Hotteok is a crispy pan fried pastry filled with a mix of brown sugar, peanuts, sesame seeds and cinnamon that turns into a molten syrup as it is is cooked on a open griddle. Usually they are served just as they are, pinched between a small sheet of thin cardboard, and eaten very carefully to avoid wasting any of the escaping sugary filling.

This is a “healthy” hotteok. Well, as healthy as any sugar filled fried snack can be
The filling includes green tea and black sesame, and is topped with ground soybeans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and ground peanuts. Yum! I couldn’t wait for it to cool down, and bit into it while it was still steaming, and managed to singe my tongue.
You know what you are eating is good when you continue chewing through the pain The doughy outside reminds me of elephant ears or you tiao.
The paper cup definitely helps catch any runaway syrup, and the sweet sugar and nuts are perfect with the mellow crunch of the chewy outside. Just let it cool off a bit before biting in, but I won’t judge if you can’t wait. I didn’t

hotteok stall @ Insadong, Seoul, South Korea

The weather is cooling off, and the constantly cloudy typhoon season has got me thinking about baking all the time. Specifically baking chocolate chip cookies like the ones back home in the states. In Japan, “cookie” usually refers to some sort of crunchy butter sable, good in it’s own right, but does nothing for you if you are craving golden brown, crispy, chewy, chocolate studded cookies the size of your hand. This sort of chocolate chip cookie doesn’t exist where I live now.

Nothing to do but to make them myself. I used David Leite’s amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe, and after (im)patiently waiting 24 hours to chill the dough, made some cookies that are way too tasty and way too big for my own good.

I don’t have a stand mixer, so I used room temperature butter and hand mixed everything. I also used regular chocolate chips and whole wheat and all purpose flour instead of the bread and cake flour that the recipe calls for.

David Leite’s NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted to metric, substituted ingredients, methods)
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Ingredients:

• 240g all purpose flour
• 240g whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 250g butter, room temperature
• 280g brown sugar
• 240g white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 160g chocolate chips

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• sea salt for topping

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1. Stir together all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.
2. Stir together brown sugar, white sugar and butter until it is evenly mixed in a separate bowl.
3. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Stir in dry ingredients, then fold in chocolate chips.
5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
6. After 24 hours, divide dough into roughly 80g balls, place on baking paper or a baking sheet, sprinkle with a small (very small) pinch of sea salt, and bake for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown at 170 degrees Celsius.
7. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Eat while warm

Great with some milk, and makes plenty to share.

Mandu are Korean style dumplings, similar to potstickers or gyoza. There was this amazing mandu shop in Pusan on the way to our hostel. It seemed like no matter if we were up at 6am or coming back at 1 am, the little shop was always open. In the morning, you could see the owner making mandu skin and being heckled by the ajummas, and at night the steam from the cooking mandu would surround the entire shop. I’ve had mandu before, both the frozen kind from Paldo World, and in other shops in Korea, but none of them could compare to these mandu. Eash little mandu is stuffed to almost bursting, and half the time the dumplings were being made right in front of us by the friendly owner, using house made skin and filling. We managed to stop in and try a new kind of mandu every day we were in Pusan, regardless of how full we were.

My favorites were the garlic mandu, steaming hot and served with a splash of black vinegar. We also got to try the owner’s specialty, cheese mandu. They are open faced mandu, topped with melty cheese, peas, corn, and a little ketchup.
I don’t suppose I could convince someone to open a little mandu shop here in Yamanashi?

Pusan, South Korea

Pat Bing Su is a Korean style shaved ice, with a variety of toppings. This huge 3 person pat bing su (served in a Pyrex cup <3) we found in Sinchon starts with  layer of sweet red bean paste, topped with shaved ice, soft serve ice cream, bananas, pineapple, watermelon, cherry tomatoes, and a little sprinkle of chocolate powder.

