From time to time I feel like a Japan-living fraud. I don’t speak the language well, I don’t visit shrines and temples, and I’ve never felt any desire to wear a kimono. I do love things like ramen and even the convenience store bento (lunches) are usually really good.
That said, I don’t like a lot of the traditional flavours used to prepare foods. One of the areas where that shows the most is in the traditional stuffed mochi sweet, daifuku.
While I really love mochi, most daifuku is filled with anko, or red bean, which I simply never developed a taste for. I’ll eat daifuku if it’s in front of me, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it for myself.
Until now. At my subway transfer station there is sometimes a pop up shop selling Iroha daifuku, a brand that originates in Shiga Prefecture. In addition to traditional flavours they have things like chocolate, mikan (mandarin orange), muscat, strawberry milk, and soda. I fell in love with their product the last time the shop appeared, and today it was back for one week only.
Check out their shop. They’re also on Instagram if that’s your poison, @ iroha.daifukuuu.
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Rei Fletcher 