoy the scents of plum blossom, cherry blossom, peach blossom, canola flower, narcissus, and so on. Though these flowers are familiar to Japanese people, I hadn’t been conscious of their scents before. So, it was very interesting.

Kyoto Fair (4) - Abundance of vegan sweets and snacks

Kyoto Fair was held only for seven days. Before it ended, I walked around to get some vegan snacks that would last long. My favorite snacks are rice crackers, but they are often flavored with dried bonito. I expected to find vegan ones in Kyoto Fair. In this shop Yuriya (ゆりや) , I read the labels carefully and bought three different kinds of crackers. The most important task was complete!

In Kyoto, there are many specialized shops of food. This shop Mamemasa (豆政) sells bean and nut snack, and they let customers taste their products. I found that coated almonds flavored with soy sauce, mixture of cayenne pepper with other aromatic spices, and laver, etc. were especially good. There were also coated peanuts and cashew nuts. So, I bought all these nuts.

The colorful snack in the picture below is five-colored sugar-coated peas, which is the specialty of this shop. It was invented in 1887 by using five colors. They are red, white, yellow, green, and brown, which were used for celebrations in the imperial palace. Personally, I don’t like sugar-coated peas very much, but they are colorful and may be good for a souvenir.  

Lastly, I have to mention sweets from Tawaraya Yoshitomi (俵屋吉富). Their fresh sweets were so beautiful that their picture was the most eye-catching in the poster of Kyoto Fair.

In addition to these, they had many elegant sweets such as bonbons, dry confectioneries, and agar jelly. The agar jelly was selling well. When I came to the shop, there were only two pieces. I bought one, so the one in the picture was the last piece.

The jelly was beautiful. When I ate it, I felt the flavors of wine and cherry leaves. According to the label, it contained salted cherry blossoms and leaves, plum wine, and some kind of Western liquor, in addition to sugar, agar, and white bean paste. It may be fit for adults.

Kyoto is a treasury of sophisticated food culture. If you are interested in Japanese traditional confectionery, search with “Wagashi” in YouTube. You can find many beautiful sweets.

Kyoto Fair (3) - Three kinds of tofu

During Kyoto Fair, I visited the venue several times. There were many things that were rarely seen in Hamamatsu though they might be available vie the Internet. Tofu products were raw and didn’t last long, so I wanted to buy them on the spot.

As I wrote before, I got ganmodoki in a shop Kyonoyukihonpo (京乃雪本舗). They had a variety of tofu products also and let customers taste them. I visited there again and got three products. The prettiest one was this. It looked like a dessert rather than a side dish.

This tofu is called namayubadofu. It has yuba or soy milk skin on top, and now it has also the same cherry-blossom-shaped hu or wheat gluten as in ganmodoki. I didn’t take out the tofu from the package but ate as it was with soy sauce, using a spoon instead of chopsticks. As I like beautiful-looking food, I enjoyed eating it, feeling happy. The tofu had a rich taste of soy beans. Later I learned from their website that this tofu can be decorated with fruits and nuts! What a pity! Next time, I’ll have one with some fruits or blueberry sauce.

Next day, I tried kyoyuzudofu. Though it looked like an ordinary piece of tofu, it was flavored with yuzu, a citrus fruit. I don’t think such tofu is available in ordinary shops here. The flavor of yuzu was modest but noticeable. I ate it with soy sauce, but as the website implies, salt may be sufficient for this refined tofu.

The last one I had was gomadofu. Though it means sesame tofu, it isn’t tofu in fact, because it doesn’t contain soy beans. Gomadofu is one of the most famous dishes in Japanese Buddhist vegetarian cuisine but is available in supermarkets. Sometimes it may contain additives, but the one in Kyoto Fair was made from just sesame, powdered arrowroot, and kelp powder.

In many cases, gomadofu is sold with a pack of sauce, but the sauce often contains dried bonito broth. This set had sauce with fish sauce contained, so I used soy sauce instead. This gomadofu was smooth and jiggly. It was good with just soy sauce, but it might have been better with some wasabi added.

Kyoto Fair (2) - Most popular souvenir sweet

Kyoto Fair has too many vegan sweets to choose from. But I think that yatsuhashi, especially raw yatsuhashi, may be the most famous sweet specific to Kyoto. It was originally made from glutinous rice flour, sugar, and cinnamon. In fact, this kind of raw yatsuhashi is available in many other cities in Japan, including Hamamatsu. Recently, it has been developed into many other versions. In Kyoto Fair, there were eight kinds sold individually. All of them were vegan.

Usually, raw yatsuhashi are sold in packs that contains at least five pieces. I was glad to see them and bought five kinds, one of each. They had smooth sweet bean paste, and bean paste flavored with strawberry, yuzu, cherry blossom, and green tea in them respectively.

I intended to try two of them. First, I ate the one with smooth sweet bean paste. Raw yatsuhashi of this shop Izutsuyatsuhashihonpo (井筒八ッ橋本舗) had originally mashed sweet bean paste in it, and I thought such rough paste might match the strong flavor of cinnamon better than smooth paste. The original type was selling the best in the fair among the eight kinds. As Japanese sweets seldom contain spice, it seemed to have an enduring popularity because of its uniqueness.

The next one I tried had strawberry-flavored bean paste in it. The flavor of cinnamon is weaker than the first one, and the flavor of strawberry was dominant. The distinctive flavor of the fruit was refreshing, and I couldn’t help but eat one more; the one with yuzu-flavored bean paste. Yuzu is a citrus fruit, and I found it also good. I’m a great fruit-lover. With raw yatsuhashi, I drank roasted green tea, but coffee or black tea may also go with the flavor of cinnamon.
 
As raw yatsuhashi will last until tomorrow, I’ll have the remaining ones later. In addition to them, I have also baked yatsuhashi, which I got from my mother yesterday. She had also been in Kyoto Fair.

They look totally different from raw yatsuhashi. They are like crackers and have also the flavor of cinnamon. Personally, I prefer raw yatsuhashi, but baked yatsuhashi has a long history. It was first made in the 17th century and is said to be named after a famous koto player and composer Kengyo Yatsuhashi. The shop Izutsuyatsuhashihonpo was founded in 1805. Their raw yatsuhashi was first sold in 1947, and the new version, which is known as “Yuko”, was put on sale in 1960’s. Izutsuyatsuhashihonpo is one of the most popular yatsuhashi shops in Kyoto.