I love shaved ice in whatever form, and this was really interesting to eat. Watermelon and cherry tomatoes are two fruits that I have never seen in shaved ice before. I’m still feeling a little undecided about the tomatoes, but the watermelon was surprisingly refreshing and delicious.

@Sinchon, Seoul, South Korea

The posh area between Harajuku and Shibuya, composed of Omotesando and Aoyama, is home to a large population of dessert shops and cafes. From Pierre Herme to Il Pinolo, you have ton of choices to get your sugar, cream and chocolate fix for the day.
The Berryz Cafe is right across the street from Pierre Herme, and has gorgeous displays of their tarts to dazzle you with choices. Every kind of fruit in combination with various types of creams and ganaches, in a vanilla or chocolate crumb crust.

Ripe fresh figs with a mellow cream cheese mousse in a dark chocolate crust with whipped cream.
*I’d never had fresh figs before, so I was surprised how juicy and peach like in texture they were. The light taste of the cream cheese mousse went well with the figs, though I think I would have prefered a vanilla crust in stead of chocolate.

Bananas in a banana cream in a chocolate crust, topped with piped chocolate mousse.
*This was okay for me, I feel like the chocolate kind of overwhelmed any banana flavor in the tart, but my friend really loved it.

There must have been more than 20 different tarts in the display case, and they have seasonal tarts changing every couple of weeks. I’m excited to try different flavors the next time I go, that is if I can stop myself from walking into Pierre Herme instead.

Berrys Cafe @ Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan

These are not your nana/oma/babushka/bubbe’s potato pancakes. But they are my mom’s potato pancakes, and they are delicious! They are great with some sour cream, or applesauce ( especially with homemade applesauce!)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups potato, grated
• 1 cup onion, grated
• 200g flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 egg
• 150 ml. milk
• vegetable oil for frying

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1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing until combined. Let rest for 10 minutes.
2. Fry in oiled pan on medium heat until golden brown on both sides.
Makes about 10-12 pancakes.

Apologies for the not so pretty picture (^_^;)
If you didn’t know, it is difficult to find pre-made applesauce in my city, so silly me, I had just been going without! Then a friend, 3 huge Fuji apples, cinnamon and a blender came and showed me the joys of fresh homemade applesauce. I like it so much that I may never buy the premade kind again

Ingredients:

• 3 large apples, peeled, cored, and diced (i like Fujis)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• optional 1/4 cup brown sugar, if needed

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1. Combine apples, water, cinnamon, and sugar (if you like) in a medium pot. mix well, and then bring the water to a boil on high heat. Cover and simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes until apples are tender, stirring every 5 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.
3. Blend in small batches in a blender (or immersion blender if you have one) until smooth. Be careful if the apples are still hot when blending!

Eat while warm, or refridgerate. makes 4-6 servings.

Who knew a dessert with just three things could be so amazing? Shaved ice, uji syrup and condensed milk. Yes, folks, it is officially hot enough for kakigori かき氷! I was lucky enough to go to Taketomi Island, a teeny island that is a part of the Yaeyama group in Okinawa. Since the weather there is summery and beautiful, I couldn’t help but get my first shaved ice of 2009 ^_^.

“Uji” syrup is a simple syrup flavored with powdered matcha green tea.　A small mountain of freshly shaved ice is topped with the syrup and a generous drizzle of condensed milk. The slightly bitter sweet syrup, creamy condensed milk, and chilly shaved ice was perfect! Refreshing, and I’m already looking forward to my next kakigori (or pat bing su, ais kacang, raspado, cendol etc…. )

So I have been trying to avoid the convenience store, because every time I go inside, I end up with a bunch of impulse snack purchases. I swear today, I only went in to pick up some bug spray! Somehow, I managed to leave the combini without bug spray, and with a selection of this month’s limited edition snacks.

