Yesterday our friends, the Ericksons, made a surprise visit to Nikko and I got to spend a few hours with them. Actually I was good friends with Evan's mother when his family lived in Japan for a couple of years. Evan was only 7 or 8 then. Now he is married, has a BEAUTIFUL wife and two sweetheart daughters."What do you want to do? Do you like senbei?"
Senbei translates as 'rice crackers' but there are SOOOO many different types of rice crackers in Japan. Deep fried, grilled, pressed. Flavors? Soy sauce flavor, salt, sugar, hot pepper, curry. Senbei with sea weed, with soy beans, peanuts, sesame seeds. Even soggy senbei are being sold these days!And in Nikko there is a senbei factory where tourists can come and "sample" different senbeis. (In this store alone there must be at least thirty different senbei.)
There was also a room where you could "paint" your own senbei.
First toast the dried rice dough over a grill.
"Count to ten and then flip it. Count to ten again. Keep flipping until your senbei is light brown.""Next, come over here and paint your senbei with soysauce. Then it's back to the grill to lightly toast the senbei again."
The soysauce browns faster than the senbei and thus the "picture" appears.
Eden worked on a Happy Face.
Mom and Lena did a bunny for Easter.
"Yeah! No one's going to eat MY senbei!"
We ate our fill of senbei and bought a bit to take home. Ah, the business possibilities with senbei! Because the new school year starts next week, regulation school backpacks are on the market and the senbei shop has made these mini backpacks filled with senbei. So cute and colorful!
"Now what colors do I want?"
Pink and red for two sweet girly girls!"Thank you Tanya!"
My pleasure!
8 comments:
A precious day and precious pictures! ♥♥♥
Lovely photos, to have and treasure. Looks like spring is there. Our mornings are getting colder, 4.8 C today at 6 a.m. then heated up to about 22 C or so.Cheers from Jean.
We love senbei, but the Oriental Oasis only stocks the ones with MSG (monosodium glutamate) and my son is deathly allergic! I have to read every package before I buy, even American foods! Those look yummy!!
Love your field trip, I want to go try them !! They sound yummy :)Your camera appears to be doing wonderfully~~maybe you should give us a lesson on all the different types of senbei, so I know what to look for in my Asian Stores.
OH MY!! I can't believe that is EVAN!! If he's still there...say "Hi"!
Happy Easter Tanya!
Adorable girls! What a wonderful visit and outing. I want to paint a senbei too! I'd put a
Churn Dash block on it :)
I love senbei! Thanks for sharing, this was a treat!The little girls are so cute and your church is lovely! Happy Easter!
What a sweet post. It looks like making senbei is a lot of fun - like decorating pancakes! What are regulation backpacks?
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