The *Real* Sakura Fare - Sakura Mochi, Manju, Soba and Crepe

So I had some people I know going to Japan during the sakura bloom, and I managed to get my hands on some sakura snacks! I thought I had better post on them while it's still sakura season in some parts of Japan... I think it's at Aomori now, according to this official calendar, and it'll be in Hokkaido next week. I'll only comment on two, which I actually got to try. The others were just pictures I received from those who went.

Sakura Mochi

First up is sakura mochi! From what I can gather, it's just pink mochi rice, wrapped in a pickled sakura leaf, and filled with the standard Japanese red bean paste. I think the rice is probably something like glutinous rice? Because it reminds me a lot of the Peranakan glutinous rice sweets and dumplings.

They came in a small container of two... each ball was really small - about 1.5 inches (or maybe slightly larger) in diameter. You can easily pop an entire mochi ball into your mouth, as I think you're meant to, otherwise it will be messy with the leaf getting in the way.

I couldn't quite taste any sakura in the rice itself, but the leaf tasted kind of salty and had a herb-like grassy taste to it. And that went very well with the sweet azuki red bean paste... the way herby flavours tend to go well with sweet stuff, like lemongrass drink or lavender ice cream. 

 

Texture-wise, it was very soft and sticky... the ingredients list contained kanten, or agar agar as we know it in Southeast Asia. It's a kind of jelly... which I suppose was added to help with the texture of the azuki paste? *shrug* At least, I've seen it in the ingredients list for the paste before. It wouldn't make sense that they would want to add it to the rice to "firm" it up.

The leaf provided a nice fibrous and chewy complement. It wasn't hard to chew, because it was very soft probably from all the pickling or cooking. But it did help to provide a substantial contrast to the otherwise soft and gooey experience.

I guess I would classify this as comfort food? The kind of dessert that you would like as a kid, and then persist in eating into adulthood out of nostalgia haha.

Sakura Manju

Next up, is something more like a bun - sakura manjuu, or manju if you go by the common internet transliteration of Japanese. It appears to be a Japanese derivative of the Chinese steamed buns, which we call pao or pau if it contains filling, or mantou (the Chinese transliteration of manju) if there's no filling.

Once again, it appears that the main sakura ingredient is pickled sakura leaves, which was mixed into the bun part of the manju. You can see the brownish-green spots in the otherwise pink manju. I have a feeling that people hardly use the flowers then.

Its filling was pure and traditional Japanese azuki paste, with no sakura inside.

The sakura manju had a fresher and more fragrant leafy taste than the sakura mochi. However, unlike the mochi, the azuki paste dominated the overall taste, which was mostly sweet, with at most a mild bean flavour. So the sakura leaves' flavour had more of an embellishing effect.

You can also chew the sakura leaves in nice small chewy bits, which was a pleasant extra effect to the otherwise completely soft texture. This is in contrast to the sheet of sakura leaf for the mochi.

Sakura Soba

This was probably the most interesting item that I would have liked to try... unfortunately, it was something that my mom had on the plane, and so she obviously couldn't save it for me. (Can you believe it, such interesting seasonal fare on an airline? I believe it was Singapore Airlines... maybe that would explain it.)

She said that she could taste the sakura flavour distinctly. It would have been interesting to experience how that taste would go with the onions, wasabi and soba sauce that came with it...

Sakura Crepe

Finally, this is Korot Crepe with sakura paste (which is hard to see in the picture... but it's a paste like the azuki paste), matcha warabi mochi and normal cream that's just coloured pink. Interesting combination that I haven't tried before. My mom raved about how delicious it was. Oh well, maybe next time...

And here's their promo image from their site, with the description, for reference. In the promo image, the sakura paste can be clearly seen as the darker pink patch. It's a seasonal offering, available only during the spring.

Technically, I still have some sakura tea that I haven't brewed and tried... but it has a later expiry date, so maybe I'll feature it in an out-of-season post much later.