First up,

From the top down,
Almond Pocky: An almond paste based chocolate coating, rather than chocolate with bits of almonds, like Almond Crush Pocky. According to the back of the package, Almond Pocky was the second Pocky product introduced by Glico after Chocolate Pocky. It is really creamy tasting, like almond butter. Really good, I actually like Almond Pocky better than normal Pocky, and am sad that it is an limited edition product.

Apple Vinegar Kit Kat: I was really curious how apple vinegar would come across in a Kit Kat. Instead of a milk chocolate it is a white chocolate coating, and the package says that it contains 1.4% powdered apple vinegar. When you open the package you get a light apple smell, but I was surprised that it wasn’t sour at all, even though the taste was definitely apple vinegar versus just apple.

Jasmine Tea Kit Kat: A milk chocolate coated Kit Kat, with 1% powdered jasmine tea. These are great! Everything from the jasmine fragrance to the slight bitterness from the tea leaves is in the Kit Kat. It is really strange, the tea flavor is so strong, that I couldn’t taste any chocolate at all.

Lemon Love Kit Kat:  I bought this solely for the cute packaging! You can refold the box to hold just one pack (each box has 2 wrapped twin bars) and write a message on the flap, and give it to someone special . Cute!

These are also white chocolate, with 0.8% powdered lemon. It tastes creamy, with a lemony sour taste at the end. I didn’t really like this one, i found the white chocolate too sweet and too creamy to match the citrus from the lemon.

and
Sour Cream and Onion flavored Ame Pote, which I am guessing is short for “American Potato Chips”. I normally don”t buy potato chips unless they are a flavor I haven’t eaten before, but this bag of chips called to me for some reason. Then I took a look at the back of the bag…

Made with Oregon White Round Potatoes! Aww, I have to show my love for the Beaver State…so in the basket they went. They aren’t amazing, a little drier than I like, but still tasty.

It’s getting warmer and warmer every day here in Yamanashi! I am excited that is is almost kakigori and ice cream season. (^^)

So after a day spent running around Miyajima, I had this craving for cupcakes, piled high with icing. So we checked out a gourmet magazine and scoped out some cupcake shops in Hiroshima. We ended up at Ciappucino, staring at their display case full of interesting cupcakes.

The thick sugar and butter icing was replaced with flavored whipped cream, and the dense cake was substituted with a fluffy angel’s food cake. While not exactly the kind of dessert I had been imagining, the cupcakes were still amazing!

(No, mom, we didn’t eat them all! We definitely tried them all though )

Basil and Lemon
You could taste the basil bits in the whipped cream, and the light citrus of the lemon cream reminded me of a mojito. I really liked this one, it was really interesting to eat.

Salted Caramel
Yum, one of my favorites. The slightly salty caramel is drizzeled over a light whipped cream. Really simple, but fantastic tasting.

Ciappucino
More like a caffe latte than a cappucino, the light coffee taste was nice, with a little dusting of chocolate on top.

Gogh
I think my sweet tooth is too young to appreciate this cherry infused whipped cream. Under all the cream is a brandy soaked griotte cherry, which I was not expecting. The burning taste of alcohol is not my idea of a tasty cupcake addition. The yellow cake crumb topping was nice though.


Hiroshima
This cupcake is only sold at the Hiroshima store, so we were lucky enough to give it a try. I was kinda put off by the super pink color of the frosting. We couldn’t figure out exactly what flavors were in the whipped cream, but it tasted not unlike a fake watermelon jolly rancher. The artificial flavor kind of ruined the cupcake for me.

Pink Ribbon
After the tacking the pink monster of the Hiroshima cupcake, I was a bit wary of this one too. I shouldn’t have been. The lighter whipped cream on the other cupcakes has been replaced by a slightly heavier cream cheese infused topping. Delicious.

While Ciappuchino didn’t have quite the dense frosting heavy cupcakes I had been looking for, they were fun and fresh. I want to try their other flavors as well

Ciappuchino @ Hiroshima, Japan