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Oct 26, 2010

Wagashi #5 Manten 満天 Star-filled night sky

Manten



Culture of Manten

Manten is one of the sweet bean jelly type of wagashi.  It’s popular in summer, because its appearance and taste is cool and refreshing.  The name means star-filled night sky in English.

Sweet bean jelly is made of azuki beans and agar.  It is formed into a block which you slice and serve.  Agar in Japanese is KantenKanten is an ingredient mainly used for making Yokan (Sweet bean jelly) and Jelly desserts.  It is made from seaweed which is stewed, frozen and dried.


Visual

This sweet bean jelly, called Manten is made to resemble innumerable stars brightening the summer night sky.  The top of this wagashi is studded with small gold flakes to indicate the twinkling stars and white part looks like clouds.




The blue gradation is very vivid as you can see in the picture below.



It is a very beautiful Wagashi!


Recipe of Manten

We went to Saiundo which sells Manten and asked a wagashi chef how to make Manten.
He told us that It was very difficult to make blue food coloring and timing is important for getting the right appearance.
This wagashi is built in layers upside down.  First, they pour the clear part made of agar into a mold to harden a little.  When it is flipped over, this layer will become the top of the dessert.
Then, at just the right time, they pour blue colored agar and let it harden until the clear top layer and the blue layer firms together completely.  This is how they make a wonderful gradation of color.  


Kanten
There are many other kinds of sweet bean jell wagashi.  The picture below is sweet bean jelly of berries.





Oct 19, 2010

What is Sado?

Sado is the Japanese way to drink powdered green tea called matcha. The green tea in Sado is often taken with wagashi or other Japanese sweets.
The teahouse and teatools are considered art works because these are very beautiful.

Here we are making Matcha.


In the video, she is whisking powdered green tea to make matcha.


What is Wagashi?

Wagashi is Japanese sweets. Wagashi is traditionally eaten with Sado which means the Japanese Tea ceremony. When visitors come, Japanese people serve green tea and wagashi.

Wagashi is very sweet but wagashi doesn't use oil or fats like butter. And, wagashi is a kind of art that expresses the beauty of the seasons. For example, summer's wagashi uses a lot of jelly-type sweets to make you feel cool.  

Wagashi is becoming popular all over the world.  In New York and Paris, Matsue Wagashi craftsmen introduced wagashi and Japanese tea to the people there.