The Appearance of Sugar in Japan
On that voyage, one thing these monks and many later Portuguese brought to Japan was a simple, effective, and much-loved ingredient – sugar.
In the 16th century, Nagasaki, on the island of Kyushu, was the only city where foreigners could trade with the Japanese. As a result, it developed the strongest taste for sweets.
Traditional Japanese Castella Cake.
Many of Japan’s favorite wagashi – sweets – originated in Kyushu. One of them is castella, a Portuguese-inspired pastry. While the pound cake style originated in Portugal, there is one ingredient that makes it uniquely Japanese: mizuame syrup, made from glutinous rice.
The best place to pick up some castella is at Fukusaya, a popular pastry chain that first opened in Nagasaki in 1624. In Fukuoka, the largest city on the island of Kyushu, Fukusaya's main branch is in the bustling Akasaka neighborhood, not far from where tourists flood into the city from Hakata Station, the western terminus of the Shinkansen bullet train.
The castella here is cut into squares, individually wrapped in colorful packaging, and then placed in gift boxes. According to an Akasaka employee, although there are occasional special flavors such as sakura (cherry blossom) in the spring or chocolate at Christmas, the classic castella is still the best seller.
Castella (kasutera in Japanese) also appears in another popular Japanese sweet called dorayaki. Here, the castella is thinner and made into a pancake with a sweet red bean filling inside.
Dorayaki cake with a sweet red bean filling inside.
The Interplay Between Europe and Japan, Japan and Europe
Another European sweet that has been adapted by the Japanese is the macaron. The local version, sometimes called makaron, is made with peanut flour instead of almond flour and often includes traditional Japanese flavors such as green tea or red bean.
“I think Japanese people really like European pastries, especially French pastries,” says Michele Abbatemarco, pastry chef at Est restaurant at the Four Seasons Tokyo in Otemachi.
Traditional French macarons combined with Japanese cooking methods create an attractive macaron with tea and sesame flavors.
And Abbatemarco’s appreciation goes both ways. “In the last 50 years, pastry has developed greatly in Japan. Then there were quite a few patisseries in Europe and around the world that were inspired by Japanese products,” he added.
A Kyushu brand famous for its sweets across Europe and throughout Japan is Kitajima, which has a flagship store in Saga city.
Kyushu specialties include Portuguese-inspired marubolo cookies made with honey, French-style madeleines with walnuts added for texture, and Margaret cakes, made with almond flour and shaped like a large flower.
A royal legacy
Konpeito candies are shaped like crystallized stars or flowers.
One of the most popular and recognizable Japanese candies is konpeito. These small, pale-colored candies resemble crystallized stars or flowers. The name konpeito is believed to come from the Portuguese word for a sugar candy called confeito, which was brought to Japan by sugar merchants.
However, their size does not make the candies any less “cute”, but these candies are so expensive that even a small treat is extremely precious.
Expensive gifts are associated with the rich and powerful. In Japan, there is no family more powerful than the Imperial Family, headed by the Emperor and Empress.
Traditionally, royal guests – such as heads of state and other royals – would receive silver candy boxes called bonbonnieres (French for “candy boxes”) as welcome gifts when they attended important events, such as weddings or festivals or a new emperor's accession.
These candies are specially made by Tokyo silversmith Miyamoto Shoko and are decorated with a chrysanthemum, the symbol of the royal family. Recent lucky recipients of these gifts include the kings and queens of Spain, the Netherlands and England.
How does the past become the future?
Japanese chefs are reviving many traditional dishes.
Nowadays, some chefs in Japan are trying to revive local products that were used before the sugar imports.
Chef Abbatemarco is one of them. During more than a decade of working in Japan, he sourced some rare honeys that were used to sweeten foods before sugar was available.
At Est, the Four Seasons' Michelin-starred French restaurant, Abbatemarco and his team serve up small cakes flavored with buckwheat honey, soba honey, wasanbon (a fine-grained white sugar) and other hard-to-find local delicacies.
For him, it's a way to celebrate Japan's small producers, in addition to introducing these flavors to hotel guests.
These days, foreign visitors tend to come to Japan by plane rather than by boat. But many of them still have a sweet tooth. And more and more Japanese dishes are becoming popular as chefs are constantly finding new ways to make them more of a gift than a simple dish.
Kieu Anh (According to CNN)
Source
Comment (0)